One of the beautiful sunsets we witnessed on the evening of the paint course-would reccommend it to anyone interested in painting or photography. Next step would be to get up early enough for sunrise"ugh" . Maybe in August! Hope to see painting buddies in September! Meanwhile-keep painting!

Soft and fluffy, these clouds evoke the sense of a summer evening. There is a certain amount of sadness at the end of a 10 week painting course where painting has to make room for summer business-not all that bad. One more night. It's been great. Time to spend painting in the garden and elsewhere!

I played around with this painting to see if would have more pizazz with the shadows in the picture, taken at about 6 in the evening. Anybody cutting more hay? Need(want) to do more bales!

"Come and let us go up to the House of the Lord"

. Today is Sunday. What better day than that, to celebrate the Glory and Creative power of our God with the beauty of light, colour and shape! Painted on an old piece of barnboard, the tall grasses in the planter follow the characterisic lines of this old piece of pine.

One of the planters on our patio with geraniums just loving the bright sunshine! Replaced the pansys in this planter(which were languishing in the heat) with voluptuous pink geraniums. Happy I took advantage of sunshine to paint for an hour or so because today it's raining!

This is a painting of a planter which was made at a garden centre as a gift from my daughter for my birthday. They, then kept it there till all danger of frost was over. The bubblegum petunias sure lived up to their reputation!

Last Monday evening, the farmer was madly scrambling to get the cut hay into bales before the next rain. It's been a difficult summer for the farmer to get his hay in. On the left is the uncut hay.

Am always intrigued by the bales and the play of light, so quickly took the bike trailer with my painting stuff to the neighour's field and tried to catch the impression before the farmer trucked the bales off to the barn! The sky was starting to cloud over and the sun was setting. Still needs somework. Will post again later.

Thought that, because of rain we would not be painting "plein air' but it turned out to be a fabulous evening and there was a challenge. The clouds, sailing by quickly, were constantly changing but spectacular!

This will probably be the last of the peonies for this year. Growing among the weeds(goldenrod) these peonies were trying to reach the sun and were much later than the ones in the garden.

The pink peonies were not quite as far gone as the white ones. These looked a little less bedraggled!

That evening they were saying farewell, ready to lose their petals and limp from the rain. Today, they are just another memory! The next blooms are waiting and so am I, for the hydrangeas, poppies and echineacia. Which ones first?

This is the large version of the initial painting in Rachel's Garden. It sure us a different challenge to do the same painting in a much larger format.

The lo-light class has given us so much practise in the changing light as the sun sets. Trees, grass and hills reflect the sun's light so that the artist has to paint madly, changing canvasses in order to record this phenomenon. Truly "For the Beauty".

The other quick painting done of the yellow ladyslipper, we saw along the path last week.

Evergreens in the late evening. A quick sketch to catch the evening light.

On this day-the Lord's Day, thought I would publish this painting of peonies done sometime last week. They have been very lush and beautiful this year. The challenge is to find the different colours in what we first see as white! Our world has so much pain and strife and yet we are privileged to enjoy the beauty if we are willing to open our eyes and look for it. Have a blessed Sunday!

A small painting of the "ladyslipper" that was growing along the path at Rachel's place last Tuesday. No time to paint today and still wanted to share this little miracle which we admired then! (sorrry about the glare)

Evening shadows at Rachel's. painted on plywood late in the evening. Wonderful challenge!

"Oh how lovely is the evening, when the birds were sweetly singing!" Another childhood round which comes to mind when you sit and paint in the Spring after 6 o'clock pm.

Had a beautiful evening painting last night-sure happy we didn't have the rain that's falling this morning! Rachel's garden was the first thing to greet us as we walked into the property to find a spot to paint. When my eyes spotted the contrast between the poppies and the white irises, had to sit and paint them and not just take pictures with my camera. Later, walked to the pond and sat down to paint there(that was the original plan!), Catherine pointed out a picture perfect "yellow lady slipper" along the path. At 8:30 had to pack up because it was getting dark but could have gone on for hours! Thank you Rachel!

The last few summers we thought this rose was gone but this year it got a new lease on life and look at the flowers!

Baby pink peonies, painted on Saturday afternoon before the torrential downpours that left them looking a little worse for wear and low to the ground. They resemble huge cabbage roses and with a cloud of sweet perfume around them.

Magenta pink peonies three days later are decidedly floppy but very interesting. The colour has faded and the one on the left is ready to drop it's petals. Have a wonderful Lord's Day! Also added some Feverfew as a filler.

The peonies are in bloom! Found these lovely one with the stunning deep yellow stamen out back where there are some perennials left over from a business. Picked a few and put them in a glass vase-will move them to our borders once they are finished blooming. Just had to paint them last night. It was a challenge getting the right magenta and crimson effect.

These peonies beckoned from the neighbour's garden after being inspired by the effort's of a fellow painter on Tuesday. See her blog and painting at "eat, drink and paint" by Kim Rempel. It is just beautiful!

Just had to paint this beautiful Iris that is blooming in our garden right now. This wonderful plant will bloom again in the fall I'm told! It is like a voluptuous Victorian lady-all lace and tulle. You have to paint these quick before they start to wilt-hope the weather cools a bit so we can enjoy them longer!

A small painting of the flower that is seen on roadsides and open fields at this time of year.