Thanksgiving Table?

Would you believe this is where we are going to eat Thanksgiving dinner?
I think I had better get to work on it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Please check out my winter class information at:
http://catherinecarey.blogspot.com/

Grandma's Dishes

I went to the grocery store this morning, and the minute I walked over by the produce department, I realized that I had forgotten to take my camera - and it did look especially spiffy today. In yesterday's post I mentioned that I might take my camera and give you a run-down of my grocery shopping. There was NO one else in the produce department - no one to think I was crazy, and it would have been so much more colorful than the picture here of my grandma's china. I did get to the store pretty early, but when you live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, there is always someone to stop and talk to - "What are you doing for Thanksgiving" "Are your kids coming home?" "What do you think of the horrible mess the whole world is in?" Okay, we can save that topic for after the New Year.

I tried to work on a few little paintings, but unfortunately, I am one of those people that can only think about one thing at a time, so until Thanksgiving is over, nothing else will get done. We aren't having a big crowd, so it shouldn't be such a big deal, but I love Thanksgiving, so I have to give it the proper attention. And speaking of attention, I have the turkey thawing in the fridge - I have been known to forget it. With age and experience, I have refined my list making.

Chairs

The red chair was done as a quick journal sketch. I used it as a reference to paint the white chair - straightening it up a little and trying to correct the perspective. Both paintings are very small.

I'm working through my list getting some small paintings together for the Christmas Market at the Art Center, framing a few things, getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. . . There are still a few things I need at the grocery. Probably tomorrow (Tuesday) morning would be the last sane time to go.
Okay - day 19 of blogging everyday for a month. Maybe I'll give you a rundown of my grocery shopping tomorrow. Could I take my camera to the grocery? Would they think I am some kind of food spy?
Are you hosting? Are you traveling? Are you cooking or eating out? What kind of pies will you have? I'd love to hear what you're doing for Thanksgiving.

Waiting for my Muse

This past summer I thought a good subject for winter paintings would be interiors. So far this is the only interior sketch I have, and I did this a couple of years ago for a drawing class I was teaching. I was going to carry my camera and sketchbook around getting references of doorways, views into the next room etc. It still seems like a good idea to me, but I have been feeling so uncreative. What is it they say about picking up the paintbrush and the muse will appear? I don't think the muse ever walks in and hands you a paintbrush.
I'm gonna leave the door unlocked just in case.

Sketch of Rudy

A quick little sketch of Rudy taking a nap. That's what he does best, but tonight he was standing guard over a "mouse hole" in the wall. He was very attentive for quite awhile. He tired of it when nothing happened. So does that mean there was a mouse there, waiting for Rudy to leave so it can come out and have the run of the house while we are all snug in our beds? Yuck.

Kind of nasty here today with a little snow and very dark clouds hanging over the Bay.

I did find my to-do list today that I was stressing over yesterday. I copied it over onto a red piece of paper that's easy to spot. We got a few things crossed off our lists and figured we deserved potato chips and ice cream - that's always a good way to wrap up the day - as a reward OR consolation.

Eggs, Friends, Lists . . .

This is, of course, a dozen brown eggs. A watercolor painted across the page in a small, square Travel-Log sketch book.

I must admit, I didn't do this today. I did spend a good (and it was good!) part of the day with some dear friends. Sometimes when we get together we paint or sketch or do some fun project, and sometimes we just talk about what we've been doing, what we want to do, what we need to do. We pass around our sketchbooks and our finished or unfinished paintings, and encourage each other to keep at it, and praise each other's successes.
And of course we eat. A couple of times.

Don't ask me why I thought a little painting of a dozen eggs was appropriate for today. Everything doesn't have to have a reason. I had to have something. Hey, I am half way through the blog-everyday-for-the-month-of-November thing. Thanks to everyone who has been checking out my blog!

Now I am going to go try to find the big long list I made that has everything on it that I need to have done by the first of the week. It's not in my calendar, it's not on my desk . . . This is exactly why I USUALLY write this kind of thing on colored paper. Usually.

