G is for

"G" is for game

One winter we were playing dominoes every evening. Maybe I will just leave these out on the table and it'll get us going again.

Drawing dominoes is a real challenge in foreshortening and perspective. These were done with Pitt pens and pencil.

I went to a meeting tonight and one of the artists there asked me if I was being productive. I didn't tell him I was drawing, alphabetically, little two inch pictures. He's working on large sculptures. But this whole thing started in an effort to keep the pencil moving, and I know several of you are doing just that. Good for us!

F is for . . .

"F" is for fan
Westinghouse Electric

This started out to be a contour ink drawing and ended up being a whatever-it-takes drawing.
I'm struggling with drawing today. Nothing seems to fit together. It's certainly not falling off my pencil, or pen, as in this case. It doesn't matter. I did it anyway, and whether I was aware of it or not, something was working it's way around in my brain to remember and put away for another time. I sure hope anyway.

We went to pick up sandwiches tonight and when the girl went to ring them up she asked us what it was we had. She said, "I have a good memory - it's just really short."

My theory is, whenever you draw or paint something, it is a learning process no matter what the outcome. You may not see it, but everytime you put that pencil to paper, you're learning something.

"F" is for fun. Keep drawing!

E is for . . .

"E" is for Eyes.

And "W" is for wiggling model. I said, "Oh, "E" is for eye. That's what I'll do. Could I draw your eye, Isabelle?" "Sure, you can draw both of them if you want to." So that's what we did. She sat close enough to watch me.

My husband had suggested I do envelopes. I just could not find any that were stamped, and what good is just a plain old envelope?

"E" is not as easy (Oh - "easy") as I would have thought. Elephant. Eggplant. Eggs.

D is for . . .

"D" is for Dundee Marmalade

A two-inch square done in my moleskine sketchbook with prismacolor pencils and ink.

I've had this Dundee pot around for as long as I can remember. I love the black-and-whiteness of it with colored pencils in it.

I have a mustard pot that I keep colored pencils in too. I'm not starting a collection - two is good.

I stopped in at my favorite second hand store today and it was pretty sparse. Maybe I should step up my decluttering process and restock their shelves. I am wading through stuff I have been dumping in my little studio room. It's pretty comfy and a nice place to work and relax when I can get in it! I'm looking around right now at things that don't belong in here - a sweater that needs mending, two lampshades that don't have lamps, a box of silverware (?!), Christmas wrapping paper, a geranium that is not going to make it to summer . . . Why do we sabotage our creative spaces like that? Do we think somewhere in the back of our minds that we don't deserve a nice place to create? Well, we do!!! So after doing a sketch in our sketchbooks, let's work on our creative spaces. Whether it is making one or cleaning one, winter is a great time to do that.

I don't know where this little rant came from, but I'm done. I'm going to go eat that orange that's next to the Dundee pot.

C is for . . .

"C" is for chair

Another two-inch square in my moleskine journal. This is a child's chair that has been in my family for, probably, a hundred years. Maybe more.

Doing this alphabet thing, I am looking around at everything in my house with the possibility of drawing it. I'm looking at the way the light hits things, and the most interesting angle of objects. So far I have just been thinking in terms of nouns, but there is always the possibility of verbs and adjectives. That would take a little more creativity, and right now I think nouns are all I can handle. It's just that time of year - drawing two inch squares of nouns is better than nothing.

This is fun. Try it.

B is for . . .

"B" is for Bottles

I know I said I was not going to judge right or wrong, good or bad, or let any perfectionism get in my way as I draw my way through the alphabet. The whole idea is to just DO IT. I told my daughter I was paralyzed by perfectionism when it came to drawing the second square. The second square! I couldn't decide on the perfect way to lay out the page. So I reread the article she had just written as a guest writer on Victoria Mixon's blog. I think you can easily see the parallels between writers' and artists' block, and the "cures" that Amy suggests.

If any of you are doing the alphabet thing with me, I'd love to hear about it. If that's too much of a commitment, just draw something every few days. Anything!

I'm going to go start looking for something that starts with "C".

A is for . . .

"A" is for Ancestor

This is a poor likeness of my grandmother as a young girl. According to Webster, an ancestor is usually more remote in the line of descent than a grandparent. So - this is an ancestor of my children.

She was a wonderful grandma. She was in poor health and lived with us when I was a child. She couldn't take us anywhere, do things with us, or buy us things, but I loved her with all my heart. I learned from her that love has absolutely nothing to do with things - it's all about how someone makes you feel. I hope I could have figured that out for myself, but I give her credit for it. I loved to be with her.

In yesterday's post, as a motivation to keep drawing and painting, I suggested picking a subject each day, alphabetically - something small and simple. This is a two inch square in my moleskine sketchbook.

