November 6th

Veggie Pizza Ingredients

I roasted the veggies and reduced the balsamic vinegar  -  with a little orange zest in it.  I used naan flatbread for the crust, put the veggies on it, sprinkled with a little mozzarella, and baked it until the cheese was melty.  When I took it out of the oven, I drizzled the balsamic on it.  Oh, and I put a little pineapple on it too  -  because we always put pineapple on our pizza.  With the sweet potato, pineapple, and balsamic, it was fairly sweet and very tasty.

The naan flatbread we use is Stonefire.  The price keeps going up, and they keep moving it all over the store, but I found a larger package of it at a much more reasonable price at a food services store.

I need to get some things ready for tomorrow's class.  I want to do some demonstrations with textures, light and shadow, and as always, composition.

I hope every registered voter in the USA will exercise their right to vote today!  I am really glad NOT to be getting political calls  -  wow  -  that got tiresome.

How about sketching some dinner ingredients tonight?

November 4th

Some Autumn Demonstrations

I'm usually not too crazy about painting fall colors, but the small painting at the top was really fun to do.   Someone in class had asked about painting fall leaves without getting muddy or spotty looking.  I painted clear water around the white structure, and then started dropping in the color.

The leaves are all gone now, and everything is very brown and bare.  That gives us a great view across the Bay, so I'm not complaining.

Because I have nothing else to say, I'm going to talk about food now.  A couple of days ago for lunch I had a roasted veggie pizza, at a downtown restaurant, with a balsamic reduction sauce.  Fabulous. I make roasted veggie pizzas all the time but have never done one with balsamic vinegar.  Come to think of it, there was no tomato/pizza sauce on it.  I have to give this a try.  I'll let you know how it goes, and maybe even do a quick sketch.

How was your weekend.  What's ahead in the next week for you?  Some sketching?

November 3rd

Ice Cream Sundaes

French Vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, bananas, mango, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.  This reminds me of the ice cream sundae "dinner" we had when the California kids were here.  These were more dessert sized  -  and no caramel  -  I missed the caramel, but they were delish anyway!

We watched Jumanji.  How had I never seen Jumanji?  We all started to fall asleep, so we finished watching it during breakfast.  Things are moving slowly here today.  Fun.

This morning I said, "I can't find my sketchbook!", and one of the kids said, "Oh, it's up behind my bed."  I probably would never have thought to look there.


I am only into day three of blogging every day in November, and already you have to read about what I'm eating and watching on Netflix.  Will it get any better?  Maybe not.

Salad Prep

Prismacolor Pencil on Mi Teintes Paper

with a little collage

I don't really care for the way the pencil looks on the mi teintes paper, but now I know, and that's what sketchbooks are for  -  experimenting.  The paper is rougher on one side, so as it is bound in my book, the left page in this illustration is rougher that the right page. 

On the right hand page, I had drawn the blue cheese box and hated the way the pencil looked on the paper, so I glued a piece of paper over it and collaged the end of the box onto the page.  Sometimes students will ask me if that's ethical  -  to rip out, cover up, paint over  -  I always say it's your sketchbook  -  do whatever you want.  I don't get into perfectionism in my sketchbooks, but I also don't see any reason to look for the rest of your life at a page you hate.

The page makes me happy  -  I was making a salad to take to dinner with friends, a fabulous French version of La Mer was playing on Pandora Radio, and a pair of cardinals was perched near the window.
There is nothing beautiful about the page, except the nice reminder of a very pleasant period of time.

Here we are almost into November. It seems as if we just wrapped up summer, and now I am busy locking in things for next summer  -  workshops and classes.  It makes me think about the past summer and look forward to next summer.  Nice.

If anyone is interested in the salad, it consisted of red Boston lettuce, Bartlett and bosc  pears, red onion, almonds, dried cranberries, and blue cheese.

