Jean Levert HoodTexas Hill Country Painter

Bunnies

2010-10-11T14:37:00.001-05:00

We have a lot of cottontails, which I always refer to as "bunnies." These 2 were waiting for me to come to my studio yesterday. They're normally OK with my presence close by and I just happend to have my camera. Imagine that!

This one below didn't want to use any energy to run, it just flopped down and got comfortable! They're way up there on the "cuteness" scale.

The family seems to be settling in. Kittie is OK with it all, but I do get a little nervous when the tail playing starts.

I have a landscape painting to show you in my next post - stay tuned!

Hill Country Fall Beauty -- New Helper

2010-10-04T09:04:00.003-05:00

I was in the middle of the beautiful Texas Hill Country last week. Fredericksburg is beautiful any time of year, but after our mild and wet summer, it's gorgeous now! I have a few photos I want to share with you this morning. More to come soon!

The field behind our lodge was full of these yellow beauties:

This elk was magnificent! When he bellowed after his harem, I couldn't believe how loud it was:

The view is beautiful no matter which direction you look.

They insisted on coming along: More to come!

Clay Pot Oil painting, Vermillion Fly Catcher and Helpers

2010-09-26T10:40:00.000-05:00

Clay Pot With Red Flowers will be in my October Exhibit at Lee-Bunch Gallery in Del Rio, Texas.

Jean Levert Hood, Clay Pot With Red Flowers, 16x20, Oil on Linen

I think the most brilliantly colored bird we have is the Vermillion Flycatcher. I have 3 shots for you, they're all taken at a distance and not as clear as I'd like. This small bird sits in the same spot on the far patio fence each morning just about coffee time. We see this beauty in the summer and breeding time.

It hasn't yet come to the bird bath where I can get a better photo, but sits facing the field. We have a watering hole for the animals just outside of the fence, maybe he's watching for insects there. They do like open water, so this would be a better option than the morning crowd at the birdbath.

He's a beacon of neon red/orange! This one below is a tad fuzzy, but the best my lens can do.

Now, I have an important Studio Update:

Those of you who have been reading my blog for some time know that I started with just 2 helpers. Two. They worked out fine. No problems. Then, a friend came to visit - again fine - and then she decided to stay. Ok, I have a lot of studio work to be done, so that has worked out too. Soon they wanted a kitty. Fine, got them a kitty. I was a little concerned with kitty, but she doesn't jump on furniture or my palette, so all is fine again.

Well, remember how I said there was an awful lot of "High Five-ing" going on???? Now I know why. I really don't know what to say at this point and will have to get back to you later. They wanted 2 portraits:

Prickly Pear Oil Painting, Fawns, Antelope, Birds and a Bunny

2010-09-21T03:46:00.006-05:00

"Prickly Pear in Shadow" is a new oil painting.

This piece will be in my exhibit at Lee-Bunch Gallery in Del Rio, Texas for October.

I love how the antelope are lined up here. They generally take center stage under the feeders. The deer don't seem to mind and move away. You can see the twin fawns below:

and this one shows three fawns! (I had to size it down so blogger wouldn't crop off the one on the right.)

I see these 3 fawns every day. They come to the feeder in front of the house several times a day with their moms. We have 7 fawns in this area, but I've only seen them all on 2 occasions. Two others are showing up several times a week, but 2 stay away for the most part. I've also caught another set of twins on the game camera in another pasture.

We've had good weather and rains this year, not too hot and lots of rain. The animals have a lot to eat and all look so healthy. The next shot shows the male antelope's horns, they're growing so much this summer.

I'm continually amazed at the brilliant colors of our birds. These two are waiting their turn at the fountain.

Birds and bunnies are happy to drink together.

I've been seeing "High Five" around here like crazy, I'm not sure what's going on. Stay tuned.........

Sagebrush in bloom, Ice cream!

2010-09-17T11:12:00.001-05:00

The sagebrush has been a little strange lately, 1/2 blooming, stopping, not really in a full run towards flowering.. But this one, just outside of my studio is giving me a great show every day.