By the way, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that it is a poor likeness. We are trying to be NON-CRITICAL here. Just draw - no judging.

Sketchbooks

Sometimes I feel unmotivated and don't draw or paint for several days - maybe a couple of weeks. Sometimes we artists stop doing our art for long stretches at a time.

When I say "artists" I mean anyone who draws, paints, etc. I don't think an artist has to be a selling, recognized artist to be one. But you do have to do it - not just think about it.

I think often about how, when our life inspires our art, our art inspires our life. I'm not talking about ART - you know like museum art or art fair art, I'm talking about personal expression - from-the-heart-nobody-else-has-to-see-it kind of art. The kind that keeps the pencil or brush moving without regard to a finished piece.

This is where our sketchbooks come in. Sketchbooks are a very important part of our creative selves. Sketchbooks are where we try things out - colors, compositions, techniques, but MORE than that, sketchbooks are where we see out life close-up (life inspires art etc.). No one else has to see it!

If we are thinking about a subject being too boring or too difficult, we must be thinking about the possibility of sketching or painting it. If we are thinking about it, doesn't this mean our creative self wants to be expressive?

In my sketchbooks, I have done many simple sketches and sketchy paintings with no plan of using them for "serious" paintings. These objects were just sketched because they were THERE.

How about dividing up a sketchbook page or two into two- inch squares labeled A through Z? Do a quick sketch each day of an object beginning with that day's letter - or just a fragment of the object. Use pencil, pen, paint, whatever.

Let's see - A is for apple. Too simple? I do love painting apple wedges, so maybe . . .

More Triads

This is a page in my sketchbook (Aquarius II paper) comparing three triads.

When I use a triad to do a painting, I am just using three colors which are a variation of the primary colors, red, yellow, and blue.

For the top sketch, I used cobalt violet (as my red), hansa yellow, and manganese blue. These are light pigments and will never give you gutsy color. I like to use this combo for shadows sometimes, but they make a pretty wimpy painting.

The middle sketch is done with a stronger, more "serious" triad. The "red" is quinacridone burnt orange, the yellow is quinacridone gold, and for the third color I used prussian blue. This is a rather somber color combination, but I really like how it worked out for this subject. If you notice the color wheels on the right, this combination will never give you purple, so if you need a nice purple, don't use this triad.

The bottom sketch was done using quinacridone rose, new gamboge, and ultramarine blue. This is a good mix for anything - pretty much all purpose. It mixes great purples, nice greens, bright oranges, and mixes into a nice neutral.

Every once in awhile I will paint with triads, just to get back to basics, think about color mixing, and just plain simplify things.

Now if I could just figure out how to "triad" the rest of my life - could that be a verb?

Tiny Palette

Like I need another small palette.

Let's see how tiny we can make these, okay? This one is 2 1/4 inches by 1 1/2. I used empty half pans from Daniel Smith to hold the paint - (clockwise from the top left) quinacridone rose, manganese blue, thalo yellow green, ultramarine blue, and new gamboge. The tin is an "Altoids Smalls". I had made one a little larger than this a couple of years ago, and I use it quite a bit. I really don't know what the purpose of having a palette this small is, but why not?

It's the LITTLE things in life, right?

Little Red Barn

This was a quick little demo painted with a large brush.

This demonstration in class today was to show color mixing on the paper, mixing blacks, or near blacks, and laying the shapes in without getting fussy.

We only have one more official week of class, but I am tacking on an extra because we had so many interruptions in the eight weeks of this session. We made up the missed classes, but I don't feel there was as much continuity as I would have liked. I will be starting the next eight week session on February 18th and 19th. I will post more about it in a couple of days.

Several of the people in Wednesday's class are interested in doing figures, simple portraits, and working on skin tones. That'll be fun!

I picked up some ingredients for a recipe that looked good to me - a pasta dish with feta cheese, roasted red pepper . . . OOPs - it's done in a food processor. I don't have one. Hmmm. I let you know how this goes.

Now! Now I'm Back.

We have made a few trips downstate to take care of things at my father-in-law's house (etc) which included treacherous roads and my husband having pneumonia. But now we're okay! We are back on track.

This watercolor sketch was done tonight in my journal of Aquarius II paper. It had to be a quicky - I was very hungry! I was pulling together some things for a pizza - artichoke hearts, black olives, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, garlic, onions, mozzarella, and feta on fococcia bread. Yummo. (I've been reading Rachel Ray).

I guess I am back in my groove. In the middle of dinner prep I stop to sketch. Yep. We are okay here.

Our Inheritance

This is a small, quick sketch of our fairly large mantel clock with a fairly loud chime - and it chimes every fifteen minutes! The clock was my father-in-law's and now lives with us.

Wednesday's watercolor class met today, and everyone was working on some great paintings - landscapes, figures, house portraits, doors and windows . . .