Fall Leaf

I guess that's about it for the fall color. We had a little snow today - just some in the sky and a very little on the ground. It is dark now and I hear a little sleet on the window. Our compensation for the end of summer and fall is that we gain a beautiful view of the Bay.

Today was my last Thursday class of this session. We did some negative painting and everyone seemed to have a good time with it - they did a good job.

Wow - I have been blogging daily for 15 days. It hasn't been as difficult as I thought it might be. Of course that's MY opinion. However, I do find myself with nothing to say tonight. Those of you who know me personally will find that hard to believe.

So. Okay. I'm going to go do a few meaningful things like pick up the kitchen, fold some clothes, get my stuff together to go paint with some friends tomorrow, and be ready to watch "The Office" at 9:00.

Geraniums, Rubber Bumpers, and Parking Tickets

Lots of little geraniums.
These are fun and relaxing to do - and they sell!
I'm getting a few little things ready for a Holiday Market at our local arts center.

Today was the last day of this session of my Wednesday morning watercolor class . Tomorrow is the last of the Thursday afternoon class. We'll start a new session soon, and fortunately I always have a lot of repeat students.

Went to lunch after class with a friend and had some fantastic Tomato Gorgonzola soup. As we sat there eating this fantastic soup and fabulous sandwiches, my friend K. watched as a car backed into her car out in front of the restaurant. She ran out there and the very elderly driver said, "Yeah, I know. See, it's okay" as he looked at HIS car, not hers. Well, he did have a car with big rubber bumpers - there was obviously a reason for that. A few minutes later the meter guy came along and put a ticket on her car! The morel of this story is, if you want to have a nice relaxing lunch, eating tasty food in a cozy neighborhood eatery, don't sit near the window. It's better to enjoy your lunch and be surprised later.
Okay - so she didn't have a dent in her car (thanks to the big rubber bumpers) and the meter guy was actually giving her a WARNING, but we didn't know that at the time. AND it wouldn't have made a very good story. It wouldn't have really made a story at all, and what fun would that be.

Pine cone and acorns

Did you know that there are male and female pinecones ?
The one I have drawn here is a female. The only way I know that is because I just googled "pine cones". I was thinking how interesting it is that these two very different looking things both grow trees! So I thought I'd look them up so I could pass it along because I don't have anything more exciting than this to blog about tonight. I had a very nice morning with a friend and accomplished some things today, but I thought the sex life of a pine cone might interest you more.

Acorns
are very slow to mature and come in different flavors.

Geraniums

Skinny little geraniums waiting to be fed.
The geraniums always get pretty sickly looking when I bring them in for the winter. They lose a lot of their leaves, but keep on blooming. I'll give them a little rest and then feed them, and they'll settle in for the winter and give me some bright blossoms to paint.
This is a watercolor done in a 6 X 9 journal on hot press paper.

We had some sunshine today. I got a couple of errands done, and we built some shelves in the kitchen. Now I have to sand, prime, and paint them. My husband is the shelf king of the world. I can say "I'd like some shelves here" and he'll go out to the garage, dig around in his stash of wood and come back with material to build shelves. What a guy! He is great at "re-purposing" things. When our kids were little they called him MacGyver.

Lazy Day

It was a very lazy kind of day.

I didn't put away all the flower pots I brought into the porch yesterday. I didn't paint. I didn't cook. I didn't finish cutting the stalky dead stuff in the garden. I didn't do any of the laundry that is spilling out of the basket. I didn't do anything. But, hey, I have a little bit of a sore throat - maybe I'm gonna come down with a cold and I need to practice taking it easy.

Does it count that we PLANNED projects? For tomorrow?

I thought this picture of Rudy kind of sums up the day. Looks pretty cozy doesn't he? I guess we need days like this now and then. So why do I feel guilty?

Playing Battleship

Oldest Grandson, all comfy on the couch, playing Battleship.

After doing this rather quick sketch of our oldest grandson, it makes me want to do more sketches of the grandkids. I'm just not that good at figures, but practice makes perfect, right? He was pleased that I had sketched him, and even if no one ever sees the sketches, other than the kids, they'll enjoy that and so will I.

