Daisies, Inspiration and the Creative Process

I was thinking about adding some daisies to some of my older paintings so I rounded up photos of this seasons garden and a one from 5 years ago and began putting together an inspiration page to work from that shows the flowers from all angles.

First I rounded up the photos and trimmed off any distracting bits.

Next I arranged and attached them in place.

I figured I'd make the project a bit fun and unwind a little by drawing around them. First in pen. And then in colored pencil.

After that it was time to move on to the painting.

I added the daisies in acrylics and think it improved things quite a bit.

I'm considering adding different types of flowers but hung the painting back on the wall until I decide.

Back in the frame it went...at least for a while.

Winter Lettuce

I've wrapped things up in the garden outside and just have a bit of celery, lettuce and strawberries in the house for the winter.

I'd have loved to leave the strawberries outside but they are the wrong zone for my part of the country and I'd have lost them.

It's fun to just reach across the table when I want a finishing touch for a meal. The baby celery leaves make a nice garnish and the tiny stalks are just the right size to cut up in ham salad, egg salad or soups.

In this little plastic cup is a small amount of water and the base of a head of lettuce we'd had from the grocery store. The dark green leaves on the top are the beginnings of a new head of lettuce from scraps that most people throw away. Also recycled and re-used is the plastic jello cup that I'm growing it in.

I'm also growing some lettuce from seed. Instead of waiting for it to mature I clip it and use it for sprouts. Kind of my little idea for growing micro greens indoors.

I still don't have any grow lights so the plants aren't doing quite as well as they could be but it cheers me up with snow forecast in my part of the country by the end of the week. 

Fall Colors

I love the colors on this tree a couple of blocks from my house.

There are a lot of trees around my place but not much seasonal color. The funny thing is that I live in the middle of a city but you'd never be able to tell from this photo.

 The 2 tall, green trees are in my front yard which may explain why growing a lot of things in my garden is a big challenge.

My favorite view on the way home.

Working Together on Halloween Designs

It all started when I sent a photo of sunflowers from my garden to a pen pal and she sent it back with pumpkin stickers on it.

I started to take the idea further with watercolors.

I layered on some colored pencil and then finished it with ink.
 I'm also continuing to try different ways of drawing pumpkins as I try to continue to develop the design idea.

Another approach I may try is to go to Zazzle and combine my existing sunflower and pumpkin designs and see how that looks.

Either way it's been fun and brightened up letters for my pen pal and I.

I'll start with putting it in stickers.

Wrapping up the wheelchair ramp project

After 2 years of painting and planning I'm down to just the last two posts. I'm also doing a border design on the rails but it feels good to say it will be finished and I can move on to other projects.

The next question will be what to do with the 2 years of project photos and the story behind them. So far I'm considering a video or a paper scrapbook of some sort.

I love the way my projects go together and hope that someday others will appreciate it as well. You can see more of this on my Dala Horse Blog.