My plan on Wednesday was to take pictures of my backyard garden, as some of my readers have asked about it. I was all set with beautiful, artfully composed photos of every detail… so many photos, in fact, that you might have died of boredom. Then something unexpected happened… an odd late-season snowstorm!
What did you think of this sudden throwback to Christmas? I was like a kid on Christmas morning! I knew it would only last a few hours, so I couldn’t resist running around my garden, taking pictures of my beautiful blooms covered with snow.
Here are photos of my front yard garden, taken just one day apart.
I was remembering when there was an April storm like this some years ago as I was setting up the modeling session for my painting, “A Grand View of Pittsburgh.” After enjoying many 70-degree spring days for what seemed like weeks, we were all quite surprised that Sunday when we met up on Grandview Avenue. A huge cold front came through at that very hour with what seemed like the world’s biggest snowflakes. Of course, it was very opportune for the snowy winter scene I had planned, but everyone wasn’t just pretending to be freezing… they actually were!
Since I last wrote you two weeks ago, I’ve been in “The Zone” with my latest painting, now officially entitled “Lincoln Highway’s Historic Ship Hotel.” I added the lettering on the red sign and painted in all of the windows. That was quite challenging – did I ever mention that windows drive me nuts? Still, I had a lot of fun with the reflections and unique shades of orange. At one point, I realized I had miscounted the windows and had to add an extra one. Luckily, I caught it before it was too late! Sometimes being a perfectionist comes in handy.
Painting the cars was very interesting. The owner of the Avanti was a big help in identifying the other cars that I had found in my resources to fill up the parking lot. The VW Bug was a must, as it was my client’s first car! I had to change the color of one of the cars because it was white – otherwise, it would have just faded away into the background of the Ship Hotel’s white exterior walls. Bill (my client) and his family are in the painting, and of course, Tom and the girls make an appearance, standing over by the wall and enjoying the view!
All that’s left is to finish is the foreground, then I’ll go back add some more detail. Once I make sure everything looks good, it goes off to the printer. By this time next week, I hope to have prints of the painting ready for you to see… wish me luck!