Back to School

More Journal Pages,
and yes, this is the same subject as November 6th. I went back to the Middle School this morning and demonstrated for four more 6th grade classes. So all in all, I painted this subject eight times. You would have thought by the last one, it would have been a masterpiece, but that just didn't happen. The kids are only in the class for 50 minutes, so by the time I paint and then they paint - the time goes pretty quickly.

The kids - all eight classes of them - were great! They acted great, their sketchbook paintings were great. I had fun!

I am used to working alone, and the kids coming and going in fast succession seemed really chaotic, even as well behaved as they were. I came home and took a little nap. You know, I don't think my husband reads my blog too often, so I can say that it was really more than a little nap. I don't want him to think I'm a slacker while he is slaving away at the library.

Tubes of Paint

Struggling with the foreshortening of squishy and bent tubes of paint while I eat oatmeal and blueberries.

This makes me think, I want to offer a drawing class before Christmas. I think I will do it as a two-day workshop and just cover foreshortening and simple perspective.

Oh, by the way, it wasn't the oatmeal that reminded me of the drawing class.

SNOW on the ground this morning!

Steps and Rocks

This is a small demo I did in class today. I was just showing how to keep it simple - rocks, steps and shrubbery.

I like the subject and might try to work it into a composition for a finished painting. That's the key word, "finished".

It is cold here today with a little snow in the air. I don't like it already. I am trying to embrace the change of seasons, and maybe I would do better with it if the season we are getting into just happened to be spring.

This is a journal page done today as a demo for a class at the Middle School.

All the 6th graders keep Eco-Journals with detailed information and drawings. One of their teachers thought it would be fun if they were comfortable doing color and illustrating landscapes, with a zoom in or out option on a focal point. That's where I came in. I did four classes this morning and will do four on Friday. I had picked a slide that I thought would be good for this purpose - painting the lightest brightest first, painting in a dark background that pops out the trees in just a few strokes, and adding just a bit of texture over a color without going crazy putting in leaves, pine needles, blades of grass. . .

The kids were wonderful! They were very attentive, asked great questions, and did some fantastic paintings! I painted this same scene four times in four hours. This is the first one and I won't bore you with the other three.

I have been playing around a little with Power Point Presentation. I had never paid any attention to it until it came up a couple of times in reference to some things I am doing. So after looking over the tutorial, I thought "Of course I can do that". So my poor husband now has to listen to me fuss and sputter through the whole thing. Anyway - it worked out great for this. I put the pictures I had taken on Power Point, saved them to a jump drive for a back-up, then emailed them to the teacher. She then emailed them to the other teachers, so they all have the slide show of the pictures we will be working from. Yeah, I know - most people have been doing this for years, but I am very slow to adapt to, and adopt, technology. I am excited to try this for a bigger project I have coming up.

Wow - aren't you glad I am blogging everyday for the month of November? I just can't shut up!

A Fresh Start

Don't you love new sketchbooks? There is something a little scary about the first few pages though, isn't there?

I made these, but, as you can see, they aren't hand bound like many artists make when they make their own sketchbooks. I want a mix of the kinds of papers I like best, but I have no desire to actually bind books. I kept putting off taking these to have the spirals put on because I wanted to do something gorgeous and clever to the covers. You can't really tell in the picture, but these are just plain cream colored covers. The sketchbooks I buy don't have beautiful covers, so what's the big deal? It is a big deal.

The small one is 6 X 9 and filled with 90 lb. hot press paper and some 140 hot press - that's for watercolor journaling. The larger one is something like 9 X 11 and is filled with Strathmore smooth drawing paper, sketching paper, Aquarius II, Nideggin paper, and a few sheets of something else that I have completely forgotten in the time it sat there waiting for a beautiful cover.

Yeah, I know, this is a completely boring post. It was even boring to write, but I had to come up with something for day number five of blogging everyday for the month of November.

Tomorrow I go to the middle school to journal with four classes of sixth graders. That ought to be colorful and interesting!

IVY

This is a quick little watercolor sketch of two sprigs of ivy, painted while I'm waiting for the chili.

