More Sketches of . . .

I'm still thinking of the great time we had in California. It is still cold and dark here in Northern Michigan, and just looking back through my sketchbook keeps the memories intact.

Everything here at home is still brown. That's not true - the grass is green now, but that is it for color. Yesterday I raked a little in the yard, and there is promise of plants to come - and eventually to bloom.

I suppose I could do something productive to be ready for our short summer season. Something like firm up my summer class schedule, get a couple of illustration deadlines off my list, and then paint porch furniture. All of those things sound fun - and that's what it's all about right? Fun?

More California

The Lemon Tree

This is a beautiful little tree, absolutely weighted down with fruit. The fragrance of the citrus trees right now is fabulous.

That orange thing in the bottom left-hand corner is a petal from a bright orange California poppy. We were going to go down and sit on the sidewalk and paint them, but something more interesting came up ~ ice cream cones, I think.

California

A Two page spread in my handbound sketchbook.

I took sketchbooks and paints etc for the grandkids and they were completely uninhibited about painting at the table in restaurants. Every restaurant had something suitable for painting - flowers on the table or something within view. They were eager to paint anywhere and everywhere. We had a great time.

We're home now and it is cold here!!!

WATERCOLOR CLASSES, SPRING, 2009

WATERCOLOR CLASSES

Spring, 2009

Please see my class site for information on the Wednesday and Thursday six-week classes that are beginning April 29th and 30th.

We all need some splashy COLOR about now, don't we?

Asparagus

Some Spring Green

Unfortunately I ate this bunch of asparagus before I did a good sketch of it. I guess it wasn't unfortunate - I was hungry. I am pretty indifferent when it comes to asparagus ~ I don't get what the big whoop is, but I do love the look of it!

I roasted this bunch and it was really good. Google it on allrecipes.com. It is sooo easy.

I have had a couple of very busy weeks and it's not over yet, but I am working my way through my to-do list. It is all good busy ~ you know, as in positive stuff ~ painting deadlines, framing, packaging cards, delivering, classes, family togetherness. And the level is all relative, isn't it? I have been careful not to say "whew, I'm so busy!" to my daughter and daughter-in-law. You can just imagine what their level of busy is ~ young moms with full time jobs and all the stuff that goes with it.

I know ~ I have yet to do "Z" from my alphabet series. I will. We do need closure on that, don't we?

Have a good one! Here I go, back to the list.

Gerbera

I love gerberas!

Don't gerbera daisies look like something someone made up? Maybe a seven year old? I love 'em.

We woke up to lots of snow this morning. Not a pretty sight. And the Bay is just as white and frozen looking as it was in mid-winter.

I just realized that I never finished the alphabet squares! I still have "Z" to do. I knew from the beginning what I was going to draw for it too - so what's my problem!?

Figures and Landscapes

Small Landscapes and simple Figures

These little landscapes could be habit forming. They're fun to do in various color combinations and compositions.

The figures were done from old photographs. I tried concentrating on the shadows to give a simple form, using very little detail. My Wednesday class is so interested in figures that they are beginning to convert me. Trying to keep one step ahead of them, and at least come up with some simple demos, I have become interested in drawing and painting figures also. I always thought it was definitely necessary to know how to do figures, but could never quite get enthused. I'm almost enthused.

Is it Spring yet?

In the sketchbook I made a couple of weeks ago, I put in some brown. acid free, lightfast construction paper. I love how it works with Prismacolor colored pencils. This is the first time I have scanned the sketchbook. An open spread just fits in my scanner. I didn't plan it that way, but I guess if we want to scan our sketchbooks, it is something to consider.

It was a little disappointing to wake up to a very gray sky and more snow this morning, but it can't last much longer. Tell me it can't last much longer.

Y is for . . .

"Y" is for Yard.

The snow is receding and the little green shoots are appearing. Finally. We still have a long way to go before spring-like weather here, but every ray of sunshine helps.

One alphabet square to go.

X is for . . .

"X" is for St Francis Xavier.

This is a view of St. Francis from our front window - over the rooftops and through the trees. It is only a few rooftops away ~ kind of kitty-corner across the block. It is visable from the water front, out on the bay, across town. I like being able to see it from the dentist's chair ~ I know home isn't far away and I'll be there soon. We all need these little landmarks in our lives, don't we?

