Day Eleven

The Last of the Red Hot Blossoms 

This has been on its way out for quite awhile, but this last blossom is really hanging on.  It's a great color  -  somewhere between red and "hot" coral.  I think it is a Kalanchoe Calandiva.  If the leaves stay nice, I may try to keep it going to see if it will blossom again.  It can live with my messy geraniums that I keep shuffling around.

A strange day today  -  it feels like a Saturday.  My husband took the day off, and Middle Granddaughter was here because there was no school. It is one of those things that throws off the days of the week  -  in a nice way.

Day eleven of blogging every day in November.  I have nothing exciting to say or show, but I am hanging in there.  I can tell from my stats that you are too.  Thank you for "listening".

Day Nine

The Living Room Window

This is a very quick contour drawing with a little color.  Just do it. 

We talked in class this morning about jump starting creativity .  We all know it is just a matter of doing it.  It certainly doesn't have to be a masterpiece  -  it just has to be SOMETHING.  We spent a lot of time mixing greens.  Greens are always tricky and get us thinking about what colors do in a mix.

I dug out a couple of Julia Cameron books  -  The Artist's Way and The Right to Write. I may not have time to read them  -  I'll be too busy painting.

Day Eight

A Contour Drawing in my Sketchbook

This is ink on drawing paper. Sometimes I will do watercolor on this paper, and sometimes I just like the look of the ink.

I am in kind of an uncreative funk.  I figure if I just get my pen, pencil, or brush moving, I'll work my way out of it.  I am in a dry spell and don't have a plan, so I've decided I just move on without a plan.  One of my very favorite quotes is by Julia Cameron: "You may find yourself to be temporarily without a vehicle -  just keep walking."  Maybe it's time to read Julia Cameron again.  She wrote The Artist's Way, and several other very similar books.  So similar, in fact, that if you've read one, you've read them all, but I like her style, so I have read them all


Tomorrow I have class.  They'll get me going.  Actually, I had better get going before that  -  they are paying me to get them going.  No problem  -  it is always easier to have a plan for someone else.

Day Four

Little Chairs

Are these "little dolls chairs", "little doll's chairs", "little dolls' chairs", or "little doll chairs"?

A student brought these to me for drawing props. This a  contour drawing I in my sketchbook.  I didn't have enough concentration left to finish the right side, so I just threw in a border.  Works for me.  Don't forget, when you are drawing in your sketchbook, it is your sketchbook  -  you can do anything you want.

The cream sauce I made last night worked out great. I used olive oil, whole wheat flour and unsweetened almond milk.  I also used some onions, mushrooms, and, of course, garlic.  

We have SUNSHINE today.  Maybe I should get out there and soak it up before it turns to snow.  At least when it snows I won't have to feel guilty about the yard work I am not going to do.

Lunch at the Twisted Olive

My Lunch Sketched on Arches Cover Cream Paper in My Sketchbook

Food Blogging Again

I had a veggie burger on flat bread, orzo, and hummus. The veggie burger was made with chickpeas (left whole - how did they stay together!!!???) lentils, zucchini, and carrots  -  served on Naan flat bread with tomatoes and lettuce.  I don't know why I felt compelled to give you all the details, but, there they are.

Beautiful beautiful beautiful weather here for the past few days.   It's been a busy week, and oops, I didn't go to life drawing tonight.  Maybe I need a little break from life drawing. 

Okay  -  not to overdo the food blogging, but I think I will go roast some Brussels sprouts now. 

Have you sketched some food today?

Yoga/Painting Workshop

Demo in my Sketchbook

Saturday morning I did a workshop with yoga instructor, Sandi Jones.  She started off with an hour of yoga, and then I did sketchbook journaling instruction for two hours.

It was so much fun  -  everyone was so relaxed and very willing to try new things.  They painted loosely and quickly, and really let go of perfection. Maybe every painting class should start out with yoga.

I had been feeling a little stressed for the past few weeks  -  just a lot of stuff going on.  When I got home from the workshop, I stretched out on the couch in the sun, and I SLEPT for two or three hours.  It was great.  Talk about relaxed!

So here we are, into October.  I'm finally feeling ready for a new season  - was it the nap, the yoga, the beginning of October with fewer things to do?  What are your creative plans for this season?

