a painting of my neighbor’s garden

hello ~

I made a “plein air” painting recently–and I put plein air in quotes since I completed most of the painting inside, and besides, the part I did outside was only just outside the front door–with gouache. As thou canst see from the title, I painted my neighbor’s front garden, which is why I didn’t have to go very far to make this “plein air” painting. I used an impressionistic style since I did not quite know what I was doing.

Above is my rough sketch; it doesn’t look very understandable but ’tis good enough to be able to paint it. There are hanging succulents above and rose bushes below, along with many snake plants and a few bricks. At the edges, I drew the posts and the top, the roof.

Alas I failed to take photos of my process, so we shall skip straight from the sketch to the finished painting.

Shortsightedly, I painted the foreground before the background, and everything turned out a little bit messy, but the impressionist style lended itself to the messiness, so it turned out fine. I particularly enjoy the gray background; it makes the colors look brighter. The snake plants have a pretty mix of colors; howbeit, they are not well distinguished from the rose bushes behind. My favorite plants are most likely the hanging succulents; I fancy the shades of purple and teal.

I must also include a photo in which the sun casts delightful shadows upon the painting.

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I hope you liked my painting and the occasional improperly used Shakespearan term. I thank thee for reading and farewell till it be morrow.

chalk art | memorial day

Hello! Happy Memorial Day! Today my family went out to the gym and did a workout together, I painted (😊) and my brother and I did some chalk art. I am very excited for this post, so let’s get started!

The workout that we did is called Murph. (Read about the Murph here.) I did half of it. It took 36 minutes. Then I painted some kettlebells that were sitting around.

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  The kettlebells I’m painting

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  Painting the kettlebells

After I painted I wanted to do some chalk outside, so I made this little sunset scene. Chalk is actually pretty cool! I can blend it easily with my finger. (I later used a cloth because the skin from my finger would probably all peel off 😂.)

Then one of the ladies from the gym asked me to make a chalk American flag. My brother helped me too. (Thanks Timothy!)

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Here is the finished American flag.

And some more photos from the gym below.

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  Dumbbells

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  Punching bag and rope

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  Tires

I will probably paint these sometime for my mom to put in the gym

I hope you enjoy(ed) this post and the rest of the Memorial Day. And thanks for 10 followers! What did you do today for Memorial Day? Thanks for reading!

let’s go biking🚴!

Hello! Today you can come along biking with me. I am going to paint a little scene.

Supplies

Above are all the supplies I used. (Mini sketchbook with mixed media paper, my travel watercolor set and a small waterbrush.)

There is a lovely street with jacaranda trees in it, so that is the place I decided to paint.

My brother kindly rode up and down the lane while I painted.

Jacaranda Trees

This is the finished sketch! I am not a very good plein air painter. I like to have a sturdy sketch before I start painting, so it didn’t turn out as good as it could have, but it was really fun. It took about ten minutes.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Do you like bike riding? Thanks for reading!