Christmas Candy

Off shopping today! Maybe I will end up at the mall after all. Sigh.

Happy Snow

Happiness is...
A Dog Having a Blast In the Snow

I mean really -- who could resist this?

Art tomorrow!

Dear World

Dear World,

I'm back from my week with no Internet access just in time to take 5 minutes to post and then run out of town for a couple of days. The problem WAS the modem and it took him less than ten minutes to get a new one out of the truck, replace the old one, and check that things were up and running. HOW WONDERFUL is THAT!!! It's been a busy week, and I spent the weekend in Kentucky visiting my sister, so will tell more about that when I return.

Meanwhile, while I'm gone, I will have the chance to look at some of YOUR stuff, just not the chance to post anything myself. See you soon.

Love,
Linda
:-)

December

And the theme for December will be ...
:-)

(Look, I have an internet connection -- I'm on! Then I'm off ... then on ... then off... and I've tried to make some comments with no luck. Oh well -- great work out there tonight, what little I've been able to see! :-)

Catching Up

I went missing for a few days there without a word, didn't I!

It's been busy at work, at home, everywhere I go. I decided that the thing to do was just roll with it, putting down the things that weren't necessary for the moment and NOT getting behind right now. Instead I FOCUSED on getting work caught up and in order, Christmas shopping is very nearly done, and packages are mailed out already. That's a record for me -- so woo hoo!

I'm cleaning house now, and it's just sad. This last year I've been fairly intent on art, and when I stop to really clean, it shows that my poor house has been neglected. Gotta put something about that in the 2008 New Year Resolutions... either that or find an extra job so I can hire a maid ...

Here's a quick colored pen sketch of a poinsettia. It can be Thursday's drawing -- I'll catch up on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (today) tonight and tomorrow!

Italian Christmas

"I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" is the BEST Christmas song ever, but you can also go HERE for one of the other top ten greatest Christmas songs of all time...

A special Buon Natale to Bonny !

And, despite the fun, special thoughts and prayers to the folks in Omaha tonight.

Tuesday Treat

Oh yeah ... it's that time of year when D starts bringing home chocolate. Boxes of candy, bags of cookies, plates of fudge. Does he eat it? No. (Sigh.)

It's been a busy, busy day and evening, and tonight I'm finishing some work and getting ready for a continuing ed course all day tomorrow in Therapeutic Yoga. I suppose I should try not to be all stressed out for that one, right?

So, for a CALORIE FREE TREAT to you all -- Click HERE for a YouTube video of one of my favorite oil painters, Karin Jurick, hard at work. It's about 10 minutes long, but absolutely amazing (and has Dean Martin music, too!) Give yourself the gift of watching this and going by her blog to see her awesome work.

I'll post a drawing / painting tomorrow! I really have to get back to work now, though!

What I did Christmas-y today: well, it's a secret. Yep. A big ole' secret.

Monday Mug

Marta is doing a series of mugs this month, and I thought I'd do at least one this year. This is a mug from my favorite Christmas dishes. I'm trying the watercolor and Verithin CP, this time leaving the mug like this (below)...

... and doing the pattern and design with the colored pencil. The Verithins just don't stand up that well on their own, although the indigo did better than the other colors. I ended up adding red, gold, and green WC and then refining with the pencils. I also hurried to finish because, darn it, my coffee was getting cold! It was supposed to be a fast sketch, after all!

And HERE is the famous four-foot tall inflatable -- did I mention that it lights up? -- snowman. Doug joked and joked last year about getting one of those blow up snow globes for the front yard. My sister and I began to get the sneaking suspicion that he really LIKES them -- you'd have to know him -- a great big kid! So, this year at Thanksgiving, she gave him his Christmas present early. We put it up Saturday and he hasn't been deflated since. The snowman, that is. At Sam's on Sunday, Doug stood in open mouthed AWE at a 15' long inflatable Santa train with lights AND MUSIC. No way. I mean it. NO WAY!!!!

Christmas things I did today -- (1) Unpacked the Christmas mugs!, (2) brought a wreath to work to hang in rehab, (3) brought another wreath to work to hang in a resident's room, (4) hung some stockings and decorations on some bulletin boards, and (5) didn't blow my horn and make mean faces at that guy in the huge white pickup truck who cut me off on the highway this evening.

And if you want to listen to some Christmas music, you can go here! :-)

Misbehavin

Hey -- I think I found my groove. It occurred to me last night that I was loving painting little stuff on the smooth Bristol, so why wasn't I using it for a full size piece? So, while washes dried on the front porch painting I started this from a photo I took in Seaside, Florida this summer. Eventually I gave in, clicked onto Sammy Hagar and the Wabos Livin' it Up album on the iPod, and painted this, dancing all the while. It was so much fun -- I just can't tell what a good time I had with it. This morning I was afraid to look at it, thinking I would totally hate it, but I'm still happy with it. Yay! I LOVE this paper!

The paper corrects easily, too. This morning I realized I'd made the roof vents -- or whatever these are -- too wide.

So this afternoon I fixed them. Not a problem at all.

