Willow Chair, Second Workshop

The Willow Chair Again

This is a journal painting demo for the second bookbinding/journal workshop. I thought this was a great subject - I loved the way the sun hit the fern and the crazy shadow it made was fun. So I did it for both classes. It was hot, and we could put the chair in the sun while we sat in the shade to paint it.

This is some paper that I am not (was not) familiar with. I can't even remember why I ordered it (but I just ordered more). It is Arches Cover, cream. It is heavy and soft and takes watercolor surprisingly well. Has anyone tried this, and what else is it used for? It folds and stitches well for bound books - I am going to put in more than just a few pages next time.

I'm getting ready for my summer Kick-Off Journal Workshop coming up on Friday. The whole idea is to be outside for the day - "they" are predicting thunderstorms! I have been getting flowering plants that hopefully will be perfect on Friday - the deer ate some of them last night! We're gonna be okay. I have a plan for rain, and I will bring in the plants at night.

Cathy's Chair

Journal Page from the Bookbinding Workshop

This huge fern traveled all the way from S. Carolina to spend the summer in this willow twig chair. Sitting there in the sun, it was a perfect warm-up for our day of journal painting.

Here it is, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. I finished up my stretch of classes yesterday (next week I only have two) and I'm feeling pretty relaxed today. That could be because I am not out of bed yet! It could also be because I have a lot of errands to run, but have no vehicle for the day. That eliminates part of my to-do list, and I can concentrate on house and garden things.

Yesterday's class really got into foliage painting. It is so nice to be able to go outside now to paint. I love teaching foliage painting - it seems like such a break-through when we realize how much we need to keep it simple. It is the outside edge that tells the story - we don't need all that interior texture.

Go outside today and paint a tree in your journal. I will too.

Birdhouse at the Workshop

A Demonstration Page from the Bookbinding/Journal Workshop

My friend Cathy and I just did two, two-day, back-to-back, bookbinding and journal painting workshops. The journals were beautiful! The second morning we unveiled them (they have to sit under weight over-night) and jumped right into painting in them. Everyone got over that fear of pure white pages in about two minutes. The weather was perfect, and Cathy's studio is in a woodsy area on a lake. Fun!

Today is the end of my nine day stretch of classes and workshops. I have a class this afternoon and it looks as if we will be able to paint outside.

For some reason, I am feeling very hyper and stressed this morning. Shouldn't I be calming down a little? I'm wrapping up a fairly intense nine days ( some of the classes I haven't taught previously). Maybe I function better in that intense "zone". Or maybe it's all that laundry waiting for me, the science projects in the fridge, the garden that needs to be cleaned up before my next workshop . . . .

I'll be posting more jpurnal pages from the workshop.
Hope you have a sunny, stress-free day. I'm gonna.

Orange Tree Over the Fence

Another California Sketch

Here is yet another sketch from our California trip. I have just finished four days of Bookbinding/Journaling, and will post some of those sketches as soon as I get myself together. And because I never expect to really get myself together (and that's okay) I will post them anyway - in a day or two.

Friday I spent the day at an elementary school with ten classes - one every thirty minutes. As one of the kindergarten classes was leaving, a little girl came up and thanked me for the painting demonstration. As she started to walk away, she turned around, pointed to me, and said, "Great outfit by the way." CUTE kid!

I have a class coming this morning, and I want to get the backyard canopy up so we can enjoy this beautiful northern Michigan morning outside with the birds - and the Wednesday morning garbage truck, the recycle truck, the guy down the street with the leaf blower . . . . but it's okay - we have loud birds.

Sketch something today!

Orange Tree - California Sketch

Orange Tree in the Backyard

I love the shape of this orange tree, although I don't care for the taste of the oranges. Almost as soon as I had finished painting this, the gardener trimmed a lot of it. He really did a great job of keeping the shape - it still has that graceful swoop and asymmetrical slant. I absolutely LOVE citrus trees - those shiny green leaves and that gorgeous, sparkling orange or yellow fruit - the shape of the trees - the aroma of the blossoms!!!!

Getting back to reality here in Michigan. I have a few errands to run to be ready for some workshops coming up, starting tomorrow, and I have a class this afternoon. I don't seem to be taking enough time with my sketchbook. A sketchbook is such a good place to slow down, chill out, and just "be". But right now I have a date with my scanner and printer.

Have you set up a date with your sketchbook?

