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.

Mid-values

A simple value sketch and half finished painting.

We worked with shadows again today in my class. First we did simple sketches and blocked in all the middle values. We transferred the drawing to watercolor paper and swooped through all the areas that wouldn't be left white with a wash of manganese blue. In some areas successive colors were dropped into the wet blue paint, and in some areas they were glazed over the dry blue pigment. There is still some more to be added to the painting above.

Next week the class would like to do some paintings of snow. Perfect. I had started to work on some myself, and snow is all about shadows.

Just went to see It's Complicated. Cute. Now I have to go look up the sound track.

Is everyone painting? Wasn't that on your new year's list of goals - to paint more? It was on mine, and I must admit I haven't done too well. I have to think about it. Have to build up to it. It'll be fine.

COLD

Bay View in the Snow

I have a lot of goals and intentions for the new year. Doesn't everyone?! For one thing I plan to do a few snow paintings. I've never had great luck selling snow paintings, but ya know what? The snow is here and I'm gonna paint it. Embrace it. Wallow in it. Not really. As you can see, this is a photograph, not a painting. I am all about comfort and I can not paint outside in the cold! Today was beautifully sunny, and terribly cold - a good day to drive down the street taking pictures.

I have been completely tearing up the house. I have been threatening to do this for awhile, and since I have my big, strong husband home for a few days, this was the time to do it. We
took everything off the bookshelves, out of the china cabinet - even moved the piano back into the living room. We hauled furniture to the attic and five large grocery bags of books to the car . . .

Tomorrow I will finish settling things, and Monday it is back to sketching.

I hope everyone had a great holiday. Hope you're fired up to tackle your resolutions, goals, intentions. hopes and dreams!

Travel Palettes

Paint Choices for Small Palettes
(and toxic pigments and baked ziti)

A few posts ago, Annie had some questions about paints and pigments.

In my book, A Petoskey Watercolor Journal, I list the colors I use in my teaching of watercolor journaling, and I suggest using Windsor and Newton paints because of their quality and availability.

The colors I suggest in the book are: permanent rose, hookers green, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, and burnt sienna.

I also suggest these colors because I feel teaching journaling technique is more important than teaching color mixing in a brief journal workshop.

So now we come to the "However. . ." I have been using Daniel Smith watercolors exclusively for the past couple of years. No - I am not advertising for DS - just stating a fact. Colors are not the same across the board and I used to use some of, maybe, three manufacturers. Once you get used to a manufacturer's take on a color, it makes your life so much easier to just keep ordering from that one manufacturer. And I do think DS pigments are great.

As for color choices, again, these are suggested because it is easy to run into an art supply store and find them. I am all about instant gratification, and I feel if someone wants to get journaling, they want to get journaling - not try to find a mail order catalog and spend hours looking up the right stuff!

Annie had a question about manganese blue. A few years ago, the original pigment was "outlawed" and we couldn't get it for awhile. The new and improved manganese blue seems to have the same granular properties, which is what I love about it.

So, if I were to limit myself (which I do) to just a very few colors for tiny travel palettes, what would I choose? If I had room for only three colors, they would be permanent rose ( or something similar), ultramarine blue, and hansa yellow or lemon yellow. To add a couple more I would put in hookers green and manganese blue. Two more - cobalt violet and phthalo yellow green (NOT phthalo green yellow shade)

Sometimes, it is not just about the color, but also the properties of the pigment - if it granulates, if it is transparent, if it stains . . .

I had an email this morning asking about the best way to dispose of our paints and paint water if our pigments are toxic. I think the only toxic paint I am using these days is Cobalt violet. I don't use cadmiums and the manganese colors have been reworked, but if some of you are using these (and cobalts), you may want to be aware of their toxicity when painting with children.

As for disposal - I think you might want to google the subject and see what you think is best. I am not well versed in this and don't want to be quoted as saying, "Aw, heck, dump it down the sink". Look on your tubes of paint and see how they are rated - it will be on there. You'll probably find, that unless you are using cobalts and cadmiums, you have no toxic pigments.

"Marpia" asked in a comment how to make baked ziti special. The best way I know to make it special is to serve it by candle light.

Food Blogging - Christmas Season

One More Time

Yes, I'm baking ziti again. AND blogging about it. Ziti seems to be one of my temporary obsessions - like making sketchbooks and reading everything I can find on Jack London. I've put those two things on hold until after the holidays.

I have Christmas Eve Eve dinner to fix and a few errands to run. I have to make a run back to the grocery. I can tell exactly, by looking at my list, which aisles I ran into friends to talk to. I guess I can't shop and talk at the same time. Well, we all knew that.

One more Christmas present to buy and only a few more to wrap. I'm doing okay. How about you? Hope things are going well, and that you are all having a great holiday season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours!

Baby Eggplants

Painting Colorful Shadows
and mixing (baby) eggplant colors

We worked in this week's classes on mixing colorful shadows. We mixed them on the palette and on the paper, getting very different results.

After having a break between sessions and then having a snow day last week, we'll take two weeks off for the holidays. We'll jump in with both feet when we get going in the new year.

The sun was shining here today!!! Wonderful. I went to the post office and there wasn't a line! Sunshine, no line - what a day!

Brussels Sprouts

Brussels Sprouts in my Sketchbook

I was ready to cut these in quarters, toss them with olive oil, garlic, and walnuts, and roast them. However - they were just calling out to be painted.