A View from Hitchcock Hall

A Watercolor Journal Sketch from Late Summer

A sketch from late summer  -  wow  -  that seems like a long time ago.  It is cold, very dark, and raining here today, and the leaves are turning.

It's fun to look through my sketchbook at the summer sketches.  Summer here is crazy-busy, fun, and beautiful.  I'm doing a pretty good job this year of moving on  -  transitioning into the quieter season.  I've been busy with classes, workshops, and family.  I always get into a nesting and organizing mode about now, but that hasn't happened yet this year  -  it still could, of course.  I hope so  -  we could use a little organizing around here.

Now I'm going to go pack up my things for a mini workshop I am doing tomorrow.  I hope you're all going to carry your sketchbooks around with you this weekend.  I hope you're going to open them and paint in them!

Flowers from Joanne

Workshop Demo

This watercolor sketch is of a small part of a huge, beautiful bouquet given to me by friend Joanne during the book binding/journal painting workshop.  That was a week ago, and the flowers are still going strong.  Except for the lily that Rudy the cat got a little too friendly with  -  it has shredded petals and he has an orange-stained face.  Looks good on him.  Ooops  -  maybe not so cute! A quick call to the vet  -  they say he's okay.

Last night we had a freeze warning.  I had intended to go out and cut the flowers in the cutting garden, but I forgot all about them.  From the window this morning, they look okay.  I did bring the geranium pots into the porch.  I just hate to see the flowers get zapped while they are still blooming.

Okay, I'm babbling.  Gotta go finish up a painting that is everything I tell my students not to do. Rules are made to be broken.  Sometimes a painting just happens.

Walloon

Contour Drawing in my Sketchbook

I did this sitting under a big tree, talking about, and listening to friends talk about, composition and value.

In a contour (continuous line) drawing I don't worry about composition, and of course, as you can see here, there is no information about value (lights and darks).  I'm just recording what it is about the subject that interests me. In this case, it's the vertical lines of the tree trunks and the horizontal line of the distant shore. I had intended to put a little watercolor on this, but I really like the simplicity of the lines.

This is labor day weekend.  We don't have any big plans. The grandkids have been in and out.  A few very large (3 to 4 inch) slugs have been in and out, and one pretty large toad. We put the toad in the cutting garden and then we googled "what do toads eat".  They are actually carnivores and they eat slugs! The balance of nature  -  right in our own back yard.  I just don't want to witness that one.

Painting with Isabelle

Late Summer Flowers in my Sketchbook

Just a quick little sketch while sitting on the porch painting with Youngest Granddaughter a few days ago.  She did some bright and colorful things to cut out and decorate the porch walls.

It still feels like summer here.  It is fabulous!!!

As my classes slow down and I fill my life with other fun and creative things, I'm thinking maybe this year I'll avoid the annual autumn-crash-and-burn.  I have a list of goals for the winter, a couple of deadlines, classes and workshops lined up, a volunteer thing I do (tiny  -  I need to ramp it up), and the life drawing group I go to once a week.  Speaking of life drawing  -  can I show that stuff on this blog?   Yes, of course, I know I can  -  this is the Internet  -  I can do anything.

It's Thursday  -  spaghetti night at the Carey's.  Then I am off to paint with friend Karen.

Workshop Demo

Large Raspberries, Small Fuzzy Peach, and Birdhouses

This page was done in my sketchbook on "Arches cover cream" paper.

Cathy Cohen and I just finished up a two day bookbinding/ journal painting workshop.  As always, it was fun!  It was a great group and their books are beautiful!  The weather was perfect for outdoor journal painting.

Oh, wow  -  this is the last day of August!  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  A couple of posts back, I said things were slowing down.  Maybe not.  I haven't noticed it anyway. I think I am filling in the spaces with other things.  If I slow down, I may feel obligated to clean up things around here.  This morning while I was trying to make the house a little presentable for my Wednesday class, I was finding blue paint and dust bunnies everywhere.  For some reason, I feel that the blue paint is a little more acceptable than the dust bunnies.  Am I right? 

Lucia's Coffee Cup

Coffee Cup and Cherries

The coffee that was in this cup was fabulous and the cherries were huge and very sweet.

