"Gift Wrap" -- oil on canvas -- 30x40" -- Margie Guyot

About half the time I was painting this, I had to grab one of the kittens as it attempted to leap onto my wet palette. Kitty thought it was a game, to have me catch her as she leaped toward the wet paint.

I started this painting last Sunday while waiting for my neighbor to come over and help me build storage shelves in the back room of the studio. Instead of standing around, feeling frustrated while waiting for my helper, I decided to clear a space, set up another still life and paint.

As usual, it was cloudy most of the time, so I didn't get a lot of strong sunlight/shadow patterns. To liven things up a little, I put a string of colored lights running around in the composition. That roll of aluminum gift wrap was drawing a little too much attention. By draping 2 strands of lights across, it helped stop the viewer's eye from sliding off the left side. To get an effect of "glowing" light bulbs, I painted them pure white. Once dry, I put a thin glaze of pure color over them.

The toughest thing about this painting was the plastic bag full of bows. Ah, patience! One thing I figured out about how to get the bows to look shiny was to clean my brush with turpentine, then use it like an eraser to remove a thin band where I wanted the highlight to appear.

That bowl of truffles gradually got emptier & emptier as the week progressed. But the mini-cupcakes: they were horrible, from the grocery store bakery. Nasty things! I fed them to my chickens. They viewed the green frosting with suspicion.

No, maybe I was wrong about the bag of bows being the toughest thing to paint. Those vintage poinsettia glasses were no piece of cake, either! I think obelisks are rather difficult. But I loved those glasses & I was bound & determined to paint them.

And the shelves we were building? 95% done. Hallelujah! Going to use them for storing my canvases and frames.

"Flowering Kale" -- oil on canvas -- 30x40" -- Margie Guyot

A couple weeks ago I attended a "fungi/fermentation" workshop when I saw this huge, frilly, flowering kale. It gave me GOOSEBUMPS! Some people's heart skips a beat; for me, it's goosebumps. I went up to the workshop organizers and said I wanted to either "beg, buy or steal" it. Ended up making a $5 donation to ISLAND.

I loved the colors in the top part of the kale and selected a cloth from my fabric collection to echo those tones. The people in JoAnn Fabrics must think I'm cuckoo for the garish fabrics I buy.

The red-striped vase is from Pier One. That wonderful grape-shaped wine bottle I found at a flea market for $10. As soon as I saw it -- yep -- you guessed it: goosebumps. And that polka dot bag is so cool! It came from some hoity-toity boutique over in the Leelanau Peninsula last summer. I thought the polka dots work well, echoing the bumps on the wine bottle.

It was a bit of a challenge to get the sunlight and shadow patterns and colors. Usually I have to use my studio light during the cooler months, as it's mostly cloudy along the NW coastline of Michigan.

"Black Bell Peppers and Corn" -- oil painting on stretched canvas -- 18x24" -- Margie Guyot

A few days ago I found these bell peppers in a roadside farm stand south of Eastport, north of Elk Rapids. I'd never seen this color of pepper before and just had to have some to paint! Got this sweet corn at the farm stand as well. I thought it looked more interesting to leave the silk and part of the husk on. I'd avoided painting corn. What to do with all those kernels??? How to handle the silk?

What I did was paint a deeper gold tone on the corn cob. Later I went back with some lighter paint and just dabbed it along in rows. It turned out to be easier that I'd thought. And painting the silk was a lark!

This setup remained on the table for several days, so the corn was a little too old to eat. I gave it to my chickens this morning and after a few dubious pecks, they quickly decided it was "edible - choice".