One of the small paintings done on location last Tuesday. Weather was great! The surroundings were perfect and not too many bugs. You could just turn your easel and chair around a little and paint a new scene in every direction. And the light---it was wonderful! Shimmering golden on the horizon as the sun went down and leaving everything it touched momentarily, with golden light.

This is a revised edition of the small Delft scene.

This is for Saturday. Changed this painting to improve the composition.

This was painted from a photograph of a windmill, when we visited the "Kinderdijk". Colours are rather garish on this photo of the painting. Painting needs some work yet too. It helps to keep the memories alive while you are painting from past experiences.

Tuesday evening was glorious-the sunsets are splendid! Tinkered with this one a bit and thought, since it was done on a Tuesday evening painting session. would post it here again. We should all have an old apple tree in our gardens for artistic merit-a centrepiece.

These are the two ewes-mother of all the lambs. Think they had four each. There's a lot of racket out there in the pasture. Those two here must be identical because they are always doing everything together.

Decided to try a new challenge. This is what we see from the kitchen window. Three lambs from one ewe.

Makes me think of many Bible texts.

Psalm 100:3 " We are His people and the sheep of His pasture."

Spring in Zwolle, NL.

Since it's Sunday-the Lord's Day, will post a revision of the street in Heusden. Hope this works better than the first one. Have a great Sunday!

This was the tulip on the right from the previous painting, which by the way, needs some work on the composition.
When painting outside I'm reminded of the beautiful poem by Gerard Hopkins(1844-1889)."The World is charged with the grandeur of God". Was reading another artist's blog ,who quoted this poem and memories of highschool English class returned to me. Thanks Kim and Rick. Ahhh! That last line! Check it out.

Finally, went and painted those tulips before they are all gone for another year! One of them was starting to wither but there were still some beauties left. T'was a lovely evening!

This apple tree had the sun shining from behind and so it was a dark silhouette against the May evening sky. The pink plowed fields are in the background.

The old apple trees were all gnarly with lot's of character!

This is one interpretation.

What a beautiful afternoon or shall I say evening. We were painting outside with the smell of the honeysuckles and the sound of the birds and then the challenge of conveying this intangible feeling with brushes, paint and canvas. Time just flies! This was the first of three attempts.

O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth,

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers

The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained;"

"White and ghostly in the gloom,shines the apple tree in bloom" Apple tree on a farm near Heusden,NL. Left out the sheep that was following me as I walked along the fence to take this picture-while it was bleating continually. Sheep don't like to be alone!

This painting was done last week when painting class was cancelled because of rain. Needs a lot of work yet but here it is!

A little watergate in the stronghold of the little town of Naarden in the Netherlands. We walked the streets of this little town and were able to get a lovely view from the battlements. The place was very quiet but when we looked through this aperature, there was this loader working in the water beyond-not appropriate when you were trying to imagine life when the Spaniards invaded in the 1500's.

Just a little painting of a street in Delft.

A peony-one of my favourite flowers. What a wonderful world our Father created! We humans just have to open our eyes and see it! So little time and so much to paint!

A street in the little fortified town of Heusden. Just love all the different gables. I thought the one at the end of the street was especially striking! This still needs some fine tuning. Buildings are a new challenge.

This is a farm we passed in Holland on the way to visit some friends who were camping at a farm. The blossom on the trees were gorgeous!

There was this lovely painting hanging on the wall of an Aunt who is 97 years young. She told us that it belonged to her parent's. She allowed me to take a picture although there was a lot of glare from the window. The colours were quite vibrant for an old cracked painting.This was my interpretation.

Here is another Van Gogh for you lovers of this genre! Look at his use of colour-compare to the "Potato Eaters" which we also saw at the same museum. It looks very Dutch, even though it's called" the Bridge at Arles" Saw several bridges just like it last week but with cars going over them and no washerwoman doing their laundry in the river. I hope you had a wonderful Sunday. Hope to post more Dutch stuff in the next few days so stay posted!

This was done at last Tuesday's class. It was quite windy and the light was constantly changing as the sun dipped below the horizon and the clouds kept getting in the way of the light!

Started a new, outdoor course on Tuesday-love it! This time of year is so beautiful! Reminds me of a song we learned in grade school.

"Sweet the evening air of May, soft my cheek caressing

Sweet the unseen lilac spray with it's scented blessing.

White and ghostly in the gloom, shine the apple trees in bloom-apple trees in bloom."

This bunch of double, white lilacs were picked from an old shrub that is being squeezed out by a maple-guess it will have to go-sigh. Smells lovely while I'm painting!

Well, we're back from our travels! It was a wonderful break . Will now share a few paintings we saw in Holland.. Most of you don't have to ask who painted this wonderful depiction of a blooming tree. I love this one! We visited the Kroller-Muller gallery and saw a number of famous paintings. This is a photograph of the real thing. Thank you Vincent.