Wildflowers and Rock Wall - Again

I can't seem to stay away from painting the wildflowers above the rock wall at the entrance to our property.  However, it's good practice for me to keep painting the same subject - and I DO love those wildflowers!

So, first, I blocked in the basic shapes. Ron looked at it at this point, and thought the rock wall was the driveway, and it didn't make much sense to him. I had to explain that the darker gray strip would be the rock wall and the lighter gray strip was our street, and then it made sense to him.

The photo below is where I left it tonight before I came downstairs to go to bed. It is getting close to 1:00 a.m.; I got started and didn't want to stop! I am certain I will work on it more tomorrow, and so I will update this post then. It is satisfying that I am FINALLY getting a little better with trees. I still have a ways to go, but I'm painting mostly big shapes now rather than trying to paint individual leaves. And since the wildflowers aren't close-up, I can get by with little splotches of color for them. It's the close-up flowers that give me fits.

Oil on 12x24 linen panel

Update - 8/13/2019
I finished the painting this morning, and below is the final version. I added more shadows and filled out and lightened the near trees.  I'm pleased with it.

"Carl Road Wildflowers" -  oil on 12x24 linen panel

Entering Art in our County Fair

Today was the day to enter items in the "Cultural Arts" part of our local county fair. Cultural Arts includes a "Judged Art Show" which has several different classes. Since one can enter three items in each class, I entered three of my paintings in the amateur class 04 for "Painting/Pencil/Charcoal (includes oil acrylic, watercolor, 1 dimension mixed media)".

"At the End of a Road in Tuscany" oil on 12 x 16 linen panel

"Let's do the Twist" oil on 9 x 12 linen panel

"He Planted Wildflowers for Me" oil on 8 x 16 linen panel

I also entered two of my fused glass items in the amateur class 06 for "Other fine art (ifiber, stained glass, fused glass, silk screening, jewelry etc.)"  Here are those two items:

Fused Glass pendant and earrings. Two fusings were necessary to create these glass "beads."

Fused Glass vase. Three fusings were necessary to create this free form vase.

Thursday morning I will submit all my culinary entries to the fair. Then the fair will open on Friday evening. That is when I will find out if I won any ribbons.

Last year I put three of my paintings in the Fair - and didn't win a single ribbon.  I won some for my cooking - even a "Best of Show" for my biscuits. I hope that one of my art offerings will get a ribbon this year. We will find out in just three days.

Update: I peeked at the art work when I took my culinary entries to the fair awhile ago. The fair opens tomorrow evening. I only looked at paintings - didn’t even think about looking at the fused glass.  Here is my part of the amateur painting results:

When I remembered that I’d submitted two fused glass items too, I went back to the fairgrounds and looked. I figured it’s a lot less crowded today because tomorrow night it will be a madhouse. Here is my part of the amateur “other” art results: 

To say I’m pleased with my two blue ribbons would be an understatement!