Pinecones of Viola

Sketching the Pine Cones of Viola, California

Back to California sketches. We were sitting outside eating breakfast and painting in our sketchbooks. The air was cool and the sun was strong. The creek was higher, faster, and louder than it had been the day before. What a beautiful place. We walked some trails to a clearer spot to get a good view of the mountains. Breathtaking!

Now, back home in the city, in a very different part of the country, I am enjoying my sketches. They all remind of the things we did and saw there. Even this simple sketch of the pine cones reminds me of the mountains.

Every little thing you put in your sketchbook journal is a big memory.

Geranium Still Life

Still Life for Class

I did this watercolor sketch in my journal "as is", with no regard to editing or composition. What ya see is what ya get. When I set it up for class, I didn't really arrange the objects, but left it to the students to come up with the composition that worked best from their positions around the table.

For me, taking the still life from three dimensions to two, makes it easier to compose. I can see more clearly what I need to move around and edit when I'm looking at the journal page.

I could have just done some thumbnail sketches and called it good, but color is better! Better, as in more fun.

I have a lot of class things coming up, starting this week. Let the fun begin! One of the things is being a "presenter" (?) at a Young Authors Day at an elementary school near by. Looking over the schedule for the day, I see there is no nap time! What the heck?

Hot Sauce

Hot Sauce, Lime, and Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

We picked up the ingredients for this recipe at Trader Joe's in San Jose. I LOVE TRADER JOE'S! The closest one to us in Michigan is at least four hours away. The cherry tomatoes were beautiful, but it was hard to tell which ones were ripe because of all the strange colors. The only way to tell was to taste them, and then, of course, it was too late. The ones that were good were very good, and they were all beautiful.

The original recipe called for ground turkey, but I thought the guys would like the beef better. I am also wondering if it would be good with beans and rice instead of meat.

I am missing the California weather, and really missing our kids and grandkids. However I am busy here at home - lots of things to do before next week when I begin a series of classes and all-day workshops for nine days without a break. Without a break - who am I kidding - this is fun stuff! If you are local, check out my class link in the sidebar and see if something sounds good to you.

My mind is going a hundred miles an hour, so I am going to slow down and go to the green house to buy pansies. My favorite "slow down and take a big breath" thing to do this time of year.

Have a great day - I hope the sun is shining where ever you are.

Thai Delight

Everything Tastes Better with Chang Beer

My husband is a fan of only American and Italian cuisine. He was willing to give Thai food a try in California, so we rewarded him with a beer to wash it down. He didn't know until the next day, when I was eating his leftovers, that there was tofu in those noodles!

The grandkids and I tried to keep our sketching in restaurants a little simpler this time. We just sketched in pen or pencil and added color at a later time. Soooo much easier with six of us at the table not to get out all the paint, brushes and water. I think the waiters appreciated it too.

California Cabin and Sketchbooks

Accordion Sketchbooks (left to right) Granddaughter's, Daughter's, Grandson's

A Weekend at the Cabin

We spent a wonderful weekend with our kids at their cabin in Northern California.

The grandkids and I took our sketchbooks out and sat in the middle of the road to sketch the cabin. It was a little complicated with the angles of the dormers, and we didn't want to spend all day on it - we had other relaxing things to do like eating lunch by the creek, going for a walk, building a bonfire, playing UNO . . . .

The drive up late Friday afternoon was great - driving toward Mt Lassen and Broke Off Mountain - just beautiful. When we arrived that night, we had to hurry up and make accordion sketchbooks so they would be ready to paint in by morning.

It is an absolutely beautiful spot, and of course, there is nothing like a relaxing weekend with family!

Pot of Flowers

Painting with Isabelle

I played around with "blob and smoosh" while my youngest granddaughter sat beside me and painted sparkling, fancy ladies. She watched me do the printing for awhile and then did some with her pencil. She didn't want to use the pen - I offered.

I have discovered that I can use the dip pen nibs without the handle. Yeah, I know, it sounds awkward, but it takes up soooo little room in my small bag of sketchbook materials. To me, that's what it is all about - SMALL.

I'm going to spend the next few days getting in some family time, so my blogging may be hit and miss. It always is hit and miss, but may be more so. I hope to get in a lot of sketching time also.

I have some classes posted on my class site. More to come.

Dahlia

Dahlias Sketched on April 20th.