The second finished page of the alphabet project.

Two letters to go.

W is for . . .

"W" is for Watercolor.

This is my tiny watercolor palette that I made in an "Altoids Smalls" tin. Painting this little square was the first time I have used this palette.

I have had a couple of people asked what's next. I only have X, Y, and Z left for the little squares project (maybe this isn't big enough to be a project - big as in important). What I plan to do is go with some themes. Just looking at the finished squares bring to mind a few ideas. For my ancestor square, I can see doing some things along the lines of ancestors, family, antiques . . . I could just kind of expand the idea and do four or five drawings or small paintings a week in that catagory. Some may even turn into "serious" paintings. That would be good! I could use a serious painting or two right about now. As small and simple as these drawings/paintings have been, I do think they are good for taking a chip at the old painter's block that crops up now and then.

V is for . . .

"V" is for Vase

On the bottom of this vase is "Albion Ware". I can find a few pieces of Albion Ware on the Internet, but only one vase that is at all similar. It is called a tapestry pattern and it is a little glittery. It is not this yellow. If anyone reading this happens to know that it is very valuable and we could sell it and be set for life, let me know, okay?

U is for . . .

"U" is for utensils

I have done this pot of kitchen utensils previously in another sketchbook. I LOVE the red whisk.

I was thinking of doing "ultramarine" for "U". The dictionary says ultramarine, besides being a pigment, means "beyond the sea". I like that! However, one of the rules I have set for myself for this project (I don't very often set rules for myself - or follow any one else's if I can help it) is that I have to be able to see what I am drawing. It can't be a fantasy, in-my-head subject. Right now ultramarine, beyond the sea is a fantasy here - our Bay is as white as white can be. It is going to be awhile before we see ultramarine out there.

And Daughter, if you are reading this, please tell me what I should have done with "else's" in the preceding paragraph. Yes, I know, I shouldn't have started this sentence with "and".

T is for . . .

"T" is for Thread

I was surprised to find these very small, beautiful, jewel toned spools of thread in a box in my mother's sewing supplies. The colors surprised me - they are like little shining gems. I wonder where they came from. She wasn't a little sewing kit kind of person - she had serious supplies.

Recently I have been obsessed with the idea of making a bound sketchbook. My poor husband got pretty sick of hearing about it as I planned it out for two weeks - out loud of course. He never really said anything, but I could tell by the way his eyes glazed over, that he had heard enough.

I did make it (can't seem to get a good photograph), and it was really fun. I made a few mistakes, but that is what learning to bind a book is all about - or learning anything, right? I am certainly not going to go into the bookbinding business, but I will definitely make more.

COLD and WINDY here! One of my students this morning turned around and went back home, one was rear-ended at an intersection, three had to take detours . . . THINK SPRING.

S is for . . .

"S" is for Spoon

Spoons are challenging, but fun. There is a surprising amount of dark value when drawing shiny objects. The bowl of this ended up too rounded, but - oops - we weren't going to judge, were we? Sometimes I will draw spoons "around the clock" - that is from the 12:00 angle, the 5:00 and so on. This one, I would say, is the 8:00 or 2:00 angle.

We are digging out this morning from last night's blizzard. The snowplows dumped an amazing amount of snow at the ends of our driveways and REALLY socked in the cars on the street. The sun is shining now, so all is well.

R is for . . .

"R" is for rocking chair.

This is one of those subjects that you could spend hours on, trying to get it correct. Since that is not my objective with these two-inch squares, I had a few relaxing minutes of concentration, getting into the zone and not worrying about the outcome. A few minutes of lower blood pressure.

It could go either way, couldn't it? If it's a difficult subject we can drive ourselves crazy trying to do it right - make it good enough. Then we raise our blood pressure and wear out our erasers. I think it all depends on the reason we're drawing - are we drawing for the fun of it, or do we really need a good rendering of the subject. One reason is just as valid as the other, but we seem to have to give ourselves permission to just draw for fun.

Forty-three degrees here right now! That is something like sixty degrees warmer than it was a few days ago!!!

Q is for . . .

"Q" is for quilt.

No, I didn't do the pattern from a real quilt. I was going to, but I was a little distracted, so this is what we get.

I was working on some very simple landscapes today with figures in them to show distance, scale, and a center of interest. Fun. They didn't scan well and it is past my bedtime. I'm feeling a little blurry eyed and fuzzy brained, so until tomorrow . . .

