Brushes

This is a watercolored ink contour drawing done in my journal.
I have never done stamping in my life, but for some reason I felt as though I really NEEDED alphabet stamps. When I was picking them out, I must have looked baffled, because a young mom came along and said, "Oh, are you just getting started in this? Here, you need this and this and . . ." When she went to another aisle I just picked up the alphabet and a stamp pad and headed for the checkout. I don't need more stuff and I don't need more stuff to do - but how sweet of her.

It has been snowing all day today. It really is quite pretty. I felt very holiday-like as I cleaned the fridge.

Monterey

The Fish Hopper in Monterey, California

This is an old sketch - February of 2001. I just googled the Fish Hopper and it is still there and apparently still serving the fabulous clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. That was a great lunch and it was a beautiful day. If you can't make it out to Monterey some time soon, at least read John Steinbeck's Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday or watch the movie Cannery Row. The music is wonderful - big band and the Brandenburg concertos.

My husband suggested tonight that we take the train to California. I don't know. Three days each way. We've done 26 hours on the train, but I don't know about three days. Of course it took us two whole days to get home last time we FLEW.

Okay - so - the turkey. Tomorrow he goes into the fridge to thaw. That means I have to clean out the fridge. Not that it needs it!

Mustard Pot

This is a watercolor done in my journal - aquarius II paper.

I found this blue and white pot at the Salvation Army thrift store. 50 cents. Just setting there waiting for me to take it home for my colored pencils.

I find it hard to turn down blue and white objects. I seem to find them in strange places in the thrift shops - not with like things. As if someone had carried them around, decided against them, and just put them down where ever. That is my mission in life - to be the blue and white china rescuer.

These are the kinds of things one talks about when one has to blog every day for a month.

Winter Sky

Looking out our bedroom window to the south-east at 9:00 this morning. So dark! The light was very strange, and I didn't think it would photograph this well, but this is exactly how it looked.

No wonder some of our friends are jumping ship and heading south - it's COLD here - 18 degrees.

I did make room in the freezer for that turkey. I guess I didn't need to bother - he would have been just fine on the back porch. Now I hope I don't forget to take him out of the freezer Monday and put him in the fridge to thaw. For years we had a fresh turkey, and when we started getting frozen ones, the thawing step of the prep completely slipped my mind. Just another turkey story. We all have a lot of those, don't we. Leave a turkey story in the comments if you have one (of course you do), we'd love to hear it.

Squash

I have had this squash around for awhile. Today I cut it to use as a color mixing and composition study for my watercolor class. Instead of doing the squash we got into doing trees - obviously a more pressing subject or it wouldn't have come up. We just have to go where the muse leads us. I know I said the muse had left the building, but I think she's back.

After the class left I did a pencil sketch of the squash. There are those wedges again - love those wedges.

Apples and Oranges

Comparing apples to oranges.

This is just a quick little sketch in my journal of some fruit on the kitchen counter.

That orphan apple to the left is driving me nuts. The color didn't look that "off" to me in real life. It's a sketchbook, okay? Move on.

My Wednesday class met for the first of eight classes for this session. They want to work in series or themes again. That's fun to do and of course we get more involved in the study of something that is personally meaningful. I think the creativity carries on in our daily lives.

FYI the turkey is still frozen.

Sky and Turkey

As I was going through old lessons and demos getting ready for this week's classes, I came across these cloud demos I had done for a Water and Sky workshop. Well, we won't be doing water and sky - unless we want to do snow.

The weather has put me in the mood for Thanksgiving. Or maybe it was all the things on sale at the grocery store that did it.

I bought the turkey. I don't have a place to put it. Right now it is on the back porch. It is only 26 degrees out there, so it'll be okay until I make a spot for it in the freezer. Will it be okay out there for a week!? Probably not a good idea. What was I thinking.

I'm getting a few things together for the art center Holiday exhibit and sale. I'm taking boxes of cards and small paintings - about 25 items.

Other than listing items and putting on the tags, I'm ready to go - two days early!

We had snow all day. I had a meeting downtown at five, and could not bring myself to walk down and back in the COLD. I probably spent as much time cleaning off the car as I would have spent walking, but I would have had to walk home in the dark UP the slippery HILL. I've said it before - I am all about comfort.

