Newest Vineyard Photos

I haven't had a whole lot to say about my grapes now that the trellis is all in and they are just growing. They have just grown CRAZY this last month however. I like how you can see how many leaves there are by looking at the shadows on the grass. I can actually sit in the shade under my vines, just like the Bible says that 'We will all sit under our own vineyard and fig tree'. That is not word for word, but you get the meaning. I can't grow fig trees here, but at least I have the vineyard going!

I did get a new cluster of grapes growing off one of my Marquette plants right after the birds ate my only ripe cluster, so that is pretty cool. I do not think it will mature, but I am going to eat at least 1 before it gets cut off. I anticipate that it will be be VERY TART!

My Concords are growing very well and have grown up to meet each other, so that it is starting to get thick. I might start also growing a Bluebell up each side so that if the Concords do not produce these will. I don't know if I may pull the concords someday, but we will see.

I have tried Marquette wine from 2 different winery's now and I am just not that impressed with it. It is kind of a bummer. But I've also tried 2 different Frontinac Gris wines and have liked them both. So I think next spring, I am going to plant 10 more Frontinac Gris plants so I can make more of that and not just put all my eggs in the Marquette basket.

New Oil Paintings

I have done some more oil painting and I am just loving it! My second one is another Bob Ross mountain painting that I substituted pink mountain snow for grey because I had a bunch left over on my pallet.

The third one was from a picture of a sunset that my wife took while we were on a trip to Winona. This was my first original painting without having an example in a book.

The fourth one was a sailboat that was 2-3 miles away when I took the photo. I enlarged the photo 19 times so it was just real fuzzy. I wanted to paint it impressionistically, but I ended up blending all the colors together.

The fifth one is a copy of a Monet painting that I liked and that my wife said I could hang a large one in the house upstairs if I could pull it off. I think it turned out very well, and I have already bought a new 26x30 inch canvas so I can make the large one.

The sixth one is a copy of a photo of a villa in Tuscany, Italy of a vineyard that I liked. I just did this on watercolor paper in about an hour and a half. I just kind of went for it and it turned out quite well. This one, the Monet, and the sailboat are all little 7x9 inches. The other ones are on 11x14 inch canvasses. I got a real deal on multipacks of canvasses so they were only $2.40 each. This makes it affordable to paint one new one a week without breaking the bank. Also, using a 40% off one item coupon, I have been able to get new, large tubes of paint, and 50% off brushes have allowed me to get some nice brushes at a good value.