This month is World Watercolor Month 2020 and I’m trying to do a quick painting every day according to the daily prompts. If you want to join in, I’m posting mine over at Instagram and I’d love to see yours too.

Since I’m also the new Instagram Ambassador for the Mid-Southern Watercolorists, I’m posting the daily prompts over there. You can use the hashtag #mswater even if you’re not a member and join us if you like.

For my daily entry, I’m using a little watercolor book bound in recycled leather from Colors of the Iron Range. She doesn’t have many in her shop right now, but keep an eye on it if you’d like one. I love mine. These paintings, since they’re bound in my little journal, aren’t going to be listed for sale in the shop. Most are just quick studies and practice so I can improve, anyway.

The Journal Entries

Some of the quick paintings have stories behind them. I’m trying to do better at both writing the journal entries and painting quick studies. My photos aren’t necessarily going to show the written part of my entries, so if there’s a good story behind them, I’ll list it here.

1. “Rejoice”. The other day we had a bluebird fall down the chimney and land inside the wood stove. Usually I open the stove door carefully so I can grab the bird before it flies away, as it’s often stunned once it lands at the bottom. This time it was Chloe who heard the entrance and she didn’t know it was a bird inside. So when she opened the door, it flew into the living room. Our living room has 20 foot ceilings, and the only windows are up there in the 10- 20 foot high span. Of course that’s where the bird went. I tried to scare it down and out the back door, but no luck. Poor thing just kept beating itself against the glass trying to escape. I managed to figure out how to use the extension ladder and got up there to get it.

I’d like to actually paint a picture of the bird in hand… because I can’t not think of the old adage about ‘a bird in hand is better than two in the bush’. If I do it, I’ll have to use a non-Ozark pigment for that blue, that’s for sure. But it would make a pretty picture. Maybe I’ll do a quick study using gray instead for one of my World Watercolor Month 2020 entries.

11. I forgot to write my journal entry for this one, just started painting. So the word of the day was ’round’. I wanted to go out to do a little practice plein air, so Chloe went with me down to Felkins creek. We went a little more downstream than the bridge right here by the house. It was hot, hot, hot. To get to any shade we had to walk over some hot, hot, rocks. The rocks were fairly rounded. So that’s how I used the word of the day for today.

25-26. So it’s hard for me to choose a single ‘favorite’ of anything. I’m running behind in my journal entries for the month, so I’ve combined this entry into one painting. I hear so many sounds I love here. But during the hot, sultry days of summer, my favorite sound is the rain crow, or yellow billed cuckoo. It has a couple of distinctive calls. I have one of them recorded. I’ll upload it to YouTube so I can embed it here for you. (Coming soon!)

ABOUT
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Madison Woods is the pen-name for my creative works. I’m a self-taught artist who moved to the Ozarks from south Louisiana in 2005. My paintings of Ozark-inspired scenes feature lightfast pigments from Madison county, Arkansas. My inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction, regeneration, and transformation.

Roxann Riedel is my real name. I’m also salesperson for Montgomery Whiteley Realty. If you’re interested in buying or selling in Madison or Carroll county, AR, let me know! You can see the properties that I blog about at WildOzarkLand.com.

Wild Ozark is also the only licensed ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Here’s the link for more information on the nursery

P.S.

There’s always a discount for paintings on the easel 😉

Here’s my Online Portfolio

And, Click here to join my mailing list.

Contact Mad Rox: (479) 409-3429 or madison@madisonwoods and let me know which hat I need to put on 🙂 Madison for art, Roxann for real estate, lol. Or call me Mad Rox and have them both covered!

https://www.youtube.com/@wildozark