A friend gave me these two sprigs of ivy in an adorable little flower arranger. They started to take root, so I figured I had better get them out of the tiny holes in the arranger before the roots grew too large. I really have a thing for ivy, and for some reason I didn't have any for awhile (until these came along). Do you suppose the reason could be because I KILLED it? Or the cat ate it? Or . . .?

I actually have a pretty green thumb - well I think I have to give the credit to the house we live in. Plants just seem to like it here. We do too.

Lemons and Cyclamen

Lemons and Cyclamen

This painting is done in watercolor on watercolor canvas. I can't seem to get a good picture of anything I paint on watercolor canvas. Maybe there is too much light reflecting off the canvas.


It's been a pretty quiet day here, but we have kept really busy. It has been one of those days that one thing leads to another. We started out putting up storm windows, and because this is such a quirky house, the storm windows fit inside not outside - isn't that the coolest thing! There are seventeen windows and they are all very large, and all of the windows and storm windows have to be washed of course. Just wrestling them out of their summer hiding places is a challenge and makes a mess, displacing things in the attic, basement, garage . . . If anyone is still reading this, it must be pretty darned boring! Anyway - the house is a mess. As if the storm windows weren't enough, we started trading spaces with the furniture - even bringing in things stored in the garage - as if we have room for this stuff in the house!

We even went out "thrifting" - just to one place, and all I bought were some drawer pulls that look terrible on the chest I bought them for. I'll find something to do with them.

Okay - I think it is time to get comfy and watch a movie. I don't care what it is, I'll probably sleep through it.

Geranium

It is November 2nd and I still have geraniums on the porch. I'm pushing my luck if I want to keep them over the winter - we could have snow any day. I have been bringing them inside because I love the way they bloom all winter and are such fun to paint when everything else is gone.

I worked on some commissions today, and finished up a watercolor on canvas, but can't seem to get a good picture of it. I'll try again.

Tomorrow I want to get out and take some pictures of the fall landscape for a project I have going next week. More about that later - I have to save something for 28 more posts for the month of November!

NaBloPoMo

For some reason I signed up for National Blog Posting Month. Why did I do that? Actually I'm not REALLY sure I did. I think there was one more step to be officially "in". But I was getting a little panicky about the time I had already spent on the computer. Yeah, I know - so why did I sign up to blog every day for the month of November?! Does this mean I have to post a sketch or painting everyday also??? Well, of course it can mean anything I want it to. I often wish I could be one of those blog-everyday-type-bloggers, so I thought I would see if I could do it for a month. I think the object of the thing is to get your blog registered so more people can find it. I don't think I did that.

Okay, so here are a couple of sketches. Why did I put two on here - I may need all the sketches I can find.

These are done in prismacolor pencils and ink on Bogus Rough sketch paper. This paper doesn't scan well, and playing around with the brightness etc. I have ended up with some colors that aren't really there . Oh well. You get the idea.

Oh my gosh - I have to do this everyday for a month?!

MAKING ART IN BED

"So take a shower, read a good book, then go to sleep. And do it now!"
A friend emailed me this advise a couple of nights ago when I told her that I was going to bed with a stack of papers that I had let pile up for toooo long.  Who knows what might be in that stack  -  bills to pay, checks to cash (YES!)
So under what category does making art fall?  Is it work or is it equivalent to reading a good book? 
This is a small mono-type with colored pencil.I inked the "plate" ( a piece of plastic), let it dry over night, and then printed it on a damp piece was 90lb hot press watercolor paper.
I love doing these  -  so I guess it falls under the category of reading a good book. 

Watercolor Canvas

18X24 Watercolor on Watercolor Canvas

I started this watercolor as a demo in a workshop I did using watercolor canvas and clayboard. I had intended to wash off the vase of flowers so I wasn't concerned about the fact that it was smack in the center. However when I got going on it, I was pleased with the colors and the way the paint handled on the canvas. In order to keep it, I had to figure out a way to salvage a bad composition. I'm not sure I succeeded, but I do like the painting anyway. I have been playing around with words in my paintings and had a good time with this.

It is the season for still lifes, but they do get tiresome after awhile. This week my classes are starting on composing from photographs. I always feel that artists living in cold weather winter climates should know how to do that. I am not a cold weather outdoor-on-location painter. I don't do the suffering artist thing - give me a cozy studio any cold day.