So tomorrow I'll tag everything and list it, then get things together for my classes. It's good to have a plan, huh? I'll do some laundry and maybe go to the grocery store. Maybe I'll paint a little. Since I accepted the challenge to blog everyday in November, I'll let you know how I do on the to-do list.

More Persimmon

As promised
Persimmon Art

I don't know what it is about this fruit, but I am absolutely fascinated by it. Well, I do know what it is - it's the color for one thing - with a little yellow in the highlights and a little blue in the shadows. The green of the leaves is such an earthy green. The center/stem is just a mixture of the fruit color and the leaf color together.

The texture of the fruit is SMOOTH and shiny, but with kind of a dusty residue on it.

I am FAR from being a mathematician, but there is some Fibonocci thing going on here with the shape and size and position of the leaves and stem. They make a fantastic pattern when they are all lined up in a display. I only bought one ($1.48), but I did a little sketch on the journal page of how I remember them looking there in the produce department . They were in a slanted bin.

The colors I used were pyrol orange, hansa yellow, manganese blue, and a little quinacridone gold.

Okay. I guess that's it for my obsessing over the persimmon. I may still obsess, but you won't have to hear about it.

Hmmm - how do we tell if it is ripe?

Persimmon
I never bought a persimmon before in my life, but when I went to the grocery store with a friend today and we came upon a display of persimmons, I just had to take one home.

The check-out girl said, "So what is this, some kind of tomato?"

Me: "No. It's a persimmon."

C-O girl: "What do you do with it?"

Me: "I don't know."

Friend:"She's going to paint it."

C-O girl: "Paint it? What do you mean paint it?"

Me: "You know - paint it - as in a still life."

C-O girl: "Couldn't you just get a tomato or somethin'?"

My friend thinks this is hilarious because she saw how crazy I went over the display of persimmons. You had to be there.

Persimmon "art" coming soon. This photo was all I could manage tonight.

Fun.

Playing With Paper

Some friends came over today and we played with paper all day long. We made some slip cases for sheets of watercolor paper folded into "sketchbooks", and made little bitty paper boxes, and accordion fold 10 panel folders. and of course ate muffins and coffee cake.

What a nice relaxing day!

We never outgrow our need for play dates.

Kitchen Still Life

Another kitchen subject in my journal.
I love that red whisk.

Today was the last day of this session for my Thursday class, but we start up again next week.

It was so dark today that when the class left at 3:30 it felt like evening. I thought about curling up with the cat and a good book before I started dinner, but I decided to do a journal page instead.

So now I think I'll go read my book. Something by Ruth Rendell - a murder mystery.

I have a play date tomorrow with some artist friends. If we do something creative, I will have something to post tomorrow. If we don't, I'll post anyway. This is day 13 of blog-every-day-for-a-month. It doesn't get any easier. How do people do it that blog everyday all the time? Why do any of us blog anyway? I've decided it is like any hobby - it really doesn't need a good reason.

From My French Journal

Everything I did today turned out - well - blobby. I did some small landscapes that just got out of hand. I tried doing a monotype and after I spent all that time inking it, I got the paper too wet and it turned into a blurry mess. I can't say I didn't enjoy myself though. I enjoyed every minute of the process.

The journal page here is from my French journal from 1993. 1993! Wow! Really!? How time flies. This is what started the whole "journal thing" for me.

My daughter and I had a conversation today about how writers have to write (she's a writer) and painters have to paint. It's "in there", and you have to do it. Of course there is writer's/artist's block, but it's always temporary, and we keep pluggin' on. Even if it's a blobby mess.

In yesterday's post I was trying to decide about the foliage in the left hand corner of the painting I posted. The studio fairies didn't take care of it after all, so I did.

Apparently my muse has left the building and taken the studio fairies with her. That's okay. I have plenty of paintings waiting to get out, whether she's here or not.

Memorial Garden

I did some watercolor sketches and took some photos of this spot on a nice sunny day in the summer, so I had some good reference for this painting.

Now when I look at it, I'm wondering if the foliage needs to come down a little lower in the lower left hand corner, and maybe there should be a few more trees. I'll see what I think about it in the morning. Who knows - maybe the studio fairies will do something with it overnight. Isn't that why things sometimes look different to us in the morning?

Interior

It has been a windy, snowy, cold couple of days - and to think a few days ago we had 70 degrees! Oh well.

