Photography: May Flowers, Sunset and Full Moon

Midnight Blue Butterfly bush just opening it's first blossom!

Bluebells in the garden

Two-toned Columbine in full bloom

Yellow Columbine

Coral Bells/huechera just blooming

Double-blooming Iris in first full bloom of summer

Our neighbor's Yellow Iris

As the sun sets...

Flaming sunset in the west

Moonrise in the east

Full Moon

Full Moon

Our flag on Memorial Day evening as the moon rose in the east...

Paintings of the Twin Great-Grandchildren

This is our eldest great-granddaughter, Tarin, on her 3rd birthday. When I got this far in the painting, I thought it might be done. However, it was painted on a 14" x 10" piece of Arches 300# watercolor paper - so the left half of the sheet is totally blank. I let the painting sit several days, and this is what evolved...

Then, after sitting with the painting a couple of days, I thought an American flag might be a good backdrop for this painting. So I took some acetate and used watercolor to paint a gray set of stars and stripes, just to get a feel of how this might work out.

That sat for a day, and then there was another school shooting, this time in Texas... Suddenly, it was important to me to add the flag symbols to the painting - in the hope of reminding us of our Nation's obligation to our children to keep them fed, educated, and above all, safe. For me, the gray flag symbolizes the lack of determination on the part of our national political representative to accomplish this on behalf of our children. Here is the finished painting:

"Tarin with Stars + Stripes" - Pat Dolan - 14" x 10" watercolor and pencil on Arches 300# paper

Wishing everyone a wonderful and Happy Fourth of July 2017!

I've been going through my collection of patriotic and flag photographs - much to my delight! I've created many flag/patriotic collages over the years. Alas, Picassa no longer has that wonderful collage creation program as part of their offerings. Google has decided to quit supporting Picassa and focus on Google Photos.... Bummer, in my opinion.

Here are a few of my Patriotic collages created over the years. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them! Plus a few other photos that seem to capture, for me, the spirit of the day.