Churchill seating

7 Wonders Duel

...with one of my wonderful daughters.

It was our first game.

Memoir '44

I set up the Utah Beach scenario a couple of days ago (D-day + 74 years). Allies lost 6 to 1. Card draws forced the US troops to act in zones where Germans were strongest.

Memoir '44

I set up a game on Monday but didn't get very far before we decided to watch Spider Man: Homecoming.

Red clover in acrylic

This is a little painting I did over the weekend. It's pretty minimal--but I am happy with it. I should probably paint/draw more things from my yard, if I can squeeze it in.

Bunny

Red clover

Spiderword

Before it turns ratty later in the summer. 

Daffodil moves

I just moved most of my daffodils from the back yard to the front. Probably a hundred bulbs. (Conservative estimate. I dunno. Might be 150+.) I hope they do ok, and I can't wait to see them all bloom there. 

There were some white ones in the side yard I moved up, too, but I left most of them there--because I couldn't figure out where to put them if I moved them.

I also moved hostas back to the front. I hope they recover from the move and fill in a little. They were doing better in the back yard than they ever did up front by the porch, so the ones I put back in there will probably not do too well. I left a little ajuga in place there by the porch, and put some yarrow in with it, but the yarrow probably won't expand until next spring.

That spot by the porch is pretty rough. It gets really wet sometimes, and then really dry, and there is a lot of clay and gravel in it. Mostly, for two years, we have let the violets dominate it. Violets love it there and I think they actually look nice, but we'll try something else now.

Pen and ink detail

Dogwood blossoms

House Portrait in Pen and Ink

11 x 15 on Arches hot press watercolor paper

Frustrated

I suck at plein air painting. I suck at alla prima. I spent a good chunk of time this weekend on a landscape, and it looks like crap.

Sometimes my walnut ink or pencil landscapes look pretty nice, so maybe I just can't handle the colors. This makes me think I should try painting with a very limited palette--whenever I try it again.  Some day.

Hotdogs and asparagus

I cooked asparagus six feet from where I picked it.

Etch-a-Sketch by my 12-year-old

Not an elephant

A ballpoint pen doodle blown out of proportion.

Asparagus coming in...

I've been waiting.

Narcissus

These bloom after our yellow daffodils, which have now faded away to only greenery. 

Hopper

I've been unintentionally engaging in a behavioral pun by looking at a book on Edward Hopper just before Easter. I wonder if he ever painted rabbits?

I have always really enjoyed looking at Hopper's artwork. I don't know how much he has influenced me--I don't know if I have liked him because I enjoyed similar subject matter, or if I have drifted toward similar subject matter because I liked his work. But I find him an artist whose work is easy to like but difficult to love. His compositions are gorgeous. I love the way he uses architecture and angles. I love the spareness of many of his paintings. But he's also very cold and lonely in his subject matter. The people are isolated; they seem as aloof and alien as the inanimate objects around them. The only thing that really seems to engage the viewer with its personality is the light moving across landscapes or playing through interiors. This coldness also appeals to my introverted side. If you want sentimentality in your artwork, you better look somewhere else.

But his drawing skills, the way he applies paint, the unity the forms in his painting by color choices...all of them look so great.

 

Oil Portrait: Boy, Dog, and Poppies

 Finished last night. 8 x 10 inches on panel.

This was commissioned by a coworker. None of the photos I took captured the subtlety in the skin tones...it does look best in person.