We spent a few days with family here, and now it's back to work. I'm working on a painting I plan to finish tomorrow.

This is a line drawing done on Bogus Rough Sketch paper. I actually did it a year or so ago, but since I have nothing new to post, and an interior seemed appropriate right now when we are all cozy inside with winter threatening outside - this is it.

I still have a few more spaces in my upcoming watercolor classes.

Happy Faces

This is the kind of art work done at our house this weekend. Fun!

The little kids have gone home, and my husband's sisters and dad are visiting now for a couple of days.We had a good time checking out the new JoAnne Fabrics store, EATING, and playing cards.

We know how to live, don't we?

Scribble Figures

These are very small scribble figures done at a gymnastics class this morning.

Also worked on some compositions and lesson plans for classes and did my grocery list. Not bad for an hour, huh.

It has been a busy couple of days and I'm heading for bed. Maybe sometime during this blogging challenge in November I will manage to do a quality post. We'll see. Right now I am after quantity.

Watercolor Classes

I will be offering a couple of new eight-week classes

beginning November 19th and 20th.
Please check out the information at my class sight.

Does this qualify as a post? Sure. Day 7 of blogging every day in November.

View From The Waterfront

A fabulous, warm, sunny day for walking and sketching.

I went down to the waterfront this morning and walked the bike trail for about thirty minutes and then painted this watercolor sketch in my journal. This is a view looking up toward town from the waterfront. I could have stayed down there and painted all day - except I was very hungry and I was teaching a class at 1:00. I hadn't painted in my sketchbook in a couple of weeks and it felt good.

That could be it for outdoor painting. We may have snow in a few days. I am not into painting outside in the winter. I'm all about comfort.

Mason Jars

Too Tall. Too skinny. Too monochromatic. Too . . .

Day 5 of blogging everyday, so it's something. This was a quick demo (I say that because if you don't think it's well done, you'll think it is because it was "quick"). This was done for a student today that is doing a still life with a couple of Mason jars in it. Or are they Ball Jars?

Today was the last class of this session for the Wednesday group. I will be offering more classes that will begin November 19th. We'll have three holidays in there to work around. No problem - it'll just make the session last longer.

Another spring-like day here today. Just beautiful. I thought this afternoon I should go outside and paint, but it really isn't very pretty out there. It's quite brown. That's no excuse. Tomorrow morning I will go outside and paint some seed pods or something. Anything. I shouldn't be wasting this beautiful weather.

California Dreamin'

Today's warm temperature with the November slant of the sun felt like California in the fall to me. I am not excited about the Michigan winter coming on, and I'm missing the California kids. California Dreamin'.

This is a sketch I did in my journal the last time we were in San Jose.

We went to vote early this morning about 8:00. We missed the big, long line that was there earlier. In fact there was really no line at all while we were there.

I didn't get too far with my to-do list today. I have classes Wednesday and Thursday, kids Friday and Saturday, and in-laws Sunday and Monday. I have three baskets of laundry to fold, meals to plan and shop for, and I really should get a little painting done! The laundry can stay in the baskets. We can eat at McDonalds (KIDDING!). I'm just gonna paint. I WILL have something new to show you tomorrow.

Now I am going to watch the election coverage.

Now We Know How to Vote

A Last Minute Look at the Candidates

Through the eyes of our second grade granddaughter:
"So we were watching this thing about the candidates. John McCain looks . . old. But not too old - he's still alive. I think he'd be okay."

"Obama!" Big smile. "Obama has hair just like my daddy's. But I don't think he'd do as good a job as John McCain."

I hope this helps if you are still trying to decide.

The Neighborhood Map

This was my creative endeavor today. I helped Middle Granddaughter make a map of her neighborhood for a school assignment. We used watercolor, Pitt Brush Pens, acrylic gold paint, and sand. I really thought we could use a little glitter here and there, but I didn't have any.

What kind of a grandma doesn't have glitter?! I don't think I ever had any glitter in my life, but I have three granddaughters - I really should have some glitter.

More Pears

This is a very small painting of pears (I hope you already knew that - the "pears" part) done from the pencil sketch in the previous post.

I like the pencil sketch much better than the painting.