Tiny Pumpkins at Dawn

A Page in my Sketchbook

These tiny pumpkins were sitting on the window sill in my studio and the early morning sky was very dark blue behind them.  A few days later, I painted the pears that were on the kitchen counter while I was getting dinner.  Yes, I did paint them while I was getting dinner  -  you know, when the mood strikes. Remember, some of the pigments are toxic, so try not to be too sloppy with them in the kitchen.  Remember what happened to Vincent Van Gogh.  No, not the ear thing, the ingesting of paint thing.  Too much lead white pigment in his kitchen.

We have had rain and more rain, but yesterday was beautiful  -  sunny and warm. This little painting is of some flowers still hanging on in a small metal urn in friend Karen's garden.  It is watercolor done on mi teintes paper.  I really didn't expect the watercolor to cover that well.  I like the effect.  I'm going to try Prismacolor pencils next on this paper.   I bound some of it into my sketchbook. Try out some different papers now and then  - it sparks creativity in simple ways.  Try some different paper, pencils, pens, brushes.
Remember,  we aren't after a finished product or a masterpiece each and every time we pick up our art supplies, but somewhere in all that playing and experimenting, we'll get one.

Terrace Inn Afternoon Tea

Demonstration in my Sketchbook

Friday was my 3rd annual Afternoon Tea and Sketchbook Journaling at the Terrace Inn in Bay View.  The Terrace Inn is a quaint, old, Victorian Inn in the middle of an association of quaint, old, Victorian cottages on Little Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan.

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We were served tomato and bacon bruschetta, chicken salad sandwiches, fruit with Devonshire cream,  and lemon scones, and of course, tea.

Everyone did a great job of painting in their journals! And everyone looked so cute in their "girlie" summer outfits.

I always look forward to the tea  -  it is such fun to get together with old and new friends, and it wraps up a very busy stretch of classes for me.  I still have classes going on this summer and book binding workshops coming up, but the schedule is a little less hectic.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and thanks to the great staff that served us.  I hope everyone will continue to take their sketchbooks to tea, lunch, or dinner.  I hope all of you reading this will too.

I am writing this with three grandkids talking to me and drumming zucchini on the table.  I have no idea what I just wrote.

Summer Kick-Off

Watermelon Demo in my Sketchbook

Friday June 15th was my Summer Kick-Off Journal Workshop.  We had about ten very talented participants.  And for the first time ever, the weather was consistent and nice  -  a little hot, but not bad.

I have been busy with family fun the past couple of weeks.  The California grandkids are here, and we have been making the most of every minute.  We've done cousin get-togethers, Aunt and Uncle get-togethers, graduation parties, birthday parties ETC!!!

This week  I have two 8-week watercolor sessions starting, and four afternoons of watercolor journal.  Summer is officially underway, and I'm lovin' it!

What have you been sketching.  What are your summer sketching plans?

Pizza My Heart

A Watercolor Sketch of Lunch on the First Day of June

and the first day of summer vacation

This was a fabulous pizza (aren't they all?)  -  green apple, sausage, bacon, pepperoni, green onion, and Gorgonzola!!!  The special of the day at Pizza My Heart in Willow Glenn, CA.

Every trip has to have something hysterically funny happen or it's not a real trip.  My husband put his money clip on a table and went in to take a shower.  The kids' huge collie chomped up the money, some cards including insurance cards and DRIVERS LICENSE!!!  He mercifully left the debit card intact, and we think the drivers license is intact enough to get back through security.  He really only ate $1 bill, so no harm done  -  well  -  maybe a little harm.

Now I 'm going to go sketch some of the beautiful herbs in my daughter's herb garden, and listen to the black phoebe sing.  It sits on the telephone wire and serenades us  -  black phoebe on a wire.  If anyone wants to steal that for a book title  -  go ahead,  I don't think I'm going to be using it.

Ice Cream Cones and Flowers

It Must be Summer

If we are eating ice cream cones at a little table on the street, and flowers are blooming in the yard  -  it must be summer, right?

This is quirky freaky weather and we are all lovin' it.  It was at least 80 degrees today, and normally we would be having a snow storm.  Even if we have cold weather and snow, it can't last long now.  Every freakishly warm day takes us that much closer to the real thing.

