Getting Cattle Up

Farming is in hay season again. The millet that we planted is short but starting to put out seed heads. We have to cut it before that. So we cut some down.... And it Rained, and rained. Four and a half inches later we have a feild of cut hay laying in water.  So painting time has been far and few between this week.

On top of hay, we check cows at least twice a week to daily. Two cows came up with soar hooves so we need to get the heard up and see what is rong with thier hooves. So we gathered up and rounded the heard up. Since we had so many willing helpers (kids) to go I stayed with the trailor and watched.

While I sat on the trailor watching the guys and kids rounding the heard up. THis was the sun setting across the road. I always want to paint these landscapes but have not taken the time to.

They walked in and sorted the cows. We took the hurt ones yo the house to doctor.

Painting a John Deere

This is crazy. My Brother's girlfriend went to the farm store and left her two blue healers on the back of the truck. Nothing new, they are well behaved and stay. When she comes out the girl blue healer is all bristled up and the boy is no where to be seen. She drives all over town and finally gives up looking for him. On her way to a small town near by, She see her dog in a mans passenger seat. She yells at him to come and he loads on her truck. The man speeds off. That is crazy.

I am going to work backwards today. My first tip is never miss a chance to photograph clouds or landscapes that you like. You can use them. These clouds were last night.

  I am going to talk about Waiting by the Gate. I want to show you what I had and how it came together. This is the tractor that I used. So I had to work around his decorations and find a better background.

 When I went through my landscapes this is what caught my eye. I liked the layers of depth and the barn in the back.

When I put it together I moved the picture over so it looked like this was beside the gate. I put some background with it but I used the reference pictures above to paint from. Also I worked with what I knew the light would do. One picture was taken on a bright day about noon and the other was a afternoon about six. SO I had to make the lighting look right on it all.

When it is all said and done here was the finished product. Waiting by the gate is $ 180 , Watercolor Sealed on Aquabord at 18 X 14 inches. Contact me if your interested.

Just a Swallow of a day is on eBay. This is the last day Good Luck

Painting in the Rain

    Last week I could have told you that the all our hay would be dry and gone by today. God granted a lot of farmers their prayers. It started raining Sunday morning and has not stopped.
     My girl was singing rain, rain go away... I told her to start singing rain, rain stay stay stay. Her dad laughed and told her it could rain til he was pushing water with his trucks bumper.

   While it rains outside I paint to the rhythm of the water falling. After taking my time to draw it out. I used aquafix to make my line work stand out. When it was dry I masked off the highlights.

Here you can see me working on makeing the under painting.

A few tips on this. 

1. make is bright. It will tone down with the glaze on it.

2. Don't forget grays. The dark areas should have a touch of gray. To achieve this add the complementary color into the shadows. 

3 Leave paper showing. This is the highlights in the art. The Glaze is all that it needs there. 

  

 I worked on the tractor first and then the background.

The grass should be curved in all directions. I also try to use the trees to curve your eye back to the focal point.

Just a Swallow of a day is on eBay. Good Luck

Painting in the Heat

The old saying about frying an egg right now is becoming true. Would you like one scrambled or over medium? 

Since it is so hot, I have spent the day painting in the house. 

Starting out I just used aquafix and masking fluid to set up my drawing. I mix Madder Brown with ultramarine blue to make my line work pop. 

 Here you can see how I have started working with purple to make my dark areas. I I am a person that has always worked from dark to light. You can also see how I have my nook set up to keep me on pace with colors and value.

 I dropped in a background color of greens, blues and Naples yellow just to set the foreground from the background. I just wet the whole background and drop colors into it. 

 I worked up the under layer of yellows and oranges in this butterfly. I also add payne's gray to the dark areas. The purple still comes through but it add a great colors. I soften the edges to help blend the colors.

 I add some depth by adding leaves. This gives multiple layers. Also I added the cerium blue to the tips of the wings.

 Working to add in the thin layer of yellow to add glaze in the butterfly and I added ultramarine blue to deepen the floral area. I also took a cotton swab that was lightly damp and pulled out some highlights in the wings.

 Here is the image before I cleaned up the edges. I also decide to lighten my name. 

This goes on auction tonight on eBay. Good luck.

Just a reminder that Green and Gleaner are on Auction on eBay. Good Luck and God Bless.

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. Psalms 5:11

Fireworks and Parades

We had a blast at the local parade where my girl got to throw candy out to the crowd of people. The good part is since she threw it out we did not bring very much home from her collecting it. 

This is the most stressful holiday for farmers. In fact it is the only one that I know many farmers stay up all night to watch. With thousands of acres across Southwest Oklahoma in wheat stubble and add into the mix fireworks, it makes a dangerous combination. Between the city folks that have bought a house in the country or the towns people that just head to the country to pop fireworks we have many fires. Most seem to want to launch their fireworks from the middle of the road instead of their yard. Luckily this year the volunteer fire departments could put them out without it being large fires. 

This stays hooked up in the front yard in case we need a fire break on some one else's fields. Ours have one just in case.

We sat on the back of out truck on the Fourth to watch fireworks being shot all around us at the farm. It was pretty. Except for one fire on a farm a few miles from us, we did not see any disasters.  Friday we did shoot firecrackers too. We try to plan a little bit, though. We brought the mother tank full of water and shot them over the pond. So what did fall to earth would hit the pond and not the dead grass. 

I may sound like I am on my soap box but I have seen hundreds of acres burned and hay that was suppose to last all winter gone just from someone not planning or paying attention. 

Just a reminder that Green and Gleaner are on Auction on eBay. Good Luck and God Bless.

Painting Harvest

 Last week it was warm enough to crawl into the ponds. Just watch out for the turtles they bite. Even the old cows knew when to cool off. This week it has been almost cool. The coldest 4th of July yet.

 I wanted to show you this old tractor because I went and helped my brother pack to move yesterday. Just by luck I saw it hiding in a pole barn. Now I have another  tractor for a painting. Moral of the story, Always look for the next painting.

 I started working on an old gleaner and truck this week. The old 70 model Ford and Gleaner Combine make a great image. I also wanted to show you how I work. You can see my NOOK on the table that I use to reference pictures. It allows me to zoom and get details that a photograph would not.

I worked on the under layer of the combine Trying to bring in the bright colors because gray is a dull color you want to really push the undertones of the drawing.

Here I have almost got all the undertones done on the combine. I hope to have this one up on eBay by Thursday July 4. We will see.

Have a great 4th of July and Remember to thank the people that helped keep it this way. Be Safe ya'll.