APPLES

Watkins Cinnamon Tin and Apples

This is a watercolor on 140 cold press paper - has anyone else noticed the change in texture of Arches 140 cold press? I don't like it! It still handles the same, but I don't like the look of it. Oh well, nobody asked me - "they" never do, but I guess if this is the worst thing I have to gripe about today, I'm doing okay. And it is the worst thing.


This was a still life set up for my classes this week. It was a real challenge with the almost monochromatic colors, an over-crowded set up that needed editing, and the mixing of the reds and greens for the apples - that combination can turn to mud. Both classes really got into it!!! They worked for an hour on the drawing and composition, and then did a wonderful job getting in plenty of contrasts with lights and darks, and their color mixing was wonderful. I think everyone had a real feeling of accomplishment when they left.


As usual, I am not crazy about my background. It is a small painting - really just a study - and I didn't want to get into what might be going on in the background. But still. Any suggestions?

Spring Lake

Here it is October 6th, and it felt more like a hot day in August.

I was doing a watercolor journal demonstration and paint-along event for the Little Traverse Conservancy. I had chosen the Spring Lake location because it has shelter. First we needed it because of the sun and then because of the rain - and we were only there for two hours!

A wonderful group of people showed up. They were all eager to paint and they all did a great job. Some were new to watercolor, and some were experienced but liked the idea of the simplicity of a small journal page done quickly.

Thanks to Cindy from the Conservancy for spending the afternoon with us, and thanks to all of the participants that let me expound once again on how much fun watercolor journaling can be!

Pumpkins and Squash

When I mentioned to a friend that my Wednesday morning class wanted to paint pumpkins, she came baring pumpkins and squash the next day. That Cinderella pumpkin on the right has a beautiful shine to it - almost as if it had been glazed. They are all beautiful - great colors, interesting textures, and wonderful quirky stems.

The class met this morning and they did a fantastic job of painting them. They really captured those colors and textures.

Sooner or later I am going to have to cook some of these, but for awhile I'll enjoy sketching and painting them.

Guess Who Came to Dinner.

REALLY!!! A pileated woodpecker came to my little bird feeder today. We live in the city! Pileated woodpeckers live in the forest! I have only seen one other in my life. I must admit that I did not take this picture - I found it on a public-domain-picture site. The woodpecker didn't stay long - he took off as soon as I came near the window, but there is no mistaking this bird - nothing else looks like it. Except of course Woody Woodpecker.

Colorful and oh so tasty

A few days ago I did a private lesson with a student/friend and his daughter. The lesson was the daughter's birthday present - is that fun or what!? Not only did I have a great time painting with them at his beautiful home overlooking Lake Michigan, his wife fixed a fabulous lunch! As she dished up this beautiful borscht and set the soup plates on the black counter top, I just had to run and get my camera. My daughter asked if the host didn't think it was odd that I was taking pictures of her soup. I said anyone that can create a borscht that beautiful, wouldn't think anything of someone shooting a few pictures. It was unbelievably tasty too - light, a little citrusy with a hint of ginger . . . oh, this isn't a food blog?

The painting was lots of fun too! The father and daughter paint in very different styles and it was fun to see their two versions of the same scene - both with great results!

Monoprinting Again

Yet another monoprint or monotype (?) of Memorial Garden in Bay View.

I'm trying to get back in the swing of working indoors and I need a few little projects to transition not just my painting techniques, but also my brain. Doing small prints like this is almost like coloring in a coloring book - I know, it looks like it too.

I'm using too much ink and the paper was too damp. I tried bristol board this time. It's fun, it's relaxing, and it keeps the colors flowing.

My classes begin next week - Wednesday and Thursday. When my summer craziness (crazy is good) was over and the California kids left, I had a hard time with the "nothingness"! Although I did have things to do and things I was doing, it just wasn't the same. Now a few things have come along that really need attention, planning, meeting with other people, research . . . I'm gonna be okay. The momentum is beginning to roll things along, I have to pay attention to my calendar, I have to keep ahead of things a little. One of the things I have going on is with the Little Travese Consevancy.

