Morning Coffee

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Coffee originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia. By A.D. 1000, Ethiopian Arabs were collecting the fruit of the tree, which grew wild, and preparing a beverage from its beans. I love drinking coffee in the morning--but it usually ends up making me have fog brain by noon. This yellow cup is my favorite cup to drink hot beverages with. I am spoiled because we have a local dairy that delivers fresh cream and the cream plug is so thick on top that it seals the cream. Italians like expresso coffee. I usually brew coffee in my machine with expresso grind. Tomorrow I plan to switch back to my jasmine green tea in order to avoid the coffee blues at mid morning. Tea caffeine doesn't seem to have the same let down as coffee. I like Numi brand tea--they sell jasmine pearls by the pound- online- and it smells heavenly.

Aubreys Pancakes

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My 4 year old son , Aubrey, loves to eat pancakes. I make them for him just about every morning--and would you believe I don't use a recipe. As a matter of fact, most things that I cook I make up as I go. It is an Italian thing. I know the right amount of liquids, fats and rising agents a pancake needs, but do I measure--never. Sometimes I add stuff like bananas, oats, cocoanut and pecans. It depends on my mood and what I have available on hand. What do you like to add to your pancakes? Don't forget "real maple syrup". We only use the real stuff around here and forget chemicals, I am an organic girl.

Mango Tango

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Every day seems to be a fresh start in the studio as I approach this process. These mango's fell off the pallette and onto the canvas in a burst of energy this afternoon. Mango's really appeal to me because they look like large pods and have big seeds inside. I really enjoyed eating this mango before I painted it. I made a meal of it.

Milkweed Pod, 6" x 6", oil on canvas

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I really enjoyed painting the shadows in this painting. The milkweed has lots of small jagged points on its skin and makes for interesting brush stroke. During my walk today in the woods, I did not find any pods, but am reminded of the beauty of the woods and the creeks that my lab loves to play in. I hope to get some of these images on canvas soon.

Pod Pile, 6" x 6"

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These are the pine pods that I collected from the woods yesterday.  I tossed them onto the drawing table and they landed in a perfect composition.  Can you believe that.  Now only if these guys were all dices with the numbers seven on them.  Today I ran into another pod, but it was during dog retrieval.  My chocolate lab, Vira likes to run off whenever somebody leaves the gate open.  I chased her into the nearby field behind my house and right before my eyes was the next gift for tomorrows painting. 

Feedback

I would relish some feedback from any of the images posted.  Do you like the pods?

Pod #2

Todays pods are more to the point that I am trying to state in this work. The colors and the texture seem to pop out better than pod#1. I was being too careful yesterday. I find myself being careful a lot with these smaller works. As I stated yesterday, I find these pods or rather they find me during my morning walks. Today a group of pine pods--the color of muted citrus green--showed up at my sons soccer game. I walked into a grove of trees and there they were--dappled around a maple tree. At first I was puzzled and wondered if they were maple pods, but quickly figured out that it was the nearby pine trees that delivered these latest gifts. I plan on painting the group of pine pods I collected today during tomorrows daily painting session.

Pod #1

Over the past several years, I have been working on a series called "earth objects". The objects, usually pods, are collected during my walks through the woods in the early morning. The series can be found on my website: joanmariegiampa.com This magnolia pod is from a huge tree in my backyard. My first painting of the image, Ipod, 30" x 30", acrylic on canvas, was chosen for the Mid Atlantic Painting exhibition at Mary Washington University this past January. You can read about the exhibit and see the work on the website.

Lime Strand

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What a day in the studio. I am painting limes again and this time I am responding to "Kiwi Train" a post by another daily painter Carol Marine--one of my faves-because I really dig her brush stroke! I think I am finished with the limes for now as I need to get some red back into the picture. I am having a lot of help with still life set up from my younger son, John-Nicholas. He brings me things to paint and even sets them up. I have a few more magnolia pods today in my studio because he and his brother Aubrey were kind enough to go out in the rain today and collect them for me. The magnolia pod is one of my earth objects that I paint. So if all goes well, I hope to paint some tomorrow.

A Couple of Limes

A couple more limes today. I really enjoyed painting these juicy limes. The colors and brightness are refreshing and make me happy