I'm Back.

In my previous post I said my blog would be "hit and miss" for a few days, and it turned out to be just plain "miss". We were in California and I was using a new camera, and everyone had a new computer that I wasn't familiar with . . .

The computers and iPad were great. The camera not so great. I am going to have to play around with it a bit before I can post my sketchbook pages - or use my old camera - I like that idea.

It is cold here in Michigan and we actually had to BUY a bag of oranges when we got home. When we were walking the kids to school one day there were some oranges that had fallen from a near-by tree into the gutter. When I told the kids we would have to pay $1.00 apiece for those oranges at home, they looked at me like I was crazy.

Going from Pacific Time to Eastern, I am now operating on Jet Lag Time, which I will try to use to my advantage for at least another week.

Trying Something New

Blob and Smoosh

"Blob and smoosh" is my "technical term for "softening the edges". It's all about drawing the color out a little to soften the edge of a shape. That's what we are doing in classes this week.

What's new here is the lettering done with watercolor and a dip pen. I hated dip pens and threw mine away. Fortunately, my friend Karen tried this watercolor thing and just happened to have enough pen holders and nibs for both of us. What fun! You can fill the tip with watercolor and keep adding a bit of another color to keep it changing. Something new for our journals!

Maybe these aren't actually dip pens. The nibs are the kind that have two layers that hold a little ink (or in this case, watercolor) in between the layers. Does anyone know what these are called?

In the Backyard

Sitting in the Sun

It feels soooo good to be sitting in the sun! It feels soooo good to be making workshop plans for the summer. I always dread getting all the info together and trying to make sense of a schedule so other people can understand it, but once I get going, I love it!

This morning I was planning an afternoon tea/watercolor journal workshop at one of the historic inns in the neighborhood. Does that sound fun or what?! As soon as I figure out how to say it so you will understand it (it's not you ~ it's me), I will post it.

In the previous post I mentioned that I needed a reminder to tell me to check my calendar and to-do list. Well, I haven't figured that out yet, and yesterday I forgot a meeting. It's kind of like I didn't forget the meeting as much as I forgot to go!!! Sad, huh? I knew earlier in the day that I was going to the meeting, but the next time I remembered it, it was too late. Oooops.

At the Waterfront

Mid-April View at the Waterfront

We have had some wonderful spring-like weather. My friend, Karen, and I went down to the bay to do some watercolor sketches in our journals. It was a perfect day.

The green of the grass is so bright, but there is really very little other color (except brown!) right now. The water and sky were even a little dull. But it FELT wonderful!

Now that I can feel summer really coming, I am getting a little panic stricken about being ready for summer. I always think I have a little more time, and then the weather changes and I realize maybe I don't. I am working on getting out my spring and summer class info. It's always a little more involved than I think it will be. Isn't everything?

It might help if I were to look at my calendar and my to-do list once in awhile. Where do I put the reminder to do that?

Editing

Editing Still Life Objects on the Table

In class this morning we worked at getting some quick impressions of some objects on the table, and then we did some sketches to determine the best arrangement for a painting. One of the objectives was to figure out what we would do for a background.

On the left I drew the objects just as I saw them on the table in front of me, and on the right I rearranged and simplified, working out a composition for a small painting.

In the blue and white vase were some purple tulips. I liked the way the purple worked with the colors of the fruit, but as you can see, I didn't get that far. Maybe tomorrow.

Only about ten more pages to go in this sketchbook. It's fun to finish one and it's fun to start a new one. It doesn't take much to excite me.

A Trip Downstate and Back in Time

A Recipe and a Quick Sketch of the old Auditorium on the MSU Campus

My mother used to make "War Dish" and I hadn't had it in at least forty years. My sister-in-law made it this past weekend, and it tasted sooo good. I just googled "war dish" - nothin'.
Maybe no one else in the world ever made it.

I did this quick little sketch while we sat in the sunshine outside the art museum on the MSU campus, waiting for our guys to pick us up. Years ago, when I was in high school, I used to sit there and wait for my dad to pick me up after a Saturday art class at the University.

Wow - a weekend of memories! Fun.

Friday night we went to A Chorus Line, live at the Wharton Center. It was great!

Still Life Objects

Still Life Objects Used for Today's Class.

Today's class did some quick contour drawing and painting in their sketchbooks of these objects. They spent five minutes on a drawing and five minutes painting. We did two or three, and then set them up for a more "serious" still life.

