Art in My World

On the Road to Death Valley #2 Thought I would take one more stab at this before I leave it for another day. One of my artist friend says that he paints three paintings each time he sets out to paint---the first two are just scraped off. Yeah, I can believe it! 

On the Way to Death Valley   We were heading away from Las Vegas to spend the night in Death Valley, (little did we know we wouldn't arrive until around 2:00 in the morning) when we were treated to a beautiful sunset full of color. I didn't quite get what I wanted down on the canvas this first try, but fooling around with the colors was fun and educational!     

Gluten Free Banana Bread! This summer my mom gave my sisters and me a wonderful cookbook by Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Deliciously G-Free. It took me awhile to gather her ingredients in the book, all the various flours and odd ingredients like xanthum gum and guar gum, but now that my pantry is ready, I have begun to try her various recipes. None of my family has celiac disease, but I don't think wheat is doing us any favors either. My family (the Alexanders) don't seem to do so well with our weight, and I believe wheat might be a large part of it. These recipes are not low in calories, but they do digest so much better. Last night I made the waffles, which turned out great. I froze up the leftovers to toast up for a quick breakfast. I also baked up this banana bread recipe as well. Both of these recipes make a wonderful breakfast rather than that sugary bowl of cereal. Like Elisabeth's promise, you would never know that these recipes do not have flour. Banana Bread 5 tab...

I took one more stab at this sky before I will move onto another type of sky. I think I like the clouds just a little better than the first try. Clouds are a challenge all their own. They need to be randomly placed and shaped, they probably have more color in them than you think, and they need to receed back into the distance as they get closure to the horizon.  Havn't quit figured all that out yet... 

California Roadside #2     So, in this picture is was all about capturing the thunderhead. The lighting was beautiful, the hills were golden, the clouds a threatening gray, and in the corner, just a hint of blue. Just gorgious! My first try at the painting is below.....     

California Hills      A little over a year ago we took a family vacation out to California. Our goal was to visit as many of the National Parks as we could. California has eight of them! We were able to visit Death Valley, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Channel Islands and Joshua Tree. Like our last trip West, we were stunned by the beauty surrounding us. If I were taking the trip alone, we never would have been able to see so much, for I would be stopping every mile or so to take pictures of just the sites right along the road. There were a few shots I took while traveling in the car that I have been dying to paint. This month I am going to try and do just that.        Also, t his month, one of the painting sites I belong to, is having a challenge in painting clouds: puffy clouds, storm clouds, sunset clouds, clouds in all their various colors and shapes...Some of my pictures that I took have some stunning cloud formations...