Another Beautiful Day

It was too wet this morning for the watercolor class to paint outside. I brought in a few pots of flowers and the class did a great jog of painting with analogous colors and applying rich, juicy colors.

In the afternoon the Watercolor Journal Class met at Memorial Gardens in Bay View. There are lots of things to paint there - flowers, birch trees, cottages, the Bay . . .

The small journal page (above) is the demo I did today. We worked on "Blob and Smoosh" (it's in the book!) and talked a little bit about composition. The people in the photo are the wonderful artists in the journal class.

SUMMER CLASSES ARE IN FULL SWING

I have it all mapped out so I know where to go and when. If I lost my color coded calendar with all the little stickies on it, I'd be sunk. Or if the stickies fell off!!!! Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if I have forgotten anyone - forgotten to return a phone call, didn't answer an email.

Anyway, I'm having a great time with a wonderful bunch of talented people, and I hope they are having as much fun as I am.

These are watercolor sketches from my journal done as demos in this week's Watercolor Sketchbook Journal class in Bay View This class is doing some great little paintings! They will have some nice painting memories to take home. My Tuesday morning watercolor class painted in our backyard. The weather was perfect, and they were really tuned in to it. Nice job!

This is a quick little sketch of some poppies next door. They lasted quite awhile - we hadn't had rain. They are gone now, and so are the giant iris.

Watching the flowers come and go remind me of how precious some things are. How fleeting. Each flower has its time to blossom and then another takes over. If they never changed, we wouldn't pay any attention to them.

This was done on hot press paper which doesn't seem to scan as well as cold press. Some colors wash out as they soften.

After a long day of planting I just plopped my weary body down in my periwinkle-blue Adirondack chair with my sketchbook. It was fun, and I like the drawing, and I really enjoyed the process. And sometime next winter when I look through my sketchbook, I will be reminded of the warm sunshine on my back and that wonderful smell of the soil.

Have you sketched a memory lately?
I used a fine Pitt pen on Bogus Rough sketch paper.

It was a beautiful evening to take supper down to the waterfront. This little painting in my Moleskine is certainly a contrast to this one done only about six weeks ago. While we were sitting there we were watching the gulls as usual, when we realized they were not gulls. They looked like gulls, but they didn't act like gulls, and then we noticed that they had orange beaks and black caps. When we got home I looked them up in the bird book, and they were definitely Terns. I know absolutely nothing about terns, but am very curious to know what kind of tern they might be. For some reason, I need to know this! So - if you happen to know what kind of tern we have here on Little Traverse Bay, please let me know. Are they common here? Are they migrating?

LOOK OUT, SUMMER - HERE I COME!

I wrapped up my Spring classes this week, and will start the summer ones in a couple of weeks. I will try to use the time wisely - getting the garden ready for painting, ordering supplies for summer classes, packaging up prints and cards, and getting some small paintings done for the summer sales opportunities. Bring on the opportunities!

This is yet another small painting of our back door. I love painting this door (it actually does NEED painting. It is sanded and ready to go. Should I paint it white again or a color this time - maybe periwinkle?) I couldn't wait for the flowers to bloom. This spot in the sun in my big Adirondack chair was just too inviting, so I used my artistic license (you all have one too) and threw in the blossoms that will be there soon.