more zinnias!

For 6 days I've had these happy little flowers in a plain mason jar in the house. I just love looking at them. I had to pay one last homage before the toss into the compost bin.

coffee break

I love mix-n-match dishes!

an evening swim

I was talked into going swimming at Blue Hole yesterday evening. Blue Hole is a length of Cypress Creek here in Wimberley, where the public is allowed access to the water. Most areas with any sort of water access are privately owned with well posted "no trespassing" signs. Normally this place is teaming with tourists, vacationers & local folks. Yesterday was a treat...around 6:30 p.m. or so, just a few people were out enjoying the water and company of friends. As one of my friends said, it is impossible to have any sort of bad thoughts while floating in this water. On 100+ degree temperatures, this cold water is just about heaven.

campfire coffee

"Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above, Don't fence me in.

Let me ride through the wide open country that I love, Don't fence me in.

Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze

And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees.

Send me off forever but I ask you please,

Don't fence me in."

Cole Porter

calisthenics

I just love the way these two trees playfully pull from each other. The tree on the left apparently forgot which way is up.

house on a hill

While driving up a steep hill, I caught a glimpse of an interesting house. I held the snapshot in my head, then drew this sketch. Later, I went back up the hill to have another look. This is the shape of the house, but the details are completely different, like drawing something you see in a dream. A quick glimpse from a vague memory.

zinnias

These flowers were purchased from our local Wednesday afternoon farmers' market. While drawing them, I noticed they do not have that "perfect" store bought quality. The flowers are organically grown at a local place, Montessino Farms. The imperfections are probably from wind and weather...the way fruits, vegetables and flowers are intended to be raised. In my opinion, these imperfections give them great character. The produce is also wonderful!

Montessino Farms

I snapped this photo back in April, before the scortching heat and summer drought.

crazy spin cycle

This sketch of a washing machine was done last month (popularly mistaken for an ashtray). While passing through the sketchbook this morning, I embellished with spurting water and flying bubbles. Sometimes life is like a crazy spinning wash cycle. Hang on the ride!

The neighborhood

I drove past a wooded yard filled with all sorts of wonderful birdhouses...I just had to turn it into art. The tree is from their neighbors up the road...a combo-neighbor art scene.

pedal power

Tantra Coffeeshop, San Marcos, Texas. This is a big college town, home of Texas State University. I've noticed more and more bikes at this coffeeshop, and more than usual available parking places for cars. Even in the brutal summer heat, more people seem to have opted for a fossil fuel alternative.

garlic blossoms

Not a wonderful sketch, but some days are like that.

Shade!

My out-by-the-barn studio can be very hot and sunny in the afternoons. I finally invested twenty bucks in a big umbrella. It's the little things that make life worth living.

blue bubbles

This was a large part of my weekend, and it was VERY liberating. This is two layers. The top white layer is acrylic splashed on foam core. The bottom blue layer is acrylic painted on masonite. I embedded marbles into the foam core. The entire piece is then covered in a thick coating of polyurethane. I poured this stuff on thick, filling in the blue layers, over the top of the marbles, onto the entire surface of the art. It's sorta like a large piece of hard candy. I had lots of fun figuring out this one.

blue bubbles (close up)

Happy Independence Day!

Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light...

...watermelon!

Old ranch house

This is one of those quintessentially bucolic scenes, sketched at a ranch on Mt. Sharp Road, a few miles outside Drippin' Springs, Texas. It was another scortching hot day with not much shade to be found.