50 Paintings in 50 days

Tattered and Torn #45

The countdown begins, five more to go and I should have 47 today. If my sister Patricia hadn't sent in the little wonders (baby shoes) I would not have been so inspired and caught up as fast as I did last weekend. Thanks to Patricia, Happy Saint Patrick's day and thanks for the art supplies you shipped via express mail.

One of my favorite artists and teacher, Betty Billups, once said, "It's a miracle these little paintings turn out at all" it's almost as if by chance.

Betty Billups, Plain Air painters of America; Winter Park; Grandby, Colorado, sundown paint out class. That's where these boots went on my first plein air painting trip. I bought a book by Frank LaLumia Plein Air Painting in Oils and Watercolors fell in love with the idea, looked him up on the Internet and the next thing I knew I was on a plane to to a class in Colorado. I got off the plane got my rental car took a wrong turn and ended up in Estes National Park (what a sight) I was two hours late to the teachers reception. 20 teachers from the group teaching at the YMCA in Winter Park. I had never painted in oils or plein air, my first teacher for the week was Linda Tippets, "You jumped into it with both feet" my answer: I parachuted in.

A confused pair of shoes, the confusing detail of the shoe laces drove me crazy. These are my old and favorite pair of boots, they have gone with me to so many places and perhaps it's time for them to go, but they are memorialized in this little painting.