Raspberries and Lillies

It's high summer here and that means raspberries. Our little fruitless one likes to pick them but we couldn't pay her to eat one!

It was a hot, hot, hot day and Elizabeth was doing her best to help daddy pick but the heat got the best of her and....

she found a shady spot at the edge of the patch and sat down to eat hers. I took one look at her face and took her into the market building. The workers took one look at her and hurried to get her a cup of ice water. She's a trooper when it comes to raspberry picking.

A few days earlier Elizabeth was asking questions about an armoire I have that was painted by an artist from our area. His technique is to use pallette knives to apply the paint, making for very dimensional oil paintings. Elizabeth was intrigued by his "pointy painting" so we took her to his studio on Saturday morning. He wasn't in, but we studied the works he had on display in his studio/gallery. His name is James Brandess and his work is stunning. We fell in love with his florals many years ago and through an aligning of the planets we were able to commission him to paint the doors of our armoire.

On Saturday he had a few paintings with tiger lillies in them on display. As you can see in the background, I have a stand of tiger lillies, so Sunday we set up a studio for Elizabeth and Adelaide to paint.

I also choose this for my Snappyfriends photographer's choice photo.

I cut one for Elizabeth to look at up close. She worked on these (and others) for two hours.

She is very serious about her art and corrects you when you ask her if she's going to be an artist when she grows up. "Grandma, I am an artist NOW."

Little "Me, too!" had her own interpretation going on.