Cathy's White Birdhouse

A Sketch from this Summer

This was from one of our bookbinding workshops.  On Day two of the workshop, we paint in the books that we made the day before.

Today I'm going  with my youngest granddaughter's class to the county transfer station.  AKA the dump.  My husband says, "Don't bring anything home."

What are you sketching today?

Day 4 of "blog everyday"

Margaret's Birch Trees

This page in my journal was a demonstration during a class this past summer.  We were painting at a student's home on a beautiful lake.  It was one of those intriguing places with lots of family history, long front porches, multiple cottages, a tennis court, a long winding drive back to the lakeside property .  .  .

Now winter is setting in, but they can't take that day at Margaret's away from us. All of us who were there that day have something in our sketchbooks to remind us.  Photographs remind us of an event or place, but sketches help us to remember how it felt, smelled, and sounded, and tasted of course  -  we did have lunch on one of those looong porches.

Carry your sketchbooks around with you so you don't miss anything.

Light Shape in Dark, Dark Shape in Light

Demonstrations of light shapes in dark, and dark shapes in light.

Awhile ago we did these in my classes.  I love little house shapes.  They're fun to move around the composition and play with the values.

The lightest light against the darkest dark  is the focal point  -  whether it wants to be or not.  Also the pointed shape of the gable end draws our attention.

With a large brush, these little paintings quickly give you what you need to know for a larger, more serious painting. You've worked out a simple composition, a value pattern, and a harmonious color scheme.  If one or more of these elements didn't work out for you, you probably have, at that point, a pretty good idea of what might have gone wrong.  With your large brush you just do another little painting until you get what you want.

We lost a lot of leaves overnight  -  it's beginning to look like winter.  Today we had sunshine and the trees with their red or yellow leaves still hanging on were beautiful. The trees have been slower to drop their leaves this year  -  the city has even delayed the leaf pick-up to an, as yet, undetermined date.  This is big deal stuff, huh?  Day three of Blogging Everyday in November!

Small White Cottage

Watercolor Demo on Arches 140 cold press paper

This is a small watercolor sketch that I did for my class a couple of weeks ago.  We have been talking in my classes about WHY we paint a certain subject.  How can we paint it very simply and still show WHY we painted it.  So  -  we were concentrating on composition, value and simplicity of strokes and shapes.

I was attempting to show sunshine and contrast, and it was painted in just a few minutes with a large brush.  I painted in the flowers first  -  always lightest brightest first.  Then just swooped through with a medium green, being careful to paint around the house shape and the flowers. Next were some dark, negative shapes around the cottage, and in the trees and flowers.  The last thing was a series of squiggles of green for a little foreground interest.

I love doing small watercolors with a 10 or 14 brush  -  it moves it right along.  Instant gratification.

Here We Go.

Some of my Art Supplies

Okay.  I signed up for "blogging everyday for the month of November".  I know I'm supposed to put an official link in my sidebar, but I struggle with that process every year, and I just don't want to do that right now.  Here is the link to BlogHer if you are interested in more information about the challenge.

I started doing this in November of 2007.  I have been a very sluggish blogger for the past year, so I'm thinking maybe this will get me going again.  It didn't last year, but you never know.  Of course, I know there are bloggers that post everyday all the time, but as you know, I'm not one of them. 

I'm not promising quality posts every day, but I will try to have something relevant to an art blog once in awhile.  It may border on food  blogging now and then too.  I also have some sketches from summer that I'll dig out and post. 

One day down.

Last Week's Demo

 Concentrating on Lights and Darks   -  7 X 7

This past week we were talking about values in my classes.  Values, as in lights and darks.  I think value contrast is more important than color.

We started out talking about why we want to do a certain subject.  We want to get the "why" narrowed down to such a small concept that it is easy to simplify the scene and get right to the point.  Then we work out the composition and values.

This small painting was done from a photograph and everyone in class saw something different that was their "why" .  To me, it was all about the shadow on the porch.  I was so intent on the shadow and balancing the values, that it took me completely by surprise  when someone asked me how I was going to make the house yellow at that point.  Yellow?  Yeah, the house was yellow.  I was so into the lights and darks, I was really not thinking color!  I don't know if that is good or bad.  Just a little embarrassing.   I think this week I'll show them how to paint a yellow house.

