Maui Sunrise

I just returned from a great trip to Kentucky for an oil painting workshop with Dreama Perry.  It was a very long journey, 1070 miles by car, but well worth the time and trouble to get there.  I will be using a totally different color palette I learned from the workshop that is includes very bright cheerful colors.  We stayed in a town called Paris which was just beautiful.  There were huge thoroughbred horse farms with rolling lush green pastures all around us.  It was so green and lush it almost hurt your eyes.  They have obviously had a lot of rain and it was like being in another world.  We were lucky enough to be invited to one of the oldest horse farms in Kentucky while there.  We were able to tour the owner's home and see their operation.  This is the time of the year when the baby foals have just arrived.  We watched a couple of them run and buck in the pasture and it was a beautiful sight.  Their land and homestead date back to the Civil War.  So much history and such a rare treat to be able to visit with them.  I'm off to start painting with my new color palette.  I hope to have some new paintings showing my new lessons soon.

Black Sand Beach - Maui, Hawaii

I'm posting again before leaving town for Kentucky.  Phew - I'm just a traveling fool.  My BFF Rae and I are hitting the road first thing tomorrow morning to head to a 3 day workshop in Paris, Kentucky.  Yes, there are good painters there.  We will take an oil workshop from Dreama Tolle Perry; whose work I greatly admire.  So I'm leaving you with another one of my recent travel paintings of a black beach I've visited many times over the years when on Maui.  It's still the same and that pleases me very much.

Old Maui Church

I am just returning from the lake house but have been painting.  I did a series of little travel paintings from Hawaii and Spain (5x7's).  This one is a little old church we passed while driving around on Maui.  It caught my eye when I first saw it and decided right then it would become a little painting. 

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.