It's ten degrees tonight. It's warming up.

P is for . . .

"P" is for Pottery

I think, from what I have found on the internet, that this is a Hopi Pot. It has been in my family for more years than I know, and I have no idea where it came from. I'm really not sure why, when things were sold, given away, or split up among family members a few times, why this made the cut. It must have meant a lot to someone, and I'm glad it did. I think it is beautiful - sooo old and so comtemporary at the same time.

It has been a very quiet weekend around here. Too quiet. I didn't accomplish much of anything and I didn't really enjoy the nothingness of it. Lethargy - " the quality or state of being sluggish, lazy, or indifferent" (according to Webster) and I say if you're going to be in that state, you should at least enjoy it. It is 5:00 p.m. I still have time to accomplish something, or at least adjust my attitude toward my lethargy.

P.S. I had an email from a friend that says we have to have "nothing" weekends once in awhile to let the week catch up with us. Thanks - I needed that. I just fixed fried potatoes and french toast. Feelin' better now.

O is for . . .

"O" is for orange,
or it could have been "onion", but the oranges are really good right now and, of course, more colorful than an onion.

I just wanted to show you that I actually am working on something larger than two inches. I'm trying out this "test" mat to see how this quarter sheet watercolor is working out. I had not intended for it to be a finished painting. I was just playing around with some very dark darks and backlighting. Then I got to a point where I thought I could probably crop it and have a decent small painting, and then I thought, if I'm going to crop it, I may as well play around with the rest of it - it was an experiment after all.

It might be okay. I'll have to live with it and see what I think.

N is for . . .

"N" is for Nickel

This is the most boring little drawing I have ever seen in my life. You should have seen it before I added the funky green. I had intended to do Nuts and Bolts. I went down the basement - and I don't do that any more than I have to - and looked through every little drawer on my husband's workbench. Nothin'. Evidently the nuts and bolts are all out in the garage, which seems pretty simple, but here it means putting on my boots and coat, wading through the yard, uphill, blah, blah, blah . . .

This has nothing to do with nickels OR drawing, but this morning I noticed the bird feeder was empty, and I knew it wasn't last night before we went to bed. It is one of those finch feeders that is a tube with perches and small holes (not slits). It didn't seem as if a raccoon could have reached in there and pulled out the seed, but maybe. When I went outside, I checked to see what kind of tracks were around it, and there were deer tracks! What do they do - stick their tongues in there!!!??? The tracks came right up to the window, and when I followed them around the house, they went right up to the bathroom window. So not only does this deer think he's (of course it's a "he") a finch - he's a peeping tom! He's creepin' me out.

Do I have to bring the bird feeder in at night!?

M is for . . .

"M" is for Mugs

A quick little ink drawing with watercolor - a couple of my favorite coffee mugs.

So here I go on my second page of alphabet paintings/drawings. Yesterday in the comments, Karen asked what we are going to do next. I'm thinking "themes" would be fun. Maybe a week for each theme - such as five to seven days of something like "windows", "flowers", "things that I love", "things that are red".

Sooner or later I have to do something a little more serious. Maybe a lot more serious. Some small acrylics are appealing to me right now. I have some canvases all primed - what's stopping me? Nothing! I'll keep you posted.

L is for . . .

"L" is for lamp.

A colorful little lamp base that really isn't crooked in "real life"

This what what the whole page looks like - "A" through "L".

This is kind of exciting - getting the first page of these drawings finished. I like the way it looks. Could I sustain this for - you know - a long time? I know other people do. The internet is full of them. Look at all the "Painting A Day" people there are out there. This is a two-inch square for heaven's sake. Well, we each have our own level of ambition, desire, drive, sustainability, need. . . . whatever.

Actually, the drawings take much less time to do, than it takes to do the blog.

I've been considering going on a media fast. A friend suggested that I blog about it - that people might be interested in it, but then she realized if my readers (yes - there are a few) liked the idea, they wouldn't be reading my blog anymore. AND if I went on a media fast, wouldn't that mean I couldn't write it anymore? So - that's not going to work. I have to finish the alphabet and show the whole world (!?) that I did it.

How are you doing with your little squares?

K is for . . .

"K" is for Keys.