Apple etc demo

Black eyed Susans and Apples  -  Demo

I started my new season of weekly classes this week, and picked some black eyed susans for a little still life.  I went back into the room a few minutes later, and the flowers were strewn all over the table, and Rudy the cat was madly devouring the blossoms.  I knew from past experience they are only mildly toxic. 

Right in the middle of my demonstration, he came in and threw up. Nice. 

The bowl didn't turn out the way I wanted, but at least with a demonstration, I am talking as well as painting my way through it. The students get an idea of what and why I feel it is wrong  -  even if I don't get it right.

Good way to start the new season  -  I paint wonky bowls and have a cat that throws up in the middle of class.  Want to join us here  -  we're havin' some kinda fun! 

White Flowers

Demonstration Page in my Sketchbook

It seems as if white flowers are the most requested demonstration in the summer watercolor journal classes.  They really aren't too difficult  -  you don't paint them  -  you just paint around them.

We have just finished our last bookbinding class of the season, and now, this week, I'll begin my fall watercolor classes.  I had a summer's worth of stuff on my work tables  -  lesson plans, books, lots of sketchbooks, bookbinding materials, ETC!!!  Now I'm trying to put things away in some kind of order, and clean up and make room for students. 

Okay.  I'm running out of steam.  I'll do more studio cleaning tomorrow.  I need to go to bed.  Oh dear, I have to walk past the bag of potato chips  -  that's gonna slow me down.

Playing Around with more Books

A New Style of Journal

at least for me

This journal has an open spine with ribbon as part of the spine construction.  I put drawing paper in it instead of my usual watercolor paper.

We have a couple more bookbinding workshops to go in the next three weeks, and we are already thinking about some fun, new projects to teach next year.

Right now I am a little concerned about my very sloooow progress getting my worktables cleared off and things put away.  This happens to me every year at this time.  I have come in from classes all summer and dumped my things on the tables.  Then I repack for the next day and never really take care of the stacks of things piling up.  Now I can't just put it away  -  I have to re-think and rearrange,  and evaluate what I taught and how I could do it differently next year  -  what I can add  -  what I can subtract.  What I can leave stacked on my tables!

Okay  -  I'm giving myself 15 minutes and those tables better be clear!  

Chalkboard Wall and Don't Cry Over Spilt Gasoline

My Latest Project

I have wanted a chalkboard wall for a long time.  What better place than in my studio/classroom! It was as easy as painting any wall, and that's never really as easy as you think it's going to be.  Just painting this one wall displaced so much STUFF.  I had to wait awhile before I could second-coat it, and then I had to wait three days before "conditioning" it (rub it all over with the side of the chalk and then erase it).  I haven't finished hanging all the paintings or putting everything back on the shelves (to the right  -  out of the picture), but I have managed to sort a lot of things.

I'm not finished with my summer classes and workshops, but I seem to be getting a head start on my fall nesting.

I go about my uneventful little life, and then WHAM, something  ridiculous happens.  I stopped for gas, filled my tank, and THE GAS WOULD NOT SHUT OFF!  What do you do with a nozzle pumping out gasoline when you already have a full tank??????  So the girl inside at the counter says, "Would you settle for $25.50?"  YES!  Just let me the heck out of here!  Here's my $25.50. I won't be back.

Going Through my Sketchbooks

The Old School House at the Interlochen Center for the Arts

The summer has been speeding by so quickly!  I'm going back through my sketchbook to see just exactly what has happened throughout the season. 

I conducted a two-day  watercolor sketchbook journal workshop at the Interlochen Center for the Arts 
earlier in the summer.  I stayed on campus in the old Stone Hotel, visited some friends I hadn't seen in forever, and had a great two days with the workshop participants.  Interlochen is refreshingly simple  -  there is nothing glitzy there except the music.  We used to live in Interlochen, and I hadn't been back in a long time.  I had forgotten how great it smells  -  pine needles and wood fires!  Very little has changed, and it almost made me want to live in the woods again.  But I'm happy where we are, and I really don't feel like shifting gears right now.

We can always re-live things a little in our sketchbooks.  That's good enough.

Sketchbook Journal Pages

Painting in Bay View

It's been so long since I have blogged, let's see if I remember how to do it.

