Porch View - Acrylic Painting and Sketches

I painted in acrylics last week.  I painted a painting to replace a painting some good friends bought several years ago.  They lost everything in the fire, too, so I replaced it with a similar scene.  They were very pleased to receive my gift.  I have two more paintings I am working on.  There were only 3 that I know of lost in the fires.  If you know of anyone that lost a piece of my artwork I will be happy to replace it free of charge.  I always say my work is guaranteed!

Porch View, 18 x 18 inches, acrylic on wrapped canvas.  This new scene is from our present porch.

The fired painting was View from My Kitchen Window, 16 x 20 inches.  Sorry I don’t have a better photo.  This is just from a snapshot.  The view was from my kitchen in the old fired house.  In reality the two paintings were pretty close in colors and value.

I sketched a little on Canada Day and on Tuesday for Scavenger Hunt 274.  The first two were done in the brown sketchbook with a Prismacolor Premier 08 fine line marker.  Numbers 3 and 4 were done on my iPad with Brushes.  I do all my sketches quickly, free hand.  I try not to use the “Undo” on the iPad so I can keep in “sketch” and not “draw” mode.  I do use it occasionally if I pick the wrong brush or swipe my finger across the whole sketch.  Yes, it has a touch screen.

Number 1, bird - the cardinals were out and I tried sketching one.  It is probably more from memory of painting from the photo a while back.  They move to fast to really get a nice shape down.

Number 2, picket fence - none around here in walking distance so I sketched our iron rail/fence that was around the hot tub.  Now it is around a deck.

 

Number 3, limb - on of the pine limbs over Gene’s storage shed.

 Number 4, shrubbery - none around here either, so used some vines growing on the fence.

I’m writing this on July 4, but publishing on July 5.  It is Joanna’s birthday, July 4,  and we are meeting her for a late lunch/early dinner in Austin.  She is going to listen to music tonight in Gruene (pronounced Green - yes, we are in Texas), but we aren’t going.  Too hot to be out and standing.  We are eating at the Texican.http://www.texicancafe.com/  They have some El Paso style enchiladas which are somewhat like New Mexico enchiladas.  Tex-Mex does not come close to the New Mexico food we love.  The Texican is now in 3 locations.  We ate at the original in Manchaca (which Austinites say as Man-shack, really!) way back in 1989 or so.  Good food always.

We will have her birthday celebration on Saturday here at home.  The Austin Symphonic Band comes out to Bastrop for the Patriotic Day Festival which cannot be on the 4th because the band plays in Austin.  We will eat and take in the fireworks.  They are excellent and much easier to get to than trying to go in Austin with thousands of people.  Here just hundreds, maybe.  Just go to the park, take a chair and relax.  Enjoy the music and watch the fireworks.  Perfect!  Could be warm, but this is central Texas in the summer!