But right now I am going to go bake a birthday cake for my sweet husband, then get ready to go to my oldest ( 9 years old) grandson's football game, then have the family over for cake and ice cream tonight.

Fall Classes

Fall Classes 2007

EIGHT-WEEK WATERCOLOR CLASSES
$105 per person for each eight-week session.

The Wednesday morning class meets from
10 a.m. to noon, beginning September 26th
The Thursday afternoon class meets from
1 p.m. to 3 p.m., beginning September 27th.

We will start at the beginning and work through the thought process of what makes a good painting, why we want to do a certain subject and how that translates into a painting. Using some of the simple rules of composition, we will be deciding what we want to "say" in a painting, and how to say it in the simplest way.

We will cover color mixing (on the palette and on the paper) and controlling the application of the watercolor on the paper.

We will study the importance of value contrasts (the lights and darks) and learn how to achieve those darks.

With the individual assistance and critique, along with plenty of demonstrations and instruction, beginners, as well as the more experienced, will be comfortable in these classes.

Feel free to contact me with ANY questions!

Please contact me at ccare@triton.net for more information or to register.
See the list of supplies suggested for this class.

Check out my class blog

Everyone Seems to be Leaving

This is a watercolor sketch done in my journal on the last day of the last of my Bay View classes. It always makes me sad to say good-by to the last group. Many of them are leaving for home - which means somewhere warmer for the winter.

Not only was it the end of summer classes, but the California kids were packing up to leave also. We had three wonderful weeks with them! Three weeks is enough time to work their way into our lives and then make a big dent when they leave. But it was a GREAT three weeks. Little kids can make a BIG dent, can't they!

I have a few projects that I need to get going on - things that really need attention RIGHT NOW, so I will try to shift gears into "business mode" and catch up a little on things. I always get into nesting in September - cleaning, rearranging, biting off more than I can chew . . . I think I will have to forgo some of the nesting projects for a bit. However, I don't think I can forgo the cleaning for too much longer!

Green, green, green

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF OUR LITTLE BOAT.
The next time we will take a yummy snack, books, an anchor, and a new motor. We did a lot of rowing.
Susan Lake is an old fashioned little lake with only a few cottages and no speedboats. Everywhere you look is green green green.
For this little sketch I did a very quick contour drawing in ink, then painted it using the water in the bottom of the boat.

Do Not Disturb

Rudy (the cat) and I had a good time today staying home. It was fun to just putter around the house and clean - from the looks of things, for the first time this summer. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but then again, maybe. I have been coming in from classes and painting, dumping down one stack of things and gathering up more for the next day. The stacks were beginning to have no rhyme or reason and I was afraid something would get left behind, as in slip through the cracks. And if you have seen our quirky house, you know I mean literally slip through the cracks.
I only have two classes this week, so I thought I would take a day or so to get in touch with home, and get ready for the California kids and grandkids. In the afternoon we had a thunderstorm. With no outdoor class to worry about, I was hoping it would be a good one - we really need the rain. A quarter of an inch - better than nuthin'.

Sit Awhile and Paint

What a pleasant place to sit and paint on a hot day. It was about 78 degrees when we arrived at 10:00 this morning. Everyone found a spot of shade with a wonderful view of Karen's garden. She claimed that the garden isn't at its best right now - could have fooled us! It is beautiful!
Karen keeps a colorful and lush garden and it has all kinds of things to discover - plants and interesting objects. AND she serves peach iced tea to my classes.
The paintings all reflected how relaxed and comfortable everyone was. Nice job, Class! And thanks a lot Karen for having us!

Sunday Afternoon

As part of the Bay View Library Sunday Afternoon Series, "Authors and Artists", I did a paint-along event. First I talked about journal painting, and showed the materials I like to use, then I did a quick demonstration - a watercolor sketch of the front entrance to the Library. I encouraged everyone to give it a try, and some people that painted had never painted before! Was that ever fun! The beginners did amazingly well, and I hope they are hooked. The seasoned journal painters , as always, did some beautiful little paintings.
I really enjoyed the afternoon and would like to make it an annual event. I was planning the event without knowing where I would hold it, when the Bay View Librarian emailed wondering if I would consider doing something with them for their Sunday afternoon series. Neat how that stuff works out.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and everyone that helped. I hope all of the people that were there yesterday painted a little today! If you're reading this, please let me know if you are painting. Or let me know if you are not, and I'll see what I can do!

