"Polka Dot Glasses"

"Polka Dot Glasses"  --  oil on canvas 24x24"  -- Margie Guyot

Last weekend the sun finally came out!  It may seem trivial to you, but up here along the coastline in northern Michigan, it's a real event in winter.  I'd been trying to think of something inspiring and exciting to paint when I saw the sunshine hitting this scarf and glasses.    Wowee!  I started whooping and jumping around, all jazzed at the sight of the cast-shadows and brilliant colors.  I'm not totally sure how this photo turned out, though.  I'm using a new Photoshop program, on a new computer, and it's been a hair-tearing experience lately.

But enough whining!  I quickly set up this arrangement on my table in front of the south-facing windows and drew it in like a fiend.  Sunshine in winter is very fleeting.  I didn't know if it would shine again until May.  So I captured as much of it I could. 

The next day it was cloudy (of course), but I continued working on the drawing.  One thing I picked up fairly recently was the trick of using straight lines to establish obelisks.  Circles and obelisks are just the devil for most of us to draw!  Starting out with just 4 basic lines to establish the size limit of an obelisk really seems to help.  Little by little, add small straight lines to finish it off.  That trick has really helped me.

The third day the sun popped out again and I wailed away with the paints, nailing the shadows.  I put color notes on some of the larger, "easier", areas, such as the plain borders, saving them for when the dark and gloom returned. 

Luckily, the sun came out again the next day, allowing me to see enough to be able to finish this painting with some more shadow pattern details.

And if you're a painter, if you want a challenge, just try painting a doggone daffodil!  Yikes.

"June Field" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas -- 8x16" -- Margie Guyot

A painter friend and I were driving around the Leelanau Peninsula the other day, looking for good spots to paint. I spied this view of the furrows and row of willows. That's a new crop of corn peeking up. The farmer apparently didn't plow last year's crop of cornstalks under. They'd been harvested, but all the stubs were still in place.

It was supposed to be partly cloudy, but it turned out to be mostly cloudy, turning to completely cloudy. At one point, just for a couple seconds, the clouds parted and sunshine appeared on the upper left portion of the field. I tried to capture that view.

"Leelanau Barn" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas -- 8x10" -- Margie Guyot

The sky was completely overcast. My friend and I were hoping to find something with a bit of color. He loves painting barns, so we stopped at did this view of an old barn. It was on one of the largest cherry orchards on the Leelanau Peninsula.

In the foreground there were a few daisies and a type of weed that has a rusty-pinkish bloom on it. Some call it "British Soldiers"; others call it wild sorrel.

"Peony Garden" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas -- 8x16" -- Margie Guyot

Lots of rain here lately! But it's a good thing. Everybody with a garden is happy. Although I'm sure the campers are miserable. I knew my neighbor's peonies were in full bloom. They don't last forever, so I took a chance on painting yesterday. The sky was leaden. Every once in a while I'd feel a drop of rain, so I painted as fast as I could.