If you haven't tried them roasted like this - oh my gosh! Even if you don't like Brussels sprouts, you'll like these. If you have never painted them - try it. You'll like that too!

MORE snow today! Another class cancelled. During the class time I made a pot of coffee, cranked up Pandora, and worked on my year-end evaluation. Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity has some interesting evaluation and planning strategies - a little over the top for some of us maybe - I don't plan to visit 20 or more countries this coming year, but there are lots of interesting things on his blog.

That's it for my day - Brussels sprouts and year-end evaluations. I miss my students!!!

Cellar Door Painting and the Snow Boarder

Painting on Clayboard

In the previous post I showed the sketch, and I have been working off and on for the past couple of days on the painting.

We had a pretty big snow storm last night, and I had to cancel the first meeting of my eight-week Wednesday morning watercolor class.

You'd think I'd be able to use that time to really get into this painting, but with all the neighborhood activity of digging out, I was pretty distracted. Everyone was stuck - even the garbage truck was stuck. Just as I really got into the rhythm of painting, some guy came along and took a toboggan out of his van and tried to snowboard down the street. It didn't budge, so he kept moving it an inch at a time trying to find a slippery spot. That didn't work, so he hauled out a runner-type sled and tried that. That didn't work either. Then he started to wave down every pickup/plow that went by. Apparently, he wanted someone to plow out a parking space for him, and just thought he'd "snowboard" while he waited. That was my entertainment for the day.

I think I'm going to move into a cozy windowless corner to work, but think what I'd miss. I'm the one who is always going on and on about life influencing our art. Who knows what might come of watching the "snowboard guy".

Cellar Door

Gretchen's Cellar Door

This is a pencil sketch in one of my sketchbooks. I have painted this doorway a few times in different sizes, from different angles, and in various color combinations. I never tire of playing around with those shadows. Right now I am trying it on textured clayboard, and I'm finding the shadows don't work real well on that. I tend to paint in layers, and because clayboard allows colors to lift (the good news and the bad news), it is hard to build up the shadows. I'll let you see what's happening when I get a little further into it.

In reference to the previous post - the last of the ziti (at least three servings!) was finished off by a starving grandson after basketball practice. I knew that ziti would come in handy. Never under estimate your need for baked ziti.

Rosemary and Onions

Thank God for Baked Ziti.

Are we paying attention?
Do we really look at the everyday things around us? A year ago I was having my classes paint a series of themes. They could pick what they wanted to do for eight weeks, and really pay attention to that theme. It makes us aware of the everyday things around us - our food, doorways, barns, chairs, shadows, figures. Our everyday life enhances our art - our art enhances our everyday life.

I don't think a painting starts with a sketch. It starts with observing and appreciating. It starts with the way you see and feel everything around you. Nothing is too trivial to stop and appreciate - whether it's a handful of paint chips just because you like them together, or rosemary and onions on the cutting board just because you like the way they look against the wood.

Tuesday night I made baked ziti - enough for an army. The next day I was very involved in a project that really wasn't going all that well, and I just wanted to keep working on it. Thank God for baked ziti. It's the simple things in life, isn't it? And the ziti.

San Francisco

The Gardens at Grace Cathedral,
San Francisco

I posted this painting in progress a few posts back. I think it is finished - I will have to live with it a few more days to be sure.

I'm catching up a bit on real life today - painting, grocery shopping, doing laundry, cleaning the fridge, attending 7th grade basketball.

It is snowing here tonight. Seriously snowing. This will get me feeling Christmasy, and that's a good thing.

Thanks for hanging in there with me for 30 days of blogging. Although I missed a couple, I was thinking about you!

Bike Ink Drawing

BIKE

An ink drawing done on location a few summers ago.

I'm going through old sketchbooks for painting subjects, class lessons, and for the fun of seeing them again. I've gone back and read parts of my blog also. It is interesting, isn't it, how we (ME anyway) keep going along on the same path over and over. Fortunately, I like my path. If I didn't like it, would I make the effort to change old habits?

We did not start our bathroom project today. We decided we needed to know a LOT more about step two before we start step one. There are a few more decisions to be made. We also have to make very sure that we are talking the same language - you know, the Mars and Venus thing.

Art Supplies

Painting the Altoids Tin Palettes

A very quiet day here today. We discussed and planned (argued about) the bathroom re-do.
We wandered the aisles of the Home Depot for awhile.

I think we are going to start tearing up the bathroom tomorrow. I often say how much I love demolition, but this is making me a little nervous. Oh well, no guts, no glory - right?

Back to the Beginning

Cheese and Crackers

For two days we have worked our way through Thanksgiving food, and now we are ending up back where we started - with the appetizers. No one complained when I hauled the same food out for every meal. I guess we all need to get our fill of Turkey and the fixings, because we might not get it again for another year. We picked the carcass clean and everyone has gone home. Maybe that's why they went home - I kept serving them the same food over and over.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a very busy day - lots of people, LOTS of food, lots of noise, lots of fun. Now we are settling down for the night - and listening to the wind and sleet.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Ketchup

Yet Another Salt and Pepper Still Life

Nothing much to paint on the table at Applebee's. However the food was very good, and it sure wasn't crowded. I think everyone else was home tending to their turkeys.

With the help of Eldest Grandson, I just put the last of the pies in the oven. When we stopped at the grocery store for a couple of things, the check-out guy said people are still buying frozen turkeys. This is zero hour for buying anything. What are they going to do with those turkeys?

This little still life is the first in my new sketchbook. What is it about the first and last pages??!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!