Image of the Day: Summer Roses

I have one rosebush that doesn't get black spot and the tiny critters don't chew on it.  And it blooms a lot.  A sublime rose bush, except it doesn't have an aroma.  Oh well - no one's perfect.  But these roses come close.  This cluster is all from one stem!  The vase is an old cobalt blue, milk of magnesia bottle.  The location is my front porch.

summer roses in a cobalt bottle

Image of the Day: Vanderbilt

One of the Gilded Age mansions built by the Vanderbilts overlooks the Hudson River in Hyde Park, NY.  This was a summer cottage.

Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, NY

For more info:   http://www.nps.gov/vama/historyculture/index.htm

Painting Class: Day 4

Still painting at Touchstone Craft Center in Pennsylvania.  I have a terrific instructor - Tara Zalewsky - www.tarazalewsky.com - who always has an answer to 2 questions:  what's wrong with this onion/pitcher/flower/garlic/background? and what can I do to this to make it better?

Tiring a tad of vegetables, I plucked some irises on my way to class.  In retrospect, I wish I had picked a simpler flower, but I used what was available!  Tara had this wonderfully graphic black and white stripe tablecloth and we set up the still life with a water glass from the dining room. 

original oil by Mary Ann Glass

And I also took a photo (much higher comfort level on this project)

tree tops

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Painting Workshop: Day 3

I'm at Touchstone Craft Center in Pennsylvania, taking a water-based oil painting class -- my first painting class.  The insructor is good, the food is excellent, the class is small but collegial and encouraging.  Doesn't mean I'm not taking photographs.  I shot this farm this morning, using my iPhone and stitching together 55 images.

Pennsylvania Farm

Have done about 5 paintings -- this was todays still life.

Silver Pitcher with Lemon

Road Trip: Farmington PA

Jackie's Cafe, Cumberland County, PA

Signed up for a painting class (!) at Touchstone Craft Center in Farmington, PA.  A mere 7-hour drive.  So here we stopped for some junk lunch car food, in Cumberland County.

Fort Necessity, Farmington, PA, with little black bird

Then a look at Fort Necessity -- George Washington's first command, when he was 22 or so.  Not a very distinguished beginning to a military career.  The small fort - just a circle of vertical logs - placed in the middle of a meadow - didn't hold up very well against a French force shooting from the trees.  Washington - at that time a British officer - had to surrender.  But he did get the last laugh.