Sunflowers

“All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so.”
- Joseph Jourbert

 

Sunflower
5″ x 7″ Acrylic on Ampersand Clayboard

This one just makes me happy when I look at it.  There’s just something about sunflowers.
Did you know there was a National Sunflower Association?




This photo was printed from their gallery.  It is okay to post this, as long as I tell you where I found the photo.




Can you imagine how breathtaking it would be to happen upon this wonderful field of sunflowers?  Wow! 


Joubert, Joseph (1754-1824). Author of pensées, maxims, and some remarkable letters. He was early in contact with Diderot, and later a friend of Chateaubriand, Bonald, Fontanes, Chênedollé, and other major figures of the age. Suffering from poor health, he led a retired life, except for serving under Napoleon in the education ministry.

Much admired for the concise, accurate, at times witty quality of his writing, he refused to compose any work of length, preferring the private ‘carnet’, in which he combines a classical quest for concision with an introspective, analytical bent. He writes in the La Rochefoucauld tradition, but with a more tolerant, even Epicurean view of mankind; his critical judgements on writers are often remarkable for their acuity. A collection of his Pensées was published by Chateaubriand in 1838, followed by the fuller Pensées, maximes, essais et correspondance, published by P. de Raynal in 1842.

Radiant Rhino

“Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.”
– Ruth Gordon

 

Radiant Rhino
5″ x 7″ Golden Fluid Acrylic on Ampersand Clay Board

This was so fun!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happy rhino before. 

We had some drama at our house last night.  There was a very young spotted fawn in our font yard.  He was just standing there, on the hill near the edge of the woods.  He was all by himself and just standing there.  We were really worried about him.  Where was his mom?  There was another doe and an older fawn over near the driveway, but he didn’t go to them and they didn’t seem to care that he was standing there all alone.

I think a full hour passed.  We were beginning to worry about nightfall and bobcats.  He even laid down for a bit, then stood in the same spot again.  We couldn’t imagine why his mother would leave him all alone.  (We were watching all of this from inside the house so we wouldn’t scare him.)  It was as if before she left, she told him to not move from that spot.

Then, after what seemed like forever, a doe appeared.  She stood quite a ways from him.  Then he saw her and recognized her and took off like a shot!  He ran to her and dove under her legs, wiggling all over and wagging his little tail like crazy.  He nursed frantically, wagging that tail the whole time, until she got tired of him and moved away.  He was so happy!!  I have never witnessed anything like that in my whole life.  I just had to share! 


Here’s the base coat of the rhino.  (yes, Carol…. you should try it)

About Ruth Gordon

American actress Ruth Gordon is best known for her roles in Harold and Maude and Rosemary’s Baby. She was born in Massachusetts in 1896. At age 19, she moved to New York to pursue acting; she performed in plays for the next 20 years. She and her first husband, Garson Kanin, wrote five film scripts for Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, including Adam’s Rib, which was based on the writers’ own marriage. She died in 1985.

Trio of Birds

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle

 

Trio of Birds
Golden Fluid Acrylic on Ampersand Clay Board

This was a fun little painting to do.  In the reference photo, the birds were on a man, picking at his shirt.  I made up this little fantasy setting.  Here is how it all started…



I painted the panel with black gesso, then when dry, I drew my lines in with watercolor pencil.  I then painted in a base coat and after it dried, I wiped off the pencil lines with a damp rag.  There are a bizzilion layers of acrylic on the finished painting.  I say finished, but seeing it here in the monitor, I can see where I may need a few more layers.  It’s amazing what a scanner picks up that I don’t see with the naked eye. 

About Aristotle

Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher who is considered one of the most influential thinkers in history, wrote a number of books about science, poetry, and ethics. He was born in 384 B.C. in Macedonia. He studied with Plato in Athens and later tutored Alexander the Great. His death in 322 B.C. was rumored to be caused by hemlock poisoning.