Tiny Palette

Like I need another small palette.

Let's see how tiny we can make these, okay? This one is 2 1/4 inches by 1 1/2. I used empty half pans from Daniel Smith to hold the paint - (clockwise from the top left) quinacridone rose, manganese blue, thalo yellow green, ultramarine blue, and new gamboge. The tin is an "Altoids Smalls". I had made one a little larger than this a couple of years ago, and I use it quite a bit. I really don't know what the purpose of having a palette this small is, but why not?

It's the LITTLE things in life, right?

Little Red Barn

This was a quick little demo painted with a large brush.

This demonstration in class today was to show color mixing on the paper, mixing blacks, or near blacks, and laying the shapes in without getting fussy.

We only have one more official week of class, but I am tacking on an extra because we had so many interruptions in the eight weeks of this session. We made up the missed classes, but I don't feel there was as much continuity as I would have liked. I will be starting the next eight week session on February 18th and 19th. I will post more about it in a couple of days.

Several of the people in Wednesday's class are interested in doing figures, simple portraits, and working on skin tones. That'll be fun!

I picked up some ingredients for a recipe that looked good to me - a pasta dish with feta cheese, roasted red pepper . . . OOPs - it's done in a food processor. I don't have one. Hmmm. I let you know how this goes.

Now! Now I'm Back.

We have made a few trips downstate to take care of things at my father-in-law's house (etc) which included treacherous roads and my husband having pneumonia. But now we're okay! We are back on track.

This watercolor sketch was done tonight in my journal of Aquarius II paper. It had to be a quicky - I was very hungry! I was pulling together some things for a pizza - artichoke hearts, black olives, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, garlic, onions, mozzarella, and feta on fococcia bread. Yummo. (I've been reading Rachel Ray).

I guess I am back in my groove. In the middle of dinner prep I stop to sketch. Yep. We are okay here.

Our Inheritance

This is a small, quick sketch of our fairly large mantel clock with a fairly loud chime - and it chimes every fifteen minutes! The clock was my father-in-law's and now lives with us.

Wednesday's watercolor class met today, and everyone was working on some great paintings - landscapes, figures, house portraits, doors and windows . . .

I came across an old painting of a barn that I had done probably 30 years ago. I'd like to try it again and beef up the colors, correct the perspective, and improve the composition. I told the class that I would let them follow along with the re-do of the subject. Every time I try to correct the perspective, it throws off some proportions here and there. I wonder now what the barn really looked like in the first place. I have to come up with something by next Wednesday for class. Of course, if I don't know what it looked like, no one else does either, so anything goes.

I'm Back

I have nothing to show, but I am back.
We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas week with the local kids and the California kids, but the holiday ended sadly with the death of my father-in-law.

I am so glad that I journal almost every morning (thanks, Julia Cameron). Now I can read back over the entries of Christmas week and recall the great time we had while all the family was together. It had almost been snatched from my memory, but, thankfully, it is coming back. I am picking up Christmas things today and getting ready for this week's classes, and I'm savoring those holiday memories.

It is very cold here and the wind is blowing. The sun is shining and the Bay is dark blue. A nice day to stay inside and look out at it. I am just kind of nesting here and it feels good.