#47 - Sitting Scissors

Sitting Scissors

#47 in the Birdseed Project

When you finally get a scissortail flycatcher to sit still, you can see AMAZING BEAUTY!

I painted this from a photo I took on Mother's Day, while playing golf with all my kids...it was US vs. my husband...he beat us bad, so the highlight of my day was being with the kids, and seeing this lovely bird sitting still!

 

46 - Scissor Tail Flycatcher

 Scissor Tail Flycatcher

#46 in the Birdseed Project

Every late spring, the scissor tail flycatchers return to Texas for the summertime. Seeing them brings back memories of childhood. It was my mom who introduced me to the scissor tail. We also had them at our farm. They particularly liked to perch on the barb wire, like the one I painted, here.

This is the state bird for Oklahoma. We are grieving with them over the tornado tragedy that happened just today...

Please remember that you can donate to the Birdseed Project!

A handsome little visitor who enjoys the birds at my mom's nursing home. The birds provide interest and distraction for visitors to the home. The residents enjoy them every day, but I see their family members escaping to the windows for a few minutes to watch little bird life outside. Please consider making a contribution to the Birdseed Project. Your tax deductible gift provides feeders and seed, and maybe a NEW BIRDSEED PROJECT to a home near you!. Click to donate to

Threefold Cord Ministries.

Mention Birdseed Project on the ENVELOPE



Rhino Lounge

Rhino Lounge

Today I took my high school artists up the road to the cameron Park Zoo in Waco, for a sketching trip. Here is a quick one from my sketchbook...a lazy rhino. She had just strolled by "fast enough" that I couldn't finish a first sketch. When she turned and lay down, I did this one....Sketching sleeping figures is "cheating" in life drawing, don't you think? 



Based on Daniel

Based on Daniel

Here is a sketch from a lesson I taught this morning, while preparing some high school artists for a sketching trip to the zoo. It often makes artists uncomfortable to draw from life, because they think that the outcome is only "good" if the drawing looks like the model! I remind them that this is NOT a portrait...Daniel is my reference, but not the "story". I use him to see shapes of values, and to put parts together, but as a FAST SKETCH (this one took less than 5 minutes), I am not too concerned with the likeness....SOME of the parts (mouth, left eye...part of the nose) look like Daniels parts, but the whole only bears a distant resemblance! Given more time, I could measure and evaluate the proportions and have a better likeness, but for a reference sketch I want the students to bravely put down lines and shapes and values only!

Join me in a sketch class sometime!

 

 

Platte River Perch

Platte River Perch__a study for larger commission

Like yesterday's post, this one was painted en plein air along a remote stretch of the Platte River in western Nebraska. I am working on a commission...groups of works for a ranch there. My friend, Tina came with me, and drove the "mule" while I photographed and painted...we had a blast!...This snaggy tree near the bank was a landmark for us, and every time we drove past, there was a different type of bird there. We saw turkeys at the base, then in the branches we saw, kingfisher, a cormorant or a grebe, hawks and eagles, and a king bird...I can't decide whether to put an eagle or a hawk in the final painting, but it will NOT be the awkward looking thing I painted here. I call this one a "hawkle"

 

 MY FAVORITE type of work is WHATEVER takes me OUTSIDE, on farms and ranches...ANYWHERE in America. I enjoy the process of discovering a location, getting to know it's light and shadows, and hopefully hanging around long enough to see changing weather and seasons.

These days, while in the midst of my Birdseed Project, I am noticing BIRDS and the role they play in the MOOD of a place

Platt Turkey Crossing

Platte Turkey Crossing___a study for ranch commission

Last year I painted out several times along the great Platte River in Nebraska. The study above was from last summer...a cool morning with a blazing sunrise!

 While standing on the bank looking into the sun, a gang of turkeys on my side of the river decided to cross right there in front of me. this is a small work painted with a big brush, so the turkeys are way too big for the size of this river. I can't wait to re-create this in the proper scale.

This study and a number of pictures I took will help me create a larger painting that I hope will convey the magnificence of this place.

