I Wish I Could Be in California

"Wish I Could Be in California"

Today I was inspired to paint the weekly challenge from the Daily Paintworks website. A photo was posted of the California coast and I have such fond memories of my recent visit to the northern coast of California. Last year I spent a week being a tourist and fell in love with the area. I stopped and picnicked with the sea lions, drove up a little ways and stopped to watch the huge waves breaking along the shore due the a big approaching storm. Photographed the the wild zebras for about an hour outside the Hearst Castle and soaked it all up. Spend the last two days with family which was the icing on the California Cake. I enjoyed reminiscing as I painted the weekly challenge. 

Photo posted for weekly challenge on DailyPaintworks.com

Daily Rain Lilies

Daily Rain Lilies

Rain lilies are in full bloom in my waterside gardens on Matlacha Island. I have been growing the bulbs from a mere start of ten teeny bulbs that I bought at a local dept. store. The package said it would take five years to bloom. Well, that was eighteen years ago. Now, there are over five hundred lovely delicate pink flowers blooming all at once right before it rains. Patience pays off and it only took me one hour to paint this small painting. Claude Monet planted flowers so he would have something to paint on a rainy day. I paint in the rain under an umbrella. 

"Rain Lilies of My Valley

These two paintings in this blog are small warm ups before I start my big day of commissions for Bealls Florida Dept. Stores. One per day. I find that warming up before I paint large helps me to stay true to my art. 

"My Rain Gauge"

Last Train to Paris

Last Train to Paris
click here to buy

Mike and I were invited to our very first French barbecue along the Seine River near Giverny. Stephanie and Gerard have been our friends for nearly 15 years and we have enjoyed watching them through many stages of their married life. They have two girls and and it is really fun watching them grow and becoming friends with then too. Youngest, Marion paints with me each year when we return for our annual retreat away from the states. 

The barbecue did not even start until 9pm and Mike and I enjoyed the wine, the river, the french conversation which we did not understand, but knew the entire family and their friends were enjoying themselves and being together was the big it. We were happy to be a part of it. 

I heard a train and looked up and saw the last train of the night headed to Paris. I thought what an adventure to go to Paris, and then I realized we were experiencing even a better adventure with this precious french family. 



LovegroveGalleryandGardens@gmail.com

Daily Heart Painting

Face book; Leoma Lovegrove Art Store

I have been painting a heart daily now since May 15, 2011. On a dare, I posted them for sale on the social network. Each one has a short story of what the day event is or was. Some days, my life is just not all that word worthy. So, I get the history books and try to find something that I can relate to. It has been super fun to learn and look back at our US history. I think the world was a better place in the 50's. What was right and what was wrong was never a grey area. 

In the loft of Dillinger's Hide Out

John Dillinger

On July 22, 1934 outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John Dillinger--America's "Public Enemy No. 1"--is killed in a hail of bullets fired by federal agents. In a fiery bank-robbing career that lasted just over a year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks for more than $300,000, broke jail and narrowly escaped capture multiple times, and killed seven police officers and three federal agents. During my first summer break from college (1972) I studied sculpture with Mustafa Naguib in Hobart, Indiana and the farm buildings that we worked in were some of Dillinger’s hide outs. My instructor about 40 years my senior flirted with me and it was a rough summer for me growing up. I was so naive and I remember so scared of him. Regardless of the human distractions and obstacles that long  summer  I could sculpt like the wind! To date, I have sculpted over 300 sculptures and all were created in  the Midwest. Bet you did not know that about me.