Update on the Italian Cafe Window!

Little by little I am finishing up "Cafe Window in Italy"--a wedding present/commission for a co-worker friend! It has been tricky because in the photograph itself, the window is slightly crooked AND off center which totally fools with my eyes when I am trying to even out the window frame and shutters. I also need to add some warmer colors for a more glowing effect. Can't wait to go home and work on it this afternoon. After some yoga of course!

And now for some random teaching tidbits---

• Preschool girls should NOT be wearing eye-liner.
• Why do my 6th graders confuse a wedding shower with a bachelor party with strippers? OH DEAR. I do believe when I was in 6th grade I knew nothing, thought even kissing was icky and decided I would just shake hands when I got married......
• Apparently the tree branches I cut out look like "tree pants."
• I can make a very nice olympic torch out of cellophane and construction paper!
• Me to new student:" Hi! I'm Miss Fontaine! What's your name?"...New Student: "Amen" ...Me: "What was that???!"
• One of my students just got an "asthma TV" at home (I guess being on free/reduced lunch does free up the budget a bit)
• Two students at lunch eating corn on the cob: Student 1:"I like to put ketchup and cheese on my corn on the cob.".. Student 2: "EW"...Student 1: "It's Spanish, you should try it!" Student 2: "Well black people don't eat corn on the cob that way" And there you have it!

Have a super Wednesday!

Happy Friday!

New painting for sale on Etsy soon! I started this one in the fall and had never done a painting quite like this before. For once, I didn't work from a photograph...I worked from the everyday fall trees that I noticed here, there, and everywhere. The trees are uniform, simple, and not too detailed. And the canvas itself is unstretched and unprimed--a scrap I had folded up on the shelf. Without gesso, the paint soaks right into the canvas and stays quite bright even when layered! I love the look of the unprimed canvas and frayed edges so I left a good amount of it unpainted and exposed.... I'm thinking this would look even more gorgeous custom framed--Where's that 60% off coupon when you need it?!

Happy Friday :D

New Year--New/Old painting

Posted today on Etsy!! It has been SO bitter cold these days (for VA at least) that I am desperately missing warm summer days. (And I just booked a trip Vermont for Spring Break--brrrr....) I painted this still life last year in June or July and the flowers in the painting I picked from my teensy yard and deck garden!