It's full of blooms yet to open, so it should be much fuller soon. This particular bush is light violet. When the hillside we over look from the patio is covered with sage in bloom, it's awesome. It's such a treat to see whole pastures brilliantly colored like this!

The flowers range from a very light violet to a vivid deep violet. Here and there you'll see a white bush, but really, it's not a pretty show like the violets.

You'll hear it called both "Cenizo" and "Ceniza." More common names in this area are Sage, Sagebrush and Purple Sage. The light silvery gray leaves always stand out when backed by the greens of the pastures.

Deer browse the sage if their normal food supply is sparse. Butterflies are loving the blooms, you can find 3 or 4 different types right now, all happily enjoying!

They wanted ice cream. Kittie likes vanilla.

Chicken Oil Painting and Mystery Bird!

2010-09-15T04:01:00.000-05:00

Ok, I admit it, I have trouble naming paintings. For right now, this one is named "Chicken." Yes, I know how lame that is - I'm hoping for something creative to pop into my brain!

This is another paintings I'll be exhibiting at Lee-Bunch Gallery in Del Rio, Texas next month.

Once again, I have to say that I have no idea what the bird is:

It's most like the Tanagers in my book (and I checked all three of my books!) and about that size, but the coloring isn't right for either the Hepatic Tanager or the Summer Tanager. Any help would be appreciated! I've not spotted this one again.

He seems to be saying, "What? You're taking more photos?!"

Here's one of my gorgeous zinnias:

Below is the male Pyrrhuloxia. It's a relative of the Cardinal and stays here year round.

They enjoy the birds so much, too!

Rooster Oil Painting

2010-09-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why my painting didn't show up in this morning's blog, but I'm going to try again. After all, I know you wouldn't want to miss one of my paintings!!

This is one of the paintings I'll be exhibiting at Lee-Bunch Gallery in Del Rio, Texas next month. I'm grateful to be their featured artist for October. I'll have a number of paintings on display for you to see.

Rooster Oil Painting, Egret and Roadrunner

2010-09-09T01:10:00.002-05:00

"Rooster" is a new oil painting. I had way too much fun with color and texture on this painting!

I love egrets and herons. We have Great Blue Herons and Great White Herons. It's wonderful to see them flying to and from Lake Jean. Very occasionally they'll stay and rest in the trees. This smaller heron, a Cattle Egret visited the patio!

How about the size of those claws! (hmmmm, just realized how crooked my photo is!)

What a photo op! It stayed around for the longest time and I took tons of photos. I went about my day and was later amazed to see it was still here - in the shade on the patio. Watching it hang out with a Roadrunner was just plain fun! I'll only show you a few photos here, don't worry! And no, we don't have cattle.

This bird pranced around in so many poses ~ I like this one above, kind of sneaking.

This is my favorite, enjoying the shade with the Roadrunner. Ohhh, I do wish that the hose wouldn't have cluttered up this shot, but, I can say that I'm a painter, not a photographer! They were quite content to share the shade of the wild persimmon tree.

My bird book says this is the "Greater Roadrunner." It's a member of the cuckoo family and lives up to it's name darting here and there.

I know it's hot and bright, they had to bring out their glitter shades again.

Turkey Vultures

2010-09-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

Turkey Vultures occasionally sit on the patio fence, but this one came inside of the patio.

His huge size is apparent perched on the bird house tree!

I tried to get a close up so you can see the color on his head. These were shot from inside of the house, looking into a bright morning light - not the best, but the best I could get. Hope you enjoy!

I'm posting these photos from my Posterous blog, which will automatically post to my regular blog at Blogger. Post from Posterous will look a little different from my regular post (and won't have a photo of my helpers, ....sigh...) but this will let me send short post quickly. This is test post, so please bear with me as I make sure all of this will come out right!
Jean

Bambi!

2010-08-16T19:45:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it ~ The game camera at Lake Jean captured a shot of a fawn! I expected it to be a few more weeks before Mama took Baby to the lake. It's a little grainy, but I had to show you anyway - enjoy!

