Who's Watching the Baby?

8 X 6 Oil on Masonite panel $125

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A quick trip to the Matagorda Bay area last weekend afforded me the opportunity  to acquire some "beachy" images. While Mike and I were soaking up a few rays, I got permission from the folks around me to take their pictures for possible future use in a painting.

This is a classic example of combining two images to make one. This young man watching his daughter and WAS NOT actually oogling the lovely young lady strolling by - she was on the beach on a separate occasion and was walking her dog. But the image of the young fellow with his face turned so dramatically just demanded something worth looking at! Voila! Who IS watching the babe...er baby?
Genesis 30:31
“What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:
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Beachcombers

5 X 7 Oil on Masonite $115
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SOLD

The beach at Boca Grande, Florida, was fairly deserted this past weekend. This was about the most beach combers I saw at any given time. All the shop keepers in town said they were packing up to leave this week for the summer - getting too hot - and the tourist season was just about over.
Boca Grande is on the Gulf side of the Florida peninsula - about 130 miles south of Tampa - nearly to the Everglades. And it WAS getting hot. I was told that the best time to go would be October and November and mid-spring. I suspect we'll go back. I have been to the Cayman Islands and was pleased with the spotless beaches and crystal waters. In my opinion, Boca Grande was just as beautiful and a heck of a lot cheaper!
I will continue this week with a few more beach scenes - a sunset and a night-dock-water scene that may take more than a day - it's pretty complicated. And I may paint it large than usual, too. After this week, I'll go back to my farm critters. And THEN it'll be mostly scenes from our trip to Montana and South Dakota through August
Exodus 22:26
If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset.

Not In Momma's Shadow?

6 X 8 Oil on Masonite $125
Includes shipping and Insurance

Continuing with the Florida images. This young lady was a beach comber with her little boy in tow - and he was fearless. He DIDN'T stay in Momma's shadow at all. Fortunately, the water was gentle and shallow, there was plenty of other family around and this little fellow didn't venture too far away. Later they built a sand castle together and that brought back memories of a trip to Padre Island with my kids years ago....I need to find those pictures....
Proverbs 15:27
A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.

Too Young to Notice

8 X 6 Oil on Masonite $125
Includes shipping and insurance
SOLD

Ya'll are going to have to indulge me painting a few beach scenes. I promise to get back to the cowboys and horses later, but right now I gotta get Florida out of my system!
Every time I walked on the beach, I took my little old pocket Canon with the movable view screen and I would hold the camera away from me like I wasn't doing anything with it, but I could still see images in the screen - and I would capture them. I'm sure I would have been viewed as a pervert by some of the parents out there, but the only way to get good pictures is not let anyone know you are taking them! So I took pictures of kids and adults alike and pretended to be beach combing when I was really snapping photos.
This painting, like most of mine is a composite of 2 photos. The little boy was so happy to be playing in the sand, oblivious of everything else. The young girl was actually his sister, but he pretty well ignored all the other cuties that passed him, too. Ah, youth - don't you sometimes wish they could stay innocent forever?
Psalm 25:7
Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.

Beauty or Beast?

We just flew in from attending a wedding in Boca Grande, Florida. My precious cousin Heather and her adorable new husband David hosted a lavish, fun-filled, food laden, intoxicating destination wedding for all their Texas and Louisiana loved ones(I qualify as both!).

The Rocky Mountains and the Tetons had almost made me forget how much I love the beach. And I have to admit that the Florida Gulf coast beats the Texas coast by miles. NO JELLYFISH!!!!

Our condo was right on the water and I began each morning combing for shells and then swimming. Saturday while I was snorkeling and looking for sand dollars about 50 yards from shore, in about 5 feet of water, I glimpsed a dark shape next to me and instinctively caught my breath thinking “SHARK!” When I turned to looked, there, not 3 feet off my right side was a gentle manatee, undulating beside me. I was thrilled beyond description.

I have a list of “things to do before I die” and at the top of that list is “Swim with Dolphins”. This comes close enough to almost qualify in crossing it off the list!

I found out later that encounters with manatees are actually common around there. Later we saw several pods of bottlenose dolphins as well, and I was the ONLY one on shore eager to swim with them, however. We ARE going back. Mike promised. Merideth is jealous….

Isaiah 25:11
They will spread out their hands in it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands.

Feeding the Birds

One of the best vacations we ever took with the kids was to South Padre Island. It's a long trip to get there, but well worth it. The beach that year was spotless, the weather perfect and the fishing great!

My daughter could have spent the entire time feeding the gulls, if we let her. They knew an easy mark, too - and they were so conditioned to getting fed, all you had to do was make the motion of raising your arm or tossing something in the air (either real or imaginary) and there'd be a squawking flock around you in seconds!

Philippians 4:12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.