I can't believe that the tulips are already starting to come up again- last year, they were a little late- and this year a little early so far.  This is a sketch from my sketch book last year during the festival, when my daughter was content to just sit and watch... this year things will be different.  The Thanksgiving Tulip Festival runs from April 17th until May 2.  People are always asking me when the best time to go is- and my best answer is to get a membership and go often.  For information on memberships, click here. For information about the Tulip Festival click here (and don't forget to click on the link at the top of the page for the live gardens webcam)

house on stilts

My nephew asked me if I had ever done any paintings of "houses on stilts" , and I remembered doing this sketch while I was in Thailand. This was quickly done from a moving vehicle (hence the moving vehicle lines) . People often ask what pens I like to use, and the answer is: the free ones at my bank. This is ink and watercolor on paper, 5 X 8.25. I love Moleskine sketchbooks for many reasons- one of them is that the paper is nice enough to paint on.

provo plein air festival

October 1-3 was the 2nd annual Provo Plein Air Festival, and since my daughter has just started to get much more mobile and independent- I was a little nervous to go out painting. I decided to paint the Provo Temple because there was a lot of space for her to play, while I was painting, a group of sister missionaries from the MTC happened by and took our picture. My husband made the frame for the painting, "Fall Session" oil on panel, 8 1/2 X 13

Pears

Oil on panel

12" X 13 1/2"

mixed tulips

oil on muslin (on panel)

collaboration

my niece came over for an art lesson, she asked me to teach her to draw flowers, so we went outside and looked at the zinnias, I think this drawing is beautiful, so I asked her if I could paint on it - I would love to collaborate with her again!

red poppy

a quick tulip sketch

Pink Tulips under Timp

Yellow Tulips

1/4 sheet Arches Hot press

Red Tulips

1/4 sheet Arches hot press

Painting at the Tulip Festival

Here I am painting (with my little daughter's help)

Here is the painting (in progress)- you can see the "zipp clamps " I was talking about- they are hard plastic clamps that are tightened when the "t" bracket is put in place- I love using them, they are so convienent and they do not mark the edges in any way

Purple Tulips

This is my painting from the first day of the Tulip Festival, since I had my daughter with me this year, I decided to do all watercolors this year. I did all quarter sheets arches 140 lb ( I typically prefer hot press, but I decided to give cold press a try again, and I like it, so I used both) I strecthed my paper using fabulous zipp clips

My Web Site Works!

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A Mother's Touch

This book just came out, it is a book that has beautiful images and quotes about mothers (a great  Mother's Day gift idea!) - and two of the images in the book are of my paintings.  (the cover is not mine)