More Journals

Seriously. I CAN NOT STOP making journals.

Actually, only three of these are mine. I spent Friday making journals with friend Karen. The Friday before I spent making journals with friend Cathy. Karen and I spent two hours in Joann Fabrics putting together fabrics and papers. Now I understand why people quilt - it's that mixing of colors and patterns thing. Look at that paisley - wow, I love that!

I put aside the journal stuff for a day or two because we had a demolition thing going on here. We demolished a wall, reconstructed it and installed a new window. I love demolition! It has so much potential . I mean, when something is gone, you can put anything in that spot, right?

So today I am going to paint the new wall, scrape and paint the back door and stay away from the journal stuff. There is more to life than making journals. My husbands says.

Figures

Small Watercolor Figures

I spent a nice morning painting with Walloon Lake friends. After painting a sketchbook landscape, I turned around to face the other painters in back of me and do some very quick, juicy sketches of them. I need to do more figures. These will be fun to look back at to remember the day.

In the upper right hand corner you can see yet another (!) small palette that I've set up. Someone in one of my classes this week had this great pill box palette and I HAD to get one!

I am a little worried that my STUFF has become more important than the art I do with it. But we all need our stuff, don't we?

Tea Party

Tea Party

A friend celebrated her birthday today at the Terrace Inn with a tea party for her friends . What fun! How long has it been since you've been to a tea party? There were about a dozen of us there and the conversation was lively and the food was wonderful.

What a nice gift to give to friends. Thank you , Beverly.

I did this very fast ink drawing and then threw on a little color - not necessarily the correct color, but color. I was so busy talking. Who, me? Every time I look at this sketch, I will remember a nice afternoon with very nice people.

Take your sketchbook with you next time you go out!

Sketchbook Journals

I Can't Stop Making Them!

I had seen a journal that looked like pretty easy construction, so I spent the day Friday with a friend working it out. We are trying to simplify and still have them sturdy and comfortable to use. Simplify, as in easy to teach and construct in a day. Comfortable, as in opening flat.

Now I have a block of paper of one size with no cover, and a cover of another size with no paper. So, I guess that means I have to construct two more journals.

The sketchbook journals are stacking up ahead of me ~ I am not painting that fast. I'd better get with it.

This week I have some "fancy" events, and I need to figure out what to wear to them. A fancy event means it is something that jeans and a t-shirt would be inappropriate. How hard can this be?! Why is figuring out what to wear always so difficult. Get over it!

Demo Page

A demo page from yesterday's journal class.

I spent the entire day teaching in the garden area of the Woman's Council building, on the education campus of Bay View Association. When I was finished and started picking up my things, there was trash from morning coffee, lunch, and afternoon snack. The sun had moved from due east to due west, and I had materials strewn all over from watercolor class, drawing class, and watercolor sketchbook journal class. It was a fun day!

Today we are looking at thunder showers, so we have picked out a large porch with some good views to accommodate the journal class this afternoon. It is pretty quiet around here now, so we had our pick of large porches ~ public buildings, not private cottages of course. Well . . .

I didn't sleep well last night! Besides the visiting grand-dog, Dexter, thinking he should sleep with us, and Rudy the cat thinking Dexter shouldn't (that's Rudy's spot!), I kept waking up worried AND excited for our daughter-in-law getting three kids up, dressed, and in the car at 3:00 a.m. and heading downstate (in the pouring rain) to catch a morning flight out of Detroit. They are going for a long weekend to visit their daddy/husband/our son in Texas in the Air National Guard. I bet he didn't sleep either.

Today is the last day of the last class for me in Bay View. I always hate to see it wind down. I look forward to the time to do my own thing for awhile ( and a couple of classes a week) but it is a big adjustment. Slowing down should be easy, shouldn't it?

Library Door

Bay View Library Door #3

No, this little library doesn't have three doors, but I have painted it three times this summer as a demonstration. As three demonstrations. It is near where we meet the first day of classes and by the time I am finished going on and on about all the "stuff" and how fun and easy and blah blah blah ~ we don't have time to go very far and still have time to paint.

It also has some good demonstration points such as simplifying perspective, simplifying windows, mixing browns, painting bricks . . .

We are having some real summer weather this week. Some areas have gone back to school! Well, I guess this weather is better late than never. It is almost time for me to start complaining about the snow.

P.S. I don't know "Don at the library door". As I put the figure in, someone in the class said, "Oh, that's Don". So if anyone knows Don, please tell him he's here, okay?

Still Life

Fast and Juicy.

In a painting group that meets during the summer, there is an artist that I just love to watch paint. I watched her do a demonstration this morning, and this is the painting I did after her demo.

Her application of the paint seems slow and deliberate, but then you realize it is really moving right along. Her shapes are large and her colors are juicy (is that the trick?).

It was a beautiful summer day and we were painting on a long porch overlooking the lake. We also had lunch there with a wonderful breeze coming in.

This was a fun painting to do - my glass is a little screwy and not exactly what I wanted, but I'm not complaining. Sounds like it, but I'm not.

Karen's Watering Can

Another Evening Painting in Karen's Beautiful Garden.

This is a small journal painting done in my hand bound journal of Aquarius II paper. It was a great evening for talking and painting ~ although the talking does slow down my painting ~ or is it the other way around. Either way, I don't stop painting OR talking. It is always fun to paint with friends. After a couple of hours, it started to rain a little. We don't seem to go for more than a two hour stretch this summer without some rain.

We have decided to extend our watercolor class. We will go for four more weeks to get in some more painting time before the summer people start to leave. Some students have requested some drawing instruction, so I am adding an optional hour at the end of each two hour painting class for four weeks. Most of us may not be able to go that long without lunch, so this will probably turn into a picnic/drawing class. Works for me!

Stephens Lane

One of my Favorite Gardens in Bay View

In reference to my last two posts, I have not figured out how to make the piano "fit in" in the kitchen, and the excavator guys did not come to excavate our property, but the driveway across the corner. That's it for excitement around here ~ none, actually. That can be a good thing.

No classes today. I have cards to package, a lesson plan to fine tune for tomorrow, the sun is shining, and I am inspired to work on some sketches.

Wishing you a productive and creative day!