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"Portrait of a Parisian Waitress" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 14" x 18". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I couldn’t resist painting  a portrait of this lovely waitress from a photo taken by artist/photographer/traveler/blogger Lee Brown. Lee generously lends some of his travel photos to artists in the context of his ADNW painting challenges. Participants get one month to submit their interpretations of his image.  There’s some cool stuff already posted. Go see it here.

I don’t know what I liked more – the quality of the light, or the shape of her hair and all those wispy tendrils. Both were tons of fun to paint.

"Sunflower Medley" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

The hubby bought me sunflowers again, so I painted them. The red ones came from an Amish woman at the farmer’s market, and the yellow ones were from Fresh Market.

In other news, Liquitex added more of my acrylic paintings to their Inspire site: Bumble Bee Bop, Rivalry, Portrait of the Chicken as a Young Cockerel, and Little Big Dog. Liquitex Inspire is a beautifully designed site featuring the work of a variety of artists who use Liquitex acrylics.

"Stanley Steamer" sketch by Lesley Spanos. Gouache and pen on kraft paper, 8" x 9". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I’d never seen a steam-powered car fired up until I saw this one. It was in the daily parade at the Indiana State Fair, it’s shiny red paint gleaming in the sun. When I looked up Stanley Steamer Motor Carriage Company on Wikipedia, I found a photo of this car in the article. Not just this model, but this actual car with the same US flag decal on the windshield, and the same owner/driver, photographed at the Indiana State Fair. Small world, eh?

I’m posting this one in Liz Wilzen’s Value Challenge on Daily Paintworks. Liz’s challenge requires us to use only four values, so I used black marker, white gouache, and a brown gouache. The light brown paper works as the fourth value. I used to like doing sketches like this in life drawing class in school, but that was a LONG time ago!

"Flare" by Lesley Spanos. Gouache painting on Multimedia Artboard, 6" x 4". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This is a harness racing horse I saw at the State Fair a couple of years ago. It’s painted in M. Graham gouache. I love gouache!  The matte surface is so velvety. I’d use it more often, if it didn’t require framing under glass.

"Holiday Road" by Lesley Spanos. Oil painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5" x 7". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Funny how some paintings grow on you. When I finished this one a few weeks ago, I didn’t think it was up to my standards. I was going to wipe it off and start over. But it had so freaking much paint on it. Wiping it would have created a toxic mess. So I put it aside, thinking it would be easier to deal with when dry.

Over the weeks, my revulsion mellowed. I started thinking maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe even I liked it a little bit. The warmth of the colors made me feel good, and the texture was pleasing. The day it was dry enough to test in a gold frame, I fell in love. Not the first time that’s happened to me…

"Redear Sunfish" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 7" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This painting proves that just about any subject can be found at the State Fair if you look around enough. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has a beautiful display of fish at the Indiana State Fair. Outdoor ponds and indoor aquariums showcase native and introduced species.  There’s even a catch and release fishing pond where kids can learn to fish under supervision.

What attracted me to this redear sunfish was the translucence of his fins. The light shining through them reminded me of fiber optics.

A few images taken along the way: