The Value of Pink

I started this painting based on a great little photo a while back, mostly as an exercise in using the color red -- which then became pink -- (and then just kept going with it because the other thing I need to work on is finishing what I start!)
Anyway, the other day I realized that I really needed to work on values and hues, and was struggling with getting a good range of values in PINK. Kind of like I've struggled with getting a good range of values with YELLOW. Thinking I had this pretty much finished, I scanned it in. Then I changed the scanner settings to gray scale, and...

In grey-scale I could see that, while the values weren't quite as bad as I had originally thought, there were still some mistakes. Like the buds at the top left needed to have some lighter highlights, the open flower on the mid-left needed a better range to make it "turn" more ... and what in the world was that white speck??? Checking the color version -- there's a white speck there, too. Just a speck of unpainted white paper. ??? How did that happen?

So, I went back and made some corrections. The buds at the top were lightened as much as they could be ... I was afraid of scrubbing a hole right into the paper! (Oh, how I love my scrubbers...)

I learned:

(1) Always do a value sketch. Even if the photo looks good, still do a value sketch.

(2) I need to work more on pink ... and yellow ... just playing with value scales so I have more confidence and can use them loosely and with more spontaneity.

(3) I need to work on mixing greys and neutrals in a full range of values. I LOVE bright color, but a little goes a long way. There can be beautiful pure greys and neutrals, too...

(4) Review item #1 -- ALWAYS do a value sketch!

;-D

Finished as far as I'm concerned. What was supposed to be a very fast painting became a great lesson instead. And that's alright. More than alright -- that's a good thing.
Did I mention that when I went to the bookstore the other day and picked up a Watercolor Magic magazine there was an article featuring a couple of paintings of hollyhocks by Robert O'Brien? I'd already nearly finished this by that time, and wished I'd seen the article first! So let's add lesson #5 -- Study your subject a little more closely.... (Do go look at his awesome paintings!)

Is That the Lake

Really? It THAT the lake? Yep -- and with no rain in sight it could get lower. We went out to "winterize" the boat (which involves putting Stabil in the gas, cleaning up, covering things with tarps, taking gear off, etc.) and couldn't believe what we saw when we got there. We'd been out a few weeks ago, and it was down further than I'd ever seen it then, but now... Actually, when we were taking things off the boat, rather than climb the hill (mountain?) we drove the jeep down to the water's edge. From there we could look way up to where the shoreline normally is. It was kind of a weird feeling. Man, if I had time, I'd take a walk around that lake and collect those fishing lures we've lost over the years ... :-D

And before anybody panics about some horrible environmental disaster, I have to let you know that this lake is the "headwater" lake for our TVA system, so when the lakes downstream drop, power demands increase, and water is needed there, this lake suffers the greatest drop to provide water lower down the chain. The upside to being on this lake is that, since it IS upstream, it's the cleanest. I'll take clean over deep... ;-)

Notice that while the trees are changing, the overall color is drab. Lots of the leaves have just said, "oh, forget this color business" and dropped off early. Other than the beautiful clear blue sky it's a dreary autumn. At this point, gray rainy skies would be a lovely thing to see.

So, I've worked in the yard today (raking leaves -- what else?), done laundry, spent the afternoon working on the boat, had dinner ... now, time to go paint! Let's all have a great week!

Fun

More proof that I don't have enough to say to post something important every day for a month. Yes, I have again resorted to old photos -- this one of me in 196sometime-or-another-early at about age 4. It also may help verify the rumour that blondes have more fun...

Truthfully, today has been a fun day for me. I slept late (!!unusual these days!!) and barely made it to watercolor class at 9:30. I was prepared to scrap it all and start relearning watercolor from scratch, but was encouraged and am feeling much better about things. There is so much to learn -- and it was a lot of fun. As soon as I got home, about 1 pm, Doug and I went out to eat lunch and then we ... don't laugh ... wandered around the mall for about 4 hours, then went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and then to the bookstore. It was about 7 pm by the time we got home! Isn't that just a totally stupid waste of an afternoon? And I had a great time. So there.

P.S. One of my things to do soon is update blog links on my sidebar. If I don't have your blog linked over there, give me a bit as I'll get them gradually updated! You are probably on my blogroll.... Do be sure to go visit Marie-Dom to see her "leaf a day" challenge, which she is doing as part of NaBloPoMo. (Marie, I'll get you added onto the list ASAP -- your idea is inspirational!)

P.P.S. ZELMA -- keep it up, girl! (waving hello!)

iConfess

iConfess that i'Mhooked on my iPod and iTunes. Anytime iNeed some iNspiration or iF iJust get bored, iGo to iTunes and iBuy music. iT is an iLlness that iS as yet unnamed.