I spent the morning with some painting friends on Walloon Lake. Although the lake was beautiful, it was too cool and windy to paint outside, and we were too caught up in conversation to paint the view out the large expanse of windows.

I purposely chose this coffee cup for its colors and pattern, and because I liked it with the napkin and the cherries.  While I painted this, we talked about paint colors, papers, brush shapes, refinishing floors and organizing closets.  We also discussed sugar-free diets while we ate the best pecan rolls and little sugary raspberry filled things.

On a cool, windy morning it was such a nice place to be  -  such a pretty, welcoming home, and fun friends to laugh and paint with.  I find it so inspirational to spend time with other people that like to paint.  The closet organizing thing doesn't turn me on though.

Wesley's Lane

One of my Favorite Places to Paint

There is a little lane with cottages backed up to it, that runs along a park-like area where there once was a railroad bed.  On the front side of the cottages is the Bay.  I love it here.  I love the back doors and casual porches and the roof lines of the years worth of additions on each cottage.  There is no pretense here, just  some beautiful window boxes and laundry on the clotheslines.  If you stepped out of your time machine onto this lane, you wouldn't know where in history you are.  Well, yeah  -  the cars.

I'm catching up a little on sketchbook posting and am sitting on the back porch watching the humming birds. They come to the trumpet vine and phlox that are right by the back door.

This morning there was a six inch slug sliming his way around the porch.  I opened the back door into the garden, hoping he'd find his way out.  He didn't.  My hero/husband came to the rescue.  The slugs are just too big and icky to squash.  My husband has been known to take them on a shovel and dump them in the middle of the street, hoping they will get run over before they find their way back home.  I suppose we'll hear from some animal rights activists about this?  I guess it is more humane to let them drown in a saucer of beer.  Except the big ones don't drown  -  they just drink their fill and stagger away.  Ick.  They make me shiver!

Beets

Chioggia Beets

These beets really and truly are bright pink with light green leaves.  I haven't cut into them yet, but I understand they are pink and white striped.

We have subscribed to a Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) share for the season.  We go to the farm and pick up our share (we subscribe to a half share) each Tuesday, getting a beautifully arranged box of whatever produce is ready that week.  I am having a lot of fun figuring out what to do with everything.  The cat got quite sick from eating the fennel greens, but that was his choice.

A couple of our granddaughters were here last weekend, and we were having a great time chopping, tasting, and looking at the pretty colors.  We made a beautiful big salad, and when I went to dish it up, they said in unison, "Oh, we don't eat salad - yuk." 

It has been a busy and fun week  -  seven classes Monday through Thursday.  Wonderful people in every class, and beautiful weather!  Who could ask for more!?

4th of July Etc.

Pages in my Journal

I didn't get as ambitious with my weekend sketching as I intended, but a couple of two-inch sketches is better than nothing.

We had a nice 4th of July weekend.  We did, however, run out of gas about midnight in the north woods - the gauge didn't work, and that's the truth.  My big brother came to our rescue as he has done for years and years.  I told the grandkids as they were beginning to panic a little, "If you don't have a little adventure, there's no reason to leave the house."  My husband and the kids were in a parade in the morning, and then the kids were in another parade in the afternoon.  After all that walking and sunshine, we LISTENED to the fireworks from the comfort of our own bed.

The journal page on the right is this morning's demonstration using a blue prismacolor pencil for the contour drawing.  I like the look, but I can't take credit for it.  I read about it in Cathy Johnson's new book Artist's Journal Workshop. The class met at a park on the Bay, and it was sunny and breezy.  I think it was the first morning I haven't had to worry about a class meeting in the rain or cold.

Now I have a painting to finish, frame, and deliver, and then we'll meet some friends at the waterfront for a picnic.  Summer in Northern Michigan!

Beverly's Lunch

Painting Our Lunches at the Bookbinding/Journal Workshop

Beverly's lunch was more colorful than mine, and my salad was not conducive to a good composition.  I should have followed my instructions to the students to bring a "paintable" lunch. I thought it was okay while I was packing it, but then I saw Beverly's.  The lunch is always greener  .  .  .

