Saturday, September 15, 2007

Dragonflies 'n Hummingbirds



What a beautiful day it was today! There was a nice cool breeze blowing, an occasional cloud or two in the bright blue sky. It was Saturday; no kids to take to school, so I took advantage of my garden. A mixture of vegetables, flowers and weeds, it was a lovely place to be today. I sat down in front of a Rose of Sharon bush with my paints, brushes and a canvas, and proceeded to attempt to create something beautiful. That's usually my intent with my art; I don't always succeed but still I try! Whether today's painting achieved that goal or not is open to debate of course. I'm not sure yet how I feel about it. It will hang out in the living room for a day or two while I decide. Sometimes I just don't know right away whether or not I'm happy with a piece.

I sure had fun though.

I guess because it's mid-September and it's migration time, there weren't many birds around, but lots of bugs visited the garden... bumble bees, white, orange, - and even one Monarch - butterflies. Twice, a hummingbird zoomed in briefly, paused for a second at a blossom, then sped off! I don't see them often around here. Then, a dragon fly came by to visit. He landed on the end of a dead tomato plant branch. I watched him for a bit, then ran in and grabbed my camera. I use that camera a lot in the summer for photo references of things to paint in winter when the colors of the garden are no longer around.



He let me come real close and I took many, many pictures!



It was so breezy, the wind made his whole body move along with the branch. It was frustrating. lots of pictures didn't come out clear because it was hard to keep him in focus with all that wind movement! Then, I got too close and spooked him. Off he went.





So I went back to my forgotten painting and worked on it a little more. As I leaned it against the shed to look at it from far away, guess who came back? Yep, my dragonfly friend flew back into the garden, this time landing near a different tomato plant. This place wasn't as breezy so I started photographing again. I also realized this time that I hadn't been using the highest quality my camera can do, so I changed the settings and took more.






Is he cool-looking or what?!?!



Maybe someday a series of dragonfly paintings will come from today's gift!

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