Lavender

What a wonderful place to spend a couple of mornings painting!
This lavender farm is only a few miles from us, maybe six. It is a world away when you are there. It looks like nothing I have ever seen. It smells like nothing I have ever smelled. Even the sound of thousands of busy bees is soothing. The very dramatic skies of the past two days has certainly added to the beauty.
Unfortunately, I have nothing "showable" from my painting time spent there. It is very hard to capture the light and texture, to say nothing of the color - but I'm working on it - taking a few notes, doing some studies, soaking it in.
I can see how a person could get very "into" lavender. There is something about it that kind of casts a spell. I guess that is what lavender is all about, isn't it.

This wonderful produce wagon is always at the local farmers' markets. As I sat behind it painting, they began to pack up all of those great, tipsy, white boxes.

What fun to sit behind the market stalls and paint unnoticed. Maybe unnoticed, and it really doesn't matter anyway - well, maybe sometime it does....

I am knee deep in summer! No - up to my neck, and I love it. Classes everyday and getting ready for the Petoskey Art in the Park. This post is to let you know I have not fallen off the face of the earth. This week I have a journal class in Bay View four afternoons, two morning watercolor classes, a class at a lavender farm (!!!) and a demo/paint along at the Bay View Library on Sunday.
FUN!

Daffodils and Color Wheel

Watercolor on Clayboard

I started this painting awhile ago in daffodil season, and I have yet to finish it. I have been playing around with the background - I can't seem to get anything I like. I am happy with the flowers, but it is a very incomplete painting. I hadn't planned the composition before I started because it was just a little demo to show how I would do the blossoms. I didn't follow my own advise - plan it well and use good paper, because you never know when your masterpiece is going to happen. Be prepared. Expect the best. Etc.

My summer classes are filling up. I am SO ready! I'm eager to get out there painting in my favorite places and to see all those people who enjoy it as much as I do. It's a great way to spend the summer!

BEAUTIFUL!

Are these the most gorgeous pansies
you've ever seen in your life!?

Well, maybe not to some of you. I noticed that my friend, Karen, didn't buy any of these, so maybe it is just me. This morning I am still moving them around the house, looking at them in different light, although I know they would rather be outside.

I don't have good luck with pansies after the nice summer weather hits, but since they are the first things in the greenhouses and we are all dying for color, who can resist.

We hit some second hand shops and greenhouses yesterday - in a cold rain, but we had fun!!! It was kind of a preview because most things weren't even blossoming yet. Kind of a private preview at that - no one else was out. We had big plans for lunch, but never got there. That's another story. Let's just say we got to ride home in a great big tow truck - Karen's first time!

At one place we went, there were some absolutely beautiful pots - nice simple shapes and in colorful glazes. They came in orange, yellow, lime green . . . They were putting African violets in them. I went to bed with those colors on my mind, and woke up this morning with those colors on my mind. I think I just may have to go back for some. I wonder if the tow truck is running on schedule today.

Watercolor on Canvas

Another Mackinac Island Scene

It is cold and snowy again today. It felt great to paint this door from some sketches and photographs from last summer. It is almost the middle of April, and we have another weather warning for the next 24 hours - for snow.

I am getting ready for a two day watercolor workshop using clayboard, watercolor canvas, Yupo, and bristol board. I wanted to make sure I had a decent painting on each one of the surfaces for examples. I have never done very much on watercolor canvas, and now I think it is my favorite thing to paint on! I don't want to influence anyone ahead of time - I am interested to see what the class thinks when they get painting.

Fabric Folds

In my classes this week we worked on fabric folds and drapery, and a little bit on lace. This was my demo in Thursday's class. These simple paintings of fabric could be addictive. I really don't think there is a market for them, but everything isn't about the money, is it? Well, yes, sometimes it is. Maybe I could get a grant or something to spend the year painting fabric folds.