Needed In Two Weeks

Missing: One Large Turkey

Last Seen: This summer wandering around the neighborhood

The poster has recently seen that the price of turkeys has risen significantly, and offers the reward of one dish of fantastic cranberry sauce to the person who is able to produce this bird within the next 10 days. Thank you.

Leaf WC Sketch

Playing with watercolor on a scrap of Strathmore's 400 Series Bristol paper while listening to Coldplay and doing laundry. (There HAS to be several things going on at once, or I'm not using my time right!) This could become my favorite watercolor "sketch" paper. I called the art supply store and asked if there was a heavier weight Bristol (this does buckle a little) and all they could offer was illustration board at about $18.00 per sheet. Uh, no. This is just fine.

On another note - my favorite pastel artist and workshop instructor, Paul deMarrais has a brand new website that you all should go visit. There's a couple of video interviews with him -- one of him at work, and another of him at his hobby of raising butterflies -- and you will be able to see what a great personality he brings to a workshop. There's also a section with how-to articles in html AND pdf format, so they're easy to download and read in whatever style you prefer. Here you go:
Paul deMarrais Pastels

P.S. Check out the new header! :-) And let me know if it doesn't look right on your computer screen...

Color Notes

I got this book after hearing it discussed by several people on the Everyday Matters group. This afternoon I had one of those "aha!" moments about color. Really, I'm just on page 33 and would recommend this book already.

(I also had an "aha!" moment when I accidentally tried some watercolor on Bristol rather than watercolor paper -- nothing to show you guys right now, but there's some potential there!)

Rain

The wind has blown all day but now it has finally started to rain! Yay! Still -- too tired tonight to post more -- I'll do better tomorrow!

Round and Round

There were fun art plans for today but....

I spent hours late last night and again today fixing a problem with my eBay account. I sat the account up earlier this year to bid on one item, and haven't used it since, which is probably what attracted some nasty person to it. After posting here last night I checked e-mail to find 23 messages from eBay. Seems my account was "compromised" at about 6 pm last night, and within 5 hours "I" had bid on all kinds of cell phones and computers. The folks at eBay were VERY responsive to me when I contacted them via Live Chat and got it straightened out, but there were still more bids out there that had to be corrected this morning. Last night I had to change all my passwords for eBay AND for my e-mail account. I also changed passwords for several other user accounts out there ... just in case. Who knows how these creeps did what they did. I do know how to create strong passwords, these guys just lucked out or something.

Lesson learned -- Change your passwords fairly often, especially on important accounts. If you don't know how to create a strong password, read up on it and be sure you do. It ought to be a mix of upper and lower case, with some numbers and/or special characters thrown in, so a password like I'm2Tired4This! would probably be a good one. Also change your "secret questions" and pay attention to notices that you get. Also be warned that there are eBay "spoof" sites out there, so it's not a bad idea to review their security measures.

Other note -- since I never eBay anyway (and I'm NOT downing them -- they have done a great job helping me with this!) I decided to close my account with them. Little did I know that having an eBay account was a bit like getting married. You can set one up in a matter of moments -- it may take up to 180 days to close one. Wow.

I'm going to work on my flip flop painting for a bit tonight. I'm still not ready to show it. Instead, for your viewing pleasure, here is a shot of the carousel at Dollywood. It is a fantastical creation! Teri -- you would love this if you ever get to this area -- and hey, Diahn, the rooster is for you!

Dollywood

Whew! I barely made it home tonight in time to keep up with the daily blogging challenge. This morning started early -- to work for a bit; stop by the bank; make it to art class thirty minutes late; leave art class an hour and a half early; rush home to change clothes, meet my sister, and drive west to the gallery open house; hop back into the car and drive east to Pigeon Forge where we helped our friend Marcia at her jewelry booth in Dollywood. She has been selling her beautiful jewelry during the crafter's fair there for the month of October. Every day (except Thursdays) for four weeks she has been driving to Pigeon Forge, working for 9 to 11 hours and then driving the hour back home. As my brother-in-law so eloquently said, "No, it's not really a long drive, but it IS a long commute!" Today was the last day of the fair, and we went to help out with sales and then to pack and load everything.

It was a bittersweet day for Marcia -- the work is difficult and the hours are long, but the fresh air is great and the park staff and visitors are always a lot of fun to talk to. The park will be closing for a few days - maybe a week? -- while they finish getting ready for the Christmas season. Marcia's booth was right beside the water wheel and right under "the big blue tree" that everybody who has ever been to Dollywood for the Christmas lights knows. They already had the lights on it and they were working tonight, so we got a preview. I always thought they surely left the lights on the tree year round, but found out that they don't -- they actually take them down and clean each little bulb, and then re-do the tree the following October. The sad rumour is that the tree may be dying, and no one is sure if it will be there next year. That may not be true, but it does appear to be an old, old tree. Pretty, isn't it?