I just love the puddles, too. The paint misbehaves so beautifully.

Now, to decide whether or not to use colored pencil on this to do some refining...

My Christmas thing to do today (other than shopping!) was to hang the wreath on the front door. See the accidental self portrait in the glass? ;-D

Tomorrow I'll show you the four foot inflatable snowman. Believe me, it's better than the 15' long lit inflatable Christmas train that plays music ... I escaped THAT one!

Hallah Art

I got this Christmas ornament today at a art and craft show here in Knoxville. The artist, Hallah John Paul Boltik, of http://www.hallahart.com/, moved here after being in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the following flood. His stories were touching -- his spirit was great. It is one of those "non-coincidences" that he is the third person I've met this week who stayed in New Orleans during that time. All of them stayed because they felt they had to -- the first to care for an ailing relative, the second as an employee of a hospital who was required to stay with patients who could not be evacuated, and the third who stayed to help elderly neighbors who were unable to leave.

Non-coincidentally, I hadn't planned on being at the art fair. And, non-coincidentally, Hallah said something that helped coalesce some thoughts in my head. I'm going to paraphrase him, but he showed some of his art that he had found floating in the water in his flooded studio. (Because he paints on wood and varnishes heavily, some of his art survived the water well.) He said that in that type of crisis, you realize how unimportant art is. Of course, art is important, he added -- as art. But, he realized that the artwork itself -- well, if it had been a blizzard and freezing, his artwork would have been firewood -- and he would have been glad of it. I suppose that if it had been made of canvas, it might have become a tent, or used as a sign, or something else. You see where this goes? Art is not something to get all worked up about.

One of the other people I met talked about how she had lost things she'd been saving for a special occasion. Now she says she realizes every single day is a special occasion. Again -- there is the attitude of not getting worked up about STUFF and instead just enjoying it.

Oddly (or not) I had e-mailed Diahn earlier this week about 2008 art goals. Here is part of the e-mail:

"...And something about painting with more "joy" -- I mean, just think about that wonderful painting at the art center -- THAT was painted with some joy. ... I kind of start out painting with joy, and then choke. Gotta quit doing that."

This all started in early November with the aforementioned discussion about "content." We were privy to some professional art critiques, and while the judge did some valid critiques, several were not so much critiques as arrogant dismissive criticism and ... oh, I don't know. It was poorly done. There were some comments that were not at all "objective" but were just, well, mean. There was one comment in particular that made me so angry -- and I have no idea what the piece of art was or who the artist was, but the comment would have been completely devastating. As in, never paint again. It was THAT bad, and, I felt, done very unproffessionally. (Whew. I really wanted to get that off my chest.) Our real conversation, however, centered around his comments about artist's choice of subject matter. We couldn't figure out how one still life was "trite subject matter" and another was prize winning. We could understand compositional issues, execution, etc., but the CONTENT or subject was the issue .

Our conclusion was that content or subject matter is a very personal thing. You may see a portrait and see "just a child" and someone else see a poignant moment in childhood. Diahn finds landscapes kind of boring (I hope you don't mind that I tell on you, Di!) -- and the ones that make her yawn the most are the ones I find calming. One person may feel that a painting is incomplete without something alive somewhere in the painting -- the other person may find another presence intrusive. In short -- it just doesn't matter. You have to paint what you love. You have to paint what calls your name, whether it's realism or complete fantasy from your head. Listen to and learn from people's critiques about your composition, your technique, how you could express your vision more fully -- but just smile and nod and don't worry about it if they don't like WHAT you paint.

And I think you have to do it with some joy. Go visit Hallah. You'll smile.

Since I didn't get to go to watercolor class this morning, there isn't any poinsettia painting. Here's my first December drawing -- a 10 minute watercolor and colored pencil sketch of a little candy cane that I stuck in my back pocket at the art fair.

(You know how it is in December -- you just never know when you might need a candy cane. )

I'm loving doing these very fast little paintings with watercolor on Bristol smooth finish paper. The paint behaves in a ... wait a minute ... what I mean to say is that the paint totally MISbehaves and that makes it fun! I grabbed my colored pencils to define the shadow, and accidentally picked up Prismacolor Verithins, rather than the regular waxy colored pencil. WHAT a great difference! I'm going to be exploring this mix of mediums and some palette additions a whole lot more this month.

Now -- I promised myself that I got four hours today to work on the front porch painting ... I'm off to paint!

Woo hoo! It's December and countdown time!
P.S. What did you do Christmas-y today? I put my Santa picture on my phone for my wallpaper and put out a four foot inflatable snowman. (LOL -- there's a story to that!)

Almost December

This is something I started (and thought I finished) last year. When I pulled it out tonight, I realized how terrible the upper right flower was. I'd made it dark and fuzzy and kind of "backgroundish", but it was really horrible. This is better (believe it or not) after a lot of lifting and scrubbing and adding reds and trying to define that center a bit more. (note -- the scan is kind of garish, at least on my monitor...) I don't think it's really salvageable. But I remember how fun it was doing this really fast -- and I think I'm going to pick up a poinsettia for watercolor class tomorrow....