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

Kittie seems interested.

Spring Wildflowers and Cactus - oil painting, Patio Flowers, Hummingbirds

2010-08-09T14:06:00.000-05:00

Spring Wildflowers and Cactus, detail

There's a section on the patio that I like to let go natural each year. I generally regret this decision deeply later in the summer, but I can't help my self early in the spring! I love to see what will come up and I love the look of un-manicured growth. This area is filled with very dense basalt rock, rich with browns, grays, blacks, reds and greens. It really makes a pretty show until it gets totally out of control.

"Totally Out of Control" will be coming very soon.

Here's a very happy Hummingbird:

My helpers have been busy and they asked if they worked hard, could

I find a place for them to take dance lessons.

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings!

You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

Rain, Animals, Kitties and Mushrooms!

2010-07-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

This photo below captures my favorite light of the very late day. I wait for this light splash every evening and was thrilled when I was able to get deer, antelope and ducks in the shot! The antelope seem to glow when this light hits. The ducks barely made it into the photo. The gray patches on the hill are cenizo, which hopefully will be blooming soon. We've had so much rain (over 6 inches in the last week!) that I'm waiting for a good bloom. Cenizo flowers turn the hill into purple patches.

Every time we have nice consecutive rains, I get these wonderful mushrooms growing just outside of my studio. The come up looking like a egg, then turn into a very dark flat shape. A bunch of them are coming up!

...aside, and why the one above has the double fancy border, well, I have no idea!

Stella needs a pillow, and, this is often Clothilde. Clothilde tolerates it well, although at times she does just go away and hide for some peace. They are often intertwined like this:

Which progresses to:

I appreciate the feedback on my hummingbird, and the consensus seems to be the Black Chinned. Thank you to all who helped!

Enjoy a very safe and Happy 4th, all of my US readers!

I'm hoping they'll be ready to get back to work soon. Some of their holidays get very extended.

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

The beach chairs came out on Thursday, so I knew they were expecting a very long weekend. They do love holidays!

Enjoy a very safe and Happy 4th, all of my US readers!

Around the Patio

2010-06-27T12:29:00.000-05:00

I have the most awesome patio! I love to sit out in the evenings, catching the wonderful light play as the sun goes down. Mornings bring the birds to the fountain and deer, antelope, bunnies, ducks and birds to the feeder.

Now, I'm seriously considering starting a petition. I have 2 bird books ( Ok, I have 3, but one is very old) and you'd think this would be an easy job to tell you the names of our birds! I simply want them to start wearing name tags. They don't need to be large name tags, I'd be OK with having to use my binoculars to read them. Just that there are name tags. That will be my petition: A Demand for Birds to Wear Name Tags. Today's birds are easy, but I have several I'm wondering about.

It's not easy to get a good shot of the antelope, but this one is one of my best. This is taken from inside of the house, through the patio door and unfortunately you have to see through the fence! You can see his horns, they've grown a lot in the short time we've had these beautiful animals. The 1st spiral of his horns is starting to be apparent. Aren't the size of their eyes are amazing? I've not tried walking outside with the camera yet, I want them to be more used to coming this close in to the patio.

This is one of my best hummingbird pictures that shows details of the coloring of our hummers. I don't know what kind this is-- did I mention my ~~two~~ 3 bird books? I see no bright or distinguishing colors on them, mostly brown, but this shot shows that clear light colored band under the neck. If any one knows the name of this, please let me know! Can you see how helpful name tags would be?

Our house finches are brilliantly colored. They stay here all year. These photos were taken a few days ago and the finches joined with Painted Buntings to drink.

A second Painted Bunting joined in:

This side shot shows his many colors and I love how the sun was hitting that bright yellow spot.

The fountain is near the side of the patio and birds line up on the fence before they fly in. They fly back and forth from the fence to the fountain. We can get quite a group hanging out.

