Tropical Treasures from my Gallery

 

Hi Everyone,  It is a beautiful hot sunny day in Florida, putting me in a tropical painting mood! I am busy painting for my gallery shop.  One new thing above is a painting done on old dictionary paper. Pretty cool usage of an old dictionary that is no long being used for its intended purpose.

 

I am painting pillow covers in the tropical theme, too. Love the big green leaves on these pillows, and they were fun to paint.

Here is another tropical designed pillow set. They would add a nice splash of color to outdoor furniture!  Time to get busy and do some more hot tropic designs!! Have a great day!

What's growing?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Hi Everyone,  I am so excited to have 9 lovely pineapples growing in different places around the property. Everytime we get a pineapple, I cut off the top and just stick it out in the ground somewhere and low and behold, soon a new plant is growing.  Before you know it, more pineapples are forming. It actually takes 2 years to get a pineapple on the plant, but it also will have baby plants come up and once you have some established, you begin to get a lot of them. They are so delicious home grown, maybe it is because you don't have to pick them too early. You do have to beat the raccoons to them, though, so I watch closely.

 

Also this year I have so many beautiful amaryllis blooming right now. The blooms are so pretty and even though it is getting really hot here, they are doing well and lasting several days with more coming on.

 

Hope you are having a nice quiet Sunday afternoon; it's a good time to walk around the garden and see what is new!

Beautiful Orchids

 

Hi Everyone, I hope you are having a great day! It is beautiful in sunny and warm Florida. I have lots of Spring flowers in bloom, but I want you to see the beautiful orchid plants in a big planter that Margaret and John, my neighbors got me for Mother's Day. What a nice surprise and it is just gorgeous!

 

 

Here is a photo of the whole thing. It has a pretty bromeliad in it and another big tropical green leafed plant plus 2 orchids, one large and one smaller.

Hopefully I won't kill it. My green finger does not include orchids, but the directions say plenty of light and not much water, so we will see. I am really enjoying its beauty right now! Thank you so much, Margaret and John!!

Springtime in Florida

 

Hello Everyone, Wow, but it has been a very long time since I have blogged!! I have been very busy with my art gallery  and also my computer is really acting up and I need to get a new one! Time flies by so fast and here it is Spring in Florida! It is lovely and we are having beautiful sunny days, and a few thunderstorms, too. Fellsmere, Florida had a lot of hail last night and the forecast shows we may get some here tonight. I hope not!

 

 

I am not doing much gardening, as I have so little time. A few pots of vegg

and a granny flower garden is about all I have done. Here is my lettuce pot, which is getting some sprouts almost ready for salad!

 

My favorite time of day is tea time and the above sofa table is just the ticket. I painted it trompe l'eoil to show a book in the center entitled "Three cups of Tea" and then I painted three different teacups with tea on the table. One has little green shamrocks, which is my favorite because you all know how I love Ireland, Northern Ireland and England! That is where I became such a tea time fan!

This small desk and chair is in my gallery just waiting for the right person who can't live without it!It is fun painting furniture, but I still do lots of canvas paintings and watercolors. Happy Springtime to all of you. I have missed my blogger friends and hope to do more blogging now!

Busy days

Hi Everyone, it has been a very long time since I have posted on my blog! I have been extremely busy with my art gallery.  Then I finally had a big stalk of bananas grow on my banana tree patch, and had 65 bananas to use somehow!  I gave some away and made banana pudding and several loaves of banana bread.  Now I have another bloom, so another stalk will be forming! How wonderful to have bananas in one's own back yard! Eat your heart out, all you who are having snowy weather! It is 80 degrees in Florida!

My gallery is really going well. Some pieces of furniture sell within a day or two of being displayed, so it is hard to keep the space full!. I often forget to take photos, I am so busy getting things displayed. I have done some Christmas "smalls", too, such as painted wine glass candle holders, old shutters with snowmen painted on them, pillows and ornaments. It is time to decorate my home, too, so hopefully, I will post more this month. Hope you are having fun, too, this time of year.

More Painted Furniture

Hi Everyone, here it is almost Fall and I am painting palm trees and the ocean on a chest of drawers! But I am in Florida, so this is the kind of furniture enjoyed year around here. I just finished this piece and put it in my gallery.

This piece is the bottom I painted to go with that shelf with the parrot on it that I posted last time. However, I didn't like the shelf on top of this, as they weren't the same size. So I think as coordinating pieces, the top shelf could be hung. They are both in my shop priced seperately.  Always in my photos, the colors are never exactly as they are in real life. This piece is a color called "Pear" by Martha Stewart.
 It went on beautifully and is a pretty greenish, almost a mint color, but true to a pear starting to ripen from green to yellow. I love it! The terra cotta color, I mixed myself and it is really pretty, too. Enlarge these for a better look.
Wish it were Fall here. In sunny Florida, it is hot and humid. For months our temperature has been in the 90s with heat index of over 100, so I have basically stayed in and painted all summer.  My garden has not liked the heat much, but does like the rain we have daily for an hour or so.  Tropical weather! I am ready for a respite!

Painting furniture

Hi Everyone, it has been a long time since I have posted! I have been extremely busy with the new gallery and I suppose, a little lax about anything but painting!! I am doing furniture besides my paintings, and am painting on leaves, rocks and all kinds of things! It is too much fun!  Above is a modern chair done with chalk paint and I make 2 pillows that can be used with it or in the room with it. The zebra pillow top is painted with fabric paint. The pillows I paint are selling fast!

This is a shelf and I am in the process of painting a piece sort of like a small buffet that this will sit on top.  It has three drawers, so I am trying to decide whether to paint them the reddish color and add tropical leaves....I probably will as it will certainly take it to an arty level and that is what I like doing.  Hope you enjoy seeing a bit of my new things. I would post more, but am having trouble with my computer right now. I am so lucky to have done this much. I wish I knew a little more about electronics, but that really isn't my field. Every so often I decide to never get on the computer again. Then I cool off and decide that maybe I can do it, so I just jump in not knowing what in the world I am doing.  Of course, none of you are like that I am sure.  Hope to have some thoughts and comments on this!!