Last week I finished up a busy week of classes with torrential rain for a few minutes on the last day.  Fortunately, one of the ladies in the afternoon journal class had a wonderful front porch with a ceiling fan.  It was an extremely hot week, and the thunderstorm didn't really cool things down.  In spite of the heat, we always seemed to find a shady spot with a little breeze.

At the beginning of June, we went out to California and brought back our two California grandchildren. 
Between the kids and classes, summer is speeding along. I'll go back through my sketchbook and try to get up to speed posting some of the sketches and demonstrations.

Are you sketching?  How's your summer going?

Lilacs

Lilacs for a Still Life

Finally  -  I think we have spring.   I had to scrape car windows yesterday morning, but the sun is shining, and I think we're gonna be okay.

I'm busy getting ready for summer  -  we go from winter to summer here, and it always seems to catch me off guard.  I've spent the past couple of days on the computer registering people for classes and workshops.  That's a good thing.  I am trying to get a little bit done in the garden so I'll be ready for my summer kick-off workshop. There are also things inside to do, such as shaping up my lesson plans, and packing up for the bookbinding workshop next week.

Last weekend, my friend Karen and her husband came over, and the four of us cleaned up my garden.  Karen directed, I made decisions, and the guys dug holes and lugged plants.  Actually we all lugged, and felt like we had really put in a day's work when we were finished.  It looks great!  What fantastic friends!!! I still have to put in, and pot, some annuals, but I'm going to wait until there is no chance of frost. Whenever that might be.

It's Memorial Weekend, the official beginning of summer, and the time to remember all those who have died serving our country. 

Watches

A Glass Vase of Pocket Watches

I had these pocket watches in a box in a drawer  -  never to be seen.  I put them in a square glass container on a shelf, and every time I walk past them, I think I should take a minute and sketch them in my journal.

I had a nice long conversation with friend Cathy this morning, and one of the things we covered was how we were not painting and sketching.  Painting in our sketchbooks seems especially "therapeutic" to each of us. Aha  -  that's what's the matter with us!

Things have been a little "off" around here, and a bit of  therapeutic sketching couldn't hurt.  Almost two weeks ago, our son and youngest granddaughter were in an accident.  He was not hospitalized, but Isabelle was transported to a hospital downstate, three hours away, for a fractured vertebra.  She is home now, in a tortoise shell brace, and probably will miss the rest of the school year.  Scary!

So while I'm telling Cathy all of the things that are "off" in my life   -   like the weird wiring problem in my car,  some plumbing that just came loose, the critter noises we are hearing near the bathtub ( ! ), I find cherry tomatoes in my purse!

Okay  -  so I sketched, and now I'm feeling better.  I just may sit down and do some more. 

Hot Sauce

Sketching at Dinner

This is a quick little watercolor sketched at dinner a couple of nights ago.  The blocks of color on the right are just some color mixing samples used in class today.

This week in my classes we did some review of the basics  -  brush strokes,  the application of paint,  and color mixing.

It may be April, but it is not spring here in northern Michigan by a long shot.  Today it is 33 degrees, dark, and snowing.  This can't last much longer, can it?!

I have been doing very little painting and drawing, but as I begin to get lesson plans and schedules ready for summer,  I'm getting motivated again.  But right now I'm going to snuggle into my big fuzzy blanket on the couch with a cup of coffee and watch the snow fall.  Well, maybe I won't look.

Photographs and Pencil Sketches

 

In a previous post, Terry asked if I could show the photographs and how they were cropped to use as reference to work out the composition for the paintings shown below.

We're ignoring the photograph on the top right.  I'm sorry these aren't in order, but I think you can see which photo is cropped for which sketch.

These were all pictures that I had taken.  They all mean something to me, even if it is just the fact that I poked around a bit, getting pictures because I like the subjects, and had either spent some time there, or passed these spots on a regular basis  -  a little bit of an emotional investment.

If you click on these images, you can see them larger.

 

I just picked out what I liked about each image  -  what it was that made me take the photos in the first place.  I could have cropped and composed when I took the pics, but then I would have lost the extra details that I felt contributed to the whole thing.  The details are not necessarily things I would need to include in a painting, but they might have been part of my "emotional investment".