There is something about the quick sketches that seems to give us permission to leave out details and concentrate on what it is that makes a thing ~ vase, bottle, plant ~ what it is. Then when it comes time to do the serious painting we already know how simply we can "say" that.

We have a winter weather advisory for tomorrow!!! That isn't at all unusual for this part of Michigan, but I am SICK OF IT.

Forsythia

A Few Sprigs of Forsythia in my Sketchbook

Dark and rainy today. These little sprigs of forsythia opened up in just a few minutes after bringing them inside. This is another contour ink drawing with watercolor.

I did manage to get Easter dinner on the table. The tablecloth, mentioned in the previous post, cleaned up well, but it really didn't matter - after the cat threw up under the dinner table, the tablecloth didn't seem like any big deal.

Primrose

Yellow Primrose in my Journal

Somewhere in my collection of sketchbooks I probably have every primrose I have ever purchased. Those pretty, round, colorful blossoms, those cute flop-eared leaves ~ I love 'em. I always buy a yellow one to put on my little purple bench on the front porch. It's the little things in life, huh.

I can't seem to get motivated today to start getting ready for Easter dinner. I did go to the grocery store, and I do know that all my table cloths are clean ~ that's it. That's as far as I am at this point. I work best under pressure, so it'll happen. Maybe later than sooner, but that'll be okay. Right now I think I'll go fill nail holes in the bathroom trim and maybe slap on a coat of primer.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!!!
P.S. Ooops - the table cloth isn't so clean anymore. It started to rain, it fell off the line, and . . .well, you know.

St. Francis

Help! I'm Completely Lost in a Tangle of Contour Lines!

I love love love doing contour drawings! Sometimes I do them verrrry sloooowly as I "feel" my way around an object, and sometimes I do them very quickly, moving from shape to shape getting all the information I can in a limited amount of time.

I knew I would be sitting on the bench in the playground across the street from the church for only a few minutes, so I did the drawing quickly - and got lost many times. I made a lot of mistakes and had to backtrack to "correct", and because I was using a pen, the corrections and mistakes are there alongside each other. If I had done it with pencil, I would have spent half my time erasing instead of drawing.

Contour drawing, by the way, is when you don't lift your pen off the paper - you just keep moving.

I'm in the mood to do some contour drawings of street scenes. The weather is great here today - strange for April. I do have a huge to-do list which includes getting groceries for our family Easter dinner. Let's see - go out drawing? Go to the grocery store?

CROCUS

One Lone Little Crocus

The sun is shining, the temperature is summer-like, and things have started to bloom. Well, this is it for our yard, but other things are beginning to look promising. After all, it is only the end of March and in Northern Michigan that is still winter.

Yesterday I went to the greenhouse to get a primrose and ended up buying a dahlia also. I am not really a dahlia fan, but there in that warm sunny greenhouse with that wonderful dirt and green smell, I would have bought anything they pushed on me. Well, actually, I wouldn't. I didn't. But I did spring for the dahlia and a yellow (New Gamboge Yellow) primrose. They have some curly grass there I think I have to have, and an orange iridescent flower that would look great with hot pink! There are some new (to me) geraniums . . . .

My Wednesday morning class is really getting into their sketchbooks. In fact this morning I couldn't get them out of them. That's okay - they seem to be having fun and they are doing some great colorful and creative things.

Are any of you old enough to remember your mom's Ponds Cold Cream? The yellow primroses always smell like that. The only thing I remember anyone in my family using cold cream for was to get off the residue that bandaids leave on your skin. So when I smell yellow primroses, I have an instant flashback to bandaids, the gunky stuff they leave on your skin, and my dad rubbing Ponds on my knees.

Tomatoes

Red, Ripe, Medium-sized Tomatoes with a Crazy Shadow Pattern

I think it is hard to nail the color of a tomato without getting it a little rotten looking. Maybe it's because that red-orange has a little blue in the shadows, so we (I) end up with a muddy color. I tried to avoid this by not getting too much shadow color in there. There was a wonderful lavender highlight on each tomato. I think it was from the gorgeous blue sky outside the big studio windows.

I am on my way to the greenhouse. I am anxious to feel that heat and smell that dirt!!!

