NO these are not chili peppers ~ they are flower buds growing out in front of our garage. My Mom had some that she got from my Grandma's old place and the things were like 6-7 feet tall, monster flowers. I brought back some of the funny little shiny black seeds (growing on the hairy stem) and planted them here in Virginia about 5 years ago. A couple of years passed and nothing came up so I sort of forgot about planting them. Well, last year 2 of them came up and boy was I surprised. This year more of them came up! Mine aren't as tall as the ones my Mom has but they're still a little taller than I am. I can't wait till the buds open. My Mom said these flowers are tiger lillies.

PAGE ONE OF A FAIRY TALE ~ I finished this painting today and it's acrylics, 9 1/4 X 12 inches on unstretched canvas. I just bought a new color of acrylics and had to try it out on this one. I usually just use red, blue, yellow, black and white to mix all my colors but couldn't get purple to come out right so I bought some dioxazine purple and woo I love it! Purple here I come!

TGIF!!!! ~ Every Friday in the Quickie Digi Abstract thread in WetCanvas.com we take turns making up a virtual digibar for artistic friendship and fun. Has anyone noticed that WC has been down today? Arrrgh! :( I keep getting a message that there is a problem with the database. Well, I have some plans to do some painting this weekend. I stopped by Michaels after work this evening and bought some canvas and paints and assorted art goodies. Sheesh, the price on some of the paintbrushes are scary though!

Blue Ribbon Night ~ A digital abstract for tonight and a tribute to my hubby. He races those wild fast drag cars and won 2nd place tonight in the Ford event at Virginia Motorsports Park. It was a national race with people traveling from out of state and a pretty big event. http://www.virginiamotorsportspk.com/FUNFORD.html Woohoo pretty nice prize $ too!

FLOWERS, lovely flowers ~ It's the first week of summer and some of the flowers are just starting to bloom out in the yard. We had a little rainstorm late this evening and one of the gladolias outside just started to open so I got a photo of it. I found someone inside one of the flowers taking shelter from the rain too. Glad my little digi camera is weather proof.

whole painting and detail above
Magic Redbird ~ I've been really getting into painting on synthetic yupo paper. Some really unusual effects can be achieved using this smooth, very white paper that is also waterproof. Usually I splotch on paint then smear or drip then see what develops. When I see something in the paint I develop it further using small brushes and my acrylics. I just finished this today and it's 8 1/2 X 11 inches on medium weight yupo.

It's been raining all day but I guess it's the edge of the tropical stormfront moving through. Tonight about a half hour ago I looked outside and the moon was showing through a break in the clouds and it was very orange! I had to check out W.J.'s blog at http://art166.blogspot.com/ to see what phase the moon was in. It is a waning gibbous moon and 85 percent full. I still can't figure out why it looked so orange though! I was even wondering if it was in an eclipse. I got one crummy photo of it and did a digi manip of it. Oh one of these days I hope to get a zoom lens camera so I can get better moon photos! I just saw it again and it's playing 'peekaboo' behind some dark cloud slivers but still orangey looking.

Another photo of the spectacular Dutch Gap Conservation Area ~ Oh I want to get a telephoto zoom lens so bad. We saw some black birds with the most intense color of red on their wings but I couldn't get a photo of them. I am wondering if they are red-winged blackbirds. My hubby spotted them first then we saw several of them perching in the marsh. Here is another of the photos I got with the Dominion power company in the far distance. I wish I had an audio recording of the frogs singing. When we first got out of the car I thought music was playing somewhere till I realized it was thousands of frogs singing in the marsh! Awesome place!

Dutch Gap Conservation Area and wetlands~
This evening we went to an amazing area of natural beauty called the Dutch Gap Conservation Area. It seems to consist of low wetlands and marsh and many, many birds. It's in central Virginia and 80 miles west of the Chesapeake Bay. It looks like a prehistoric area of strange beauty and right next to this is the Dominion power company which presents a strange contrast. with so many frogs singing at first when we got out of the car, I thought someone was playing music somewhere. Nearby is the Citie of Henricus which is supposed to be 4 years older than Jamestown but that area was closed and I only got to see thatched roofs of huts over the fence. Will have to go back and see this when it's open! Got a cool photo of the power plant with the sun setting between the towers or whatever those things are. Lucky shot since I took it from the open window of our moving vehicle! The sun looks like a shooting star at the end of the jet trail.

Little Red Abstract ~ I did this one several weeks ago but I just wasn't sure if it was finished or not. It's a little 4 x 4 inches and acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper. Sometimes you just have to go on to the next painting!

CENTER OF THE SUN ~ This is another digital work and I am thinking about having these last two printed out to sell as a diptych set.