 

Crop some photographs, work out your lights and darks in a sketch, and paint a simple painting.  Have fun!

Folded Journal

Closed  -  Opening  -  Opened

I have no idea what this is called.  It is a folded journal, but I'm sure it has a name   -  I mean, there are a million ways to fold a folded journal.

Last summer, or fall, one of the participants in our bookbinding class showed us a beautiful book she had purchased that was folded like this.  My friend, Joanne, took one look at it and went home that night and made one.  I was still googling it with no luck.

A few days ago, Joanne showed me how to make them.  Without getting into detail here, it is made with three square pieces of paper overlapped and glued together in the middle  -  the squares at the center "X".  Book board, covered with decorative paper, is glued onto the squares at each end.  The cover is not hinged.  The size is about 5 X 5.  Each of the three folded sheets of paper started out 10" X 10".

I am not the one to ask how this is folded, so I am not going to do a tutorial.  I'm sure I will have to have Joanne standing by the next time I make one.

Now I have to decide what to use it for  -  a special weekend?  A trip?  Gardening?  A "collection" of some kind?  If I analyze the possibilities too long, I won't use it.  Just do it!

Simplicity

Demonstrations from Recent Classes

I am always talking about keeping things simple.  KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Don't try so hard.

Because it is winter (very winter here in northern Michigan) we certainly can't paint outside.  We get a little tired of still lifes, so we paint from sketches and photographs. When we look at a photograph, our brains seem to tell us we have to paint the whole thing  -  the whole scene and all the details.

Each of the paintings, above, was done from photographs with a lot more information.   The photo reference for the painting in the top left showed the whole house and the garden next door.  The painting in the top right was taken from a photo that showed a lot of dark cast shadows from the trees and and a cottage on the left side.  The bottom painting was done from a photo of a whole house and the door was very plain.

What we talk about when we're looking at our reference photos is what is it that attracts us, and how simply can we state that.  These are very small paintings  -  about 8" X 5".

A big painting project is always fun and challenging. but keeping the brush moving with some small, quick paintings is very rewarding too.  Dig out some photographs and see what you can crop and simplify.

Another Triad

A Demonstration Using a Different Triad

The watercolor sketch on the left was done for Wednesday's class using the colors mentioned in the previous post and listed in the picture, by the palette. The sketch on the right was done for Thursday's class using Phthalo blue, Quinacridone burnt scarlet, and Quinacridone gold.

These are just sketches of a portion of what might turn into a "serious" painting.  In the sketch on the left, I like the way the foliage breaks up the shape and color of the red brick chimney.

Painting with a triad is fun  -  it makes us think about color mixing and sets a mood for the painting.  A triad is just three colors which are a variation of the primaries  -  red, yellow, and blue.  A triad can also be done using the secondary colors, purple, green, and orange, but I think the mix is muddy and dark.

Try some variations of triads  -  see what you come up with.

Working with a Triad

Today's Demonstration  -  lower left painting

Keeping in mind that this was just a trial run, I sketched and painted this very quickly, using a large brush.  I learned from the first two sketches what I did and didn't want to do as far as lights and darks and balance.

I knew I needed to get rid of the bright white porch pillars.  In the two-color painting (on the right) I scrubbed around a bit to dull down the white, but knew the three identical shapes just didn't work, dulled or not.

For the full color sketch, lower left, I used only three colors  -  you can see them in the little mixing saucer.  The colors are ultramarine blue, quinacridone red, and hansa yellow. If I'm painting with a triad, I like to keep them separate from  my regular palette, because, without thinking, I will just start grabbing for other colors.

The colors in the painting got a little muddy, and I'm not pleased yet with the foliage at the top.  I have to do the same demonstration again tomorrow, so I'll see what I can do to fix those problems.

By the way  -  isn't that little saucer the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life?!  A friend bought some in England.  We all fell in love with them, so she called the store and had them ship some to us.  I think they are called china tinting saucers.  I really don't know what they are used for, but I thought they were perfect for triads.  The fourth space is good for keeping a neutral mix going.

Working Out Values

Demonstrations in Class

Last week we worked on very simple, small paintings to work out the lights and darks (values) and then balance with warms and cools, using complementary colors. We didn't all get to a three-color painting.