I came across an old painting of a barn that I had done probably 30 years ago. I'd like to try it again and beef up the colors, correct the perspective, and improve the composition. I told the class that I would let them follow along with the re-do of the subject. Every time I try to correct the perspective, it throws off some proportions here and there. I wonder now what the barn really looked like in the first place. I have to come up with something by next Wednesday for class. Of course, if I don't know what it looked like, no one else does either, so anything goes.

I'm Back

I have nothing to show, but I am back.
We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas week with the local kids and the California kids, but the holiday ended sadly with the death of my father-in-law.

I am so glad that I journal almost every morning (thanks, Julia Cameron). Now I can read back over the entries of Christmas week and recall the great time we had while all the family was together. It had almost been snatched from my memory, but, thankfully, it is coming back. I am picking up Christmas things today and getting ready for this week's classes, and I'm savoring those holiday memories.

It is very cold here and the wind is blowing. The sun is shining and the Bay is dark blue. A nice day to stay inside and look out at it. I am just kind of nesting here and it feels good.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

It is snowing and the wind is blowing hard. We are snug and warm inside - hope you are too!
Best wishes for a very Happy Holiday!

Oranges and Violets

To move away from the food blogging, I thought I would post this painting done a few years ago. It is hanging on my wall and it makes me think every now and then that I should do some large paintings again. I have been enjoying doing small paintings for the past couple of years - mostly quarter sheets. It is not exactly the best economy to be trying to sell large paintings right now, but it doesn't hurt to have a couple of "show pieces" and be ready when the economy takes a turn for the better.

Don't we all start thinking about what we are going to be doing in the new year while we are trying to wrap up the old year AND celebrate Christmas? There must be a better way to do it - like businesses and governments have a fiscal year that has nothing to do with the regular calendar year. It wouldn't work. It's not natural. There is something about the rhythm of the year since the beginning of time. I'm not gonna mess with that.

Food Blog Continued

Click image to enlarge

Carol C, this one's for you. This is the original in my mom's handwriting, with food spills and notes I have made. They are not beautiful cookies, but they are THE Christmas cookies in our family.

Winifred Olds ("recipe from . . .") had a local TV show back in the 50s and 60s in Lansing, Michigan, where I grew up.

If you can't read the writing (and here I am assuming that you'll want to) just let me know and I'll fill you in.

Oh - by the way - that isn't 23 teaspoons of anise seed! It is a 3 crossed out with a 2 beside it. If you like anise, use three, two really isn't enough if you like the taste.

Year 55

I did a LITTLE baking the past few days. I wanted to make my mother's anise crescent cookies for my brother and sister-in-law. This is year 55 for the cookies in our family. My mom started making them in 1953. I want to carry on the tradition with my grandchildren, but I did this batch by myself because of time restraints. Please don't tell 'em.

The tree is decorated, I made no-bake cookies (they aren't cookies!) and some Chex Mix, and a batch of English toffee. I'm in the mood. Tomorrow I will shop!

Notice how easily I slip into food blogging? I should at least be sketching this stuff!

Almost Finished

Douglas Lake Cottage

I finished up this demo for the Wednesday class. To give credit where credit is due, the class had a lot of good input and together we finished the painting. I'm still thinking I'll put a scraggly little pine in there to the right of the lone tree. I want to break up that space a little so the lake is not so evenly divided.

I found myself thinking about how I would do this painting in acrylic as I was doing the watercolor. In today's class we got to talking about acrylic painting, and now I am itchy to do some again.

The wind is blowing tonight and sounds very wintry. We have our Christmas tree up with the lights on it, but no ornaments yet. I did a batch of English toffee yesterday, and one batch of cookies today. I'm getting in the spirit. Oh yeah - I have to shop, don't I!

Cynthia's Lavender Jelly

I didn't come close to capturing the beautiful color, transparency, and reflected light in this jar of lavender jelly. I really enjoyed trying. The real thing just glistens like a jewel. Ummm, maybe I should have taken a picture of the real thing instead of showing you how I missed the mark. However, to me, the purpose of my journal is to experience things, not render a perfect painting.

. . . and, I am way off on the shape. Okay, some days are like that. Enjoy the journey and move on.

Cynthia's jelly is too beautiful to eat, but I happen to know how delicious it is, so of course we will eat it.

Thanks, Cynthia!

No, I haven't forgotten.

Just when I was on a roll. Now I am back to my old ways of blogging intermitently it seems. We are spending a few days having some family fun.

I hope to get in a little sketching time, but you know - best intentions. We'll see.

Thanks to all of you for reading and commenting on the November blogging. I appreciate all your nice comments!!!!

Work in Progress

I started this demo in class this morning, working form the sketch I showed here. The class made me promise not to touch it until they could watch next week. That's so hard! Do you think they would notice if I play with it just a little? It is at the point now where everything feels so wrong because it is so unfinished.

