Hello friends,
We still have plenty of Summer left, but with August here it is time to share some of my summer paintings and memories with you.
We visit Door County every summer, and one of my favorite places to paint is Wilson's ice cream shop. I love the striped awning that is above the porch, and this year I painted it with hot pink paint. This one was created on my Wife's birthday while she and Violet were at our cabin taking a nap. There is something about painting a place like that—people coming and going, the warm summer light, and the promise of an ice cream cone—that just feels like summer to me.
I've also included a painting of a cat getting ready to make a leap onto a table where a glass of lemonade is waiting. Another is a summer landscape from Diamond Hill Road, painted just as the corn was beginning to tassel. I was especially interested in trying to capture the particular color and atmosphere of a Wisconsin summer day, the hazy greens, warm air, and subtle color shifts in the distance.
Of course, there are some cows.
One painting shows a herd grazing with the Baraboo Bluffs in the background, and another shows a few cows cooling themselves in a stream beneath the shade of a tree. Those quiet scenes are some of my favorite things to paint.
And finally, there's a river painting from my favorite fishing spot here on the farm. I painted this one over two days, the first was picture perfect, but when I returned the mosquitos were ready for me. I didn't even have time to use my brush, I mixed the colors quickly on my palette and applied them with my palette knife. I think the painting is better because of how quickly I needed to paint it, I captured some of the sparkle of the morning light and made it back to my house before I got carried away by the mosquitos.
I hope you enjoy seeing a few of these new paintings. Thank you, as always, for following along with my work.
Happy summer,
Kyle