LADDER TO THE MOON ~ I'm in a 'digi mood' tonight. This is a digital painting I had done earlier and just finished it up tonight. I love looking at the http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html Astronomy Picture of the Day and I'm inspired by my friends in the Quickie Digi Abstract thread in ab/con forum of http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=350081 wetcanvas.com. I usually get in a lunar moon when there's a full moon glowing up in the sky but tonight is overcast and cloudy so I just used my imagination for this one.

The Aviary" ~ This is acrylics on yupo paper and it's 8 1/2 x 11 inches. My husband gave me an idea it was about birds because it was pure abstraction to me. He said I should title it "Which came first the chicken, the egg or rush hour traffic?" :)

Center of the universe through a flower...An extreme close-up of a little flower growing out on the back deck. I'm not even sure what kind it is but it comes up every year in the same clay pot from some seeds I threw in there about 5 years ago. I can see the little colorful blooms from my kitchen window and I've gotten really attached to that little plant that comes up every year.

Myspace

Just for fun: I found a website where there are lots of fun free (? about 10 popup ads?)things to put in your blog. The glitter stars are sparkly and fun. I copied the code to see if it would post in here without being in a template. I found this in www.bigoo.com.

Itty bitty tree... This is a tiny painting I did in acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper and it's only 3 x 3 1/2 inches. I accidentally cut the bottom off of this or it would have been a little big bigger by 1/4 inch. I had fun doing this one because I love painting trees!

Arrrgh my blog is playing tricks on me tonight. I made a new post with my weird striped clouds photos and it doesn't show up when I go in my blog so I deleted the whole post and redid it. W. J. I just saw in my E-mail that you made a comment in that post so it must have been showing up when you went in there. Thanks for the nice comment, yep that would make a cool background! Hmm anyways I made a new post of the whole thing but I still can't see it when I go in my blog??? Hmmm must be blog gremlins or either my settings messed up again! :(

What the heck!?...Yellow striped clouds?? Yesterday evening my husband was sitting out on the back deck right before sunset and I walked out there to see what he was doing. I looked up (of course) and to my amazement the clouds had these strange stripes in them! Of course he didn't even notice as I ran back inside for my trusty little digi camera. I set the thing on 'sunset' mode since it's supposed to bring out the warm colors of sunsets better. Little did I know it was going to turn the clouds into strange looking striped sulfer yellow looking things up there till after I opened it in photoshop and did 'auto levels'. Here's the normal pic of the clouds and the yellow school bus clouds version. :P

"MOUNTAIN MEMORIES" I've been really missing my Mom and it's been a year since I've seen her. She has been living in western Kentucky where my Dad's people are from for many, many years. She grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Tennessee and we travel through there at least once a year it sure doesn't seem often enough. She is going to be 80 years old this coming September and she is still doing pretty darn good to be that age. She still has her own little house and her small dog Bebe for company and my sister and niece live really close to her. We lost my Dad back in '99 but he was 78 and had a good long life full of love with my Mom. Anyways we drive through the Mountains to visit her every year and I made a digital painting to remember a beautiful scene we saw last year when we drove out there. There was layer upon layer of gorgeous mountains that seemed to go into infinity.

SUNRAYS...
W.J. here's the photo of the sunrays I was talking about and 2 manips I did from this photo below. Just wish the road and driveways hadn't been in the viewfinder but still like the orange sunbeams. This was after the storm ended and the sun setting.

"There's a sky in the hole" Taken on the day of the storm. Wow storms are scary but so exciting for taking pictures with my digi camera. The sky turns into an endless canvas with abstract art being painted in a huge WIP which is everchanging.

eek I was tagged by my very talented and artistically creative friend Asil the other day. I didn't know what it meant at first. I thought it had something to do with links in blogs LOL! :) I hope I'm doing this right, OK here goes:

5 Items

5 items in my fridge:

1- coffee..to keep it fresh (can't live without my coffee!)
2- Miracle whip to make those sandwiches taste yummy.
3- a honey ham which I haven't baked yet.
4- Milk (gotta have my calcium)
5- potatoes down in the crisper. My hubby's favorite vegetable.

5 Items in my closet

1- A HUGE supersize Mother's Day card my daughter got me several years ago.
2- Umbrella which I hardly ever use.
3- An old rolled up ink drawing I did from my college days.
4- Assorted homemade kittys in a basket my sister made years ago.
5- A small expensive bottle of perfume someone bought me years ago which I never used.

5 Items in my Purse

1- My cell phone which I usually only use only in case my car breaks down.
2- Assorted coins rattling in the bottom as always.
3- Address book which I usually only use when I'm doing Christmas cards. :)
4- Coupons for cigarettes. Hey you need them as expensive as cigs are now.
5- My other glasses in case something happens to the ones I'm wearing.