Figuring out the lights and darks is a very important part of planning a painting, but I also think a little color study goes a long way toward the success of a painting.  Color can really change the direction of the sketch you had done in black and white.

I can see from these two little studies that I would need to really tone down the bright white of the porch pillars.  The spacing, shape, and bright white value of them, make them the focal point.  I had intended for the window to be the focal point.  I'm going to work out the three color study of this for this week's class.

 Blogger doesn't seem to want to save this post.  Is it something I said?

More Journals

Good Journal Making Weather

We have been having lots of snow and cancellations  -  good weather to be inside making  sketchbook/journals.  The one on the right is the one I am currently working in, and the other two are new.

It always makes me a little nervous not to have a sketchbook or two waiting in the wings.  What if I had a sudden urge to sketch maddly, and no sketchbook waiting for me?

 An acetate cover keeps them clean. I'm not crazy about the plastic-ness of the covering, but they really do take a beating.

 I'm sitting here listening to the snow plows.  We live on a corner and they go past very fast, very close, they're huge and loud.  I love 'em.

If you live in the north like we do, I hope you're staying warm, and I hope you're loving this extra snowy January.

Contour Drawing/Snow

Demos Done in Classes This Week

These paintings each measure about 6 X 8.  They started out as demonstrations of contour drawing, but with a little encouragement from my students, they turned into snow painting demos.  I didn't do any preliminary planning  -  no thumbnail sketch, value sketch, or composition planning.  The spontaneity of that was fun  -  relaxed and fast.

How is your new year going?  What are your plans and goals?  What have you been working on?  I think we (me?) put too much pressure on ourselves to make a fresh start at the new year.  Well, here it is the 11th of January.  I've run out of planning time.  It's time to DO  -  whatever it is.

Year End

Wrapping Up Another Year

I was just going back over some blog posts from 2012.  Some of these are from lessons, and some are just from life.

It's been a good year. Lots of classes with wonderful students, lots of family fun, good times with good friends, and it's been a healthy and active year.

Chris Guillebeau, from the blog The Art of Non-Conformity spends an entire week reviewing the old year  -  what worked, what didn't. Sometimes I wonder if I'm paying enough attention to be able to do that.  I do re-cap after each workshop, and go back over class lessons and demos to see what could be improved.  I also make notes of students' suggestions, and try to plan new things to do.  And, yes, I do write out goals for the new year  -  not resolutions, but some things I'd like to add to, or subtract from, my classes and my life. I could easily spend a week re-capping.  I can spend a week writing out my grocery list.

Christmas comes and goes so quickly.  I actually felt a little sad today as I put away my Christmas socks.

What are your plans for 2013?  

Snow

 We Have a Little Snow Here

I took these pictures at 8:30 this morning  -  the street lights are still on!  I was fussing about the snowplow on its tenth trip by to dump snow behind my car.  My husband asked if I HAVE to get out, and I told him I don't, but I don't want to be that little old lady who DOESN'T.  He suggested I just enjoy spending the day getting things ready for Christmas instead of shoveling my car out.  So here I am, blogging, drinking coffee, and eating chex mix for breakfast.

To any of my students who are reading this  -  this is the time to get some great snow photographs.  We will work on snow paintings when classes resume after the holidays.

Now I'm going to go refine my menus and shopping lists, and watch the snow fall.

If you are in the middle of a snow storm, I hope you can just relax and enjoy it. Maybe you could get some good photographs and maybe a couple of quick watercolor studies.

Local Color

Colors

This week in classes we were talking about "local color" (not the, ummm, interesting people that walk around downtown).  Local color is the true, or natural, color of an object without regard to highlight and shadow.  The point of the lesson was how to keep the objects interesting with some color changes on the surfaces. 

The wonky little cup was painted in a mix of hansa yellow and new gamboge, and then while it was still wet, I added some red and blue.  Color can also be added as a "glaze" when the paper was very dry. 

The primary color squares show how much more interesting they are when the other two primaries are added to each one.  For example, adding yellow and blue to the red square makes it a little more lively, yet it remains very red.

There are no hard and fast rules for adding color that isn't really there  -  that's the fun of it.  With floaty pigments or transparent glazes, the possibilities of watercolor are endless.  What are you trying out this week?

