This one is an oil on wood panel.  9" x 16"

 Here I have been painting on the barn and the hay bales out in the field. Starting laying the dog who is spending her time watching the cardinals pecking in the field. I look for her to pounce at any moment.

I have worked on the dog some more in this picture, beginning putting in the cardinals and the trees, will be working on them and the fence line along with the little river and a few more details on the dog and it should be on to the next panel very soon.

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I was told about a little village of ink cap mushrooms growing near the road at the Laurel Gorge Cultural Heritage Center where I sit the gallery two days a week. I stopped and got some wonderful photos of these amazing little mushrooms. I found out that these mushroom are actually edible if you get to them before they start looking like they have ink on them. As young shrooms they are a solid white and that is when you can cook them and eat them, as they age they get a black inky color to them and they eventually dissolve into an inky mess, hence the name shaggy ink caps. These are just one of the millions of wonder that our earth provides up to find when we open our eyes and take a look. Take a look around and see what you can find.

 Here I have worked on the mountain foliage and I am going to restructure the path of the river.

I have begun sketching in the elements for this panel, I still have a few things to work out, I changed the path of the river and I am considering adding a few trees in the middle ground to break some of that up. The Little dog is intently watching all of those birds and at any moment will be bursting over there to scatter them to the winds. :)

 On Friday I will be attending a Marketing workshop for artist, I just know I am going to learn tons there. I think I will put together a learning session for artists in my area who were not able to attend and share what I have learned. I know that photographer Ann Olsen will be attending also so perhaps we can both work on putting something together.  :) See ya later and remember to make your world colorful!!!

I spent this last Saturday in Campton, Kentucky at their first arts and craft festival. I was honored to have been asked by Shirley Little Halcomb to come and join their event. I spent the day with a good friend and artist Deloris Sargent of Sargent's Art shop. We chatted, painted and ate the most scrumptious cinnamon rolls ever. We spent much of our day engaged in wonderful conversations with others. I t was a lovely way to spend a overcast cloudy day.  This lovely little painting which I call "Rock of Ages" found its way to a new home where it will be cherished. This was my first journey into Wolfe County and I have to say it is beautiful over there. I look forward go traveling back over there and checking out the Natural bridge and many other wonders to be seen there.

Panel one is complete. 

The turkeys are happy and the little cardinal is nestled on his fence post. 

It is now on to panel two. :)

Here I have panel two laid next to panel one so that I am sure to get a continuous  flow.

Panel two, here I have laid in the ground for panel two. There is much more to go. I wonder which of God's  creatures will make their presence known here?

 Here you can see I have begun painting in the details on the turkeys. I also did some more work on the foliage in the trees, pushed the cliffs back a bit and made the trees in the foreground stand out more.

 I worked on the water a bit and then got to thinking of a good place to put a cardinal so I decided to bring in an old fence and have my cardinal sitting on that. Will not be long before I am on my way to the next panel.

Here is a closeup of the cardinal and fence, will be adding details to the cardinal and then will finish up the turkeys.

 In this section, I was working on the closer tree line. and defining where I wanted the rocks to be.

 In this photo you can see that I have been working on the foliage for the three trees in the foreground.

In this photo, I have been working on the rocks and starting to add in the creek along with the fence line that you can barley see because of the glare from the light from my window. I am also going to work on the foliage in the trees a little more and take them on up and off the panel. At this point I am pretty happy with the fall colors.. Next I will be painting the turkeys and then on to panel two....   :)

 Here I have decided to use a palette knife to rough in the cliff side, I was told that I was too in love with the drawing and that I was not making the cliff continuous, after looking at it a few minutes I realized that my critic was correct. Sometimes I get tunnel vision when I am working on something and it is really helpful to have another set of eyes.

In this one I have developed the cliff a bit more and I am beginning to be very pleased with it. Spent some time getting some fall foliage painted in, I am liking the results so far.

 

I am beginning a new project, this will be a 5'x 16' mural for the Menifee County Library in Frenchburg, Kentucky. I set up a make shift easel on a wall in my dinning room, "I did tell you I would take over the house with my painting honey  :) " Here you see the first two panels primed with the sky painted in.

Here is the initial sketch for the first panel.  There is a story about the turkey featured in the Mural, this turkey was injured and ended up having one of her legs wither away, this turkey can still be seen around town hopping around on one leg. I hear she is doing well and will be seen for years to come.. I will be doing these basic sketches showing what I want to include but I am sure more elements and details will make their way into the painting as I go along. "they always do"

Me putting in some dark's and defining where I want to put the trees.