I have signed up again this year for the NaBloPoMo challenge, which translates somehow to "blog everyday for a month." Don't asked me why I do this, but if you go back to my posts of November, 2007, you'll see I actually did it - and it was fun! So here I go again.

We have sunshine! So I think while I have a grandson here to help, we will go out and pull out all the old dead stuff from my cutting garden and get it ready for winter. We are also putting up storm windows. A friend from Louisiana asked, "What are storm windows?" Ahhh, to live in a climate that is ignorant of such things! Of course they do have more than their share of STORMS, but I guess extra windows wouldn't help!

Pears

Pears in Pencil

More art from the kitchen. These pears were drawn on a brown paper (Nideggen) which has a line-y texture to it. I wonder if there is a smooth drawing paper in a brown color. I like the color of Nideggen and Bogus Rough, but I really enjoy drawing on a plate finish. If anyone knows of any, I'd love to hear about it.

We had a little snow here and there this morning. Too much for me! I do live in Northern Michigan, and I don't see myself packing up and leaving any time soon, so I'd better just bake some cookies, make some hot chocolate, and get over it! I DO keep trying to make this a food blog, don't I?

Watercolor Figures

Little Figures on Parade

These were really fun to do. I did them after watching a Skip Lawrence DVD. They're quite addictive.

Class participants have been especially involved and connected this week with their subjects. I love that! They are each working on a "theme" or series for the entire six weeks. After painting on location all summer, I felt we needed a challenge to keep us going into the colder months - something more stimulating than a still life set up by me.

So . . . maybe after doing these little figures, I can see them being worked into some composition lessons in our next session.

SQUASH

All the wonderful fall colors out there and I am drawing in pencil! I have been very interested in lights and darks / contrasts lately - even more so than usual.

It has something (or everything) to do with the angle of the sun as the season changes. Maybe I am subconsciously soaking up as much light as I can before our dark winter settles in.

It was sunny here today and I worked in the yard a bit - bringing in pots before they freeze and break. My husband doesn't understand how one person can possibly need all those pots, but there is something about them waiting there for me on the back porch that I really like. It seems hopeful - like planting bulbs in the fall.

Okay, now I am off to paint little figures. I watched a Skip Lawrence dvd with some friends today about painting simple little figures. What fun - I can see filling up some spare (?!) time playing with that!

Pond Hill Farm

Relaxing in the Pool

This is the life, huh? Just waddle around in a little pool in the sunshine. I did this small painting from a reference photo I took this past summer. I just loved the way the sun was shining on his very white feathers.

This time of year it's fun to paint a little bit of summer. I must admit, it has been pretty here - the leaves are beautiful and the clouds are so dramatic in the fall. Each season has so much to offer.

Lucia's Squash in the Morning Sun

I did this painting from a photograph I had taken one morning as the sun came in the east window. There is nothing like the morning sun on a still life - but it is so fleeting.

This is a small painting - about 6 X 10 - done on Arches 140 cold press. I don't like the surface texture of Arches now. "if it ain't broke . . ." So why did they change it? And why didn't they ask ME? No one ever does.

Apples

I just PAINTED today, and it felt GOOD! I didn't do anything else.
Not much anyway.

These little paintings didn't scan very well, but I'm posting them because I don't know what to do to make them scan any better.

There is something about fruit wedges that I just love - from all angles.

I have another painting I did today and will see how it looks to me tomorrow. If it looks finished, I'll post it then.

It was 79 degrees here today!!! Beautiful. I'm not sure it reached 79 all summer, did it?

Sunflowers

Small Sunflowers painted in my Aquarius II journal.

My friend, Cathy, stopped at the farmers' market and picked up these sunflowers, and thinks this might be the last of them. We had a good time painting them, and hope we gave them the attention they deserve as some of the last of the season's flowers.

In keeping with my kitchen theme, I should have painted these in the kitchen, but the vase is from the kitchen and the blue and white gingham napkin in the photograph is kitchen-ie - so close enough, huh.

Bottles

Another in my Kitchen Series.
This contour sketch (the pen stays on the paper for the whole drawing) was done with a Pitt Pen and white Prismacolor pencil on Nideggen paper in my sketchbook. I love the look of black and white on this paper.

It's been very quiet here today. I had a to-do list longer than my arm, and I knew I would never get through it all, but I did make a dent. I'm ready for tomorrow's class. It will be nice to have contact with the outside world - the phone didn't even ring today, and I only went outside to put out the garbage!

