Sunny Palms longing for Summer

watercolor 8" x 10"

This week the sun made some appearances. It made me long for summer. We are getting the pool ready in hopes of early swimming. I know this is all very premature considering there is a threat of snow next week, but a girl can dream.

When we moved in our backyard was a tropical paradise. We have a beautiful saltwater pool surrounded by tons of banana plants and I added Hibiscus into the mix with their gorgeous blooms, it was heavenly. Well this winter when the banana plants died off Brian chopped them down and uncovered our palm trees that were camouflaged among all of the foliage. So right now the palms are loving life, they get all of the sun they want. They were looking so pretty, Brian and I took some pictures of them. Out of these pictures comes my labor of love this week. I do love the colors in this painting. They are so tropical and summery, they make me long for my pool lounging days. Next week I will be painting an accompanying palm painting, I think it needs a friend. I loved painting this one so much I think I may start the other one right now:)

I did hope to report this week that the my wallpapering project was done, but sadly it is not. It is closer, but not complete. I really do hate wallpaper. Hopefully by next week:(

Steven did a lovely painting this week. Out of a happy little accident (Oh No I'm quoting Bob Ross) he created his masterpiece. He accidentally spilled his cup of water on his painting. It could have been disastrous, but Steven and I are both in agreement that it enhanced his painting. He may be onto a new technique. Hopefully not because we had turquoise water all over the kitchen floor, we also had Sam crawl through it so it was doubly messy.


watercolor 5 x 7

See everyone next week.

Carrie

All paintings and photographs are copyrighted by me, Carrie Waller and must have express written permission to be used.

Isle of Palms Revisited

2.5" x 3" watercolor it's so little and cute:)


both are 5" x 7" watercolors



5" x 7" watercolor

This week I am revisiting Isle of Palms in South Carolina. This time I have painted the beach in color. The first one is itty bitty, and it's really cute. It may be my favorite one. It reminded me of a contest I always entered in high school. You could only do miniature pictures. It was a lot of fun to do. I plan on using these paintings in my master bathroom as soon as it is finished. We are currently and by saying we that would be mostly me, removing all of the lovely wallpaper. It is a big job and I LOATHE wallpaper. I also firmly believe that flowers belong in a vase or garden not on a wall. So off with their little floral heads. Hopefully I will have it done soon Did I say I LOATHE wallpaper?


Steven on wallpaper removal

I re-purposed some frames and mats that I already had. So once my bathroom is in it's finished state these will look great in there.


framed pictures

Steven got back in the act of painting this week. He painted a lovely watercolor for me for Valentine's day! He's so sweet!


Steven's watercolor 8 x 10

See everyone next week.

All paintings and pictures are copyrighted by me, Carrie Waller, and must have express written permission to be used.

It's Carnivale Time

watercolor 22" x 30"

This week I painted a scene from our travels to Venice. Brian took the picture that I painted this from and it has always been one of my favorite pictures. This was during Carnivale in February. After we went the first time we were hooked and went every year. It was an amazing time to visit Venice. People are dressed in the most elaborate costumes arriving by Gondola into the floating city. It is all pretty dramatic. These costumed creatures were more than happy to stop and pose for anyone to get their picture. They were very experienced at this and knew exactly where to stop so that each photo was posed perfectly with the best background possible. The costumes were absolutely terrific. From an artists standpoint I just sat there and watched the costumes walk by in amazement. Brian and I chased people down like the paparazzi to get perfect pictures. Besides the beautiful costumes there were also original costumes. One year there was a family completely decked out in bubble pack outfits that looked like french royalty from the 1700's. The female even had a tall Marge Simpson-esque wig made of bubble pack. It was truly amazing. Unfortunately our photo of the bubble pack family didn't come out, it was dark and they weren't lit very well. But we have plenty of other wonderful pictures to remind us of our visits. Every February I get a little antsy to get back to these crazy beautiful celebrations. I miss you Venice, but I will be back before you sink:)