If keys could only talk. Because they can't, we just stash them in drawers and boxes and maybe someday they'll learn, and tell us what they unlock. I threw out a bunch of keys last week that were in a small basket by our back door. If we actually needed them, we wouldn't know what they were for - but that is soooo hard to do.

Because I wanted to draw them, I kept an old brass ring of keys that I found when we went through my father-in-law's tool boxes. There is something a little mysterious to me about old keys. Also, they're fun to draw.

I am a couple of days behind in my alphabet drawings - well, maybe not - I never said I'd do them every day, did I? Or did I?

J is for . . .

"J" is for Jump,
as in Jump for Joy.

These are little scribble figures done in pencil. They are happy because they are under the fan and next to the island in my sketchbook - because I painted all day - because I have leftover homemade soup for dinner - because we didn't get that ton of snow - because I am caught up on the laundry - because I am on a news fast and not paying attention to all the stuff going on in the world . . .

I is for . . .

"I" is for Island
Mackinac Island

This is a tiny drawing of a huge bluff with huge summer homes on Mackinac Island.
The colored pencil didn't scan well, the proportions are WAY off, those yellows are really green - but aside from all that - I like it. It was fun to dig around in my old sketchbooks looking for references of summer on the Island when we are knee deep in snow here. Well, not knee deep, but deep enough, with more on the way.

Today was the first day of a new eight-week watercolor class. Such a great bunch of people! We played around with mixing darks (very dark) on the paper. Some of them brought their sketchbooks with alphabet drawings in them.

We may be socked in by morning if the weather predictions are correct. Sometimes the weather changes its mind out over Lake Michigan, so maybe not. Either way, I have a painting that I want to work on. What a nice way to spend a snowy day!

H is for . . .

"H" is for house.

This is really a cheery little house down the street. It doesn't look so cheery with the dark, midwinter sky in the background.

This is watercolor, which doesn't work well on the moleskine sketchbook paper - just kind of slides around.

The house doesn't actually have an orange door, but I think it should. The people living there have, for some reason, left the orange plastic bag with the Saturday ads in it hanging on their door knob for quite awhile now. Maybe they think the front of the house needs a little orange too.

These two inch squares are so liberating. You just put down a feeling - there isn't room to worry about perspective or detail, and how much time can you spend in a two inch square?

G is for

"G" is for game

One winter we were playing dominoes every evening. Maybe I will just leave these out on the table and it'll get us going again.

Drawing dominoes is a real challenge in foreshortening and perspective. These were done with Pitt pens and pencil.

I went to a meeting tonight and one of the artists there asked me if I was being productive. I didn't tell him I was drawing, alphabetically, little two inch pictures. He's working on large sculptures. But this whole thing started in an effort to keep the pencil moving, and I know several of you are doing just that. Good for us!

F is for . . .

"F" is for fan
Westinghouse Electric

This started out to be a contour ink drawing and ended up being a whatever-it-takes drawing.
I'm struggling with drawing today. Nothing seems to fit together. It's certainly not falling off my pencil, or pen, as in this case. It doesn't matter. I did it anyway, and whether I was aware of it or not, something was working it's way around in my brain to remember and put away for another time. I sure hope anyway.

We went to pick up sandwiches tonight and when the girl went to ring them up she asked us what it was we had. She said, "I have a good memory - it's just really short."

My theory is, whenever you draw or paint something, it is a learning process no matter what the outcome. You may not see it, but everytime you put that pencil to paper, you're learning something.

"F" is for fun. Keep drawing!

E is for . . .

"E" is for Eyes.

And "W" is for wiggling model. I said, "Oh, "E" is for eye. That's what I'll do. Could I draw your eye, Isabelle?" "Sure, you can draw both of them if you want to." So that's what we did. She sat close enough to watch me.

My husband had suggested I do envelopes. I just could not find any that were stamped, and what good is just a plain old envelope?

"E" is not as easy (Oh - "easy") as I would have thought. Elephant. Eggplant. Eggs.

D is for . . .

"D" is for Dundee Marmalade

A two-inch square done in my moleskine sketchbook with prismacolor pencils and ink.

I've had this Dundee pot around for as long as I can remember. I love the black-and-whiteness of it with colored pencils in it.

I have a mustard pot that I keep colored pencils in too. I'm not starting a collection - two is good.

