Mystery in Casablanca

Fell in love with the colors in the reference photo of this hibiscus flower.  Looks like it is on the edge of the ocean and a bit in the shade.  Ahhh. . .  the feeling of cool air and warm water.  How exotic that it was taken in Morocco by PMP photographer Alicia Elliott.  She’s from British Columbia so it must have been a crazy long flight. Glad she went tho – this was so much fun to paint since these flowers have playful shapes and challenging negative spaces.  Thanks Alicia!

Hibiscus Magic
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Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

Superstitions

What better than a lady bug on Friday the 13^th.  Let’s call her Lucky Lady #2.   This one should bring double goodness especially because it’s larger than life, by a mile.  A blast to paint these stunning complementary colors (red and green), but challenging to push the greens into the background.  

Lucky Lady #2
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Delighted to report that Summer Sweet will be headed to New York City – drying seems to be complete.   

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

Summer Sweet

My turn to host the art group painting day. Always delightful painting with a group.  Subject was watermelon - they just won't stop saying, "paint me, paint me!"  Fun trying to get it to look juicy, opaque, yet translucent. The daisy wouldn't cooperate, so I got out my palette knife.  A challenging tool for me, but really happy the way it worked out.  Will probably take a week or more to dry. . . . but, that will give me time to ponder what to do with it next.  Love what happened to the watermelon part too.

Summer Sweet
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Special project last month (thanks to a very dear artist friend) to make a canvas placemat as an intro to making a floor canvas - must have watermelons on the brain - or perhaps just too much heat around here.  "Felt like" temp today of 111 - what, this is the mid-Atlantic. . . .

Flexible canvas, acrylic paint.  

Thank you for reading this far.  My gift to you - a favorite summer treat.   Make watermelon "sticks" served with balsamic glaze and a sprinkle of pink salt - looks so grown up don't you think?

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

It Must Be Summer

My turn to pick the subject for the art group monthly challenge.  Decided to go with "a shoe" as there's a tendency for us to paint flowers, landscapes, animals, veggies, etc.  Well they got more than a little clever with a glass slipper and a horseshoe to name a few.  Hmmm, now what to do?  After many ideas decided it must be summer and what better than a favorite flip-flop!  Mine are too shabby, but found this great picture and jazzed it up a bit.  I wonder if Dorothy needs any ruby-colored summer wear?

It Must Be Summer
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Happy to report that On Ice is off to their new home - lakeside, north Dallas.

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

On Ice

Bonjour!

Just returned from a fabulous trip to Paris.  Truly extraordinary city, people, food, art and sights to see.  Already planning to return.  Great place to wander about, stop for a bite, and be a part of people from around the globe.  The Parisians we met were absolutely delightful - so forget those rumors you've heard!

On Ice - is in honor of Paris where they have small specialty shops including one for seafood.  I hope it reflects the freshness despite being on a warm sidewalk.  I think you have to know exactly where and when to be there as we only saw it once, but certain we dined from it all week.  The food was simple, but fabulous tasty combinations by both new and practiced chefs. 

On Ice
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C'est la joie de vivre!

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

p.s. Enchanted by this unique chandelier in a small restaurant across from the Opera House. Notice the glass ballet shoes.

May Summary

First up is a challenge to paint a figure - not something I usually do so definitely a challenge. One of the best ways for me to learn is to copy other artists so I can focus on the object rather than trying to figure out all the other parts.  This is very similar to a photo I've had for years, thinking it would be a good start in painting humans - no face is a huge plus!  Fantastic artist, Andre Kohn. Because it's a copy, I didn't put it on DPW for sale.  

Figure Challenge
canvas panel, 8 x 10"

Since I forgot in my last post - here are the paintings from last month.  I am taking a class, but trust me, not worth sharing those 😊

April (and a little May) 2018

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

Where's the Cheese

In France of course!  We are planning a trip to Paris and I think that's what drove this choice.  Plus I was with my art friends and love doing something brand new because they are so encouraging and positive.  Especially this time - the original photo had an odd-looking grape tomato and some impossible-to-paint crackers in the front.  These brilliant artists suggested getting rid of the problems by replacing it with some delicious (literally) apples. I'm not one for improvising in the middle of a painting - but really need to make that a priority.  What a great day. 

Where's the Cheese
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Pixabay Photo reference - diapicard 

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

Break

Much needed creativity break is underway but has included a bit of painting.  Photos below are in support of an event called the Friends of Leesburg (VA) Public Arts and my first public show since moving to this area.  

Hot

The idea is kind of interesting – artists donate 5x7” unframed works that will be sold for $50 to raise funds for the non-profit established to foster growth of the arts in town.  If it’s small, sign me up!  Locals can get more info here.  Show is in late April.  

Juicy

Also started a class with Elizabeth Floyd that concentrates on flowers – that should help.

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

What a Week

It’s been quite a week being in the “spotlight” and trying to knock them out of the park each day.  I rarely wipe off paintings or declare ones not-good-enough but have done that a couple of times this week.  Perhaps self-imposed, but stress no matter how you look at it.  Apparently, it gets in the way of being creative . . . .  On the up side, have thoroughly enjoyed making a huge memory out of this adventure and proud of how much has worked out well.  Wouldn’t you agree, the events where you were the most challenged are the ones you remember the best?  Think about turkeys not cooked on T-day, vacations where it rained the whole time, terrifying NYC cab ride, the list goes on. . . . 

Something else I promised myself was to post a collage of the monthly paintings - somehow looking at them all at once causes quite a bit of self-amazement.  It's cool having a way to mark your time in this life.

The lucky winner of the Spotlight giveaway painting lives in Ohio, so What’s Next is on the way north.  It is a special delight when an artist admires another artist’s work.  

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

First Light

Love the shadows and light of this most amazing photo taken by my most amazing brother.  Not sure where it was taken since he travels all over (South America, Asia, Europe, etc.) and lives in the Southwest.  He has a very interesting blog about the birds, butterflies and flowers along his path. Link to his blog is below.  I’ve had this morning glory in my “things to paint” since 2015!  

First Light Morning Glory
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Do you know . . .

I was having a heck of a time figuring out where I got this photo and finally resorted to Google Images – you can just drag a photo into the search box and it will look through the internet for a match and any similar photos.  I do this to find sources for items when I don’t know where to find / buy (think home décor, lamps, that sort of thing).  Google pulled this one up in no-seconds-flat.  How about that! 

FYI you can also search on your own paintings to see if anyone has hijacked them.

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time – Johnna

Brother Joe's Natural Moments Travel Blog - check it out.