first of all, I’d like to apologize for the weirdness occurring within my posts.  The interaction between WordPress and my iPad leaves something to be desired.  In MI 3, I decided to try something different.  I entered text as captions to the paintings instead of separately.  I hoped thereby to avoid the oversized images that keep showing up no matter how I strive to reduce them.  Didn’t work.  This time I’m going to try no text between images, so all explanation is presented up here.  [After I got back home, to my computer, I was able to fix the outsized images.]

I’m posting four images today.  Two paintings and two geometric designs.  The designs are self-explanatory if you read MI1 about the sacred geometry group.  The first, “Ten Thousands Islands” is a scene at the National Wildlife Refuge of that name.  Mary and I met up with her Wednesday group of outdoor painters.  It involved lugging our gear into the refuge about half a mile.  Since I need a chair to sit on while painting, I had to carry said chair as well as bear the backpack containing my Soltek easel, paints, brushes and all the other miscellaneous items required by an artist in the field.  When we got to the lookout structure where the other artists, earlier risers than we, were gathered, prime spots on the structure were all occupied.  But we had spotted something more interesting on the left side anyway, so we set up side by side facing into the sun but with a keyhole view of an entire community of birds.  Photographers kept getting in our way, even a fisherman who thought he needed to see if fish were biting.  Thank goodness they weren’t.

It was a huge white pelican that had first caught my eye as we trudged past an opening in the vegetation.  I thought it might be a statue installed for the benefit of tourists.  Then it moseyed on.  It had a mate nearby, but they were apparently working the crowd separately, the crowd being mostly cormorants.  I began Ten Thousand Islands first as solely a landscape, inserting a bird when one showed up in a good spot.  The small island in the back always had at least five cormorants on it, and the pelican visited there too.  The pelican finally popped up on the near island and I quickly popped it into the painting.  I’m sure I understated the size of it, but I’m not about to ruin a good painting for the sake of technical verity!

Ten Thousand Islands

The second painting captures the fountain in Mackle Park.  Although there were many varieties of birds all around us, including a woodpecker with a little red splash of head covering, dogs dominated.  The path is a favorite for dog walkers.  My composition did not permit inclusion of a lot of dogs or birds.  One duck represents all the fauna.  The Palm tree is the first that I have painted during this trip.

Mackle Park

My “Joyful Geometry” pieces, nos. 2 and 3: