Sam Rayburn Sunset II

This is the last sunset painting I have right now.  But never fear, I'm headed that way tomorrow and will just paint some more.  Meanwhile I'm working on some small travel paintings.  I'm trying to paint a few from Hawaii and Spain.  So much to paint, so little time . . .
This trip to the lake will be an extra adventure.  I'm taking the dog and cat.  The cat has never gone anywhere (except to the vet a couple of times) and it will be quite an experience.  I have a little "kitty downer" pill all ready for her.  Hope it works!

Lake Rayburn Sunset

Another peaceful sunset from the lake house.  I was walking back up from the water early one evening and caught this angle.  This is a more "normal" sunset on a hot day without any prior storms.  I'm currently working on a group of little 5x7 travel paintings.  I leave this Wednesday for a week at the lake so I guess I'll be painting more East Texas sunsets!

Lake House Sunset

As most of you know, we recently purchased a little lake house on Lake Sam Rayburn.  I do a lot of sitting on the back deck watching the sky and water.  On my last visit I brought some 8x10 boards and started painting sunsets.  This one was after a big storm.  The lake went from glass in the morning to surfing waves in the afternoon.  That particular storm had 30-40 mph winds and it was pretty exciting to watch.  After it was all over, the sky lit up in oranges, yellows and magenta.  BTW, this is an oil painting.  It's the first one I've done in over a year!  I'm trying to get used to working with them again.

Hotel Palm - Watercolor Sketch

Back at home base in Spain (Costa del Sol) I sketched a palm tree in bloom right off the balcony.  This is the last sketch I did while on this trip.  I guess I spent too much time running around taking photos and jumping on camels.  Since my last post I've returned to our new Deep East Texas lake property on Sam Rayburn. I've finally moved in all the furniture and pretty well have it livable now.  It's available to enjoy some good fishing and painting time now.  Stay tuned for some sunset paintings I did while I was there a week ago.

Camel Ride - Morocco

When the opportunity presents itself to ride a camel . . . once again, you just do it!  I was so excited to jump on this camel (without the aid of the foot stool) that I ended up bruising the insides of both thighs.  But hey, it was all worth it and I got on in one flying leap.  The bruises have just healed so all is good.  This was so much fun but I did smell at bit like camel the rest of the day.  Oh well.

Moroccan Restaurant Photos

This is a a photo of my friend Char who is also an Austin artist.  We are in the Moroccan restaurant and are at the end of the meal drinking our mint tea (which BTW was really yummy). We are all sitting on comfortable raised floor pads and we had just scarfed down a wonderful authentic meal.

When you're in Morocco and you are asked to join the band . . well you just do and enjoy it.  Do you see the guy in the upper left hand corner lifting his little red hat off his head?  Guess where he's going to put that hat??

Yep!  Right on my head.  Gotta love it!!!

Fat Cat-Watercolor Sketch SOLD

This is another small watercolor sketch I did in Spain in a town called Fuenirola.  None of us could pronounce the name of the town correctly so we kept calling it the "Fu-nor-rela" town.  We laughed every time someone tried to talk about the town because absolutely no one could pronounce it correctly.  Anyway, there were all these lovely fishing boats and lots of cats along the piers.  I noticed they looked very fat and happy even though they were all feral cats.  I liked this one because he had a pretty cool attitude so he got painted.  I ended up selling the sketch to someone who came by our little art show the last night we were in Madrid.  I almost forgot to post the Moroccan restaurant so I'll do a double post tonight.

Kasbah Woman/Morocco - Watercolor Sketch

Another brief interruption.  I went to our new lake house over the Memorial Day weekend, so now I'm back to posting the Spain watercolor sketches.  One of the great side trips I made on this trip was to Morocco to visit the Kasbah.  What an experience that was.  All the women with their head coverings and not many who wanted photos taken of their faces.  In almost all photos I have the women have turned their heads or bowed their heads to shield their faces.  This sketch was of a typical scene along the narrow alleyways in the Kasbah where people sold fresh baked goods.  Someone reached out from a doorway while our group was walking by and handed us a hot loaf of this bread and we all tore it apart and shared it.  It was wonderful.  On this particular day we went to an authentic Moroccan restaurant for lunch and were entertained by a belly dancer and musicians.  There were so many wonderful things for sale in the market place, but we didn't have much time to shop that day.  There was so much ground to cover going thru the streets, plus lunch and a special rug tour. Tomorrow I will post a couple of photos from that special lunch.

Mijas, Spain - Decorated Donkeys

 This guy is waiting to give someone a ride around town. 

How could you not love this little guy?  They were all so festive and seemed to like the extra attention they were getting from me petting their noses.  Just precious

Cocina Door - Mijas, Spain

Well I'm back from a wonderful time in Spain.  The first part of the trip was in the southern most part of Spain referred to Costa del Sol.  It's right at the southern tip of Spain.  The hotel overlooked the beach and boardwalk and the breaking waves could be heard in the room.  There's nothing that puts me to sleep faster than listening to the ocean.  The first day trip was to a little town called Mijas.  It wasn't very far from the hotel and had wonderful white buildings, decorated donkeys and great shopping.  The above door is a small watercolor sketch I did from this town.  I'll post a photo of one of those adorable donkeys tomorrow.