Now to another subject - all things Space! Bob has an awesome blog - Black Holes and Astro Stuff. His post yesterday will give you many wonderful links to explore. He has cool info about Astro Stuff, great photos. I love it, thank you Bob!
It looks like they're ready to get back to normal again.

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings!

You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

Blowing the dust off!

2010-06-15T11:12:00.000-05:00

I'm blowing the dust off of my blog! I had family visiting and totally left my blog to gather dust. Ok, well, I left it for an extra week! I've enjoyed family, San Antonio, the awesome Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, the Witte Museum, the San Antonio River Walk, La Villita, a little shopping and some great coffee shops!

I'll be back soon, I promise. I've had maintenance work done in my studio and I'm cleaning up from that. The new great lighting will be awesome when I get back to my easel in a day or 2 - Stay tuned!
Jean

Yet Another Prickly Pear Oil Painting, Spring Continues!

2010-05-23T03:29:00.001-05:00

This oil painting has been donated to the San Antonio Art League for their 2010 Fund Raiser. I'll give you more details on this at a later time. I've painted many prickly pear cactus, they are such a fixture in the Texas Hill Country! The spring blooms have been gorgeous. Soon we'll be seeing their fruits as the blooms die down, a red "tuna."

A walk around my studio brings these next photos for you. Rains and nice temperatures are continuing, so I'm hoping the flowers will stick around for a while longer.

I have a hard time telling if these below are Gaillarida or Sneezeweed. They're really thick this year. I just finished a wild flower painting with some of these and verbena, and, of course, cactus!

The Mountain Laurel seed pods are not looking happy. There are caterpillars and these huge ants both working on them.

We have a multitude of daisy type flowers:

Butterflies are plentiful and we have many varieties. The abundance of wildflowers is making many bees, butterflies and nectar seekers very happy.

These gorgeous wild poppies will finish blooming soon, the bloom period for these is through May. These are about 2-3 feet tall:

More happy and hungry bugs:

I love how the grasses add to this view:

Prickly pear cactus are a favorite of mine (I bet you didn't know that!) The way the light and shadows hit them is what makes me want to paint them. I have photographed this particular plant often. After it's new spring leaves, there is this one huge leaf! It looks like two leaves failed to split!

Eagles Wings Art Center update:

This piece sold at the Grand Opening of the Eagles Wings Art Center in Eagle Pass, Texas. Bob Butler's new Gallery is fabulous and the opening was just perfect. There was a wonderful crowd, good food, lots of great conversation, laughter and fun. I had the great pleasure of meeting some wonderful artists - Phil Bob Borman, Rick McCumber, Betty Sue Rose and Mary Ross Buchholz. It was great to visit with Del Rio artist Pam Bunch again.

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings. You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too.

They seem to be leaving the studio a little too early in the afternoons.

Eagles Wings Art Center

2010-05-12T10:16:00.001-05:00

This piece is now in the Eagles Wings Art Center in Eagle Pass, Texas. Bob Butler's new Gallery has it's Grand Opening May 15th. Artists represented are Pino, Phil Bob Borman, Dan Burt, James R. Butler, Steven DaLuz, Bob Hunt, Rick McCumber, Clay McGaughy, Betty Sue Rose, Michelle Williams, Pam Bunch, and I am very honored to be included in this list.

These are wonderful mixed media artist, oil painters, sculptors, watercolor artists and jewelers and more. The Grand Opening will be May 15th from 7 pm to 10pm. I'll be there along with many of these fine artists. Join us at:

Eagles Wings Art Center, 357 South Adams, Eagle Pass, Texas, 78852. For more info, you can contact me or Bob Butler.

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings. You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too.

They love playing in the wildflowers after our studio work is done!

Three Jalapenos - Oil Painting, More of our Spring

2010-05-02T15:49:00.010-05:00

"Three Jalapenos" is an original oil painting, 8 inches by 10 inches, painted after a grocery store trip. I just had to use them in the studio! It's available on my web site for $200.00.

