"Blue Hydrangeas" -- oil on canvas -- 8x10" -- Margie Guyot

I'd just finished painting a large still life and was all jivved up, in "paint" mode. Ever get that way? You just don't want to put away your brushes and wipe off your palette. So you look around for something else to paint. Aha! I had this little pot of blue hydrangeas sitting on my windowsill.

And I just LOVE painting fabric! Wrinkles, folds -- just bring it on! It's all just like a jigsaw puzzle. Some people are addicted to crossword puzzles; I am addicted to figuring out painting puzzles. This fabric had a bit of a sheen to it and the interesting thing I noticed was that in places, it had a definite orange sheen in the shadows and folds. The sunlight was burning through it, creating that rich, orange shade.

And I really liked painting the lavender plastic cellophane! It was picking up the coolest reflections from the gold fabric! And the shapes were just a lark to paint. You'll laugh, but painting the actual flowers was less exciting than painting all the shapes and colors around them.

"April Thaw" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas -- 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

The great thing about living in NW Michigan is that you can just step right outside your door and see something you want to paint. This is just a few feet over from my property line, looking east. I called my neighbor Jerry and said, "Hey -- let's go painting!" and we had a great old time today. We both did 2 paintings.

At one point, an old car raced along the dirt road, dust flying, muffler in need of repair. Ah, but what would the country be without old, noisy cars, kicking up clouds of dust? I always like to dream that some rich person will see me painting, stop for a look and fall to their knees in utter rapture, just begging to buy everything in my studio!

I really love it when the snow melts into interesting patterns across the fields. And notice the blue of the snow in the shadow of the white pine? It's reflecting the blue of the sky. There was a thin strip of show beyond the stand of aspen and birches in the distance. Lots of robins were singing. We also heard a raven croaking. A curious bee was checking us out. We decided that in the future we'll have to pack a sack lunch --- painting is such hard work!

"Daisies" -- oil on canvas -- 48x36" -- Margie Guyot

This is the second of two "white" paintings requested by a friend. What did I enjoy most about painting this? I really loved painting the reflections in the teacups most of all. My second favorite thing? The green depression glass plates in the back. The thing that I found hardest was painting the tablecloth, with its wrinkled stripes. In reality, it's pink. I changed it to pale green stripes for the heck of it. The clear glass in the center foreground, with the stripes showing through in the back and the design of the glass, was a little challenging.

Near the end of this, I changed a few things. I added another "wing" (in the foreground) of the purple and green paper trim around the potted daisies. It seemed to need it. And I added a folded napkin to the left front and part of a spoon on the left -- to kind of guide the viewer's eyes up into the painting. I'm still debating on putting some kind of booze into the little cordials (upper left). Maybe a light golden sherry would echo the golden tones of the tea. I'll have to think about this for a few days.

Did the little cupcakes go to waste? Never!