One of our adventures of the day was to run out of gas.  Now I know where "empty" really is on my gas gauge. We were more or less out in the middle of no-where, but with the help of some pretty big hills, we managed to limp/coast into a gas station on the southern-most edge of town.  No problem.  You know what I always  say  -  if you don't want a little adventure, you'd better just stay home.  We made it back, safe and sound, and cuddled up on the couch to eat crackers and cheese and watch Wallace and Gromet for the hundredth time.  Fun.

Day Twenty-Three

Pumpkin Pie

I know I should have sketched this, but I have reached the limit of my creativity for today.  The local granddaughters and I have been to the grocery, made a salad, made two pumpkin pies, and set the table (very creatively, I might add) for Thanksgiving dinner.  And we threw in fixing burgers for dinner tonight, playing Mario Kart, making place cards for the table, and I think somebody watched a movie in there somewhere.  This has all been since about 4:30 this afternoon, and it is now almost 9:00.

I don't make the prettiest pie crust in the world, but I manage to get it in the pan, and it manages to hold the filling  -  and it is really pretty tasty.  Good enough for me.

Is everyone in the United States cooking tonight?

Day Twenty

Apple Crisp

Could there be anything more colorless?  But it was pretty tasty!

This afternoon I have been getting things ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  I baked the sweet potatoes and the squash, fixed the fillings for two apples pies, and mixed up the crust for those and two pumpkin pies.  I put everything in freezer bags, and I'm that much ahead of the power curve.  In the middle of all this, I figured a few more apples sliced up into a pan for apple crisp was no big deal. 

Our son, in Afghanistan, says he'll be thinking of us on Thanksgiving trying to replicate his green bean casserole. Oh  -  you mean there's a trick to it?  A secret ingredient?  You can bet we will be thinking of him too  -  green bean casserole or not.

What did you sketch this weekend?

Day Nineteen

Lemons

I love lemons.  They are ridiculously expensive by the piece  -  something like 79 cents each. I think that is a lot for a couple of table spoons of juice.  A bag of seven was 2.99.  I put them in a big fat glass vase on the kitchen counter so I can see and smell them.  Before they go bad (I hope I'm paying attention) I'll squeeze them and freeze the juice and some of the zest.

I really have to get with it, and get things together for Thanksgiving.  I worked on my list today.  That's something, huh?  I cleaned the fridge. 

Who's cooking?  Are you ready?

Day Fourteen

Peppers and Wine

and some of my favorite things  -  garlic, lime, lemon, and fresh herbs.

This is a painting I did for an auction with a wine and food theme at the art center this past summer .  It was about six by six inches, matted twelve by twelve.

Here we are, nearly half way through the blog-everyday-in-November thing and I don't seem to be gathering momentum, do I?  It was a busy day, okay?  I was trying to get a couple of pieces of furniture second coated to get them out of the way, I did my afternoon of volunteering at the flower shop, my husband came home feeling crummy with a cold, our middle granddaughter is spending the night and had a lot of homework and needed help.  How can they possibly think I am the one to help with the math!!??  I'm going to put a sign on the back door  -  "please take off your shoes and leave your math homework on the back porch".  Just kidding about the shoes.

Day Twelve

Saturday Night Pizza

Our fat, dairy, white flour, and meat splurge of the week.  We are trying to lower our cholesterol, so all week we are pretty good about sticking to a healthy diet. Saturday nights we treat ourselves to pizza.  Sometimes we make our own, but often we are in the middle of some weekend project, and suddenly we are tired and hungry, and it's time for pizza.

This weekend's project is way off track.  While we were in the middle of discussing the re-do of the kitchen and dining room, we decided to redecorate the bedroom.  We spent the day cleaning closets, painting window trim, getting rid of things that really didn't need to be in there, buying paint, going over paint chips, and looking at carpet, mudding some bad spots in the plaster, and on and on.  It was fun -  of course we aren't finished, but I'm hoping this doesn't drag on too long.  Things can do that around here. 

I hope you're treating your sketchbooks to pizza or dinner out.  I hope you're treating yourselves to a nice relaxing weekend  -  or a nice productive weekend  -  whatever feels good.