Our Prickly Pear bushes are just starting to bloom! Buds are plentiful this year, I'm looking forward to some good photos later next week. Most of the blooms here are bright lemon yellow, although we have peach, orange, rose and soft yellows.

The agarito flowers have left the bushes loaded with berries!

This beautiful Spring has me planting again and I'm later than I have ever been! I do love to dig in the dirt. My herb garden was pretty much destroyed after last summer's record breaking drought and heat followed by the coldest winter I've seen in my 30 year here.

I'm babying a tiny lavender plant that survived and but the oregano is getting huge already. I planted catnip in a pot for the 1st time last Spring, it's doing great. My Plumbago is coming back and I have 2 salvia struggling to return. So, I need lots. Rosemary, more lavender, thyme, mint, sigh. Basil, sage, tomatoes, peppers and zinnias are planted and I'm hoping for a wonderful crop. My antique rose is showing off it's 1st bloom now and the coming buds are plentiful.

It's been a while since you've seen our deer and antelope, oh, and yes, a duck. They're all happy with lots to eat out there right now. Green is everywhere!

Remember the plant I'd never seen before?

I still don't know what it is and no flower has ever emerged! Those little spikes just turn brown and that's it. Maybe that little spike is the flower! It's still doing well. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it makes it through the summer heat.

This spring is continuing to be nothing short of amazing. To actually have a spring here is amazing! Often it is two weeks long and we slide headlong into summer heat. My patio swing has been such a treat in the evenings. The birds are singing, wildlife is abundant, and my kitties are waiting for pets and brushing. Life is good.

This piece is now in the Eagles Wings Art Center in Eagle Pass, Texas. The Ribbon Cutting for Bob Butler's new Gallery is this Tuesday, and the Grand Opening will be May 15th. I'll tell you more about it later.

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

They wanted to enjoy the wildflowers. Truly, I think it's that they grab any excuse to haul out the beach chairs and glitter sunglasses.

Last Installment - Texas Hill Country Spring and Wildflowers

2010-04-23T07:04:00.002-05:00

This is the 3rd blog from my wildflower trek through the beautiful Texas Hill Country, hope you enjoy!

The Indian Paint brush was gorgeous!

I liked this shot, in front of and behind the barbed wire.

I took this photo on the Willow City Loop. The light and shadows were so defined on this gentle slope, it made a nice show. The loop had motorcyclist, hikers, bicyclist, photographers, and cars enjoying the beauty of the day.

This photo is from Fredericksburg Herb Farm. I love this place! I've bought many plants here through the years. The grounds are beautiful and this bird landed and posed for me while we were waiting for a table for lunch. Fabulous lunch!

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!
Till next time!
Jean

Clay and Flowers Oil Painting, and More of the Texas Hill Country Spring

2010-04-20T09:30:00.004-05:00

I love painting clay and flowers. I've painted several like this recently. I'll have one for a new gallery I'll be represented in next month and one for my Featured Artist Exhibit in October. This exhibition will be at Lee Bunch Gallery in Del Rio, Texas. I'm excited and grateful for both of these opportunities. --Now onto more Texas Hill Country wildflowers!

The Trumpet Vines were amazing all over the area, these were photographed at Wildseed Farms.

We stayed at wonderful cottages just outside of town. There's a herd of Elk on the property. They were so pretty just laying comfortably in the wildflowers! Bluebonnets are in the back field.

I'll have more wildflowers for you later in the week, this will take 3 posts to cover my photos! Then, I can't wait to show you more of what I'm seeing here. This fabulous Spring is such a gift, and I'm trying to not wear out my camera!

I want to thank Casey Shannon for interviewing me in her April Newsletter. Casey paints beautiful Sumi-e. Thank you Casey, I sure appreciate the feature!

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

They're enjoying all of the spring birds!

Fredericksburg trip- Bluebonnets and Wildflowers

2010-04-18T21:16:00.004-05:00

Last week I went to the heart of the beautiful Texas Hill Country! I love the Fredericksburg area, although some may disagree that it is the heart of the Hill Country!