Now I'll knock off a couple more things on the list, get in my jammies and watch the presidential debate. It is, as they say, like watching a train wreck. But I can't complain if I don't know what to complain about.

The Last of the Zinnias

This is a small painting of a very small bouquet of zinnias and cosmos on the table in the late afternoon sun.

It is done on illustration board which sucked the paint up immediately and made it impossible to soften any edges.

This painting is part of my kitchen series in conjunction with the themes we are working on in my watercolor class.

Rainbow Vegetables

I was preparing vegetables for roasting and Littlest Granddaughter was scrubbing them. When I got them all cut up and tossed with fresh herbs, she said, "It's a rainbow!!!"
They are beautiful. aren't they. The recipe can be found here.

I served the vegetables with a maple marinated pork loin which was a big meaty looking hunk of meat to someone who doesn't eat a lot of meat. However, it was very good, and for the first time in my life I cooked a piece of pork without completely ruining it.

It was a nice weekend - a little yard work, a trip to the bookstore, a trip to the library, a midget football game (only rained on us a little bit), a birthday celebration for one of my husband's co-workers . . .

Tomorrow I plan to finish up a small painting and get started on a commission. I'll get busy and get some paintings posted and quit pretending that this is a food blog.

Late Afternoon Sun

The late afternoon sun coming in the west window.

It always fascinates me how much the angle of the sun changes as the seasons change. This is one of my paying-attention to-my-painting-theme observations. I've done a little sketch of this on illustration board for a small watercolor. I think the folds in the fabric of the curtain would work better on cold press paper, but we'll see. It is harder to soften edges on illustration board and hot press paper. But I love the way paint puddles on smooth paper.

I think today is a good soup and muffin day. So - a quick trip to the store, make the soup, get in some painting time. . . sounds so much more relaxing than summer. Maybe fall isn't so bad after all. Embrace the season!!! I'm trying.

In the Kitchen

When your life inspires your art, your art inspires your life.

In other words, be involved with your subject, keep your eyes open, carry your sketchbook and camera everywhere. Look for colors. Look for light. Zoom in. Zoom out.

I just started a new class this week and will begin another next week. I am asking the classes to pick a theme and really pay attention to that subject. It can be tangible or intangible.

A couple of people have chosen to do barns. They'll be doing sketches and photographs to to use as painting references. They'll do barns in various lights, pay attention to the textures, the insides, the outsides...

Some others are interested in doing figures. They'll want to carry their sketchbooks everywhere. They'll benefit from doing quick gesture drawings and from getting family members to do some longer poses.

I'm going to play along with the classes by doing "in the kitchen". My kitchen could use a little attention, poor neglected thing, and it is the first place I head for when the season changes from summer to fall - just part of my nesting routine.

The image above is an almost-blind-contour drawing of a couple of onions and my great grandfather's sugar bowl, done in my sketchbook while waiting for my toast to pop up.

Why did my great grandfather have his own personal sugar bowl? There is no one left to ask. It will be one of life's mysteries for me. I'll have to get over it - it's not important.

Tomatoes

I was playing around with watercolor pencils. I don't use them very often, and I don't really handle them well. These tomatoes look more like oranges!

This was done in a page in my sketchbook on Aquarius II, which seems too soft for pencil. The pencil actually dents the paper.

It was fun sitting on the porch in the late afternoon, late September, sun playing with color.

I did a few chores in the yard today. I am slowly putting the garden to bed for the winter. Slowly. I don't want to rush into anything, but I guess now that it is officially autumn, I have no excuse. I have to come to grips with it - nothing is going to bloom again this year.

Thanks, Ellie, for the tomatoes!

Abbey Sweet's Ice Cream Parlor

What a fun place to hold a workshop - in an ice cream parlor!

I had a downstate group coming up for a watercolor workshop, and I was looking for a place large enough to be comfortable for two days and with some local atmosphere. The Terrace Inn in Bay View happened to have an ice cream parlor that is closed for the season.

The workshop group was a lot of fun - a great bunch of very talented ladies! The weather was perfect, and our lunches were delicious. What more could we want?!

Today I am back to the old routine - having class in my own little area - if we can get to it. I have dumped everything from the workshop into the studio space and the living room. I'll make it - I'll have things straightened around before the class arrives.

