Yesterday I was the guest speaker at the Strasburg Rotary Club in Strasburg, Virginia. What a nice group of folks!
They made me feel very welcome as I told them what it is like to be a daily painter. I also did a quick demonstration for them. The photo here shows my set up with reference photo for the painting.
I’ll put the finishing touches on it and post the finished product for you in the next few days.
Thanks again to the Strasburg Rotarians for allowing me to discuss my “Life as a Daily Painter” with you.
This is the second painting that I have done from the photos I took on my recent trip to Arizona. I love the way the cactus look against the red rocks. This painting, “Prickly Pear”, is an oil on canvas panel measuring 10″x8″ and is available for $195. 
Woke up to the first really cool morning of the season. I like it. I like cooler weather. I like snow. I know. Most folks don’t, but I grew up where it was HOT all the time and I much prefer the seasons.
After missing several weeks of lessons Isabella is back and we had a lesson last night.
This was my version. We paint along together during the lesson so I always end up with the same thing the student does. I kind of like this one. Reminds me of Georgia O’Keeffe.
Of course, Truman was not impressed. We bore him so after he gets all the attention he can from my student he takes a nap. 🙂
So it’s Sunday and we are on our way home from this big “aviator” weekend of the Air Races in Reno and we have to make a quick stop in Amarillo for a company picnic with our hosts, the Smiths. We land at the Amarillo airport and look out the window and what do we see???? The space shuttle!!!
Absolutely amazing. Keep in mind that I am with a group of pilots…all weekend they have gone to the airshow each day and drooled over airplanes and airplane equipment and now, here we are in the heart of Texas and what do we see? The ultimate in aviation…the space shuttle. 
So, of course, we delayed our trip out to the picnic for about 10 minutes so we could watch the shuttle take off, piggybacking on this HUGE airplane. There were a few others around taking pictures but overall I guess it is something that NASA doesn’t advertise for safety reasons. So we watched it take off. I even got a minute long video of it. (Sorry I can’t post it here for you to see. 😦 )
This past weekend Allen and I were invited by friends to go to Reno to the Air Races. While that may not have been the most thrilling thing for me to see, the guys loved it as they are all pilots. 
Air Races are exactly what they sound like. Old airplanes and new race around a “track” in the sky. Here is an old WWII trainer. There were about 6 or 7 of these in the race…all in perfect condition. Amazing!
And another example of the trainer….
And this is how it looks as they race by the bleachers.
There were also demonstrations of different types of jets.
By far, the most exciting display and the one that most people came to see was the Blue Angels. They travel with a large support plane. I’m sure that the guys could tell you the exact name for each of these but I can’t. 
As the team was getting ready to go up they introduced each of the pilots. Imagine our surprise when they introduced this one as a naval pilot from Warrenton, Virginia! 
They flew in tight formation and did several passes where they were only 18 inches apart from wing to wing. Can you imagine how much you would have to trust the people you work with to actually do that?
Some of the passes they even flew with one plane upright and one upside down….and so close together!
As I promised last week, we completed the art lesson last Wednesday night at class of this painting of an artist working on location. 
A couple of weeks ago I told you about our trip out west to Arizona and shared all the photos of the red rocks. 
And this is my painted version of Bell Rock. It is an oil painting on canvas panel measuring 9″x12″ and is available for purchase at $195 by contacting me at 
Fog Across the Valley is an oil on canvas panel. This is another piece we did recently in art class. As you may have guessed this week from reading the blog, I finally brought home some pieces we did on Wednesdays in art class and photographed them to post on the blog. I didn’t realize how far behind I had gotten on that! We paint a lot in class. 🙂
Another Fence for Pat is an oil on canvas panel that we did several weeks ago in art class on Wednesday at the Blue Ridge Arts Council. I named it for Pat because one of my art students loves to paint fences. We have done several. This one was a snow scene with a fence.
And don’t forget that it is the 3rd Thursday and the Art Walk is tonight from 5 – 8 p.m. in downtown Front Royal. Shops are open late, serving refreshments, and there will be entertainment. Come out and watch artist demonstrating and support the art community.
The Studio 