More Miniature Painting.

"Boats At Shem Creek" by Rachelle, measures 2 3/4 inches.

        The past week has been filled with many hours of painting for us. The above painting, “Boats at Shem Creek” was done from a photo taken during a visit to Charleston, SC. It was early morning and the lighting was quite nice. One of the most difficult parts to a miniature painting of boats, to myself, is painting the name of the boat, along with keeping the rigging lines straight.

"Orchid Tree Blossoms" by Wes, measures 2 3/4 inches square.

        Wes’ painting titled, “Orchid Tree Blossom” was done from a photo taken during a visit to Southern California, last spring. This is a gorgeous tree, as it’s covered with numerous, beautiful and delicate blooms and smells quite divine! We had one of these lovely trees in our yard in Florida while I was growing up, which I was always enamored with, and greatly enjoyed wearing and carrying the blooms around as a young girl.

A few of the Black-Eyed Susans that grace our front yard.

        Chippy the Chipmunk, the Carolina Wrens and many other feathered friends continue to daily enjoy their peanut crunchie treats. They are also enjoying eating them in the secret garden, as we look on while enjoying our meals. The birds have a much greater chance of getting them before the squirrels get and devour them in seconds, in this area, for which the birds are quite thankful!

Sweet Chippy eating the peanut crunchies on the top deck.

       The weather has been quite delightful for most of this past week, so I decided to take advantage of it one afternoon, spending it on the back deck while working on my sketch for the Western Visions Miniature and More Show. Being a bit on the cool side and with pleasant breezes blowing, one could almost sense a hint of fall in the air. I did a drawing of a Raven again this year, keeping with the theme of the Ravens that I have done in the previous years.

Working on my Raven drawing on the top deck.

"Raven on Old Pine" by Rachelle

         This week will be filled with many more hours of painting along with the daily enjoyment of a bike ride or walk to do errands.

Until next time ~ Rachelle 🙂

Debut of the Siegrist Blog

          Well, today is my birthday, so I figured it would be a great day to start my blog!  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I believe I will enjoy composing it, offering to you, a look inside our lives as miniature artists.  We live in very eastern TN, in the smoky mountains.  It’s beautiful here year round, offering different types of beauty throughout the year.  At this time the spring green leaves are darkening and various flowers are blooming in our yard.  Wes & I both enjoy gardening & our yard is finally starting to really show it, as we’ve only lived here for seven years.  One of my personal favorite flowers are peonies.  I start filling our home with them as soon as they are open, as they are so beautiful & have a nice fragrance, albeit faint.  I photographed one grouping of them and did a miniature painting of it titled “My Peonies”.  It was a beautiful color scheme to work with and had an “old world” look to it that I loved.  Below are two photos, the first being of some of the peonies in our front yard.  The second is of my miniature painting measuring 2.75 x 2.75 inches and shown with a US Penny for scale. 

 

          We’ve had a new miniature addition to our extended family this past month, as my brother, Marshall, and his wife Alicia, had their first baby.  Tyler Jackson is his name, with Jackson being my beloved grandpa’s name.  As you can imagine this has brought a breath of new life and much excitement to our family.  My parents are happy to finally be grandparents and are enjoying their new role quite well!  I will be very happy to get to see and hold him in person.   It’s amazing how quickly he is growing and changing, an amazing miracle indeed!  Below is my favorite photo of little Tyler and a miniature sized drawing I did of him for my Moms birthday.  Yes, she loved it! 

 

          At present I’m working on a miniature portrait of a young girl in an old western style dress.  She has beautiful warm lighting on her, so the scene lends itself nicely for a painting that is filled with wonderful color and fun to render.  Two commissions are also being started for a gentleman in England, and  Wes is working on a miniature painting of a vulture.  One, if not both of the miniature paintings should be completed by my next post, so perhaps I will include one.  We’re planning a hike to a waterfall this next week for my annual birthday hike, so I will have photos and enlightening stories from that I’m sure, for my next post. ~ Rachelle