Still Life Objects

Still Life Objects

This is a quick little continuous line drawing, with watercolor added, done in my sketchbook after my class left today.  The tables were full of small objects that we set up in threes.  The idea was to zoom in on a simple composition.  We had some very nice little paintings. 

I have a shelf in the studio that is full of still life objects, and I have "stuff" all over the house that students are welcome to find and use in a still life set-up.  Sometimes I forget where the objects came from when I go to put them back after class, but it doesn't hurt to shake things up a bit anyway.

My new classes started this week, and they are full of fun, talented, eager students!  I get paid for this!!!

November 30th

 Chairs

As I was going through things in my studio today, I came across these sketches and the little painting.  Chairs are one of my favorite subjects.  They have so much character.  None of these photographed well  -  the light is bad and to re-do all three of them  -  well, it's late.  I make it sound like it's the pictures' fault, not mine.  It's okay to blame things on inanimate objects, isn't it?

This is the end of NaBloPoMo  -  or blog-everyday-throughout November, or National Blog  .  .  . something. Of course, I'll continue blogging  -  just not every day.  You'd all be really sick of my quantity-not-quality style. I really ramp up the quality the rest of the year, don't I?

This afternoon I went to the dollar store.  When the girl rang me up, she didn't give me my change.  I reminded her I had eight cents coming.  She said "Okay", and rang up the next person who had 22 items.  This was getting embarrassing, I'm standing there waiting for eight cents!!!  It was okay, no one in the long line knew it was only eight cents  -  until  she said something about getting mixed up because she was thinking about "her" eight cents, with a nod to me.   I was not about to leave without it at that point -  it's a matter of principle, right? ("Principle: A rule or belief governing one's personal behavior"  -  in the dollar store)  And I would have had almost nothing to blog about.  That was the excitement in my life today.  What was yours?

November 29th

Pears Again

These are the pears I did in class today.  They started out much wetter and with a more intense yellow under-painting than yesterday's.  We had fun with this.  It was a joint effort - deciding on the color mixes and what brushes to use.

I have a stack of papers, drawings, and small paintings that I've been piling up over the last class session.  I am anxious to go through them and put things in some kind of retrievable order.  I always say that, and then one thing leads to another and it becomes a huge task and begins to involve every aspect of my life.   I'll get every drawer dumped out to rearrange because I'll need to make room.  I'll have a pile of stuff to go through that will take years (yes, years).  I'll have to stop in the middle and go to the grocery store.  I'll have to shove a pile of papers out of the way so I can get to the washing machine.  Then I'll try to re-do my filing system so it will be cute.  .  .  Did I just talk myself out of something?

November 28th

 Pears

Pears this week are $1 a pound here!  I love pears any way, but especially in a salad with red Boston lettuce, almonds and blue cheese. Last night we added pomegranate seeds.

I did the charcoal drawing of the pears last night.  It was, more or less, a contour drawing or continuous line drawing.  I concentrated on the fruit first, getting in the bowl here and there as I came to it with the continuous line.

This morning in class, I did the painting. I was demonstrating layering and tying colors together. Four is an awkward number in a composition, and I was trying to show how repeating colors can tie things together, so they aren't too separate.  In tomorrow's class I'm going to try to have the colors bleed together a bit to tie the objects together.

Happy Painting!

November 27th

Charcoal Continuous Line Drawing and Prismacolor Pencils

Just getting a little color in my life.  This is a very scrawny geranium that seems to be on it's last legs.  I feed it and give it the best light in the house, but it may not make it.

This, like the drawings in yesterday's post, is done on newsprint, which I don't think takes any medium too satisfactorily.  But it's cheap, and big and seems like a good place to "warm up".

I just went out into the world for the first time in two days.  I seem to be in my hibernation mode. Hibernation can be productive can't it?  Nope  -  it can't   -  I just looked it up and the definition is "To be in an inactive or dormant state or period". Well, I knew that, and I guess I don't want to go to that extreme.  I just don't like to go out in the cold. I'll just keep painting and I'll be okay.  How about you?  Do you have painting plans for the winter?

November 26th

 Pencil and Charcoal

I'm just trying to get the pencil moving again  -  playing around with small house shapes and negative areas. 

I'm not crazy about the way pencil and charcoal handle on newsprint, but I thought I'd try to fill up a large sheet with small sketches.

