sunflowers in september

On September 19th, I went back to Stella Niagara for a watercolor painting lesson. The topic of this lesson was painting sunflowers. I decided that I would just paint one flower after the next, and I came up with this design. I like having some of the flowers not fit onto the page because the paper isn't big enough to contain the wonderful nature of the flowers. So... here they are!!!

summertime at Beaver Island State Park

At the end of July, Terry Klaaren came to visit Grand Island. He offered anyone who was interested the chance to take an art class, with him as an instructor. I was happy enough to jump at the chance. Last year, Terry designed a mural, and I was able to help with the painting. That was great fun, so I figured that the painting class would be fun, too.
There were three students. We went to Beaver Island State Park and set up our chairs. Terry provided us with the canvas boards and with the paint and the paintbrushes. I have to admit that acrylic paints never used to be my favorite medium but Terry showed me how to use them to create a representation of the world that I saw around me. He showed me how to blend the colors to get a background that looked distant, yet real.
I finished the underpainting when I was at Beaver Island State Park. Fortunately, I had taken a photograph of the scene so I was able to paint in the details later, at home. Above is the finished painting, which I had framed.