5 Items in My Car

1- Ice scraper, yea I won't need that till next winter!
2- bunch of boxes I got from work for hopefully shipping paintings someday.
3- tire cleaner (if I ever get around to cleaning them. :)
4- drink holder.
5- Inkpen (well I couldn't think of anything else interesting and it's dark outside so I'm too chicken to go look, LOL!)

5 People I tag

1- Alfreda
2- Florence
3- Cheri
4- Cathy
5- W.J.

One of the photos of the sky I got from the storm. I'm not sure what the line is in here but it was the edge of a huge cloud.

SILVER RAIN Oh I got some of the wildest sky photos this evening thanks to the crazy storms we had most of the day. Not long after I took these photos I heard there was a tornado sighted 7 miles east of here. This is one I took out my front door as the rain was pouring over the stopped up gutter on the front of the house. I manipped it a little in photoshop to make the rain look glowy.

Sometimes when I get out my vacuum cleaner (which isn't often enough as you can see by the cobwebs on the ceiling) my cat hops up on the wood stove in the living room, then jumps up on top of the bookcase which is right behind my favorite chair. Craning my neck up I decided to get out my digi camera and get a picture of her today because she looked so funny up there. :)

Here's a manip of the same photo:

Who's that over my head?~ Sometimes when I get out my vacuum cleaner (which isn't often enough as you can see by the cobwebs on the ceiling) my cat hops up on the wood stove in the living room, then jumps up on top of the bookcase which is right behind my favorite chair. Craning my neck up I decided to get out my digi camera and get a picture of her today because she looked so funny up there. :)

"The Red Pirate" This is a digital painting "HoHoHo and a bottle of rum" aaaaar matey :)

'What Fun to Be a Fish'
7 1/2 x 11 inches. I just finished this painting today and it's acrylics and glazing medium on 140 lb. watercolor paper. The second pic is a detail showing the texture. This original painting is currently for sale at Artbyus.com: http://www.artbyus.com/auctions.php?a=2&b=64423

Another digi work Queen's Room I was in a royal purple mood when I made this one!

Halls of Glory This is my digital painting for tonight. I had desaturated this and kept experimenting with this one till I had an interesting effect. I would love to have this one made into a print. .

Mystery lady on my front door W.J. I thought of you yesterday when I got out my camera! I was sitting in the kitchen on the computer and the pouring rain had finally let up. I opened the screen on the front storm door and saw what looked like a lady wearing a robe caused by the moisture and rain drops trapped between the 2 pieces of glass. So of course I had to get a photo of her before she went away LOL! I then manipped that same photo and it turned into a big green eye!

I had some very exciting news this week! I was chosen to become a guide in the abstract/contemporary forum in WetCanvas.com. WC is a huge worldwide website for artists to gather, chat and share tips and photos of their work, and gain invaluable knowledge about the world and business of art. Thanks Diane and Michael! I was in the digi making mood tonight and here's 2 I created tonight. Not very original but I titled them "Eclipse of the Sun" and "Eclipse of the Sun 2"

Spring has definitely sprung! and HAPPY EASTER to everyone. My rhododendrun bushes in front of the house are all in pretty red blooms and swarming with big fat yellow and black bumblebees, hummingbird moths, and big bright yellow butterflies. I saw my cat lying on the back of the couch gazing through the window and watching the fluttering butterfly. Every time the butterfly would come close to the window she would duck her head, switch her tail wildly, and go into pounce mode like she was going to just jump through the window glass LOL. I got out my digital camera and got a picture through the glass of what she was so intently staring at. It turned out pretty good for a photo taken through the window.

Well I went buggy this weekend and started a 'Bugs of abstraction' series. Here's "Bug 1" and "Bug 2" and the third one I am still working on and it is starting to look like a coccoon so far. These are little art squared paintings and they are each 4x4 inches wide and they are acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper.

RAIN ORBS THROUGH A STORMY SKY
W.J. you got me going with my orb photos again. Thanks, you and your gorgeous art are such an inspiration! This is another of the photos I took that evening and I manipped it (above). I didn't have to do much to manip it since the rain orbs made it look pretty weird already. I tried to blur it a little to get rid of some of the graininess though. We had more rain today and gray cloudy skies but nothing like that short intense storm last Monday when I got the orb photos.

Some more digidoodles. Hope ya'll are having a fantastic weekend!!!!!!!!

This one is where I took the photo below and created a digital work from it in the Dogwaffle art program. "Orbs of mystery" LOL I'm glad these orbs aren't ghosts though!

Monday evening we had a fierce but fast moving storm come though our area with 70 mph winds. Right before the storm hit with rain and lightening I grabbed my digital camera and took some pictures of the sky. When I put them in the computer I noticed these orb things in the photos and I'm thinking what in the world are these round things. Well I found out they are a natural phenomena called 'rain orbs'. Here's the photos I took as the edge of the sky was turning black.