I feel a little rusty after a few days of no drawing or painting, but I'm ready to get at it.  Small drawings like these help to jump start the process  -  kind of like musicians playing the scales.  Little pencil marks can lead to large paintings.

November 25th

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We have some more fresh snow and it is cold!  Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we had 65 degrees, the next day it was 32, and this morning we had winter snow advisories.

This pretty much wraps it up for a very nice Thanksgiving weekend.  I'm looking around the house at the remnants of a long weekend of family coming and going, lots of eating and other fun stuff.  There are stacks of clean bedding, piles of more laundry waiting to be done,  silver and Grandma's dishes to put away, forgotten items to be shipped back to their owners  .  .  .    It's all about picking up Thanksgiving and putting it away until next time. 

Tomorrow I should catch up on ordinary everyday things.  I know I have some things that need to get done, but four days of eating turkey and playing dominoes tends to blur one's mind.  Maybe I need a couple more days off.

November 24th

BK veggie Burger

More food blogging.  We've been eating Thanksgiving leftovers non-stop, but we went to Burger King and the bookstore with our youngest granddaughter tonight.  Just before we left home, my husband said, "What about that pie on the porch?"  What pie!  I thought we were finished with pie! There was a whole Dutch apple pie on the table on the back porch (when you live in the north, you can use your porch as a giant refrigerator).  So -  a little more dessert, and then I sent it home with our granddaughter. I think that takes care of the leftovers.  Now we can move on with our lives.

Yesterday when I blogged, it posted somewhere else on my blog.  I guess the little quote on the towel was quite appropriate. I will try to pay more attention to where this one is going.

November 23rd

In my Own Little World

Is this the cutest little towel you've ever seen in your life?  A friend found it in a gift shop and brought it to me.

Here it is, the day after Thanksgiving, and we are still eating.  A tradition in our family is for everyone to come back the day after Thanksgiving and have leftovers.  Some of us did a little shopping, some of us went to work, and all  of us ate a lot.

Happy Day after Thanksgiving!

November 22nd

Nuts

We are eating nuts and grapes, playing dominoes, and cooking.  Simultaneously.  This is a quick little sketch done in gouache. 

In a few minutes we are going to have to start cooking in earnest, or we won't be ready by the time the rest of the guests arrive  -  and the nuts and grapes are almost gone.

I hope you are all having a nice day!  Happy Thanksgiving!

November 21st

Me   -  many years ago.

No sketching today.  I baked a couple of pies, prepped some things to finish up tomorrow, set the table, did laundry, worked a blood drive, picked up the grandkids . . .

Getting ready for a holiday always makes me think of family and holidays of my childhood. So here, in desperation to blog everyday in November, I'm posting this picture of me as a little girl with birthday or Christmas gifts.  I'm thinking birthday.  Look at that carpet.  Look at those bangs!

November 20th

Butternut Squash

Yes, of course this was supposed to have been a sketch, but a photograph was the best I could squeeze in today.  This is perhaps my all time favorite color.  The texture of the seeds and the shadows around them fascinate me too. All those little bitty negative shapes.

The thing about sketching  -  or not sketching  -  is the fact that we are aware.  Often almost as aware as if we were going to sketch the object.  Sketching everyday objects in our lives has made us appreciate everything around us  -  the wonderful colors, shapes, and textures.  The shadows and way the light hits things keep us looking and thinking.,

Okay  -  that's my little sketching lecture of the day.  Does it sound like I am trying to excuse myself for not painting this?

November 19th

HOTOVEN

HARKER

The oldest pottery in America

COOKINGWARE

It has a colorful logo

and then it has the Good Housekeeping seal of approval

All of this on the bottom of a custard cup.  These have been around before I can remember. There are two of them, and I have two other baking dishes in different patterns.  I can find information on other Harker patterns, but I can't find anything on this one.  Does anyone know anything about it?

I went to the grocery store today  -  along with everyone else in the world, it seems.  Buying a turkey now is like buying a car with the shifty price cuts and trade-in allowances.  At one store the turkeys were VERY expensive, but you could get $17 off with an additional purchase of $20.  Another store had turkeys for 43 cents a pound with a $50 purchase  -  and so on  -  I won't get into it.

