It’s a celebration! This is my 250th post! Thank you for visiting and making this such a rewarding experience. I have learned so much from all of you and appreciate every comment made since January 1, 2010 when I started my blog.
Today the temperature is supposed to get up to ONLY 88 degrees (mid to high 90’s with humidity). A veritable cool spell. The painting I’m posting today is 100 Degree Summer 2. I painted this when I felt like I was melting, dripping, burning up. I was feeling darkness and stress.
100 Degree Summer 2
I also wanted to note that my last three paintings have been painted on Lana 140 # CP paper. One of Indiana’s premier watercolorists uses this paper. She is a teacher and a perpetual award winner so many watercolorists also use this paper and one recently retired and gave me several small sheets. It handles about the same as the Kilimanjaro I have been using. It has a soft rather creamy feel, absorbs color well and doesn’t buckle – even when it has been soaked. I think it is harder to find than the Kilimanjaro and I don’t know anything about the cost but it is a very nice paper.
Linda Halcomb's Blog 
Congrats! This means that you have wowed us 250 times, at least! Can’t wait for the next 250.
Thanks Ryan! It has been a real joy. I tell all my friends to blog and am going to talk about blogging to a Writing Interest Group in September.
Congratiulations. It is a beautiful and intense painting.
Thank you! This summer has been very intense and I think these paintings speak to that. So hot and humid there is no freshness to a day.
Congratulations on the 250, Linda. This is my favorite of the heat paintings as it looks like you are about fed up with it like I am. We were not to break 90 today and did once again. Everyone west and south of us has had rain. Us? No. Must be sitting in a pocket. My grass looks like the circus pitched their elephant tent on my lawn. Very cool the three suns. That is what it looks like when one is overcome with the heat and humidity.
Oh Leslie, I know what you mean. Patches of my grass have broken off and I have bare ground. It is hard to walk the dogs and when I do I see houses with lovely green lawns and get angry and sad. The water department has been begging people not to water for weeks and then I see runoff in the gutter. So irresponsible! We have now had 20 straight days of 90 plus days. We did get some rain which will help my garden. I took the dogs out at 4 am and it was already steamy and sticky! Yuck -O! I guess we will all just have to hang in there.
I heard last night that we have had 31 days of above 90 degrees. Their point was that we broke last year’s record. I am in agreement with you about the watering the lawn. Our lawns will come back next year.
congratulations on your 250th post! I look forward to celebrating your 500th post and then some.
I absolutely love the colors in this painting. The reds, yellows and oranges burn on the bottom of the page as the cool blues and violets promise of a cooler tomorrow. (Let’s all keep our fingers crossed!)
Thank you Carol! We finally had a cooler day – only 88 degrees and we had rain last night so it is nicer than it has ben recently. Hope that ends my whiny spell.
Congratulations! Your abstracts are beautiful, and I enjoy every one of them. I love Lanaquarelle, especially the rough texture paper. I definitely prefer it to Kilimanjaro – I think the quality is better. As for the cost, Lana goes for about the same as Arches I think, $5 a sheet for 140lb.
My only complaint about the paper is that it can be too soft. It’s very difficult to lift off, scrub, and you have to be extra careful with knifes and such.