I stopped in at my favorite second hand store today and it was pretty sparse. Maybe I should step up my decluttering process and restock their shelves. I am wading through stuff I have been dumping in my little studio room. It's pretty comfy and a nice place to work and relax when I can get in it! I'm looking around right now at things that don't belong in here - a sweater that needs mending, two lampshades that don't have lamps, a box of silverware (?!), Christmas wrapping paper, a geranium that is not going to make it to summer . . . Why do we sabotage our creative spaces like that? Do we think somewhere in the back of our minds that we don't deserve a nice place to create? Well, we do!!! So after doing a sketch in our sketchbooks, let's work on our creative spaces. Whether it is making one or cleaning one, winter is a great time to do that.

I don't know where this little rant came from, but I'm done. I'm going to go eat that orange that's next to the Dundee pot.

C is for . . .

"C" is for chair

Another two-inch square in my moleskine journal. This is a child's chair that has been in my family for, probably, a hundred years. Maybe more.

Doing this alphabet thing, I am looking around at everything in my house with the possibility of drawing it. I'm looking at the way the light hits things, and the most interesting angle of objects. So far I have just been thinking in terms of nouns, but there is always the possibility of verbs and adjectives. That would take a little more creativity, and right now I think nouns are all I can handle. It's just that time of year - drawing two inch squares of nouns is better than nothing.

This is fun. Try it.

B is for . . .

"B" is for Bottles

I know I said I was not going to judge right or wrong, good or bad, or let any perfectionism get in my way as I draw my way through the alphabet. The whole idea is to just DO IT. I told my daughter I was paralyzed by perfectionism when it came to drawing the second square. The second square! I couldn't decide on the perfect way to lay out the page. So I reread the article she had just written as a guest writer on Victoria Mixon's blog. I think you can easily see the parallels between writers' and artists' block, and the "cures" that Amy suggests.

If any of you are doing the alphabet thing with me, I'd love to hear about it. If that's too much of a commitment, just draw something every few days. Anything!

I'm going to go start looking for something that starts with "C".

A is for . . .

"A" is for Ancestor

This is a poor likeness of my grandmother as a young girl. According to Webster, an ancestor is usually more remote in the line of descent than a grandparent. So - this is an ancestor of my children.

She was a wonderful grandma. She was in poor health and lived with us when I was a child. She couldn't take us anywhere, do things with us, or buy us things, but I loved her with all my heart. I learned from her that love has absolutely nothing to do with things - it's all about how someone makes you feel. I hope I could have figured that out for myself, but I give her credit for it. I loved to be with her.

In yesterday's post, as a motivation to keep drawing and painting, I suggested picking a subject each day, alphabetically - something small and simple. This is a two inch square in my moleskine sketchbook.

By the way, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that it is a poor likeness. We are trying to be NON-CRITICAL here. Just draw - no judging.

Sketchbooks

Sometimes I feel unmotivated and don't draw or paint for several days - maybe a couple of weeks. Sometimes we artists stop doing our art for long stretches at a time.

When I say "artists" I mean anyone who draws, paints, etc. I don't think an artist has to be a selling, recognized artist to be one. But you do have to do it - not just think about it.

I think often about how, when our life inspires our art, our art inspires our life. I'm not talking about ART - you know like museum art or art fair art, I'm talking about personal expression - from-the-heart-nobody-else-has-to-see-it kind of art. The kind that keeps the pencil or brush moving without regard to a finished piece.

This is where our sketchbooks come in. Sketchbooks are a very important part of our creative selves. Sketchbooks are where we try things out - colors, compositions, techniques, but MORE than that, sketchbooks are where we see out life close-up (life inspires art etc.). No one else has to see it!

If we are thinking about a subject being too boring or too difficult, we must be thinking about the possibility of sketching or painting it. If we are thinking about it, doesn't this mean our creative self wants to be expressive?

In my sketchbooks, I have done many simple sketches and sketchy paintings with no plan of using them for "serious" paintings. These objects were just sketched because they were THERE.

How about dividing up a sketchbook page or two into two- inch squares labeled A through Z? Do a quick sketch each day of an object beginning with that day's letter - or just a fragment of the object. Use pencil, pen, paint, whatever.

Let's see - A is for apple. Too simple? I do love painting apple wedges, so maybe . . .

More Triads

This is a page in my sketchbook (Aquarius II paper) comparing three triads.