Happy NaBloPoMo to all who posted every day for the month of November! Happy NaNoWriMo to those of you who participated in that, and most especially to those of you who managed to complete 50,000 words! Maybe one day...

And I've enjoyed posting every day, even if it has been rather up-and-down with subject matter. You all can expect more frequent posts from me from now on, I think.

One Month and Counting

Do you realize that Christmas is ONE MONTH away? We started shopping today. It's always fun to shop for the nieces and nephews. This year we're really trying to find gifts that aren't extravagant and that they will really use and enjoy. Like makeup for the 9 year old. Yeah ... kind of like that ...

The Strangest Pencil

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! We have been without Internet for a bit, due to a bad cable modem, and are finally getting back up and running. Now I'm busy cleaning up all the holiday mess -- there's a Christmas tree to be hauled out back (when I can finally let it go -- as it gets older it smells more and more wonderful!) and furniture to be returned to it's regular arrangement. Art supplies can be pulled back out and painting resumed. Of course, there is a trip to Florida in the making, so some delays are inevitable.

All the gifts I received were delightful -- just what I wanted! Exercise clothing and gear, computer gadgets, music, and art supplies (or the cash to purchase them!) I just have to show you all the most unusual gift of the year, though! This is a graphite sculpture -- or "graphite object" as you may prefer -- designed by Agelio Batle in San Francisco. It was from my sister in Phoenix, selected on the advice of my thoughtful niece. It can actually be used to write or draw; I may do ONE drawing of a seahorse (from a photo from the Aquarium) with this, but then it will be display only! Pretty neat, huh?

You can see more of this type of graphite sculpture here.

And the end of the year is here -- which means it is time to review last year's plan (and how it did NOT go off as planned!) and make a plan for 2007. I've been mulling a few things over in my head for a few weeks now, and am nearly ready to finalize those goals ... we shall see.

Happy Holidays!

Saturday -- the last watercolor class of the year. I went in with nothing in mind, saw a poinsettia on a table, and, remembering that this week's Everyday Matters challenge was to do a holiday card, vowed to paint the entire thing in one sitting. Well, I didn't quite make it, and now the feeling is gone ... so here's what's left. What to do with that upper right corner, and exactly what was I thinking on the upper left??? If this gets finished it will be next year's Christmas card*.

Of course, we all know what the month of December means, don't we? This is probably the last serious post of the year. Christmas is irresistibly fun, in my book!

*This sketch from last December is what I used for a card this year, in a limited quantity. I ordered them through Qoop (via Flickr) -- and they really turned out nicely.

Merry Menagerie finale

When Santa is making his rounds, he stops at the edge of the Arabian desert, letting the reindeer out of their harnesses so that they may go to Switzerland for a brief break. Santa then changes over to a camel to complete his desert rounds.

Santa changes from reindeer to a camel because:
a. The reindeer are tired about then, and need a break.
b. The reindeer have difficulty managing the dry sandy terrain.
c. It is considered traditional for a wise man to come on camel when he is bearing gifts.
d. Because of the political climate in that region, it is wisest for Santa to travel in camelflauge.

And, speaking of strangers bearing gifts, here is my little Christmas gift to all of you. Turn the sound up if you like, but it can also be played with while the sound is muted.

Merry Menagerie Two

Go here to listen to

our favorite Christmas song

(and possibly one of the greatest Christmas songs ever written.)

Merry Menagerie One

As we all gator around the Christmas tree this year, let's remember our friends on the Gulf Coast who are still struggling to rebuild from the storms they suffered this last hurricane season.

And if you've ever wondered what a southern-Louisiana cajun style Christmas parade is all about, be sure to go see Annie's pics and great commentary from her hometown parade this year. It's sure to make you smile!

Merry Christmas to Ms. Annie Oddflower and all her buds in Louisiana -- this one's for you guys!

Done Shopping

I decided that during the month of December, at least until Christmas, that is, all my blog posts would have a holiday theme of some type or another.

In the spirit of the season, therefore, here is a litle ditty just for you, dear readers.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)

A day or two ago,
This idea sounded fun,
I'd leave work at noon,
And get my shopping done. (all done!)

I'd be home by dinnertime
To eat, then wrap them all,
But now it's nearly nine p.m.
And I'm still at the mall.

Oh! Jingle hell! Jingle hell!
Shopping all night long!
It's no fun to be someone
In this obnoxious throng!

Jingle hell! Jingle hell!
Who knew it'd be this hard?
That's it! I quit! The rest will get
A Target gift card!

So there. Now, let's all go eat some chocolate.

You Better Watch Out

...You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm tellin' you why,
Santa Claus is comin' to town!

This is for a friend of mine who (in a moment of desperation) told her rather energetic son that certain Santa figures have radio transmitters in them which send a signal to the North Pole letting Santa know if he's been bad or good.
Now the kid apologizes to the decorations on a regular basis.

Yep, you'd better watch out folks! There are Santa Cams EVERYWHERE!