I guess the discussion about concept will have to wait until tomorrow! I only have a general concept of exhaustion tonight! :-D

Languishing Art

Languishing in my living room is a pastel piece (about 1/3 of the way done) that I just can't bring myself to finish. Fortunately, I'm going to a pastel workshop in a couple of weeks and plan to bring it with me for advice. Here is my reference photo -- taken from the window of a moving car from our trip to Canada a few months ago (has it already been a few months ago?)

And here is what I've gotten down so far...

I'm kind of attached to the painting to date, blocky and rough as it is, and think I'm paralyzed by the fear that I'll mess it up. Isn't that silly? It's just in the way, sitting there on the easel in an incomplete state. I might as well have messed it up for all the good its doing there.

I also wonder if I'm not more attached to the idea of painting a place that gives me such a great feeling. Maybe the concept of painting Canada is what I'm attached to. Maybe we'll talk some more about concept tomorrow...

Knock knock

Who's there? Sigh. Sorry folks, but it is end of the month at work (which means lots and lots of paperwork, etc.) and I have some other projects which I've worked on but still can't show (like those darn pink flip flops) and I can't even think of a knock knock joke! Is this desperation or inspiration? I don't know, but this is a photo of me in 196something (I'm not going to tell). At this point in my life, I think I had reached my max "cute" potential and it was just all downhill afterwards.

I'll dare you NaBloPoMo's to post a childhood photo on a "stuck for something to blog about" night! :-)

Dum Dums

Well, it was hit and miss tonight. Sketch a line, answer the door, wet a paintbrush, answer the door, head toward the paintbrush, answer the door. Halloween is always so much fun. The little kids are always cute, especially when they are at the age when they're so excited they almost can't stand it! And the little ones always love DumDums. Which is nice, because that means they leave most of the Snickers for me. Yay for Halloween!

Leaf Necklace

And since we were talking about leaves ....
This is the drawing that I started last night and finished tonight. It was supposed to be a quick one, but I ended up puzzling over the shadows, and how they changed from one side of the necklace to the other. I kept having to get up and double check that I was looking at it correctly! This necklace was made by my friend Marcia, who does just beautiful work and keeps me in jewelry.

Now, I really DO have to figure out my Halloween costume for tomorrow...

I probably also need to go downstairs and see how much of the candy has been eaten already. I KNEW I should have waited until tomorrow to get it!

You may notice that I'm in the process of making some changes in the blog's appearance. I don't know what I think about the teacup -- maybe something more seasonal will be coming up this week, but I'm wondering about column width. Please be sure to let me know if I make some changes that make it difficult for you to read things! And let me know if you have any suggestions, too. :-)

Change

The leaves are finally beginning to change around here. I spotted this leaf the other day, captured by another tree on its way down to the ground.

I'm not able to finish tonight's drawing tonight -- maybe there will be two tomorrow. This daily posting IS going to be a challenge, as November is suddenly shaping up to be much busier than expected. That's the way the world works, though, isn't it? You're heading somewhere, just floating along, and then BAM! -- caught up in a tree.

In Search of Subject Matter

Well, even if NaBloPoMo officially starts on November 1, I tend to be a week to week kind of girl. I'm going to go ahead and start my daily posting now!

So, art wise here's what's going on around the household --

I'm working on an acrylic painting of a pair of pink flip flops. This time I'm proceeding very slowly, using almost a watercolor style technique of thin layer upon thin layer. It's turning out pretty good so far! I'm not certain enough about the outcome to post the early stages yet ... acrylics are fairly new to me and I could make a wrong turn at any moment! Still, I love the painting, and may do a watercolor version of it also.

Watercolor wise -- oh dear. I'm working on the color pink. Sounds a bit nutty, doesn't it? BUT that's how we figure things out. Fact is, I don't care too much for pink and find it very difficult to attain good values with it, even though one of my very favorite paintings that I've ever done is of pink flamingos. They just seemed to magically flow from my brush. This time, however, I'm working from a photo of some pink hollyhocks and don't think we can use the word "flow" when discussing what's happening right now. The old saying of "you've got to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them" applies to painting as well as poker. It might be time to fold and start something else! Not going to post it -- nope, not right now. Later on in the month if the daily posting gets tight I might have to resort to showing it. Of course a miracle could occur and I could pull off a good save... we'll see.

And sketchbook wise -- I'm always keeping my eye out for good subject matter, and never more urgently than when a painting I'm working on is going badly. The above little sketch is from a photo of a harbor in Gulfport, Mississippi. After trying to figure out all the masts and angles, I decided that it might not be as much fun as I first thought. Still, it appeals to me quite a bit. There's something about boats that makes me want to travel ... fried shrimp from Rickey's Bar and Grill sounds good to me right now -- how about you?

:-) Off to plan a Halloween costume, finish laundry, get ready for the work week, and do another wash on those flip-flops!