The beauty was amazing. I've never seen the wildflowers prettier or thicker. The bluebonnets were nothing short of spectacular, the Mexican Poppies carpeted fields and more fields. I took almost 400 photos, but don't worry, I'll only post a handful here. Well, maybe more, but I'll break it into 2 posts for those with slower Internet connections.

Here is a nice view of the Mexican poppies with bluebonnets, and hills in the background.

I love these!

Becker Vineyard's lavender fields were beautiful, as usual! I've painted on site at Becker's many times. They're so accommodating to artists. It's a wonderful place to spend the day painting in any season. The fields and vineyards are lovely all year.

The poppy fields at Wildseed Farms were fuller than I've ever seen them. It was a sea of red!

I'll have more for you tomorrow, along with a painting!

Cactus Oil Painting, Spring Flowers, Ducks and Cats!

2010-04-12T06:39:00.000-05:00

Another cactus painting!

This is my largest, actually quite large for me. I enjoy painting small and only occasionally go for a piece this size. I'm getting work ready for a new gallery, as well as a featured artist at a gallery later this year. I want a few cactus pieces for both, in 2 sizes. So, you'll see a few more to come. I've painted landscapes and more flowers in clay pots, too. I'll certainly have to take a break from all of this to paint some of our gorgeous wildflowers!

So - onto our Spring! This next flower is gorgeous and I've only seen it here one other spring. It's blue - and thus it's name, Blue Curls. We don't have many blue flowers and these are just outstanding. You can see the clusters of blooms in this close up below.

When it's a little further along, you see the coming blossoms along a coiled cluster. This cluster straightens as the flowers mature. My book tells me that these are easily cultivated from seed.

We are very well protected. Nightly, Stella takes up Patio Patrol. This will continue for some time, until she is sure all is well.

Clothilde, on the other hand, would rather play. My tomatoes aren't planted yet, but she enjoys playing with the strings that are waiting to hold up the plants.

Blue Winged Teal are visiting with us as they migrate! It's rare that I get a shot of our many migrating ducks, they generally fly off, so I don't even try to get too close. This shot was luck - I had my telephoto lens with me and I stopped as soon as I saw them. They didn't fly away! Thank you JG for identifying them.

These tiny flowers area everywhere. They're smaller than a dime.

I'm not sure what these next flowers are - I've never seen these before! My book has a few possibilities, so I'll have to wait for the blooms to be sure. It may be Stork's Bill but the leaves look different. They're right outside of the patio. I've even watered them to make sure they stay healthy!

I love this shot of the mallows!

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

They're back, as promised, but still won't ditch the shades or the beach chairs.

Cactus Oil Painting, Wildflowers Everywhere!

2010-04-05T16:35:00.002-05:00

I've painted several Prickly Pear Cactus lately.

This hasn't been posted on my web site yet, it needs a little more drying time.

This Spring is all I'd hoped for! We've been here since 1993 and I'm declaring this the most gorgeous spring ever. The wildflowers are so thick it's amazing. The number of different varieties is truly staggering. I'll have more great flower blogs for you if the heat stays away just a little while longer. We also have turkeys back at the house feeder and the Tree Ducks came back this week.

I showed you the yellow fields we're seeing and now the verbena is giving us lavender fields! It's thick, tall and healthy.

We have 3 kinds of wild verbenas. The Dakota Vervian or Prairie Verbena makes the beautiful show. These will bloom almost all year long if we have a mild winter. Later in the year, they won't match these beautiful carpets we're having now, though. These are very thick with tons of flower heads. Verbena have rich nectar, so you'll see butterflies and insects enjoying them too.

To the back of this area below, the yellow carpet takes over.

We have several types of primroses here, these white ones are popping up everywhere.

I'm sure this is some type of Mallow, but I can't find it in my books. It's one of the few orange flowers we have.

Photographing these flowers close up can be dangerous:

We are still enjoying the yellow carpets of bladderpods.

This tree is blooming right outside of my studio window.

