Jet Trails @Dawn

I often see the traces of the jets that fly at dawn, but never the actual jets.  I wonder why they are up so early and from where they are flying.  What is their destination? 

Overlook

My dad walks by my paintings and asks me "Is that a real place or did you make it up?" 

I said, " I look at the lake everyday, I watch the skies, the clouds, the birds.  I paint what I see in my mind.  Real and not real is the answer." 

Path to South Beach after the Storm, acrylic on stretched canvas

The hillside along the road to South Beach in Port Washington has been covered with clover for several weeks now and every time I ride my bike there I think how beautiful that hillside of flowers is.  We have been having some quick storms coming through in the past couple of days.  Here by the lake we can see the dark storm clouds racing toward us and wonder if they will pass us by on the North or the South or if we will actually get the rain we need.  My friend, Sally, is an ardent red hatter so I decided to add the woman with her red hat heading around the corner for her walk on the beach.  Her dog has to take one more sniff before following her.  So my inspiration comes from bits and pieces of my life and experiences here in Port Washington next to Lake Michigan. 

 

Path to the Lake, Acrylic 07182014

I have done several versions of this piece in pastels and acrylics.  This is the first one with flowers and seagulls.  Each one adds more details. 

Chasing Spring

When you drive from Wisconsin to Louisiana in March you go from winter gradually to Spring.  For us Spring didn't start until we got south of Memphis.  Then we noticed the grass, then the trees and finally in New Orleans we had flowers!  Of course the return trip reverses the process and even after being gone 9 days, we still came back to snow on the north sides of roads, houses, yards and piles of snow in the parking lots.  I did this piece in our hotel suite at a window that looked out at an empty brick building.  I didn't realize how bad the light was until I found myself with this dark little painting, which is not what I set out to produce.  Actually this is the 3rd reincarnation.  The first one, I didn't like much so I painted some more.  The 2nd version reminded Karen of Big Bird (she wasn't totally wrong) and so I painted some more and got this dark little piece where it seems we are looking back along the route that we took as we chased after spring and finally caught her. 

Angel #8