Geranium Watercolor Sketch

A Winter Geranium in my Watercolor Journal

This was a fast warm-up for our class yesterday. I am really trying to get across to my students that we can do a lot of small, colorful, satisfying paintings without fretting over them. Let's record some of the color in our every-day lives! And make it snappy!

Winter is notoriously burn-out time for artists in Northern Michigan. It is dark, cold, and long ~ and it ain't over yet! (Spell check thinks "ain't" is okay ~ times have changed) Painting pretty colors, trying out compositions and just doodling in our sketchbooks fills the void and keeps the brushes moving.

Don't think "finished product", think "journey". Journal, journey ~ hmmmm.

Journals

A Couple of New Handmade Journals

I've said it before ~ I can't stop. And my friends just keep feeding my obsession. Well, that's what friends are for, right?

My brain is in whirlwind mode. I have so many things I'm lining up for upcoming spring and summer classes ~ lesson plans, dates, promos, locations........and I should get a little painting done.

Maybe I'll just take a little time out here and make another journal.

Borders

And Your Assignment This Week . . .

It's amazing how many things in our lives have border designs ~ in my life anyway ~ I am not a minimalist. I've been looking around getting inspiration for sketchbook enhancements, and using simplified ideas from rugs, dishes, flower pots . . .

My class this morning did a quick watercolor sketch of radishes. It is so much fun to see all the different and beautiful interpretations. Their sketchbook assignment for the week is to do a few borders, and to pull something out of the fridge and do a quick sketch.

It was a nice sunny day here today. Warm enough for a walk down by the waterfront. There is still ice along the edge of the Bay, but it can't last too much longer. Well, I guess it could, and I think snow is predicted for the weekend.

Radishes Again

I Was Looking for a Primrose

I missed it by a mile, huh?

I wanted to paint a primrose, but couldn't find any, so these radishes will have to do. They just aren't the same in the grocery store ~ I love them at the farmers' market with the sun shining right through them.

Bathroom remodel update ~ the tub has been refinished! Even though the bathroom is far from finished, I had fun today at Bed Bath and Beyond looking for accessories. Do I really want to spend $20 on a toilet brush?

Daffodils

Daffodils in my Watercolor Sketchbook Journal

This was a contour drawing demo for the Thursday class with watercolor added. Just as the Wednesday class had done, the Thursday class also worked in greens. It is so fascinating to see the difference between mixing on the palette and mixing on the paper. I am trying to get a good photograph of that.

A few trips to the home improvement stores this weekend ~ I picked up a lot of green paint chips. Not that I didn't already have a lot, but you can never have too many paint chips. Anyway ~ we are going to play around this week with mixing to see what it takes to match those colors.


Working on constructing yet another journal. I don't have any immediate need for so many, but I want to be able to do them in my sleep. And when I get sick of making them, I will have a stockpile. It hasn't happened yet, but sooner or later I will have to get sick of it, won't I?

And speaking of home improvement stores ~ an update on the bathroom remodel. We are grouted!!!

Ivy Contour Sketch

A Quick Contour Sketch with Watercolor

This is a very quick sketch done in class to demonstrate how little time and effort it takes to get something on a sketchbook page. Something to remind us of the lesson, the day, the people we were with . . .

We studied greens this week ~ greens made with blue and yellow, and greens made with green and other colors added. Greens, for some reason are difficult. I'm wondering if it is because we have very definite ideas about the greens we personally like, and then when we use them, we are a little insecure about using the correct greens for the subject. Just thinkin'.

It's been a good art week. I spent a few hours planning a workshop with a friend, and I started two new eight-week watercolor classes. Lots of great people!

Now I suppose it is back to working on the bathroom remodel. I had a friend say, "Don't stay home while they're remodeling your bathroom." Another friend said, "Whatever you do, don't go away while they remodel your bathroom." We are doing it ourselves ~ no one ever said anything about that. Stay tuned ~ I'll have a few things to say when we are finished.

Almond Accents

Sketching at the Art Show

Saturday I went with friend Karen to do an art show. I went as a helper and not a participant. Fun! Really fun! It was a nice day away from the routine, and we talked and laughed about anything and everything. It was nice to spend some time with artist friends and see what they had been working on over the winter.

You would have thought with all the booth set-ups and people, I could have found something more interesting to paint than the package of almonds for my salad. Well, I didn't. I didn't really try - I was pretty comfy in my little corner.

