SPECIAL DELIVERY

I've just finished another watercolor.  This one I'm calling, "Special Delivery."  It is available for purchase at my Etsy Site, Watercolors by Leenie.

Here is a fisherman enjoying a morning away from his daily duties.  He's delivering a lure across the water hoping to attract the attention of a big fish.

I used some of my photos as references, put together a composition and then made a line drawing to be transferred to 140cp Arches watercolor paper.

I used masking fluid to protect some whites I wanted to preserve and then put down a layer of bright yellow highlights.

When that wash was dry I added darker details to the trees.

The final details to the fisherman and the water I put in the next day.  The completed work is 11 inches high and 15 inches wide.  

I had to get busy painting after I sold six large works to a store in North Carolina and another to a repeat customer in California.   I'm guessing these people recognize the prices for these one-of-a-kind paintings are way below what they would cost in a gallery. 

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--SURPRISE--Day Twelve

A big surprise made it worth looking for something to photograph this morning.

I put the star filter on my camera so I could catch rainbow flares off the rising sun.

When I got it back home I added some artsy Photoshop effects to this one for fun.

While I was still taking pictures of the sunrise I saw an osprey fly over the pond.

Almost before I could react it dove straight into the water.

There was a moment of struggle and then it rose with a fish in its claws.

It happened so fast that I didn’t have the sense to zoom in to catch a more focused picture.

The big bird circled around catching the sunlight as it adjusted its prey for a better angle for flight.

Before the poor fish could recover from the shock of being snatched from the water it was on its way to becoming breakfast.

IN A CAR DOWN BY THE RIVER

The weather has finally warmed up to no-jacket spring temperatures.  So I took my painting gear and my camera to a picnic area down by the river.

 The trees are just starting to leaf out and there isn’t a lot of color except scruffy browns and tans.  I decided to just sit in my car to do some sketching.

 While I was setting up I saw a young moose across the river munching on some young willow branches.

 It hung around for a while and then wandered off.

 A muskrat went by with a mouth full of sticks to spruce up her den.

 A pond turtle came out on the bank to catch a few rays of sun.

 Then a boat slowly drifted by with a guy, who looked a lot like Donald Sutherland, and his friend doing a little fishing.

 They probably saw me in the car and wondered why I was staring at them so much.

 They weren’t the only ones after fish.  This seagull had some sort of bullhead or carp and he wasn’t sharing.

 This gull looks like he scored with a small trout.

 Here’s a hawk cruising for mice.

 Way across the river and through my dirty windshield I snapped this shot of a wild turkey.

 Two avocets were doing a little yoga.  Nice tree pose.

 Here’s one that doesn’t have his head tucked in so you can see the curved beak they use to sweep through the shallow water for little bugs and stuff.

 Have you ever seen a two-headed coot? Okay, just kidding.  The brown duck with the red eyes is a cinnamon teal.

 In the end I only managed to finish two sketches but I got a whole lot of photos.

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."  Bertrand Russell

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

The semester has ended at the university and after a lot of flap about caps and gowns, most of the students packed their cars to the windows and left town.

 They didn’t always get everything crammed down tight before they hit the road.

 At least that might be one explanation for all the socks I’ve been seeing on my morning outings.  Although I have other theories about the mysterious life of socks.

 I discovered this lone shoe near a bend in the main road out of town.  What do you bet it was set on top of a car with its mate and forgotten by some guy in his haste to be gone from our fair city.

 Then there’s this fish I saw on the bike path. I’m blaming Lew Zealand and his boomerang fish throwing act.

 His advice for a successful fish throw, “Well, you gotta have sole. And if you can’t get sole, use halibut.”  Looks like trout don’t boomerang.

 Saturday morning I was riding my bike across a bridge and stopped to get a better look at a moose getting a drink out of the river.  All I had was my cell phone for a camera so the image is small but you can see the moose there on the left.  While I was taking this picture a runner went by and hardly glanced at what I had found so interesting.  Sometimes I think stopping to check out the scenery should take a little more precedence over speed and time.

FINGERS ON ICE

As I’ve mentioned, DH and our sons enjoy ice fishing.  I’ve gone with them enough to know for certain that I don’t have the same metabolism to tolerate sitting still for extended periods in temperatures well below freezing no matter how warm I’m dressed.  However, if I’m moving around enough to keep my blood circulating, as in cross-country skiing, I can enjoy outings in winter weather.

So I told the guys I’d like to tag along on an ice fishing trip but I’d take my snowshoes and wander around taking photos while they fished.

 While they drilled holes and baited poles on a reservoir so close to the dam that water didn’t freeze, I put chemical hand heaters in my gloves and stuffed my gloved hands into mittens with chemical heaters in the end.

 Before I could snowshoe down where they were, Beavis had landed a big trout he caught while waiting for holes to be drilled in the ice.

 The guys were where the fish were hanging out and had their hooks baited with an irresistible combination of worms and magic juice.

 The fish were getting hooked so often I decided to stay around and film the action.

My big problem was working my cameras.  My cell phone’s touch screen meant using bare fingers.  Not fun.  My little Canon Powershot’s batteries faded fast in the cold.  Even my Nikon wouldn’t shoot at its usual speed in the icy air.

 Still there was plenty of action from the guys on ice.  So I did what I could to continue taking photos and video.

 Finally I wandered off across the lake to take pictures of the incredible scenery of this Montana winter landscape.

 Even though my fingers and my cameras were not happy about the arctic conditions,

 …my eyes loved the view.

These are just some of the big trout the fishermen caught.  It was so cold the poor creatures froze solid after only a few minutes out of the water.

This is a movie I made from the photos and video I shot.  The fishermen asked me to put it on YouTube so they could show it off to their friends.  It's a little over five minutes long so you may want to get your popcorn ready.

A REAL FARMER

On the previous post my friend, Anzu, commented she wanted to see the guy who went with the farm woman.  So to give equal time to my dad here is a post about the farmer.

If you’re looking for a photo of a real farmer, check out this one:

When the home town newspaper needed a picture of a farmer out standing in his field, they asked my dad to show off his wheat crop.

Here’s a photo I took of Dad at work in our barn milking cows.

To be fair to Mom this is one of Dad geared up for work in the winter.  Um, Dad, the calves are getting into the hay stack.

Dad had a real soft spot in his heart for animals.  Bingo, the cow dog, loved Dad with jealous passion to the point of climbing on his lap when he paid too much attention to cats like the black one there on the sofa.

Most visits to Grandma and Grandpa’s farm included a ride on the tractor.

While he was still healthy, Dad took anyone who was willing to his favorite fishing spots.

So, although some artists have depicted farmers and their wives like this…

My favorite farmers look like this.