White on White with Hoisin Sauce

This is a small watercolor painting done as a quick demo in one of this week's classes. I set up a rather busy still life (very edited here) of white objects with one dark object in the forefront. The challenge was to show the white objects as white, but to balance the values in the painting to make the darker bottle of hoisin sauce fit in without being the only object that we notice in the painting. I wish I had photo shop so I could take out the red background and try some other colors and values. I think maybe putting that red background in was too obvious a balance. Maybe I should have matched the value, but not the color.

My students did a great job with this. At first they were a little frustrated, and they fussed and sputtered, but then they turned out some really good paintings - very individual and personal styles.

The above is a very simple mono-print with watercolor.

It seems to be the time of year for distractions. Why does this always happen to artists? I don't really know about the rest of the country, but in Northern Michigan, winter can be pretty much our down-time. Classes slow down to a couple a week instead of the summer schedule of a couple a day. Painting on location is limited to visits to warmer climates (not happening), shows and art fairs are non-existent. So there's this little thing in our brains that says, "Don't worry. You have plenty of time. That time-table you worked out to make sure you'd be ready for summer? You don't really have to take that seriously".

I have been working on commissions. So, see, that's pretty constructive. I have been playing around a little with some mono-prints. That is not all that constructive, but it is creative. I'm not sure I can wrap my brain around the process enough to tell you what it is all about - or even if you want to know! It's not that I'm that dumb - I am just very hungry right now. If you really want to know, Belinda Del Pesco is the queen of mono-prints, mono-types, block prints ETC.

And then I came across this little "game" on someone's blog. You google your first name and the word "needs", as in "Catherine needs", then list the first ten that come up. I thought "this is silly!" but of course I had to try it. And of course I had to share it with you in case you are avoiding your to-do list too.
1.Catherine needs a sanctuary, periodic retreat from the world. Yep.
2.Catherine needs another yacht! Catherine needs her rowboat repaired.
3.Catherine needs a lifestyle that allows her to be spontaneous. Okay, yeah. Someone finally recognizes this!
4.Catherine needs to get back to Charlie. Charlie. Mmmm. I don't remember any Charlie.
5.Catherine needs to put her everyday chair in the car when she drives. I certainly don't know what to say here.
6.Catherine needs a pick-me-up. Sure - after getting that chair in the car. . .
7.Catherine needs to make sure and explain the death of Michaela's mother. Well, I don't know Michaela, and I didn't know her mother either, but I'll see what I can find out and get back to you.
8.Catherine needs to grow up and become a woman. No, I don't think so - then I'd have to decide what I want to be when I grow up. Too much pressure.
9.Catherine needs to develop her dramatic acting skills. Ask my family, I think I've done that.
10.Catherine needs a good man. Catherine HAS a good man!!!

I haven't done anything "serious" in awhile - including this. My Thursday afternoon class wanted to play around with watercolor on gesso-ed paper (gesso is a canvas primer that resists water). The good news and the bad news is that the color can be lifted. It is so forgiving, it is really never finished - I just keep adding here, subtracting there, and each subsequent layer of color pushes around the previous layer.

Now I want to play around some more with clayboard. AND some monoprint. AND . . .

I really do have to get to WORK. Every once in awhile I have to get this experimenting out of my system. I guess that is the way we grow, isn't it. If we don't try something new - or at least something splashy, juicy, or messy, we'll just stay the same forever. Or at least our art will. That's what I'm telling myself, and that's what I'm telling my husband when he says "Haven't you received any checks lately?"

In my classes we have been working on composition, and recently we played around with two very simple concepts - contrast and placement of the center of interest, or focal point. The focal point was placed a third of the way up or down the paper and off center. It was painted with the most contrast - lightest light against the darkest dark, and with the hardest edges.

Painting on a small piece of paper with a fairly large brush ( #12 or 14 round) seems to be very freeing (is that a word?) and proves to us that we don't need a lot of detail.

The experienced students seemed to enjoy the review and had fun with the color mixing, and the beginners found out what they could really do with a few bold, juicy strokes.