I was complaining to my sister-in-law that I agreed to help out at a blood drive on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, for heavens sake.  She said she has to decorate a Christmas tree at the zoo! Does that sound like fun or what -  decorating a Christmas tree at a zoo?!  It's all about what you get to go home at night and tell  -  "I handed out cookies and juice today." or "I decorated a tree at the zoo today."

November 18th

From my Sketchbook

This is going to be short and sweet  -  I'm ready for bed.  I just had a very spicy meal with some very spicy, strong tea, so I might not be as ready for bed as I think I am.

There is no rhyme or reason for this sketch.  It's not relevant to my day, but one day I sketched this while sitting in a parking lot.  If you carry your sketchbook with you, you always have something to do.

Speaking of something to do, is everyone gearing up for a big grocery run in preparation for Thanksgiving?  Maybe we should all sketch some of our produce when we get home.  Or maybe some colorful jar labels.  Just a quick sketch.

November 17th

Colorful Art Supplies

I keep my art supplies out on my work tables.  All the bright colored pens, pencils, markers, etc. are pretty inspirational, and it's nice to have them within reach.  If I had to put these things away in a drawer or cabinet, I'd never find them.  We all have our own style, and I think it is important to use your own style when it comes to how and where you keep your art supplies.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I learned at an early age that it's important to have your own work space, if at all possible.  It doesn't need to be large, but it does need to be yours.

Today is the anniversary of the first time my husband and I met.  A looong time ago.  Today we put up the storm windows and made a trip to the dump.  Then we made burgers and watched some old Freisher episodes.We really know how to celebrate, don't we?

November 16th

Still Playing with Gouache

This little painting is really too awful for words, but I'm going to talk about it anyway.  I am always saying we aren't after a masterpiece every time we pick up the brush.  How will I ever learn to use gouache if I don't experiment?  I couldn't leave this alone, and it has layer after botched layer on the light weight paper.  I think if gouache is layered too heavily, it will crack, so if I feel myself coming close to a masterpiece, I'll remember that.

Doing this painting made me think of a painting I did when I was a little kid. Even the smell of the paint today took me back there.   I had been given a set of paints in jars, and I was painting a beach with palm trees.   I left that long-ago painting somewhere accessible to our dog, and he licked off the paint!!!  I learned a few lessons from that licked painting  -  have a place of your own to paint, it's all about the journey not the finished product, and use materials that dogs don't find tasty.

November 15th

Fruit Painted in Gouache in my Sketchbook

Just about the time I was thinking it would really be fun to try gouache on the colorful Mi Teintes paper, an artist friend, Hennie,  gave me a ziplock bag full of tubes to play with.  This is my first attempt, and was it ever fun!

The dish was really patterned with flowers in primary colors, but when I got to that point, I was really liking the "flatness" of the shapes and didn't want to complicate things.  Hennie paints large, simple shapes on full sheets of watercolor paper  - she gets a very smooth, almost suede-like finish.

Gouache is a water based paint that comes in tubes like watercolor.  It is very opaque with a mat finish, and unlike watercolor, it is painted dark to light, instead of light to dark.  Fun!  Thanks, Hennie. I think I'm hooked.

I gave my class an assignment of watercolor sketching at least one page in their sketchbooks of some of the dishes they pull out this time of year as they get ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  Drawing objects in our homes makes us appreciate our surroundings a little more. 

November 14th

Oranges

This is a demonstration I did in class this morning.  The purpose was to show how I would draw the fruit first, and then draw the bowl around it, instead of drawing the bowl and then adding the fruit.  I did a contour drawing of the oranges, paying attention to the angles where the individual oranges met up or overlapped.

Another purpose of the demonstration was to show how I would swoop across the oranges with one color,  go back and add deeper and varying warm color, and then put in cool shadows.

I don't know why it's easier to draw the fruit first and then the bowl, but it is.  Trust me. Better yet  -  try it.

Is everyone doing the Thanksgiving countdown?  Are the tablecloths ready?  Do you have to clean out the fridge and freezer.  Is the guest bedding all set?  Have you planned a centerpiece? Do you have to polish the silver?  Are you using your grandma's china  -  have you washed it?  Or if you're not hosting  -  have you planned your dish to pass?  Wow  -  that sounds a lot easier!