This feather was stuck on a branch. It is beautiful! I love finding surprises like this on my walks. Each one is a treasure hunt.

Diane Clancy was so kind to give me a "Sweet Blog Award." Thank you Diane!

Felicia Kramer mentioned me in her blog, and I so appreciate it Felicia!

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook.

I though "Spring Break" was supposed to be a week, as in one week. And they took the cat! They've promised to be home by next blog. Till next time, Jean

Autumn Painting Competition, "Hill Country Autumn" oil painting

2010-03-28T16:06:00.007-05:00

Some time in September 2009, Sandy Askey-Adams, Nancy Medina and I started talking about an Autumn painting challenge to celebrate the season. We chatted back and forth for a while and decided to have the First Annual Autumn Arts Painting Challenge.

The Challenge was free, global and very exciting! There were few rules - the paintings had to be original work, of course, and it had to be completed in the month of October. Art works were posted all month long and it was a visual feast each day to see new works entered.

The artist was free to interpret their October any way they wished. We had beautiful entries of representational, impressionistic and abstract work.

We used Facebook as a platform for the event. We though we'd have about 100 people enter and we'd all get to enjoy some good paintings. To our amazement, we ended up with over 1500 people joining the site and over 900 pieces of art submitted for the Competition! You can go to the facebook site to see the entries, clicking on the "Photos" tab at the top of the page will bring you to amazing paintings!

We were so thrilled that 3 nationally acclaimed artists Gladys Roldan-de-Moras, Soon Y Warren, and Marsha Savage said "Yes!" to our request for Judges. These wonderful ladies were a joy to work with and they did have to work very hard! You can see the winners of the competition on our blog. The Judges chose extra paintings for the exhibition in this blog post.

Howard Cooperman, of the amazing Bucks County Gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania has an exhibition of the winners this month. He sent these me photos of the opening reception.

Marsha Savage, Howard Cooperman, Sandy Askey Adams

Howard also made a short You Tube video of the exhibition and the painting that I submitted to the exhibition is shown first. Thank you Howard!

American Artist magazine did a story on the Challenge in March and the Pastel Journal had a story in May!

Awards for the event were donated by Terry Ludwig Pastels, Qoro, LLC, Kng of Frame, Raymar Art, and Dick Blick. This event brought artists together from around the world to celebrate art. Wonderful friendships were made and continue.

Becky Joy's oil painting was chosen in the "Judge's Choice" category. These are addition paintings exhibited at the Bucks County Gallery show for the Challenge.

Becky Joy, "Back lit Oak", 20x24 Oil

Joan Linenbroker, "Bartram Gardens," Mixed Media, Honorable Mention

I hope you enjoy the art on our Challenge Blog and Facebook site!
Thank you,
Jean

Bluebonnets and Wildflowers

2010-03-21T09:09:00.003-05:00

Bluebonnets are blooming! We have a small area where they come up every year and that area has more than doubled! Yes, I'd like to use a whole bunch of exclamation points, but I'll refrain. Then again, maybe not!!!

They're scattered in this very rocky area. The yellow bladderpods are fairly thick and verbena are making a nice show there too.

I wait for this every year!!!! Oops, I mean: I wait for this every year.

I love the deep red violet color on the petals.

Spanish Dagger update:

The bloom is made up of huge amounts of individual flowers. You can see that this one will be bigger soon, when all of the red pods open up.

In my last post about Mountain Laurel, they were just beginning to show color. Now, this is an explosion of violets!

The verbena are getting thicker and carpets of these beauties are starting.

This is a beautiful mix of verbena and bladderpods.

This next photo wasn't taken on our place, but I couldn't pass up how pretty it was. I wanted a shot without the roadway, but, this was all I could get.

I have so many great spring photos, I'm posting a blog with just these gorgeous flowers. Next post I'll update you on my art work.

Don't miss my website for my oil paintings! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too!

My helpers said they wanted a "Spring Break." Yes, I was a little shocked, too, but they've sent me a photo.