Out my window this morning are some very orange leaves against an almost lavender sky. It might be a good day to go out and get a couple of journal pages painted.

Experimenting Again

Charcoal and Watercolor on Yupo
Charcoal and Watercolor on Arches 140 Coldpress

I spent the day Friday with friends playing with charcoal, watercolor, watercolor pencil, paper, yupo (plastic "paper"). The bottom painting was an unfinished demo I had started for a class. I added charcoal line and more watercolor. Looks cartoon-like, but I think I'll give it a try again some day.

It was a nice day even though we had to cancel our plans to go out to the lavender farm because of rain. At noon we went downtown for lunch and the farmers' market, then did a little thrift shopping, then painted some more.

It's been a nice week - lots of friends and family and very relaxing. For all that relaxing, I am really sleepy now. Is it permissible to go to bed this early? 9:00 p.m.?

Mackinac Island, September 11, 2001

The View From my Window - a bit of sunshine and color.

On Sept. 11th, 2001 I was teaching a five-day watercolor workshop on Mackinac Island. It was a Central Michigan University Eldehostel Workshop, and the participants were from all over the country. If you are familiar at all with Mackinac Island, you know what a magical place it is, which made it a very strange place to be during that week. To be in a magical place when the magic is gone is very disconcerting. It felt lonely - I couldn't go home and I wasn't with my family. We had to carry on - this week was vacation for the participants. They had paid to be there and to have fun and learn something. No one's heart was in it. It was flat.

Between classes I tried going around painting journal pages, but most of those were flat too. I was near the door of the hotel painting a gate, but not really concentrating on it, and a group of hotel interns was gathering there. They were from European countries and were due to go home in three weeks. They were very worried now about being able to get home. All I had to do was catch the ferry in a few days. They were in a foreign country that had just been attacked and they would have to FLY to get home. Not a great option at that point.

I am meeting a woman for lunch today that was the coordinator of the workshop. She stays here for the summer and will be returning home soon, so we'll get together, remember our week on the island a little, then move on to what's new in our lives and what plans we have for the year.
We'll all remember where we were that day, won't we?

Inside or Outside

I never get tired of drawing and painting the back door.

This drawing made me think of those puzzles that used to be in the paper where you would draw what was in the squares and end up with a picture.

We had a nice weekend - a "Midget" football game on Saturday morning, installed some handrail posts, rearranged some plants, read a good book - 13 Steps Down by Ruth Rendell, and I made cookies!

Right now there is a thunder storm out over the Bay. I think I'll get in bed with the lights out and enjoy it.

Enjoying the Day

Was this the last nice day of summer?!

I went with a friend yesterday to spend the afternoon painting at one of my favorite places. The weather was perfect - one of the more summer-like days of the season. Or rather - the season that never happened. Oh well. It is September now. Move on.

I love this spot, there are cottages along the lane, arbors, gates, windows peeking through the leaves, sunny doorways, great patterns of roof-lines . . .

My class was going to meet there this morning, but it was cold and raining, so we had to call it off and paint inside. Thanks Karen, for being "Mobile Unit One" and sending people in the right direction!

No classes tomorrow, and I think I will catch up on a few domestic things, such as buying groceries, and going to the farmers' market. Maybe I will dust and run the vacuum. Maybe not.

Hollyhocks Again

The Last of the Hollyhocks

Almost the last of all the flowers. They're fading fast. I haven't kept up with weeding and dead-heading like I should, but I have enjoyed the garden anyway. It is bright and colorful, and if you don't look too closely, it looks pretty good.

A friend stopped by yesterday and we sat in the yard and painted for awhile. We didn't paint the weeds or the spent blossoms., we just saw the beauty in the colors. The good news and the bad news - I don't always see things that need attention.

This was another painting in my new Aquarius II sketchbook. I am a few pages into it and I would use this paper again.

It's the Labor Day Weekend. Wow - wasn't it just the fourth of July!? We have no big plans. We have a list of house and yard projects a mile long, but we'll have to have a little fun too - it is a holiday after all. Having a little fun could mean going to the Home Depot and Lowes three times a day instead of just twice.

Hydrangeas

Aren't these just beautiful?!