This week my new class session starts. We are going to be doing some things in our sketchbooks throughout the eight weeks. I'll have to be on my toes to keep ahead of them - they're a talented and motivated group. But hey, the sun has been shining for the last few days - I'm up for anything.

Music

Music Music Music

From exercising with my mp3 player to listening
to the birthday girl practice her violin.

I had fun with these curvy lined ink drawings. It is hard for me to leave out color, but I decided to leave this as is.

I see the Virtual Paintout is in a very pretty area in Norway this month. Google Maps Pegman and I may just have to take a virtual trip there to sketch.

Right now I am off to clean up the dust ETC. from the bathroom remodeling project. No, it isn't finished, but I have been letting the mess pile up, and tomorrow I start a new class session and don't want to offend anyone with the dust and junk everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

One of Those Days

Sketchy Sketches in my Sketchbook

In my attempt to have my sketchbook really be a part of my life, I stood out in the 14 degree weather to sketch my poor sick truck. It only looks smashed up because I was cold - and cold really distracts me. I can take a lot of heat, but when I'm cold I can't concentrate. Anyway.

I woke up this morning and realized my hair was in panic mode, so I walked to my hair appointment. Yes, It was only 14 degrees - maybe 20 by that time, but I am a better woman for it. Better looking too.

And speaking of not concentrating, I realized after I finished tiling more than half of the end wall of the shower that I had done the "pattern" wrong!!!!!! The good news and the bad news - I was able to remove the tile. Should that happen - should I be able to do that?

I had left the battery charger on the truck all morning, and when I went out to start it, it would start, but wouldn't keep running. SO, my husband comes home, goes out there and it starts right up and runs fine. Don't you hate it when that happens!? He knew I would be - um - angry about this, so, sweet heart that he is, he says, "The truck started right up. You must have taken it past it's period of stalling and it's okay now."

WATERCOLOR CLASSES

Eight-Week Watercolor Classes

Beginning the first week in March. Please check out my class site for info. I still have room in the Thursday afternoon class.

O'Donnell Lane Again

A Small but Serious Painting of O'Donnell Lane, Glen Ellen, CA

A "serious" painting means it was done on watercolor paper and not in my sketchbook. I think I like my sketchbook version of it better.

I used Google Maps Pegman Streetview to do the sketch and also for some reference for this painting. One of my commenters on the sketchbook post said that she was making Pegman her new best friend. I'm in love with Pegman too - we have even gone to Paris together.

Yesterday we went to an open house for a friend that just finished a sculpture that will ship out this week. I love it when people celebrate accomplishments large and small. This was large! How often do we let achievements go by without notice? Sometimes we don't even recognize an achievement when we see one. We need all the celebrations we can get!

Spaghetti Night

Spaghetti Night at the Carey's

Every night would be spaghetti night (without the zucchini!!!) at the Carey's if my husband had anything to say about it. Well, he does have a little something to say about it, and he does eat it twice a week.

We've been talking in my classes this week about using our sketchbooks more. It's fun to use them to zero in on life and record the everyday things around us. Yes, I know, I'm always saying that. In my next session of classes we are going to be using our sketchbook/journals for experimenting, recording information, working out composition problems, and doing quick little watercolors, and trying to get rid of the perfectionism that keeps us from using them for fear of messing them up. I think it's going to fun.

O'Donnell Lane

Virtual Glen Ellen, CA

If you are familiar with Google Maps, you probably know about the little Pegman you can "drag" to the street for a Google Maps Street View. Fun!

Over at Virtual Paintout, a new location is given each month, and artists drag Pegman to the street and find something they want to paint. This month happens to be the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding locations. I have never participated in this, but thought it would be fun to paint someplace in that area that I had visited . So I took Pegman to Glen Ellen, to O'Donnell Lane - a little lane we had walked down after breakfast one morning the last time we were there. I just did a quick watercolor in my journal, but I may do it as a "semi-serious" painting and submit it.

Using "Street View" is a challenge. It's not even as good as a photograph and because of the camera lens they use, the perspective is not good. I am always cautioning my students not to use other people's photographs because there is no invested emotion in them as there would be in your own. However - it's winter - we all need a little entertainment. See what Pegman can do for you.

Citrus

Lime and a Tangelo in my Sketchbook

I absolutely love the smell of citrus. It is much more fun to paint it peeled or sliced ~ not only do you have that great smell, but the shapes are better than plain old round or oval. To keep the color "moving", I put a little orange in the lime, and then a little green in the shadow of the tangelo. The tangelos were fun to paint, but they tasted awful.

