After a beautiful spring and early summer we had an unusually rainy July and now, it's typical summer weather for coastal North Carolina. Temperatures over 90 degrees and high humidity... Summer is the time when I get in an hour in the garden early in the morning, then spend the rest of the day in the studio. And, there I've been busy and cool! This is the first summer and I adore the split a/c system... Here's what it looked like this morning.
I look forward to an upcoming week in the mountains where I hope to find fresh color inspirations and a bit of respite from the heat. I'm dreaming of cool evenings and have even moved to a color palette that matches those mental yearnings.
And what am I working on these in this hot & humid summer weather? No plein air painting for me! I'm fully enjoying the air conditioning in my studio for this - its first summer.
To the right are two 36" square paintings... The inspiration for this work is The Blues painted for a recent solo exhibition, which is pictured below. I do notice that more blue-greens are creeping into these new paintings. They are just recent starts, so we'll see where they take me.
Oh, and if you're a nature lover, click here to see a short video of a recent garden visitor... this little thing is way off course according to my research. Its usual habitat is Uruguay and northern Argentina, although it's sometimes seen in Florida (and at least once, right here in my North Carolina backyard garden. I believe - after checking with a few people who know more than I - that it is a Titan Sphinx moth. It looks like a miniature humming bird! More information and better photos here thanks to the fine website Butterflies and Moths of North America.