A Pause That Refreshes, Little Compton, 18x18, oil

Today 2 friends came to visit & paint, Paula Villanova and Jody Regan (both have links on my Daily Painting Blog).  We drove down the Main Road and spotted these cows & calves taking a dip in their little pond.  What fun it was to try and nail a composition while they were leaving and coming back, getting back into the water, leaving, etc.!  I remembered Peggi Kroll Roberts saying "Be a Designer!"  And Ken Auster saying "Be Inspired by Nature, but Not Held Hostage By It!".    We had a picnic lunch, but it was HOT HOT HOT in the sun.... and on the way home we had Dell's frozen Lemonade - perfect end to a perfect day!

The Barns in Portsmouth, RI, acrylic 14x18

We painted Plein Air at Judy Chaves' house yesterday in the late light.  We were waiting for the cows to come out, which they did, as we were packing up to go home & cook dinner :(   Apparently the cows (which are dairy cows, but I don't know that that matters) like the grass to nibble, but not these tuft-y weeds, so they grow, while the grass gets nibbled down.  Loved the light on the barn and out building.

The Challenger, Oil 14x18

I worked this painting up from a Daily Painting. My show is going to be hung in 5 days and all of a sudden I'm thinking I have NOTHING to put on the walls! So I'm going back through all my 'inspiration images' and trying to do something with them. It's stressful, but also a good motivator, and I WANT to paint these paintings anyway! So when I saw these two pecking around Wesport Point (which is a working harbor, who knows where they come from!!!). But I loved their coloring, and attitude. They were definitely hanging out, yet it seemed an uneasy truce! In real life the paint is a bit thick, but I"m playing with Carol Marine's recipe for Medium, so it was wonderfully slippery and smooth, too. No frame, this painting is on a 'Gallery Wrapped' 1 1/2 inch thick canvas, which adds to it's contemporary look.I was SO looking forward to hanging this at the show, but while I was putting the little screw eyes on the back I must have put it down on something sharp, and I made a slice through the canvas (to the right of the front chincken's feet) about an inch long. "Good!" said Tim, "Now I get to keep it!".......

Baaaa-aa, Acrylic on Board 11x14

SOLD

These curious sheep are at Coggeshall Farm in Bristol, RI. I love the springy shapes of sheep and their skinny little legs. I may work more on this one, but for now it's 'done'.