Stained Glass Windows and Stool

Roger made two matching stained glass windows for our kitchen.  Stained glass is hard to photograph because you get reflections and also because of what is outside the window showing through.  In the case of these windows it is the woods in back of our house that change the color of the glass.  The trees are in full bloom and the green of the leaves change the color  making it appear a yellow-green.  In reality the glass is a very pale amber color.  We chose the glass in the winter when the trees were bare and you could see the true color of the glass.  I am interested in seeing what they look like in the fall when the leaves turn to red and yellow.  I think I will take photos at different times of the year to make a comparison. Even though they change colors with the changing of the seasons we love our new windows.  They add a touch of class to the kitchen and you can see them as soon as you walk in the front door because of the open floor plan. We decided to go with a more traditional design similar to the windows we had in our Tucson house.  Here are two photos taken at different angles.

These are the first windows Roger has built since we moved to MI.  He is now ready to start another one which will be in our grand-daughter and her husband's house.  They live on a farm and the window will depict a farm scene.  It is a large interior window which is in a wall that divides two rooms.  I will be doing the design work and color choice with the help of my grand-daughter.  Once that is done Roger will do the construction.  We make a good team!

My latest painting project was something for me.  We have three stools at our kitchen island and sometimes when we have company I wished I had another small stool that we could pull up to the side of the island so four of us could sit there for breakfast.  Awhile back I had found a stool at yard sale that I was going to refinish and sell but I changed my mind when I realize it was the perfect size for my kitchen.  I decide to keep it for myself.  Here are before and after photos.

Our next home improvement project will be replacing the carpet and vinyl floors in the downstairs of the house with bamboo hardwood.  The living room, dining room and kitchen will be all hardwood with a slate like tile in the entrance hall and by the back door.  The house will be torn up for awhile until the job is completed but it will be worth it.  We have been here 11 months and think the floor project should be done by the one year anniversary of our move.  We will also be having some outside work done in mid August.  The driveway will be widen and a new large front porch will be built.  Roger will be installing the floors but we have hired a contractor to do the outside job.

Paintings featuring a flower, abstract and quilt pattern.

I completed three new paintings since my last post.  The first was another in the "Study in Patchwork" series.  This one is #3.  I decided to do it to show at the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center.  I love the one I did for myself and have had lots of good comments from people who have visited my home.  Here is the latest version.  The size on this one is 27X27.

As I was working on the patchwork painting I had time to start another painting while I waited for the taped off sections to dry.  I had a beautiful gold and green frame that I had gotten on one of my yard sale shopping sprees.  I put a blank canvas in it and after staring at it for awhile I saw a flower emerge in my mind.  I sponged on a pastel base coat then did my drawing of a magnolia on paper and transferred it onto the canvas.  Once the patchwork painting was done I started work on painting the magnolia.  The size of this painting is 13X15.  I call it simply "Magnolia".

While I was working on the magnolia painting I suddenly had the urge to do an abstract piece so I stopped work on it and gave into my urge and did "Blue on Blue".  I can do an abstract in a short period or time.....just a few hours.  I did this one on a 20X20 canvas box which I base coated in various shades of blue and purple.  I had some bottles of texture paint that I have had for awhile but had never opened so now was the time to put them to use.  I drizzled them onto the base coat in a random pattern.  Next I used a toothbrush to splatter some mother of pearl paint over the whole thing and I finished it off with metallic blue circles which I applied with a round sponge.

The painting process of these three paintings overlapped each other.  I will be showing them all at the Vicksburg Gallery.

I am now working on a stool that I will use in my kitchen.  I have out of town company coming this weekend and hope to have it done before they arrive.  Look for a photo of it in an upcoming post.

A new painting, something new in my studio and being "flocked"

I have been unable to do any painting in my studio for over a week because it has been a construction zone but I did finish an 8X10 painting before the work began.

 Since I moved to MI everything that I had forgotten from my mid-west past has become new again to me.  The change of seasons is one of those things. We arrived her at the beginning of fall and got to see the leaves of the trees turn beautiful colors and then fall off.  Next came the winter and snow which we had not seen for 20 years.  Then came spring with lots of rain and things turning green again.  Now it is summer with beautiful flowers everywhere.  Since I love to paint flowers this has been an inspiration to me.  I noticed the tiger lilies blooming in my neighbor's yard and decided to do a painting featuring one large "Tiger Lily" which is what I titled this painting.

I have a confession to make about flowers and any plant in general.  While I love to paint flowers, in real life, I am a plant and flower killer.  This is not by choice.  For some reason I have a Black Thumb when it comes to plants of any kind.   My mother had a Green Thumb and could grow anything, I am sad to say she did not pass this talent on to me.  If anyone gives me a plant as a gift it will be dead in a short time.  Too much water, too little water....I never know what the problem is.  I can paint them but I can't grow them.  At least in AZ the cacti in our yard flourished because the more you ignored them the better they grew.  I am good an ignoring.

Now for the new studio improvement project.  Our son Brian and his wife Sarah came for a visit and they decided I needed a ceiling in my shop.  Roger had planned on installing new lighting for me so this was the perfect time to do both projects.  Here is the before photo.

And....Here is the after photo.

All I can say is that it is light and bright thanks to Brian, Sarah and Roger.  Time to get back to painting.

Now to tell you about our being flocked.  "Flocked?" you ask.  "What is that?"  Here is a photo of our flocked yard.

We woke up to this yesterday morning.  Flocking yards is a fund raising project for the Three Rivers High School band.  Here is the way it works.  Someone will give a donation to the band and give them an address of someone they want flocked.  In the middle of the night these flamingos will be placed in the front yard of that house.  In turn, we will give a donation for them to be removed and placed in someone else's yard.  When flamingos first started to appear in yards around town we had no idea of what was going on until our grand-daughter, who is a member of the band, explained it to us.  What a fun idea to raise funds for the band!