Did everyone have a nice Valentine's Day? We spent the day tearing out the old tub surround in the bathroom and putting up the new board and preparing to tile the walls. Crooked tub, crooked walls, crooked ceiling, crooked floor ~ what did we get ourselves into!? Wouldn't you think with all that crookedness something would cancel out something else and somewhere something would be straight? Guess not.

Color Demo

Quick demos - not even pretending to be finished paintings.

What I was trying to show here was how we can unify shapes in a painting by carrying colors around the composition. The primary colors on the left show how I put all three primaries in each shape to "pull" the shapes together. The example on the right, done pretty much in secondary colors, shows the same principle - there is pink in the oranges, and orange in the pink flowers. This keeps our eye traveling around the painting instead of zeroing in on one color and then another. Maybe we could call this "unity and flow".

I think a flat color is a flat shape. I am conscious of this in every painting I do. I'm not always conscious of anything else, but what the heck.

Tulips

Flower Power in the Dead of Winter

Is it actually Spring in some parts of the country? We have a long way to go here. The other day in the grocery store I saw these bright pink tulips, and because we also have to feed our souls, I grabbed them up.

In class we did a little lesson on carrying a color throughout a painting. We painted these tulips in a still life with oranges, and worked at getting a little bit of orange into the pink tulips and a little pink into the oranges. Fun!

Are you sketching today? Putting a little bright color in your journal sketchbooks? I am going to go try out some new paper in a new journal (YES, another sketchbook). I'll see how it works with watercolor, pens, prismacolor pencils, etc.

Go create something!

Soup

An ink sketch done in my journal sketchbook.

Sketchbooks are such fun, and so liberating. In a serious painting I would never have put that tomato over the girl's head. I wanted to include the sign and that's where it fit. It's a sketchbook ~ we have permission to do anything any way we want.

On Wednesdays the neighborhood cafe serves homemade Gorgonzola tomato soup. Out of this world!

I think I am finished with snow paintings. Now I need some color. Of course, you wouldn't know it from this sketch.

By the way ~ don't you just love the word "Gorgonzola"!?

Snowsnowsnow

Another Local Snow Scene.

We have only had light snow for the last few days. Enough to keep the old snow white and clean.

This is a watercolor, 11 X 15, on Arches cold press paper. I started this painting as a demo for class, but I really botched the center evergreen. I had the area too wet - I went into the sky too soon with the tree color, and the spaces I had wanted to leave white for the snow on the branches ended up being greenish brown. Yuk. It made the whole demo a "do as I say, not as I do" kind of thing.

Just as a challenge I wanted to save the painting, so I scrubbed the snow on the tree to lighten it up a little, then I painted some other areas of the snow the same color. I think it worked out okay.

This week I will try not to botch the demo. But if I do, I will try to make lemonade out of the lemons. Yes, it is a still life - citrus fruit and tulips.

Bookbinding Mess

. . . and a new sketchbook

I am trying to figure out if it is possible for one person to make one little sketchbook without taking up the surface of four tables. It really doesn't matter if I am working here alone, but I do think I could do this a little more efficiently.

I am waiting for an order of paper to put together yet another sketchbook. Every book has a different reason for being, and the upcoming one is to try out a sampling of different and unknown (to me) paper.

We had an interesting discussion in class today. Someone asked, "Do you ever run out of things to paint?" Everything looks like a potential sketch to me. Maybe not a real serious painting, but everything is at least sketch-worthy. Maybe it is all about the act of sketching and painting, rather than the subject. For me, it's not only about keeping the pencil and brushes moving, but the challenge of being able to get a three dimensional object down on a two dimensional surface. Whatever the reason, when we decide to seriously sketch and paint, we begin to look at things differently. We may even buy different food at the grocery store because we're going to paint it before we eat it.

When all we see outside is snow, and inside, things begin to look a little stale, it's time to give ourselves a challenge - sketch every day. Sketch anything - chairs, food, houseplants, dishes, lamps, silverware . . .

You know, I think we have this discussion every winter about now.
HAPPY PAINTING!

Pens

Pitt Artist Pens in a Cup

I was going to use the pens to do the colors, but then, of course, they wouldn't be in the cup anymore. If I moved one, they would all move.

