Snowy Flowers (Wheat Ridge, CO)

 

It was a sunny but chilly day in November 2022. The Flower shop faced north, so it was completely in shadow except for a little of the snow on the hood and roof of the truck. That snow had been there for days. The snow was dirty and icy from it melting and refreezing, along with thousands of cars driving by daily. 

I've driven by this shop many times and thought this truck was so cool with the fake flowers (I assume they use real flowers when the weather permits). 

I was standing on the other side of 38th avenue; a busy street in Wheat Ridge. My tripod was set up and there were several people walking by and cars driving. It's always fun for me to have people chat with me while I'm painting. Someone asked if I was going to sell this piece, but my intention was to send it to my parents.

Note: In true Mark fashion, I misspelled Flowers (leaving out the R on the left sign) originally. I thought about leaving it that way since my parents always comment on how bad my spelling is, but was able to make it look not so obvious.

See the spelling error?

My Happy Place (somewhere in the woods)

This cabin is "My Happy Place." It's a long story how I purchased it and spent a couple years rebuilding it.

I met a new friend at the San Francisco Pen Show. When I saw her again at the Colorado Pen Show, I promised to do a sketch for her. I think this one turned out great.

It was done on a Strathmore watercolor card and I wrote her the story of how everyone thought I was crazy for purchasing the cabin. 

The day after doing this sketch, I decided to try to do it again in a sketchbook. Amazing how different these two turned out and how much better this card was. Guess it has something to do with this being for someone else vs just for me. Intension must matter.