Deep in Thought--Head Study

I've been a little lazy lately, well not really lazy just concentrating on cleaning and organizing my house, watching movies, cooking, enjoying this beautiful Fall weather--ok maybe lazy! This is my last Monday night head study and our model looked a little wistful, hope I captured that feeling in the painting.

On one of my previous posts, I said the view behind my house is ever evolving. I took this picture just a few minutes ago, such a beautiful day today--in the 60's with a little brisk wind.

This shot is of the cutest donkey that hangs out with the cows in the field behind our house. Correction, I think he's cute until he starts braying in the middle of the night--have you ever heard a donkey talk???

Latest Head Study plus scenery

I've learned my lesson, take a bigger canvas to my live model sessions!!! I ran out of room on this one so I just improvised and painted on the tape. This model had the greatest hair with red gold highlights (wish my hair looked that good).

Today was so beautiful with the sun shining and temperature was in the mid 70's--very unusual for this time of the year so we just had to take a motorcycle ride and as we passed these mules we had their undivided attention.

I have several pictures of these corn stalk stacks (???) and I love the way they look. I hope everyone has a great week!

Fall is in the air

It's finally Fall, one of my favorite times of the year! It was so pretty the other day that my Husband and I went walking around the farm and ran into my Father-in-Law George, his dog Presley and friends!

Sunday morning I was up early and decided to drive through the campus and take a few pictures--I always carry my camera with me just in case you hadn't noticed.

This reminds me of my Father because he would decorate the graves of soldiers every Memorial Day with little US flags to honor them. I thought the light was beautiful.

Driving up College Street to Cherry Hall on Western's Campus. I love the shadows across the road, lots of wires & cables too.

My sweet dog Lucky is feeling frisky and checking out the yard. He likes to keep an eye on everything. I have a few small pumpkins for Fall!

I snapped this picture of a barn that pays tribute to the mighty Kentucky Wildcats--a lot of basketball fans in Kentucky!

I was walking around the farm and saw these big round bales of hay, they looked so interesting that I had to take several pictures at different angles (LOL). I love to paint them with the sun shining on them.

This is the view from our back yard, I love this pond because there is always something to look at. Sometimes there are cows swimming (do cows swim?), ducks or cranes on the pond, wild turkeys--you never know.

Pre-Ballet Class

20 x 16

Rhonda Hartis Smith © 2009

I observed and took pictures of a pre-ballet class and even though this is a small portion of the dancers, they were all so adorable. I'm sure there will be more of these paintings since I love to paint dancers! I'm not used to painting in such a high key but it was challenging for me.

Emily--study from life

This is a study from life of Emily, she dressed a little "retro" for us. She was an excellent model and needless to say she got lots of oooooohhhhhhs and ahhhhhhhhhhs. I spent about 3 - 3 1/2 hours on this study. I'm still concentrating on watching my edges.

Rhonda the "Model"

I've always wanted to know what it feels like to be the "model" and now I know. We have a group of artists that get together from time to time and paint each other or our spouses, our children, etc. My friends said that I did a good job modeling and didn't move too much but they didn't ooooohhhhhhh and aaaaaaahhhhh over my beauty, guess I'm more of a character model. My friend Angela painted this and I think she captured a good likeness--maybe a little younger but that's good!

Monday night live model session

As I was going to work this morning, I noticed the sunrise and had to pull over, get my camera out of the trunk and take pictures of the golden sky. What a glorious sight! It was the prettiest part of the day, especially since it rained all day.

We had a wonderful model last night, she had the best outfit on, black pants and lace up patent leather boots. What a perfect figurative painting! But I took a teeny tiny canvas to paint on, don't ask me why but I've learned a lesson here--always take a larger canvas than you think you will ever use!!! So I had to force myself to paint her lovely face, life is rough (lol).