True Violet

Intense color - they look like if they were red they would be poppies. 

More mixed media

Here's another water color with pencils and ink. 

Mixed media

Here's a photo of an actual painting as opposed to a photo made to look like a painting. I've been dabbling in mixed media lately - so this is water colors, colored pencils and ink.

A glimpse of another world

Purple flowers always draw my attention. It wasn't until I looked more closely that I saw something else in this photo:

A glimpse of an alien landscape reflected in the gazing ball, and an alien looking back at me. 

Purple waves

I can't resist purple flowers. Fortunately the neighborhood is full of them this spring.

Persian Shield

A trip to the garden store yielded my own Persian Shield. I've loved these plants since I first saw a photo of one. The colors are amazing. Hopefully mine will grow on the back deck.

Palm wonderful

Leaves of my palm plant make an excellent subject cast in lavender.

Violas!

The impatient gardener strikes again. I bought these during a warm spell to help attract bees to the garden and to feed my purple obsession. I hope they last until it's really spring...

Who can resist that pretty face?

Shrub

Checking out the front garden the other day, I was amazed by how green this shrub was. It looked like a garden center ad. 

I thought it would look even better in purple, though.

Made for me

If it were up to me to design flowers, this is what they would look like. I found this beauty at the Garden Show. [It may look familiar - since I've already used it as the header of the blog. I think it's got to be one of the best flower photos I've ever taken.]

Psychedelic!

 

Palm leaves back lit at Bahama Breeze.

An etching

 

I think this value inverted shot of a green candle looks sort of like a tin etching.

Stacked

 

A quilt I made to show off some fancy fabrics.

Birthday

Today is my husband's birthday. This is not his cake. Anyone will tell you, the cake is a lie.

Still wishing for spring

 

Flowers and butterflies would brighten the place up right about now.

Story seed

I love sunsets [mostly because I'm not a morning person so I rarely see sunRISES].

 

Here's one from the other night that I turned into a sci-story.

 

First I tried a watercolor painting.

 

 

 

Then I decided on a sky filled with UFOs.

 

 

 

Here I am

This is going to be another one of my grand experiments. My plan is to post a photo every day [or at least a photo FOR every day]. I'm going to start now, but it's technically a Photo-A-Day blog for 2016 to improve my both my skills at photography and photo manipulation.

Most of my photos will be shot using my smartphone - a Motorola Moto G - because it actually takes better pictures than my regular camera.

I'm going to work on most of the photos using GIMP.

My first photo is the one I'm using in the header - but that may change. It's a photo of a tumble of rocks at the corner of the street where these gorgeous little purple flowers grow.

 

 

With some manipulation it became this:

 

 

All photos on the blog are original and are copyrighted by me. My name or initials will appear on them somewhere. Please ask permission if you would like to repost or borrow them.