Day Three

 

Pomegranate

Day three of Blogging-Everyday-In-November.  I know I should be linking to the website that does this challenge  -  maybe tomorrow.

We got a lot of things discussed in class this afternoon  -  everything from the body found in the creek a short distance from here to Herman Cain's smoking ad.  Oh yeah  -  we did discuss triads and color mixing for a minute.

Now I'm going to go try to make a mushroom cream sauce using almond milk.  What do you think?  Is it possible? I'll let you know tomorrow how it comes out.  In the meantime,  sketch some little thing  -  a piece of fruit, a mushroom.

Squash

Squash and Hot Peppers

Watercolor on Arches Cover Cream Paper

This was a demonstration in simplicity and color application in my Thursday afternoon class.  I love the colors of fall vegetables, although this would be pretty much nothing without the hot peppers.  We cooked that cut squash for dinner  -  I didn't add the hot peppers.  I don't mind a little kick, but I am not quite sure how to tell what "heat" I'll end up with when I'm cooking it myself.

There was a little ice this morning on some water in a container in the backyard, and then later in the morning it actually snowed - great big flakes for quite awhile.   I am just not ready for this.

Carrots and Onions

Vegetable Demo

These were a couple of very simple demonstrations in classes this week.  We are always talking about composition, and I'm always stressing painting quickly and with a large brush.  I wasn't trying for a good composition with the carrots (good thing 'cause I missed the mark if I was) but just trying to show how to paint a bunch of something without getting hung up on every individual part of it.  Onions are always fun to do  -  the texture, color, and the hairy looking roots.

It's warm here today.  As much as I dislike cleaning up the garden in the fall, I think I'll get myself out there and get a few things done.  Everything is finished blooming, and it's 74 degrees!  Okay  -  here I go.  Where ever you are, is it still warm enough to work in your garden?  Can you get in any last minute sketching in the garden?

Dinner After Class

 Portobello Panini

Spell check needs to move into the 21st century.  It thinks portobello should be "potbelly" and panini should be "panic".  It kind of upsets me that spell check doesn't know what it's doing.  Kind of like going into the fabric store and the girl at the cutting counter doesn't know how to figure your yardage.  Not that that's ever happened.  If someone or something, as the case may be, doesn't know more about something than I do  -  we're in trouble.

I did this sketch in my hand bound book last week after day-one of our book binding workshop. It felt good after a day on our feet to sit down and have someone set delicious food in front of us.  It is really hard to paint it instead of digging in to eat it, but it does make the whole eating and talking with friends experience even more fun.

In the previous post, I mentioned something about buying a larger bag to carry painting things in.  I try to keep the supplies to a minimum, but now I can't stop thinking about buying a new bag.  I'm really not a purse kind of girl (once a girl, always a girl) and I'm not a shopper,  but maybe.  I kind of like those big baggy purses.  I'm always a few steps behind  -  are they out of style?

Lunch - book binding in September

 

Lunch

During last week's book binding/journal painting workshop we sat in the sun in big comfortable Adirondack chairs, painted our lunches, and talked about food, gardening, cooking . . .

The two days of the workshop, Thursday and Friday, were absolutely  perfect  -  warm and sunny.  And the sketchbook journals that were made were absolutely beautiful  -  colorful and creative.

The idea of having the journal painting day as part of the bookbinding workshop is to get the book binders to "bond" with their books.  The books take a whole day to make and are very precious  -  not something you'd mark up, throw in your paint bag, possibly goof up a page here and there  -  unless of course, you were paying someone to coax you into making those first marks in your book, and you find out how much you and your book like being together.  You might even get a little obsessive about having your book with you at all times.  You might even find that you use it to, not only sketch in, but jot down notes and lists, directions and ideas.  You might even buy a roomier purse for your sketchbook and a little palette. 

Since I've been carrying my sketchbook with me all the time, I find that I look at life around me with a little more appreciation.  I see more colors and shapes, shadows and patterns.  I guess if you look through my sketchbooks, you'd notice a lot of the colors, shapes, shadows, and patterns that I see are food related.  Whatever gets ya goin', huh?

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.