One of my students brought these to class today. We just went crazy over the size of the blossoms and the COLOR! We didn't paint these as part of our lesson, but towards the end of class we did play around with getting the colors down, and worked a little bit on the detail of the blossoms.

Did you notice in the previous sentence that I used the words "play" and "work" meaning pretty much the same thing? That's what I love about my job - I can't tell the difference between play and work.

Journal Painting

This week I am doing my last Bay View watercolor sketchbook journal class of the summer.

It always makes me a little sad. It really marks the end of summer. I see I felt the same way last summer. Every Year.

I usually have a couple of projects to get going on right after the very busy summer season, and that always helps. This year I have my painting composition classes to keep me on my toes, and an out-of-town group coming up for a workshop - fun!

I used to say that it never rains on my journal class, BUT this year it has been very different. Right in the middle of painting this demonstration, the heavens opened up. We headed for shelter and finished out the class with some people painting on the porch, and others setting up art supply still lifes and painting inside. The group is adaptable and eager - they could paint anywhere under any conditions.

Hollyhocks on the Corner

Hollyhocks on our corner.

I started a new sketchbook today. What is it about a new sketchbook? AND what is it about finishing up an old one? It's a feeling of accomplishment to fill a whole sketchbook. This little painting (about 6 X 9) was done in the book I made of Aquarius II paper. I also like the Aquabee sketchbooks that I have used for years, but do like making my own - there is that feeling of accomplishment thing again. It's no big deal - I'm not binding it myself like a lot of artists do. I just cut it or rip it to size (another story for another time) and take the stack of paper and the front and back covers to a printer and have it spiral bound. For the format I use for journal painting, spiral bound works better for me than stitched.

Anyway - here I go with a new sketchbook. And here I go with some new classes. The last of the Bay View classes starts today (four afternoons) and I have two 6-week painting composition classes starting this week.

It is nice to have things starting right now. My summer schedule is slowing down and the California kids leave in the morning. This is such a transitional time of year for me. That's okay, it was a great summer, a great visit with the kids, and I have these new things to dive into this week. AND of course lots of classes and paintings in my head waiting to happen.

Painting in the Garden

A Garden Vignette

I spent the evening painting with friends - such a relaxing way to spend some time. Karen's garden still looks beautiful.

This was painted in a sketchbook I made using various kinds of paper. The watercolor paper in it is Aquarius II. I put it in this book and then ordered enough to make a whole sketchbook of it. Stupidly (is that a word - spell checker thinks it's okay), I didn't try it out before I ordered ten more sheets of it. After painting on it last night, I decided it was a good move. I really like it. It is only 80 lb, but has a synthetic something in it that keeps it from buckling. It took to blob and smoosh (read the book!) very well, and that's what really counts.

After looking at the painting this morning and realizing that I had goofed up the perspective of the large window, I gave the paper another test - scrubbed off, burnished, and repainted the offending area. The paper held up well to that too.

So when the friends I was painting with read this, they're going to wonder why I was telling them how to redo their perspective when I couldn't even get my own right. Well, girls, that's what friends are for - to give opinions, whether we know what we're talking about or not.

Composition Class

Painting Composition Class
Click here for information on my upcoming six-week class.

A couple of wet into wet unfinished demonstrations for Monday's classes.

I should try to finish one of these before the flowers are gone. However, at this point it is more about what is good for the composition than what I see in the set-up. So I'll stack it on the shelves with all the others that are unfinished. It is fun and carefree to start them - there is something about proving ourselves in the finishing that makes it a little more serious.

It rained yesterday right about class time. Someone said it has rained 5 out of our 8 Monday class sessions. We were going to paint in Karen's garden - Monday's class hadn't been there yet. Poor Monday's class - they had all the bad weather. Well, maybe not ALL. They did seem to have fun with the wet-into-wet lesson. They did a great job, as always.

Today's class met in the park downtown and the weather was wonderful. Hoping for the same tomorrow. This week wraps up the eight-week summer watercolor class. I always HATE to see it end. I still have another watercolor journal class in Bay View, and I am putting together a composition class that will start the 2oth of August. So - we aren't done yet.

I am going to take a little class break for a couple of weeks. The California grandkids will be here . So right now I should go to the grocery store, finish up some laundry, pick up the house so they don't think their grandma is a complete slob ( oh dear, maybe their mother already told them).