I call this one Rock of Ages, I started this one from a photograph of an area that we have been camping. We went back there this past weekend to fish and so I started working on this plain aire. What a great weekend we had, first we kept forgetting to pack things and had to go back to the house a couple of times. Then once we got everything set up and started to fish, the sky opened up and poured the rain for a good 40 minutes. We were soaked  lolol. We were determined to survive it though. I decided to pull this one out and start painting, the rain was still coming down a bit and the drips through the trees kept falling on my painting. So I thought what the heck, lets see what happens. Well I had a hard time finding somewhere for this to dry especially with all the humidity, but dry it finally did and I was very very pleased with the end results. Enjoy!

Tami Booher, Appalachian Nature Painter: Two new projects, these beautiful hummingbirds we...

Tami Booher, Appalachian Nature Painter:
Two new projects, these beautiful hummingbirds we...: Two new projects, these beautiful hummingbirds were painted in acrylic on Kentucky Red Oak. I am so excited about painting on this beau...

Two new projects, these beautiful hummingbirds were painted in acrylic on Kentucky Red Oak. I am so excited about painting on this beautiful wood. I love leaving the bare wood showing with these. I feel it adds another dimension to my work. I look forward to using other types of woods and seeing what I get from them.

Spent a wonderful day this past Saturday, trying out the new boat on the Little Sandy River. We decided to set up camp, and then I decided to experiment by painting a whole painting in less than 45 minutes. I wanted to lay down paint quickly without thinking too hard. To me this came across as a lonely man communing with nature. It is a 10"x12" acrylic.

We have these two adorable Southdown Old English Babydoll sheep, their names are Church and Concord. I spotted them one day out grazing and decided to get some pictures of them. In this shot they were both going after the same sumptuous greenery. I like to think that they were going to share this with one with each other. Raising these sheep and observing them on a daily basis is often a hilarious adventure.
 I cannot wait until next year when our females will be born and a while after I will begin the adventure of raising these sweet creatures for other to have....

Kayaks on the Little Sandy.

8 1/2" x 8 1/2"

Acrylic on board

Spent a perfect weekend recently on the Little Sandy river canoeing and kayaking. This was from a picture taken at our camp site. The weather and the water was absolutely magical. It was my second time out on a canoe and I have to say that I do believe that is my favorite way to get around on the water, it is a very pleasurable pace, which gives one time to enjoy the fascinating views and reflections on the water.

Finally got out and worked on a plein aire painting. This painting was done from a view on Brown Ridge, I spent two sessions working on this 12x16 painting.

Bacon and Eggs

Here is a little project that I am working on, this is a huge iron looking skillet, and the person I am painting this for wanted bacon and eggs....  what do ya think?

Tami Booher, Appalachian Nature Painter: Eastern Kentucky Elk

Tami Booher, Appalachian Nature Painter: Eastern Kentucky Elk: Next layer added on and now I am thinking that I would like to get some softer pastels to complete this painting. :) O that means I have t...

Eastern Kentucky Elk

Next layer added on and now I am thinking that I would like to get some softer pastels to complete this painting.  :) O that means I have to go shopping!!! 









The Elk was introduced back into Eastern Kentucky in 1997, this handsome fella had his photo taken in Knott county by Kentucky Photographer Michael Smith. Michael has graciously allowed me to use his photo for a reference so that I can do this painting.
I will be using the alphacolor pastels on a 9"x12" 600 grit Ampersand sanded pastel paper.
Here I have sketched this guy on the pastel paper.

Here is a little back ground on this majestic animal.
Elk once roamed the hills of Kentucky but by the mid 1850’s, none were to be found. In a true partnership effort, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Shikar Safari Club joined forces to bring this magnificent creature back to Kentucky. An aggressive elk re-establishment program ensued. From 1997 to 2002, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife released a total of 1,556 elk that originated from Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, and Utah. Over 100 animals were released at 8 suitable sites in a 16-county elk zone. In 2009, the herd reached the project goal of 10,000 elk.

 Here I have laid in the first layers in the background. I have also worked on laying in the dark areas of the elk.





After working on him a little more, I sprayed to set my first layers of pastel. As you can see it darkens and leaves some spotty areas but that is okay, I now have more tooth to work with and will be covering all of the spotty areas anyway.

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Working in pastel

I have decided that I need to pick up the pastels again and work on becoming a better painter in them. I purchased my first box of pastels in years.  They are student grade Alphacolor and I have to say that I am enjoying them. I am using the Ampersand 600 grit pastel paper, I have the perfect model in my beautiful April. In the first photo is the first initial layer of pastel, I then sprayed it to set, so that I could lay in the next layer, the next two photos are actually of the same layer, one is with a flash and the other without. I prefer the one without the flash as I feel it is truer to the actual painting..