Painting Metal Flowers

I just had to get outside to paint today.  I made up my mind early, collected my materials, and when lunchtime rolled around, it was out the door.   We have a lovely little arboretum on campus, and though it is a bit of a walk, I wanted to get up there to paint.

As it turns out, I might have been just a bit  early to get there.  Though it is near 80 degrees today, the flowers don't quite think spring is here.  Most of the plants are either still dormant or are yet to bloom.  So, I had my choice of colors to paint: brown, green, grey, or some combination of the 3.  Well, here is my lunchtime story.

A 13 minute walk up the hill to the arboretum.  6 minute walkthrough to find that there is no color yet.  20 minutes to draw and paint (thus the simplicity of the paintng).  A 12 minute walk back to the office.  9 minutes to scan the picture in and write up this quick post.  

I settled on this rusting metal sculpture of some flowers.  I've no idea of what kind of flowers they are supposed to be.  They were in the shade under a few California (Coast) Live Oaks.  I sat on a footbridge over a dry creek and painted.  A little vitamin D and a little exercise for the body and soul, and I'm ready to tackle the afternoon.

Valentines for kids

Ok, these are terrible pictures, but I think you get the idea.   Instead of buying valentines cards for my kids, I decided to paint some for them.  Since my son wouldn't like anything overly gushy and warm, I went with the default front end loader.  I mean what little boy doesn't like big construction equipment.








As for my daughter, she really likes Monster High.  The dolls certainly aren't really for me, but since she likes them, she got one.

Yes I know the message on them isn't really heartwarming, but since only my son can read at this point, I thought it was ok.

Random Doodles

So I've got a few random doodles to post.   The first is my kids at the park attempting to climb the swingset.  I love to take paper and pencil to the park.  The kids mostly keep me playing and I don't have time to sketch, but every now and again I can take a minute or two to get a quick sketch in

On Monday morning, my daughter and I took a few minutes to paint.  She's very creative, and we both like to make up stories about out pictures as we paint (something I picked up from watching Bob Ross while I was growing up).  We both decided to paint Morro Rock.  










While I was watching the olympics, and being bored to death with NBC broadcasting seemingly nothing but figure skating, I decided to paint the plant next to the television

I don't really know why these two got on the same page.  My coffee cup at work and an exit sign?   hmmmm.  go figure.