When I use a triad to do a painting, I am just using three colors which are a variation of the primary colors, red, yellow, and blue.

For the top sketch, I used cobalt violet (as my red), hansa yellow, and manganese blue. These are light pigments and will never give you gutsy color. I like to use this combo for shadows sometimes, but they make a pretty wimpy painting.

The middle sketch is done with a stronger, more "serious" triad. The "red" is quinacridone burnt orange, the yellow is quinacridone gold, and for the third color I used prussian blue. This is a rather somber color combination, but I really like how it worked out for this subject. If you notice the color wheels on the right, this combination will never give you purple, so if you need a nice purple, don't use this triad.

The bottom sketch was done using quinacridone rose, new gamboge, and ultramarine blue. This is a good mix for anything - pretty much all purpose. It mixes great purples, nice greens, bright oranges, and mixes into a nice neutral.

Every once in awhile I will paint with triads, just to get back to basics, think about color mixing, and just plain simplify things.

Now if I could just figure out how to "triad" the rest of my life - could that be a verb?

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.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

It is snowing and the wind is blowing hard. We are snug and warm inside - hope you are too!
Best wishes for a very Happy Holiday!

Oranges and Violets

To move away from the food blogging, I thought I would post this painting done a few years ago. It is hanging on my wall and it makes me think every now and then that I should do some large paintings again. I have been enjoying doing small paintings for the past couple of years - mostly quarter sheets. It is not exactly the best economy to be trying to sell large paintings right now, but it doesn't hurt to have a couple of "show pieces" and be ready when the economy takes a turn for the better.

Don't we all start thinking about what we are going to be doing in the new year while we are trying to wrap up the old year AND celebrate Christmas? There must be a better way to do it - like businesses and governments have a fiscal year that has nothing to do with the regular calendar year. It wouldn't work. It's not natural. There is something about the rhythm of the year since the beginning of time. I'm not gonna mess with that.

Food Blog Continued

Click image to enlarge

Carol C, this one's for you. This is the original in my mom's handwriting, with food spills and notes I have made. They are not beautiful cookies, but they are THE Christmas cookies in our family.

Winifred Olds ("recipe from . . .") had a local TV show back in the 50s and 60s in Lansing, Michigan, where I grew up.

If you can't read the writing (and here I am assuming that you'll want to) just let me know and I'll fill you in.

Oh - by the way - that isn't 23 teaspoons of anise seed! It is a 3 crossed out with a 2 beside it. If you like anise, use three, two really isn't enough if you like the taste.

Year 55

I did a LITTLE baking the past few days. I wanted to make my mother's anise crescent cookies for my brother and sister-in-law. This is year 55 for the cookies in our family. My mom started making them in 1953. I want to carry on the tradition with my grandchildren, but I did this batch by myself because of time restraints. Please don't tell 'em.

The tree is decorated, I made no-bake cookies (they aren't cookies!) and some Chex Mix, and a batch of English toffee. I'm in the mood. Tomorrow I will shop!

Notice how easily I slip into food blogging? I should at least be sketching this stuff!

Almost Finished

Douglas Lake Cottage

I finished up this demo for the Wednesday class. To give credit where credit is due, the class had a lot of good input and together we finished the painting. I'm still thinking I'll put a scraggly little pine in there to the right of the lone tree. I want to break up that space a little so the lake is not so evenly divided.

I found myself thinking about how I would do this painting in acrylic as I was doing the watercolor. In today's class we got to talking about acrylic painting, and now I am itchy to do some again.

The wind is blowing tonight and sounds very wintry. We have our Christmas tree up with the lights on it, but no ornaments yet. I did a batch of English toffee yesterday, and one batch of cookies today. I'm getting in the spirit. Oh yeah - I have to shop, don't I!

Cynthia's Lavender Jelly

I didn't come close to capturing the beautiful color, transparency, and reflected light in this jar of lavender jelly. I really enjoyed trying. The real thing just glistens like a jewel. Ummm, maybe I should have taken a picture of the real thing instead of showing you how I missed the mark. However, to me, the purpose of my journal is to experience things, not render a perfect painting.

. . . and, I am way off on the shape. Okay, some days are like that. Enjoy the journey and move on.

Cynthia's jelly is too beautiful to eat, but I happen to know how delicious it is, so of course we will eat it.

Thanks, Cynthia!