We are getting the snow that is being predicted for today and tomorrow. It is just gray and white outside and I can't see the Bay. They are talking about one to two feet - not inches - FEET. I wonder if tomorrow's class will be able to make it. I hope so! I had better go work up a demo for them. AND I'm out of reading material, so I guess I'll email my librarian husband and ask him to bring me home a book or two. It makes me panic to think of being snowed in without a good book!

Have you tried chai tea with a little chocolate in it? Yum!
Stay safe and warm.

Mid-morning Snack

This is an almost-blind-contour drawing done in ink and prisma color pencils.

I was going to do a little bit more serious painting ( there are MANY degrees of seriousness, you know) of this mini still life, but once I warmed up with the contour drawing I thought I would just do some color on it and call it good.

Now I am going to go get a sketch ready for tomorrow's class. I want to do a landscape demo for them to get everyone back in the groove after a week off.

I could use a little getting back in the groove too. I am going to paint more and eat less.

BloggingBloggingBlogging

I can't stop blogging!!!
I can't go to bed without blogging. It's like brushing my teeth - I can't sleep if I haven't done it.

This is what it looked like here this morning. A winter wonderland. This is taken out our front window. We live on a corner and it seems to be some kind of a snowplow hub - they go around and around, very fast and very close.

My friend Karen called to see if I wanted to go to the new thrift store. "Nooo, I'd have to leave the house!" "Five minutes", she said. I scored a great find - a book on nature journaling that I had been borrowing from various friends for a couple of years. $2.50 and it looks like new. It pays to leave the house once in awhile.

Another painting plan.

This is a sketch I did a couple of years ago. Often, as with this sketch, when I'm working out a composition problem I make notes on the sketch of what I'm thinking. I not only talk to myself, I also write to myself. Whatever it takes.

This little sketch has at least five "patches" on it where I have corrected and adjusted. I have tried this cottage several times and it never comes out the way I intend for it too.

Maybe I'm just not making myself clear when I'm writing to myself.

Our leftovers are gone and our fridge is bare. I guess this is it - the end of a nice long weekend. It is snowing outside and we are expecting a few inches. It is going to look quite Christmas-y by morning, and I'll start gearing up for the next holiday. Oh - this is the end of blog-every-day also. I made it!

Value Sketch

I did a quick watercolor sketch on location back in June, and took a couple of photographs. I printed them out and taped them together, and now I'm working up a value sketch in preparation for a "serious" painting. All that space under the porch roof ( the porch ceiling) bothers me. The value (the lights and darks) is going to have to be just right, and I'm not sure at this point what "just right" is. Well, that's what a value sketch is for - to figure it out.

By the way - we ate the persimmon. I guess it is one of those gender things like zucchini because the girls liked it the guys didn't. We girls were glad the guys didn't like it - more for us. It's gone now. You won't have to hear about it any more.

Windowsill

Some of the things on my kitchen windowsill.

I'm playing around a little bit with Picnik.com it's kind of an online "photoshop" type thing and it's free. AND it's fun. AND it's easy. I run all of my photos through it for my blog to size them, correct color and lighting, and crop.

It was a pretty quiet day here today. Nothing to "report", but it is day 28 of blog-everyday-for- the-month-of-November, so I had to post something. I told you I was going for quantity, not quality.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
I didn't get a chance to sketch the turkey. Maybe next year.

Ready for the Oven

The table is set and the pies are done. What more could I want? The kids decided which dishes to use. They decided on my dishwasher-safe good china, not my grandmother's wash-by-hand china, because they might have to wash it. Yeah - like I'm going to let the little kids wash my grandmother's antique dishes. I didn't say that to them.

We went along with the rest of the country tonight and had pizza for dinner. I have read that this is the biggest pizza buying night of the year. Who is going to disturb the balance of their kitchen fixing a little insignificant meal while orchestrating a Thanksgiving feast there?

Wishing you all a very nice Thanksgiving with great things to eat, a little nap, and someone to help you clean up the mess.

Silver Spreader

No time for painting today. I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving - getting out the napkins, table cloth, washing the glasses, cooking the squash . . . and getting prepared to HAVE HELP tomorrow. The grandkids are coming over late in the afternoon and I may as well put them to work, right? However, I have to be very prepared for that or it could be chaos. Fun chaos, but chaos just the same. I polished some silver and put it back in the drawer because I know the girls like to "choose" and count it out when they set the table.

Our oldest grandson is going to spend the night and help make pies. My mother and my daughter always did the pies the night before Thanksgiving. Always. For years. She (daughter, not mother) wouldn't even let her boyfriends come over "Thanksgiving Eve" because that was pie night with Grandma. Now we are on to the next generation - oh my gosh! I'M the grandma!

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.