I find that, as I work on my Birdseed Project, I put birds in all my paintings. Call this my "bird phase".

Rows of White

Rows of White__12 x 12 oil on linen__available

A few weeks ago I painted this in the cold morning paintout at the Bohaty Farm in Nebraska. This was after the "warm-up" painting that I posted...

British White Cattle are very pretty, and gentle. They gathered around as we set up to paint them...seeming to enjoy the extra company!

Below is a picture of me painting this one! Look hard and you can see what I saw!

 

Ann's Bluebonnet Study

Ann's Bluebonnets - Study___3 x 9 oil on linen panel___$190

A few weeks ago I posted the finished painting of this study above. I usually work out my "oil changes" on tiny canvases before taking on a big canvas. The studies are very loose and impressionistic. Just for fun, Click the blog image to see the details of this tiny study, and compare it with the larger work!

Bluebonnet Season is winding down here in central Texas.

As they fade and get covered by the taller grasses, new flowers are springing up! There are huge fields of yellow flowers near my mom's nursing home, with a whole palette of color splashed along the edges of the roadsides. I guess our late rains and cool weather have made this a really pretty wildflower year so far!

45 - Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret__10 x 8 oil on linen panel

#45 in the Birdseed Project

SPRING!!! Brings on the cattle egrets! I see them here most of the year now (in the southern parts of Texas), but in spring they GLOW against the electric greens of the new pasture grasses. So the cattle egrets just seem more plentiful this time of year.

For you artists: if you like to photograph white birds outside (or white ANYTHING), you will want to adjust your meter to shoot DARKER, so that the white bird's shadows will show up....and so that it is not over exposed, making it a glowy blob.

Yes, I learned this the hard way :)

Blues for Ann

Blues for Ann___8x10____SOLD

We have had a fairly good bluebonnet season this spring. Our Texas state flower is simply THE MOST beautiful flower there is. And it smells great, too! A trip to Texas I. The springtime is way worth it, just to see the bluebonnets!... I drove a little bit north today and it seems like bluebonnets are really at their peak north of Austin.  

44 - Caracara

Caracara__10 x 8 oil on linen panel__$550

#44 in the Birdseed Project

Caracaras started showing up on our farm just a couple of years before we left. I never remembered seeing them as a kid, and I heard that they were rather "new" to central Texas. We also call them Mexican Eagles, because they come up from Mexico... BIG BIRDS that sit on fence posts and stand around in fields. They are very handsome and not too shy, so I have gotten some pretty decent photos.

 

43- Hawk Greens

 Hawk Greens__8x6 oil on panel__$350

#43 in the Birdseed Project

 

Yesterday's post was this same red-tailed hawk. Click to read the story and to see a BETTER IMAGE than what you saw yesterday.

Hawks are my younger son's favorite birds, and to watch them in the fields hunting is a thrill! Below is a recent video (sped up!) of me painting a hawk!

Take a look!

 

 

42 - Red Shouldered Hawk

 

Red Shouldered Hawk__8 x 6 oil on linen panel__$350

#42 in the Birdseed Project

Please read about this important project at the link above, and consider donating!

I painted this from a photo I took of this magnificent bird out in the wild!...Yes, the busy Austin intersection of Parmer Lane and McNiel Road is a VERY wild place! That's where I saw this hawk as I drove by during rush hour! I circled back and went through the intersection again, pulling onto the shoulder and parking RIGHT NEXT to the fence wire where he perched.

Usually hawks are wary and will fly away if you park too close. This one was used to traffic and stayed long enough for me to get a BUNCH of pictures. I watched him (her?) searching the small field area for mice (or something), and flying from fence post to tree and back. He (she) actually outlasted me, and was still there after my memory card filled up and I had to drive away.

Remembered

Remembered___8x10 oil study

If you look at the tree trunks on the left you can see some of the actual grasses that stuck to the paint when I painted this on location in Nebraska last week. The day started very cold at the Bohaty Farm. They just updated their web site with some of the photos I took! Go see the Sandhill cranes that stopped by their beautiful farm that day!
 By late afternoon when I painted this, most of the snow had melted and the breeze died down and I could actually feel a little warmth from the sun...This is a long abandoned farm owned by my friend, Allen. Since it is surrounded by busy farms, everyone in these parts REMEMBERS its purpose, and the families that once lived and worked here! I bet everyone has a farm in teir memory!