No snow paintings this week. It has been dark and dreary. I have some good reference photos, but all the gray and brown ruins the mood. Maybe it is time to do some still lifes ~ flowers, fruit, pretty vases, interesting fabric! Sounds fun ~ especially the interesting fabric.

I have been fooling around with bookbinding again. It is habit forming. It's also very messy and time consuming. Maybe that's why I enjoy it so much.

It Takes a Village

Sun on the Snow Between Cottages

I've really been struggling with this one. I just couldn't seem to be objective about it and see what was right and what was wrong (it's the "wrong" that's important), but with a little help from my friends, I think I have it. Thanks for your opinions - I do appreciate them.

This is a watercolor done on a quarter sheet (11 X 15) of Arches 140 cold press. I am really having fun with these snow subjects. Painting snow paintings, reading Jack London, and making sketchbooks seem to be my obsessions of the season. Not too exciting, am I?

Update on my quirky life: the big guy on my speed dial (the tow truck guy) took care of the flat tire on my truck, the big guy I live with ( my husband) took care of the electricity to the bathroom, and in a couple of days he will hook up the bathroom sink. It's no big deal ~ I usually brush my teeth at the kitchen sink looking out the window anyway. I can not stand there brushing for two minutes in a closed up bathroom! I don't know what that has to do with anything, so here I go to work on a sketch for tomorrow's class.

Bay View Cottages

A Row of Cottages in the Snow

Another small painting done in my sketchbook. This is a scene I have painted many times in the summer. In fact, it is one of my favorites. There was a very cold wind coming off the Bay the day we went there to take pictures. There is no way in the world that I would have stayed there to sketch. It was the kind of cold that make your cheek bones ache.

Sketching from the photographs on my monitor certainly isn't the same as really being there, but living in Northern Michigan, I do have to compromise now and then. Doing them in my sketchbook gives me a chance to work out the colors and play around a little bit with the composition. I obviously didn't play around with the colors enough here.

I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to "My Quirky Life". We've been talking about remodeling our bathroom for quite awhile now. My husband decided to put shut-offs on the bathroom sink before we really get into anything. While he was doing that, he broke the pipe. So the electricity to the bathroom light fixtures went out!!! That's the kind of thing that happens here. At the same time, my car sat in the driveway and had a flat tire.

Ordering

So Many Colors - So Little Time

It takes me days to get together an order for paint, paper etc. You'd think I would never have a chance at it again. Why can't I just order what I need and move on? I'm afraid I might miss something, I guess. And I want it all, when actually I like painting with a very limited palette. See the problem?

When an order comes, it is always a little disappointing not to have something new/different - like a little present to yourself. Daniel Smith has a 20% off sale for a few days. That ought to justify something new and different, don't you think?


Still working on the quarter sheet snow painting. Maybe I'll post it tomorrow.

More Snow

Another Snow Sketch

I'm so glad I went out taking snow pics when the sun was shining. We haven't seen the sun here in a couple of days, which is not unusual for this time of year in Northern Michigan. It has warmed up a little - it is up to 34 degrees.

I'm really getting into this snow painting thing. I am working on a quarter sheet painting right now. I am having a little trouble keeping the colors cool enough. I didn't work through the color planning in my sketchbook because I was in a hurry to get it ready for a class demo. I'll see how it goes and then let you know. I do have my pride - I'm not going to post it if it doesn't work out.

Keep warm!

Winter

Watercolor in my Sketchbook

I have said it before - I'm all about comfort - so no, I didn't sit out there in the snow painting this in my sketchbook. A few days ago, friend Karen and I went out taking snow pictures. We took a zillion. It was COLD and sunny - perfect.

I prefer to work from my own sketches when I do serious paintings, not from photographs. So for these winter paintings I intend to use the photographs as reference for my watercolor sketches, and then use those sketches for reference for my paintings. Make any sense?

I have a tendency to get very detailed when using photographs. To keep from getting too detailed with the sketches, I do a quick contour (more or less) drawing and then use a fairly large brush, such as a #12 or 14 to block in the color. My sketchbook pages a pretty small - about 5.5 X 5, which makes about a ten inch, two page spread. A large brush on that sized paper keeps things pretty loose.

So let it snow - I'm all comfy in my studio, working from pics on my laptop, and listening to Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, J.J. Cale - you get the picture. A little too much caffeine, but that's okay.