Green Paint Chips and My Favorite Chair

Green Paint Chips and a Pencil Sketch

This is a sketch of my favorite chair in the world.  It is glossy black, slender looking and sculptural.  She (don't you think it's a girl?) had been in my family before I could remember  -  so long, in fact, that no one could remember what branch of the family she had belonged to, or how old she might be.  Just a few years ago, I came across a picture of my father, about seven years old, posing for the picture on this chair - maybe about 1924.  Back in the 60s I painted it glossy black, made a pink and orange striped cushion, and glued hot pink ball fringe along the edge of the seat.  It was great.

It is COLD COLD COLD here today  -  in the low teens.  It has finally reached 65 degrees in the house and I am wearing several layers  -  and a down vest and wool scarf!  Maybe if I did something active  .  .  .

I am sitting around reading a book about painting figures, sketching the chair, and making notes about painting with, and mixing, greens.  That "fear of orange" comment a few posts back triggered something in my brain about painting greens.  Makes sense, doesn't it?

For anyone reading this who has been in one of my drawing classes, you might be glad to know that I STRUGGLED with this drawing today.

Drawing, Planning, Creating

 The first drawing of the year. 

I didn't say it had to be good  -  I just said I have to keep 

that pen moving.

I've been hibernating

and it really felt good, but enough is enough.  I've been de-cluttering, cleaning, and rearranging my studio space.  Now I'm ready to start painting again, and I feel like doing some acrylics.

We have all of our Christmas things put away  -  some kind of a record for the Careys.  Because we live here in Winter Wonderland, no one takes down their Christmas decorations until as late as February.  Christmas trees stay up until at least 12th Night, and wreaths don't come down until Valentine's Day.  But this year, just like my hibernation  -  I'm done.  Moving on.

I hope you had a great holiday, and you're rarin' to get into the new year with plans and goals for drawing, painting, creating!  What are your creative plans  -  we want to know.

This and That

The Last Chicken Sandwich and a Blue Chair

At the Afternoon Tea last week (was that a whole week ago!?) I drew a little sketch of the last chicken salad croissant on the plate.  Not only was the sandwich alone on the plate, it was alone on the page, so when I sat on Karen's front porch one evening to draw the blue chair, I put it on the same page spread.


Today is a little like that  -  a little of this and a little of that.  I don't have any classes today and I am puttering around, cleaning things up a little. When I come in from a class, I dump out my bags of books, palettes, sketchbooks, etc., and the stacks were beginning to overflow onto the back porch.  We spend most of our time in the summer on the porch (eating, reading, talking), so I thought today was a good time to put things in their proper places and sweep out the spider webs.


Wednesday night I was getting ready for Thursday morning's class, and I commented to my husband, " I have the best job in the whole world."  There I was washing vases, cutting and arranging flowers, squeezing out fresh paint.  I am doing exactly what I want to do!

Willow Chair, Second Workshop

The Willow Chair Again

This is a journal painting demo for the second bookbinding/journal workshop. I thought this was a great subject - I loved the way the sun hit the fern and the crazy shadow it made was fun. So I did it for both classes. It was hot, and we could put the chair in the sun while we sat in the shade to paint it.

This is some paper that I am not (was not) familiar with. I can't even remember why I ordered it (but I just ordered more). It is Arches Cover, cream. It is heavy and soft and takes watercolor surprisingly well. Has anyone tried this, and what else is it used for? It folds and stitches well for bound books - I am going to put in more than just a few pages next time.

I'm getting ready for my summer Kick-Off Journal Workshop coming up on Friday. The whole idea is to be outside for the day - "they" are predicting thunderstorms! I have been getting flowering plants that hopefully will be perfect on Friday - the deer ate some of them last night! We're gonna be okay. I have a plan for rain, and I will bring in the plants at night.

Cathy's Chair

Journal Page from the Bookbinding Workshop

This huge fern traveled all the way from S. Carolina to spend the summer in this willow twig chair. Sitting there in the sun, it was a perfect warm-up for our day of journal painting.

Here it is, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. I finished up my stretch of classes yesterday (next week I only have two) and I'm feeling pretty relaxed today. That could be because I am not out of bed yet! It could also be because I have a lot of errands to run, but have no vehicle for the day. That eliminates part of my to-do list, and I can concentrate on house and garden things.

Yesterday's class really got into foliage painting. It is so nice to be able to go outside now to paint. I love teaching foliage painting - it seems like such a break-through when we realize how much we need to keep it simple. It is the outside edge that tells the story - we don't need all that interior texture.

Go outside today and paint a tree in your journal. I will too.