Amy's Lake

Amy's Lake___8x10___sold

This lake has a name, but I forget what it is. Since my friend, Amy lives here, I call it Amy's Lake.

It is near David City, Nebraska, where I painted last week... the location where I painted the coots on that cold windy day! M.B. took this painting home with him...THANKS, M.B.!

British White Warmup

British White - Warm-Up

Last week in Nebraska, I painted with a group outside in various locations.

One location was the Bohaty Farm, one of the top breeding places for the beautiful British White catte. It was a PERFECT DAY on their farm: enthusiastic cattle people were there to purchase at their auction, the fields were full of Sandhill cranes and the artists were scattered around, creating works in oils and watercolor.This one is my morning study. I often grab a tiny canvas as a warm-up.

41- Snowy Robin

Snowy Robin__tiny oil on canvas 3.5 x 3.5__$150 includes a little easel

#41 in my Birdseed Project

 

This is a tiny warm-up painting I did in the snow over the weekend in Nebraska. There were Robins EVERYWHERE there, ALL fluffed up in the cold. My friend, Allen said that he saw one that looked confused as if to say "where is SPRING?"

That might be a better title for this little canvas...winter seems to be hanging on tight in the Great Plains!

Please consider this painting, or a little donation to the Birdseed Project!

Your purchase will provide seed for bird feeders at a nursing home, and light to a lonely place.

NOW, you can even send a few tax deductible dollars, without having to buy art!

Contact Friends of the Forgotten and mention BIRDSEED!

5th and Nebraska

5th and Nebraska___tiny oil study for Allen and Anna

This beautiful home is where Allen grew up and now lives with Anna! They are a couple of the founders of the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art, in David City, Nebraska. I stay with them whenever I visit there. They sweetly were my "ground transportation" last week, meeting me at the airport in a FIERCE hail storm...the kind that ONLY happens on the Great Plains!

And it hailed on us from Omaha all the way to David City, where it froze solid and then was covered with a few inches of snow. Waking to the fresh snowfall I just had to get out in it and PAINT. Since the house is on the corner of 5th and Nebraska, I have given this little study that name. That's me below, in the cold...

40- Coots are Cute

Coots are Cute___4x6 oil study on canvas

#40 in the Birdseed Project

 

I have been in Nebraska this week, painting, and participating in plenty of things with the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art!

I'll talk about it this week after I get home tomorrow.

This is my warm up sketch on the first day!

 



Bay Day

Bay Day___6x12 oil on panel__Rockport Art Festival, July 5, 2013

I started this plein air oil the last time I was down in Rockport, TX. A few days ago I uncovered it, unfinished in my studio and could see enough info that it was easy to finish. I will set it aside for the Rockport Art Festival, in early July, unless someone wants it BEFORE then!

As I type this, I am surrounded by winter's last grip on the Great Plains! So STAY TUNED for some winter paintings, which will be a real exercise for this Texas girl! I figure it will be EASY!! I brought a big tube of WHITE...

I am in Nebraska to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art! My exhibit, Last Year on the Farm was their first EVER exhibit, and that's when I became friends with the museum! I come up here EVERY CHANCE I can, and get my fill of agrarian (FARM) life, which surrounds this area of Nebraska....FRIDAY thru Sunday I will be LEARNING from painters Michael Albrectsen and Michael Bingham, both from Utah (AMAZING ARTISTS). If you are nearby PLEASE try to come to ONE EVENT here in David City, NE. I can PROBABLY get you into the workshop, even at the last minute   vvaughan8@yahoo.com

OR, come meet everyone at the opening reception for the current exhibition "The Barn as a Chapel", presented by artist Michael Wilson. Saturday, April 13, 6-8 pm...you can meet me and ALL the

Michaels, and tour this little GEM of a museum....