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Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Vintage Trucks and General Butler State Park

Vintage Trucks
and A Pumpkin Patch

I recently had the privilege of teaching a new group
of painters at my 3rd Saturday of the month class at General Butler State Park.

None of these painters had taken a class from me before.




We paint in the Mezzanine in the lodge at
 General Butler State Park in Carrollton, KY


Check out the view!


Everybody got down to business painting a fun vintage truck loaded up with pumpkins.



These 3 sisters/friends came from Henry County
to paint for the day.  


Here's our finished paintings.
As you can see we had varying colors of trucks and 
lots and lots of pumpkins and fall trees.  

And after the fun,
there is always the clean up.  
Yep we used all those brushes.

I'm hoping that you're going to paint with us soon 
on the 3rd Saturday of every month at
General Butler State Park, Carrollton, KY., noon - 2 p.m.
You'll paint an 8" x 10" painting on a canvas panel,
I'll provide all the supplies for $20.

Bring a friend, have a party!

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I'm stocking my Etsy shop with lots of fun items,
hand painted holiday pins, small matted original water colors (perfect as hostess or teachers gifts),
hand painted notecards,
and more items are added daily. 

Click HERE to visit my Etsy shop. 

Notecard


 Notecard


Matted 7" x 5" original water color painting.


Matted 7" x 5" original water color painting.

Hand painted 2 1/4" square pins.
Christmas pins are also listed.

Everything shown here is under $20,
some are waaaay under.

Click HERE to visit. my Etsy shop.

If you haven't visited my YouTube channel yet,
where I teach beginning art lessons,
now is a perfect time to do that.  
Click HERE to go to my channel.
I have all sorts of art lessons created with the beginner in mind. 
While you're there, how about clicking that thumbs up button and subscribing.  Then a little bell will pop up.  Go ahead and click that too and you'll receive a notification 
when I post new videos, on Fridays.

Have a great day and let's paint together soon.



Monday, October 14, 2019

An Inspiring Trip

Finding Inspiration

We live in Kentucky

We have a son living in Utah

Jim and I headed to Utah to visit said son,
relax and soak up the beauty there.


Here's the real reason we headed to Utah.

2 of our 11 grandkids live there and we miss them.

We also have a grandson who is a student at BYU.
So of course we had to visit him.

This was the view out the window of my son's home.
I took lots of pics of the beauty that I saw at every turn and I want to share them with you.


It was harvest time while we were there and there were lots of tractors, harvesters and trucks everywhere as farmers tried to get their corn, onions and potatoes harvest.  
The above tractor was set up to harvest onions.  
We didn't get to see that in action, but they were harvesting onions and potatoes everywhere.  
This was right out my sons door.  
For 48 hours every field surrounding his home was a buzz of activity.  You can see the truck with the lights on.  
It started early in the morning until late in the evening.

I love this building and I take pics of it nearly every time I go.

I drew this while I was there.

There are buffalo there as well and 
they are pretty interesting animals.

This was a fun quick sketch I did trying to get the dimensions/perspective of these giants correct.  

I photographed the roots of this tree because they are so interesting.  It really is part of the tree.  

I was in a museum in Salt Lake City and saw and loved this little scene.  Don't be surprised if it shows up in a painting soon.

 These are just 2 of the beautiful landscape photos I took while there.  Scenes like this excite every creative bone in my body and I 
can't wait to start working on this.

This was a small sketch I did trying to get perspective correct for a future painting/s.  This was such a jaw dropping view I know I will use it many times in the future.  
I won't paint it multiple times, but I will use parts of it and I will definitely look back at it just to get inspired again.

Utah is a dessert state, but there are marshes like this and I think they are beautiful.  This is inspiring to me as well.
I love to see the reflections in the marshes as well as the grasses.  

Jim and I hoped on the Trax, the light rail system that runs in Salt Lake and cities near by.  
We're country bumpkins and had a devil of a time figuring out how to pay to get on the thing.
In fact, a great young man helped us otherwise we might still be standing on the platform.  

Now this is totally inspiring.
It and many of its friends are on display in the Greater Cincinnati Airport.
How fun is this big guy.

Jim and I needed some rest and relaxation after spending months getting our house on the market,
endured a devastating flood event, not of our making and making all the repairs from that.

Seeing our son and his family was wonderful, as was having the chance to rest and recuperate.
We saw some beautiful scenery, 
enjoyed all the harvesting going on around us,
went to some of our favorite stores and restaurants,
and slept whenever we wanted.
Had no to-do lists.
Just enjoy our kids and the beauty available to all.

I feel like I'm rejuvenated and ready to get busy with all the activities I try to accomplish.

Thanks for stopping by today and
 let's paint together real soon.

Click HERE to get your printable of 
7 tips for mixing color.  Print this out and keep it near where you paint to refer to again and again.  Mixing color is a lifetime process.

Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel yet?
Click HERE to go to my YouTube channel and hit the thumbs up button and subscribe.  I teach a lot of beginning art lessons on this channel.  

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About Me

My photo
Ghent, Kentucky, United States
I'm a nature artist and I love to paint old barns, rivers and lakes, trees and fence rows and flowers. I work almost daily. You can purchase paintings by contacting me at slgraves6@gmail.com and there is also a tab across the top of my blog for available paintings and one for small paintings with buy now buttons. You can also purchase through my Etsy shop using the name of Fine Nature Art. . Thank you so much for stopping by.