photos Brian took during our Venice visits

This weeks painting was a bit of a challenge for me. I will admit I have a phobia of painting with color. I am very happy staying in my comfortable monochromatic color schemes. I have actually attempted to paint this pic one other time, and I wasn't happy with the outcome. This week I tried to take the same approach that I did with the London sketch. I just relaxed, tried to not be too detailed and just had fun capturing the colors, lights and shadows. I'm fairly happy with my results. I may try this color thing again. I also have another dilemma, I'm running out of paint. I bought my beloved Schmincke watercolor paints in Germany. I like to paint with pans not tubes and I can't find Schmincke for sale in pans anywhere. I may have to bribe my friend Melleive, that is lucky enough to be back in Germany, to visit my favorite art shop and pick some up for me. Until then I may have to break down and buy some tubes on line. Oh, Well!! I'm also thinking about trying my hand at oil painting.

Steven was too busy watching the Superbowl to paint. He was also super excited to have his Daddy home. Brian was gone all week. I'll give him a pass this week:)

See everyone next Monday!

All paintings and photographs are copyrighted by me, Carrie Waller, and must have express written permission to be used.

It's A Foggy Day, In A Foggy London Town--Week 5

watercolor 16" x 20"

This week I decided to experiment. I did what I would consider a watercolor sketch. I decided to not get into the nitty gritty of the details and just capture more of the lights and shadows. It was fun and you can still figure out what everything is. I used a photograph that my friend Matt took while he lived in England.

Below are pictures of the boys room. I finally got it all pulled together. The quilt was made by Brian's mom. She also made Steven one when he was born. I'm sure they will be treasured by the boys for years and years. I now enjoy sitting in the boys room. The best part was that I didn't need to paint the words to the poem "High Flight" around the room, I decided it would be too much. So I'm calling it done. The pictures above the chest of drawers are of grandparents and family, and Sam's framed birth announcement, that my Mom framed for us as a Christmas present.

This week maybe I'll get the wallpaper down in the master bath. I then would be finished with every room in the house.



Steven did another masterpiece this week. Since week 1 he has been wanting to paint another canvas. The first canvas that he painted went to work with Daddy. We stopped in at Brian's work the other day and Steven got to see his art hanging on Daddy's wall. He was beyond thrilled. Since then he has been talking about painting the other canvas (which he calls Candice, he also has made art a verb, he tells me "Mommy I need to art", and can I use this paint for "arting") for Uncle Jon. He wants Uncle Jon to have a painting for his office. So as soon as this one is dry we will be packing it up and shipping it off to Puyallup, Washington.


acrylic on canvas 8" x 8"

Week 4 RB 66 posted at 9 a.m. Oh Yeah!!!!!

acrylic on canvas 36" x 48"

So this week, I couldn't help myself I had to finish my airplane series before moving on. Also I needed to get the last of the very large canvases out of my garage before I drove into them parking my car. I've had those 3 canvases sitting in my garage for a few months now, so I am thrilled that my painting a week experiment has allowed me to finish up this project.

This weeks plane is an RB 66, the last airframe that my mother-in-law's father flew, Col. Malcom Collins. I'm posting a little bit of information that I looked up on this plane. This was the only one that I'm not that familiar with, but after doing research I guess I have seen one in person because they have one at the Air Museum in Ohio, which by the way if you are in Dayton you must go and see the museum, it is pretty spectacular.

RB-66s were used as the major night photo-reconnaissance aircraft of the USAF during this period.(1956) 72 of the B-66B bomber version were built, 69 fewer than originally planned. Thirteen B-66B aircraft later were modified into EB-66B electronic countermeasures aircraft for the Vietnam War. Unlike the Navy's A-3 Skywarrior, which performed some bombing missions, the Destroyer was not used as a bomber in Vietnam.

The RB-66C was a specialized electronic reconnaissance and ECM aircraft with an expanded crew of seven, including additional electronics warfare experts. 36 of these aircraft were built with the additional crewmembers housed in what was the camera/bomb bay of other variants. RB-66C aircraft had distinctive wingtip pods and were used in the vicinity of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and later over Vietnam. In 1966, these were redesignated EB-66C.

