Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Miniature Oil Painting

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We’ve been walking around in a kind of daze. 91 degree days which feel like 97 degrees are the culprit. The oppressive heat makes us both lethargic. Today, a few degrees cooler, still humid, with thunderstorms. It’s too early for this sort of weather and I’m over it.

The catalpa is in bloom. I’ll try to get some closeups later. It just started blooming the other day and there are already petals on the ground. The scent is so heavenly. Don said it kept wafting toward him as he sat on the patio yesterday.

We’re watching The Bridge, a series that was recommended by a reader – I think it was Fiona. It’s Swedish and it’s excellent. Thanks so much for the recommendation! (On Amazon Prime.)

Don has an eye appointment this morning with the retina specialist. So I’m writing this earlier than usual since I’ll be driving him there.

I did paint a bit yesterday. I painted the background for another Roseville painting. It will take a couple of days to get dry enough for me to start on the vase. In the meantime, I’m playing around with mini paintings for the dollhouse studio. That easel I ordered is in route to my mailbox, so I want to have a few canvases to display – one of them will mostly likely be ‘in progress’ so it can sit on the easel.

Anyway, here’s the first experiment.

It’s so tiny!

It’s drying at the moment. I’d love to have some of these paintings stacked in a corner of the miniature studio, some propped against the wall, and one on the easel. Maybe I’ll get around to framing one, if I end up painting one that I really, really like.

These are fun little projects that don’t take up too much time. I like painting both life-size and 1:12 size canvases. The artist who lives in the English cottage loves to paint, so much so that she transformed that little room into a studio. So she has to have some finished work!

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Morning Symphony

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It took me a while before I realized that these bushes, which bloom at exactly the same time as the wild roses, are not wild roses. It’s easy to look at the mass of white blossoms all over the property and assume they’re all the same thing.

These lovelies are dogwood – silky dogwood – and they grow along the edge of the property right above the Secret Garden. And in the Secret Garden. And also at the back entrance of the property as you walk into the woods from my neighbor’s meadow. They’re what I call ‘frothy.’

I haven’t written about them before and it’s high time I did.

We sat in the Secret Garden this morning, marveling at the natural beauty there. It just is. The only plants that have been brought in are the pots that I plant every year. Everything else is nature’s design. We listened to what I call our morning symphony. Birds singing, the bullfrog croaking, the occasional hum of a bee. Goodness, it’s beautiful there.

But it’s still very hot here. This will be our third day with temperatures in the nineties. There’s a heat advisory today. So we appreciate that time in the garden because all too soon we’ll have to shut everything up and run the a/c. Tomorrow will be a bit better, though it will also bring rain and thunderstorms as this front breaks up

Because of the heat, there’s been constant activity in the birdbath. I’m going to top it off after I finish this post.

Oh, and we had warning chirps again yesterday from the robins. I tried to see if there were any fledglings on the ground, but nothing stood out. Later, Don went outside and heard the same chirping and saw a brown bird fly from the ground in front of the shed onto the low branch of a tree. So mom and dad are still watching out for the babies.

I’m going to paint this morning. I’m not sure what, but I’ll play it by ear. Don’s going to do some recording. He’s writing a new song.

Oh, the catalpas are in bloom. Heaven.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

The Dude and a Special Painting

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I was shooting the wild roses that frame the entrance to one of the paths and this happened.

Magic.

We had our second cup of coffee out in the Secret Garden. With all of the wild roses and wild phlox blooming, the birds singing, and the relative quiet on a Sunday morning, we felt very blessed indeed.

Oh, and The Dude:

He hangs out at the end of this little group of stepping stones, directly under the crabapple.

An homage to The Big Lebowski, a movie that Don loves. I love this little guy (he’s very heavy!) and he is the perfect addition to this little area of the Secret Garden. Don found him at our neighbor’s yard sale, which he only happened upon because he was coming back from a morning walk. Fate. And only ten bucks.

I like the idea that he used to live just a few doors down.

Okay. This next painting has stunned me. I can’t believe I painted this, that I got it right. I had an idea to paint one of my Roseville vases. I painted the background a few days ago and let it dry. Then I decided to jump in yesterday and see if I came up with anything remotely like the actual vase. It took a couple of hours, but here it is:

I can’t believe I did it!

I was very relaxed, in a kind of zone, if you will, and this was the end result. I sat with it for a while and then I called upstairs to Don and asked him if he could come downstairs and look at something.

He was stunned. He kept saying “How did you do  that? How did you DO that?”

The answer: “I don’t know.”

I am so proud of this. I mean, I’ve only been dabbing in this for a few weeks and I don’t paint every day. Painting an actual object seemed quite daunting, something I did not have in my skill set. I sketched the flowers on a piece of paper a few days ago, but the actual painting was done freehand, without any guiding lines.

This vase is in the Magnolia pattern, and it’s one of the first vases I purchased. It’s always been a favorite of mine. Now I’m thinking, maybe a series of Roseville paintings?

My friends: I never thought I could draw a straight line, let alone paint something. I knew I was blessed with other talents, but not this kind of thing – not at all. Nevertheless, I kept having this thought about painting over the past two years. An urging. I noted it, but moved on. One day I stopped and considered this strange idea. I believe that kind of consistent urge is guidance from a Higher Power. It just took me a while to acknowledge it, then confide it to Don, and you, and finally, to take action.

I’m not saying I’m the next big artist. Far from it. But, my goodness, I never thought I could paint a vase that actually looked like a vase, one with flowers and texture. Not possible.

I was on a high the rest of the day yesterday and it continues today. I’m so grateful for the prompting that led me to embark on a new adventure.

Is it okay to say “I’m proud of me?”

Because I am.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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