No Name Frog

No Name Frog 8"x10" watercolor

Summer is in full swing here, lots of kids around so I've been working on these little ones, you never know when a stray ball will hit you in the head or land in your water container! I'm not sure I have the hang of small yet but I'm working on it! I hope everyone is enjoying the summer weather and able to get outside a little.

Add another Cup of Flower

"Cup of Flower 2" 10" x 8" watercolor

I've been doing lots of portraits lately so I needed to mix it up with a little still life. I had lots of nervous fun painting glass last time with "Cup of Flower" that I wanted to do another one. There's more to come!

Yellow Hammer's Brother

Untitled 20" x 14" Watercolor

Well, I thought I had a name for this one a couple of days ago but it wasn't the right one so it's untitled for now. This is Yellow Hammer's brother, truly a remarkable young man on the edge of change. Everyday he becomes stronger in character and spirit. An amazing thing to witness.

Peekaboo!

End of the school year madness and birthday season has hit us and we are all exhausted but I've managed to keep painting. Here's a sneak peak at a new portrait I'll be finishing very soon. I'm waiting for a name to come to me so for now, it's just details details.

Crop Till You Drop!

This time the challenge was actually the challenge of having time to do a challenge piece so Chris and I decided to take a snippet from a much larger painting and create an image from that. We discovered that both our paintings reminded us of our Grandmothers so this ended up being a tribute to them as well.

A lot of Chris' work comes from memories of her grandmother's things as she explained to me " My grandparents built the house I grew up in -- my parents moved in with my grandfather after my grandmother died -- so there were lots of her things around when I was a young child. She loved her flower gardens and vases and pretty tablecloths. Even though the elements in my painting never belonged to my grandmother, they remind me of her."

I received a lot of positive feedback on the hair in "Xochitl" (pronounced So-Shee-tl which means Queen of Flowers) but I was really more interested in painting the embroidery because not only was it challenging, but it brought me back to days of watching my grandma creating magical flowers with her needles and colorful threads. I could go on and on about Little Shell and all the magic she did, from healing babies to her famous tamales, but I'll save that for future paintings.

"Xochitl" by Me

"Red Anemone" by Chris Beck

The most courageous person I know

Imagine the courage it takes to send your 5 year old to a new country to live with people you've never met, having faith that they would be safe and taken care of with the promise of getting medical attention needed. I remember well the night my mom told me what was going to happen and feeling safe in her strength and belief that everything would be fine and in her wisdom and connection with God, it did turn out just fine and hopefully so did I.

This is a very special mothers day thank you to my mom Rosy who saw into the future.

Cross Challenge Challenge!

This month I am honored to be a part of a Cross Challenge Challenge. Last month, Jelaine Faunce contacted me to see if I'd be interested in joining her challenge buddies in the March challenge of painting an ordinary white paper envelope and I enthusiastically said yes before I realized how challenging it would be.

After a few days of wracking my brain on how to do the envelope justice, my pet rock snatched it from my hands and insisted on creating his own costume and I just happened to have my paints ready to capture the moment. So this is my challenge painting "Ghost Mail"

Please make sure to check out everyone else's blogs for their story behind their challenge painting! I've had so much fun with this one, thank you Jelaine and cohorts for including me in your challenge!

"Ghost Mail" 6"x6" Watercolor by Me



"Saumons en Papier Avec Le Romarin" 6"x6" Oil on canvas by Jelaine Faunce



"Snail Mail" 6"x6" Watercolor by Chris Beck