EDM 177 - A Flag

My little garden banner barely avoided being buried in snow this morning as we shoveled yesterday's storm off the drive and sidewalk. I have to be honest. My banner doesn't have a snowflake on it; it's a July 4th themed flag that I just forgot to switch out. I only have to forget for a few more months, and it will be timely again. I posted the picture I took of the actual flag today below.

EDM 177 - A Flag; 3x3" watercolor

Happy July 4th!

EDM 176 - Something Summer

I barely want to think about summer right now. It seems so far away and like it might never be warm again. But, it will be summer again, and one thing is certain at my house in summer: we will have another bumper weed crop....also known as our lawn. I actually think dandelions are kind of pretty and fairly fascinating. Their method of seed distribution (a plant's version of self-preservation) is so prolific, it seems futile for us to fight it. So, we join them at our house. I often say that if it weren't for the weeds, we would have nothing green in our yard.

EDM 176 - Something Summer; 3x3" watercolor

EDM 175 - A Basket and Its Contents

I can still remember where I was when I fell in love with baskets. I was in high school, and we were on a family vacation in New England. The baskets for sale at Faneuil Hall Marketplace were irresistible. I spent all my vacation spending money buying as many as I could afford. They weren't high quality or expensive, but I loved them. I still have some of the smaller ones 30+ years later. Now I own a few Longaberger baskets, and the higher quality is remarkable. They are made to last for generations. When sketching and painting a basket, you are forced to study its construction. I love figuring out how things are put together, so this was a fun painting.

I knew I wanted to ink stamp the berries in this piece, but couldn't find anything small enough to make them the proper scale. The rounded end of a large filbert brush turned out to be the perfect solution. In a larger painting, I would have used the rubber eraser of a new pencil.

EDM 175 - A Basket; 3x3" watercolor

EDM 174 - A Bridge

I've been on some of the world's longest and tallest bridges, and I've decided that I prefer bridges that are short, low, and covered. Lucky for me, I live in Lancaster County, PA! I drew this one from memory, but I based it on the bridges I see frequently.

EDM 174 - A Bridge; 3x3" watercolor

Sunday Painting

Sunday is the day I paint for fun. I drew this picture during last Sunday's sermon in church, but it sat unpainted all week. I ended up with a sort of Oz thing going on here: drab-gray foreground; a more colorful and inviting "happier land" in the distance; and a winding yellow road connecting the two. It's pretty close to what I envisioned.

Exodus 33:15; Moleskine watercolor journal

EDM 173 - Something from Memory

It's been almost 30 years since I've seen the backyard of the home where I was a child, so this is REALLY drawn from memory--an old, probably slightly faulty, memory. I grew up in a modest home in northern Ohio. I have many memories of the small yard.

Clockwise from the upper right: the large, carpenter-ant-infested oak tree that was struck by lightning and fell toward the house and pounded the small crab apple tree into the ground several feet but did no damage to the house; the snowball bush (I'm sure that's not the technical name, but I'm botanically challenged); the rail fence that my brother Mark tried to jump over when he was about 12, resulting in a compound fracture of his forearm and a harrowing drive to the emergency room (my mom at the wheel); my favorite bush, a purple lilac, which yielded many gifts of flowers for our school teachers; the ill-fated crab apple tree, from which we tried to make juice one summer (we might or might not have used a 5-lb. bag of sugar and might still have thrown the whole batch away); the brick chimney, around which many Easter eggs were hidden; a generic tree (What do I know? It had no fruit to juice, so....); the rock patio, meticulously laid by my dad one summer; the amazing split-trunk oak tree, around which many family pictures were taken; and lastly, the row of bushes under which I created many little "villages" from sticks and leaves and my brother's Matchbox cars (Shhh! He still doesn't know!)

This was a really fun project. I must do more memory paintings like this.

EDM 173 - From Memory; 3x3" watercolor

EDM 172 - Something that Sparkles

My son's favorite drinks are Pellegrino and cranberry juice. I would mix them, but he thinks that ruins both drinks.

EDM 172 - Sparkles; 3x3" watercolor