"Two Cups of Tea" -- oil on stretched canvas -- 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

"Yellow Primrose" -- oil on stretched canvas -- 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

Winter has returned with a vengeance! It snowed ALL day yesterday. A perfect day for painting in the studio. I'd found this vintage, striped table runner at a resale shop in Charlevoix last week. Loved the "cottagey" colors! I'm sure there will be more paintings with this cloth.

I love painting cups with tea. It's fascinating -- the colors change so quickly as the tea brews. These teacups are ancient, with "China" stamped on the bottom. Thin as paper. With little hand-painted bluebirds and flowers. It's a miracle they survived my move up north.

Because it was so dark & dreary outside, I had to set up a studio light to get some sense of sunlight and shadow patterns. Still, it's not quite as good as real sunshine.

The primrose plant came from Glen's in Charlevoix. I'm going to try to keep it alive until spring, so I can plant it in my flower garden.

I found I had to pre-mix all the colors of the striped fabric in fairly large quantities before doing the actual painting. I enjoy loading on the paint to get a "thick & juicy" look. Not only is the scene interesting, but I also like people to notice the beauty of the actual paint, its wonderful "mooshiness" and color.

"Apple Pie" -- oil on canvas panel -- 5x7" -- Margie Guyot

"Ala Mode" -- oil on canvas panel -- 5x7" -- Margie Guyot

Friday I baked an apple pie just for the purpose of getting to paint a picture of a slice of it. I have been on a diet since March, so this is the first pie I've baked in months. I could have bought a slice down the street at Friske's (south of Charlevoix), but it's never as good as homemade. And expensive!

I had intended on painting a series of slices of pie but had been busy with all kinds of things all summer. Glen's Market had "buy one, get one free" on bags of Ginger-Gold apples, so that's what I used. Turns out they worked great.

I used a tablecloth I bought a few weeks ago at a garage sale.

These two paintings I did, using the same slice of pie. I finished one, turned it a bit and put a scoop of ice cream (Stroh's Vanilla Bean). In the middle of painting it, my neighbor Jerry came by and we visited a little. Ah -- how fast ice cream melts! Good thing I'd painted it in early. I had to pick up the plate & slurp (remember that Jell-O scene with John Belushi in "Animal House"?) to avoid it flowing over onto the tablecloth.

OK, ok, I DID eat this piece. But I'm giving the rest of the pie to my neighbors. Stay tuned for "Lemon Meringue", coming soon....