Since I'm sharing a little more info on the planes I failed to mention that my first painting the C 17 I have actually flown on. In Charleston they do a really neat spouse flight. They fly a small group, around 20 of us, to a near by air strip, where we got off the plane had a nice lunch and then they proceeded to give us our own private air show. It was very cool! They dropped stuff out of the back of the plane, told us all the facts and did as many tricks as a large plane can do. It was all very impressive. On the way back we were supposed to have the back open so that we could fly over the ocean and see the Charleston landscape, but unfortunately our plane had hydraulic problems and we weren't able to see this. Still all in all a once in a lifetime experience. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a pilot and fly all of the time, pretty amazing!

So this wraps up my airplane paintings. Now I have to figure out what to paint next. Oh and I am proud of myself that is 9:26 a.m. and I am posting my painting. Yeah, me I finished early:)

Steven has been a water coloring fool. He painted several paintings this week. He did have a painting last week, but in my haste to just get a painting on here I didn't have time to photograph it and put it on here. So this week I will put two "series" that he painted. I must say they are beautiful. I like them so much I may frame a few. These are all watercolor on paper 11" x 14".





See everyone next week!

C 141 Week 3

acrylic on canvas 36" x 48"

This week I have completed a painting of a C141 plane. This is the air frame that Steve my father-in-law flew. I put a blue tail on for McGuire AFB. While I was painting I was fondly remembering our first assignment in Germany. This was my first venture in to the Air Force and Brian took it upon himself to educated me on the different planes. I had a hard time differentiating them in the air so he broke it down into terms he thought I would understand. The C5 was the couch, the C17 was the love seat, a C 141 was a snake, the C 130 had propellers, and the C 9's had red crosses painted on them so those two were easily identifiable. It was a pretty silly way to look at it but I remember to this day.

This week felt like a trip down memory lane. I couldn't help thinking back on to our time in Germany when we saw these airplanes on a daily basis. I also just finished reading "My Life In France" by Julia Child and her nephew and am in the middle of "Bringing Home the Birkin" by Michael Tonello. Both of these books are set in various countries that I've visited and make me long for the days we lived in Europe. Hopefully we will get back there soon.

So I have officially completed week 3 (How many more to go?) I may take a breather from planes next week and paint something for fun. I enjoyed painting this plane and I hope you enjoy it too.

Why Oh Why

Acrylic on canvas 36" x 48"

So procrastination should be my middle name. I initiate my own blog and set my own deadlines and still I finished my second painting barely on schedule. I decided that each Monday I would post my new painting and here it is 7:24 my time and I'm just now posting it. I guess it could have been worse, technically it is Monday until midnight. See the procrastinator roars it's ugly head. I started this painting last night and I actually had it finished about 5:00p.m. today. It is a C 17, painted in acrylic on a canvas that is 36" x 48". It is a big! It will be going in the boys room. I'm planning on doing two other paintings same size for their room with other air frames. This one is a yellow tail, specified by Brian. I had in mind painting an airplane that my father-in-law flew. The air frame that Jon flies (brother in law) and Brian worked on, and an airplane that Brian's grandfather flew. As you can read this is an Air Force family. So this will look nice in their room. Their room is painted asparagus green and I'm planning on hanging the airplane quilt that Debbie (mother in law) made and my future paintings. I will post pics when I'm done. I'm also going to paint a neat border around the top with words associated with airplanes. it's going to look fab when I'm done. I'm excited!

The C 17 airplane painting was a risky endeavor, considering Brian worked around these planes 24/7 for 3 years in Charleston and Jon flies this air frame. It has to be pretty accurate. This painting got Brian's approval, so I'm hoping I've done the C 17's justice. I did enjoy painting it. The sheer size is pretty impressive. I'm looking forward to the C 141 I will be conquering this week.

This is not my first go round with a pretty technical painting. I told myself after I painted an old Ford truck with the hood up that I wouldn't do it again. But I did do another truck after that , I will have 3 airplanes under my belt, and I have my eye on another old truck that a co-worker of Brian's owns. Here's is the painting I did of the old Ford with my Grandpa that I did last year.

Watercolor 16" x 20"

Steven decided to get in on the action. So he will be doing a painting a week also. Until he decides he doesn't want to anymore. So here is his first painting. My little artiste.
acrylic on canvas 8" x 8"

The following picture is Steven helping me draw my airplane. He's such a helper. This is how you do it when you've got curious munchkins. Hopefully it will be a bonding experience.

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