Varla Bishop Landscape, Watercolor Paintings, wildlife

Look Cranes!!!

That’s what I always say when I see sandhill cranes. I see them, I grab my phone, and I take tons of pictures. Then I tell myself I need to paint these amazing birds. Then I don’t.

Then I hit “repeat” because I see cranes again, then I yell out that fact, look for my phone, and take more pictures. So I had to break the cycle. I also needed to get my watercolors out again. It’s been a year. Let’s paint some cranes!!!

I got my paper out, reference photos, paint and water. Ready to paint; I painted. Then I threw that sheet away and started again. This is my second effort. I enjoyed painting the cranes but what do I do with the background. I know you should start with the background first. (It says that in all of the art books.)

My friends gave me different suggestions for backgrounds but I ended up loving the blades of grass the best. I thought it made the painting look contemporary. Can’t explain why, but I like using a word that has more then two vowels. Contemporary. It makes me feel like a big time artist.

So here are my cranes. I call them “My Three Stars”.

“My Three Stars”

Varla Bishop Landscape, portrait, Watercolor Paintings

Poverty

My uncle use to say “I’ve been broke but never poor”. He died last year and I miss his stories and his wisdom. He was a wealthy man in many ways.

There are many people in this world who are struggling just to make it through a day. They are poor. My mom use to tell me how hard the Depression was. Always wondering about the next meal or how to keep the family together. Everyone worked; everyone contributed if they could. Days were long.

So I look around me and feel blessed for all I have. I’ve heard it said “history repeats itself if we fail to learn life’s lessons”. Are we repeating history now? Is there a lesson we failed to learn? The news today makes me physically ill. It is full of hate and laced with sarcasm. How did we get here?

I’ve started painting pictures of how hard life was back in the 30’s and 40’s. Kids worked and they learned to do without. Even today we know that kids are going to bed hungry, are being sexually assaulted and abused or assuming responsibilities that only adults should have.

I want us to remember how our decisions effect our children. How our words and actions effect our children. We as adults are responsible for our children and their future. I want to remember the past so I can do better with the future.

Doing Chores

Varla Bishop Landscape, Watercolor Paintings

Old Trucks

This old truck was sitting in someone’s front yard. The back was full of baskets  of flowers. It actually looked nice in a rustic sort of way.  We were also kind of in the country so this choice of landscape design may be totally acceptable.  I must admit I have never lived anywhere as an adult that an old rusted truck would look good in the front yard.

I’m not judging just saying   So anyway I took a picture and thought it would be fun to paint, it wasn’t   Took me forever to actually finish it   Still not sure I like it but I am done.