Our second two day bookbinding/journal workshop was a lot of fun, and there were some beautiful journals constructed.  On the second day there were some great little watercolor sketches painted. 

The Traders Joe's green tea mints box is my newest tiny palette.  It has a see-through lid, which doesn't give me much in the way of a mixing area, but it sure is cute.  It has seven half pans in it. 

This coming week I have three new classes starting (which means six class meetings), a granddaughter's birthday party to attend, and the visiting grandchildren will return for a couple of days before they head on home to California.  But,  I'm not thinking about the "heading on home" part yet.  With three new classes starting, I am feeling just a tiny bit stressed, but as my husband says, "If you aren't a little stressed, you're not trying hard enough".

Cathy's Birdhouse

Bookbinding/Journal Workshop Demonstration

This birdhouse is in the garden of my bookbinding workshop partner, Cathy.  Someday I'll go through my sketchbooks to see how many times I have painted it over the years.  It makes a good subject for the journal painting part of our workshop.  It is a good example of how contour drawing (continuous line) can simplify a complicated subject, and how to paint colorful neutrals.

We had a fantastic group in our Monday-Tuesday workshop, and another group begins today.

We've been having so much fun with the grandkids! Things have been relatively calm  -  no more crashing through window panes.  Yesterday we took a tour through the new candy factory!  The kids are at the other grandparents for a few days.   I think I'll be okay with the quiet  -  I have to get ready for three new classes starting next week, and begin and finish a small painting.  All fun stuff, and if it weren't for deadlines, I'd probably never do a thing.  Well, maybe I would.

Summer Kick-Off

This is a Demo from my First Friday in June Summer Kick-Off  

Watercolor Sketchbook Journal Workshop

We had a great group  -  such fun.  The weather was fairly cooperative  -  a little bit of everything from one extreme to the other, but not bad.  From past experience, I think I can accurately say that the first Friday in June is always QUIRKY.

This page in my sketchbook is showing how to just let the colors mix on the paper without mixing on the palette at all.  When working with a very small palette, sometimes we run out of space for mixing and may not have extra water for cleaning off the palette.  So besides giving interesting and pleasing results, mixing on the paper is convenient.  I was using very basic colors  -  ultramarine blue, hansa yellow, quinacridone red and a little manganese blue and cobalt violet.  There is a little bit of a learning curve to figure out how to have enough water to let the pigments float around and mix without flooding the sketchbook page.

So here we go  -  that was the Kick-Off  -  the beginning of a very busy summer full of classes and workshops.  I am soooo looking forward to it.

At the top of this blog there is a tab that links to my classes.

Orange Orange Orange

Ink and Colored Pencil on Strathmore Drawing Paper in my 
Hand Bound Sketchbook

I'm done.  Colored pencil is just too labor intensive for me.  Every time I use acrylics or colored pencil, I remember what it is about watercolor that I love so much  - you swoop through with a brush load of color and there, you've got it. It's the swooping.

I happen to be a pretty big fan of orange, and I have never come across orange geraniums or petunias until this year.  The Calendula is actually my favorite shade of orange, but I'm pretty crazy about the others too.

Starting on the left, I worked my way across the page doing a contour (continuous line) drawing.  I really don't know the techniques of working with colored pencils, but since this is my journal sketchbook - no masterpieces allowed - I'm not worried about technique.  

There's a long weekend coming up.  I hope you find time to have some fun with your sketchbook. 

Jesperson's

 Lunch at Jesperson's

I know.  You'd think I would have more than a glass of water to show for all this time of non-blogging.

In class this week we worked on small still life compositions.  Everyone was feeling a little "off".  I'm blaming it on the barometric pressure or the thunder storm.  We were all talking about how much we enjoy a good ol' Michigan thunderstorm  - however, it struck a house down the street and started a small fire, and across the Bay it actually hit our granddaughter's classroom!!! No one was hurt, but it knocked a small hole right through the cinder block wall!

Next week we will get back to the small still life compositions. The whole idea is to zoom in, zoom out, zoom left, zoom right . . . keep them simple with strong shapes and values.  Maybe I will set a time limit  -  if we can't fuss with it, we do a better job.  If there isn't a raging storm, we can concentrate on the composition.  But we are a bunch of artists  -  we really do enjoy a good distraction.