NaBloPoMo

I guess we all know that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and I'll be the first to wish the best of luck to all of you who are planning on trying THAT one, while the rest of us prepare to wave good-bye to you and call "see you in December!" However, Diahn tells me that November is ALSO National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), a much less stressful version of the event. Rather than writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, for NaBloPoMo all you have to do is post something on your blog every day in November. In order to change my evil ways and become a better blogger, I've joined. There may be photography mixed in with the art, there may be music, there may be nothing more than a knock-knock joke, but I'm going to try to do it. Who else is in?

Colors Everywhere

Just playing around with an imaginary Tuscan landscape the other day -- doodling in the sketchbook after watching the travel channel. Funny how even the light can be a different color in different parts of the world. And as cliche as it may sound, this is one of those places I'd love to go some day.

Sorry to have been away for a bit -- have had some technical difficulties with the laptop screen and couldn't SEE to come visit you all. But, as of tonight(!) I'm running the laptop hooked to an external monitor -- a brand new 19" hp flat screen monitor that makes everything beautiful. Just BEAUTIFUL.

Depending on how the repairs go, I'll be back up fully mobile next week some time and DH will get the new monitor. Maybe. I may just have to keep it. (Really -- it's just BEAUTIFUL.)

The Great Wall of Peppers

I'm totally blocked right now and can't think of any subject to paint that excites me. So, trying to "get my groove back," I did a small fast watercolor of these peppers from a photo on Wet Canvas. (I would love to be able to attribute the photographer, but can't find it again!) IT is an exciting photograph, and is also a good way to practice reds, which I find to be VERY difficult.

Thinking to pick up some peppers at the grocery store today and practice reds from real life (rather than a photo), I found that the price of a red bell pepper is $3.99 a pound right now -- it seems that photo references aren't so bad after all...

The reds/pinks I have on my standard palette are Rose Madder Genuine, Alizarin Crimson Perm, Cadmium Red, Winsor Red, and Opera (just one pepper got a light wash of that.) Of course I mixed in some yellows in spots, and think that dulled the reds more than I would have liked. I'd be interested in knowing what other people think the "perfect red" palette is.

Rare Birds

This test was on Diahn's blog tonight, and of course, I HAD to take it. I guess birds of a feather DO stick together... weird, huh?

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Thanks Lin!

Creative
Originally uploaded by doodahlin

Lin, of View From the Oak, very kindly honored me with a "Creative Blogger Award" this week. It was the nicest e-mail I got that day -- all week, for that matter! Lin has been described as having the biggest heart in all of blogdom, and I would second that sentiment. She is also an inspiration for many of us -- she manages to draw and paint daily despite a grueling schedule. I want to know what vitamins she takes...

Now I need to give this award to five other bloggers -- each of them, in turn, will nominate five more. More information about this award can be found here. (what a nice idea, too!)

HOW can I pick just five? With a lot of difficulty, that's how! There are so many great creative blogs out there, I can just hope, as Lin as also said, that they will get awarded by someone. However, I need to get with it, so here we go with some bloggers that have some qualities that I would like to develop:

(1) Diahn of Art by Diahn -- smart and creative, able to flat out keep up, she helps keep me on track regularly. She also is very active with Wet Canvas and is a great source of creative encouragement there. Secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) she is a great experimenter. I am waiting for her to one day reveal that she has just completed a 20 foot sculpture of Mary & Martha wringing a chicken's neck in her back yard (of course using only junk found along the trail while hiking to the top of Mount LeConte) ...

(2) Teri of Teri's Painted Daisies -- like Lin, she blogs DAILY, draws and paints faithfully, and has a huge heart. I don't know how either of them do it! I also don't know if the two of them have ever met in person, but if THEY were neighbors they would be the best of buddies -- of that I'm sure.

(3) Debby at Drawing the Motmot -- wow -- her bird drawings are jaw droppingly good and she just recently happily gave pointers on just how to sneak up on a bird. Oh yes -- I'll be trying it, too! Her art is something to aspire to.

(4) Witness at Leaking Mind Juice and/or Sketchpot -- both of which are great blogs with wonderful creative writing and art. He tells a great story, and nobody, and I mean NOBODY draws a sumo wrestler like this guy! :-D

(5) and while I'm sure somebody has already sent her an e-mail with the same award, I can't leave out Laura of Laurelines who inspires people worldwide with her art, her vision, her dedication, and her darned enviable traveling itinerary.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, as they say. Thanks to all of you who post your work and comment and are part of this great creative community!

Salad on the Square

On the first Friday of every month a group of downtown Knoxville galleries and merchants participate in "First Friday", with new shows opening up at the galleries, free food (of sorts), and usually some free out-door entertainment. You would have thought that Diahn and I were prisoners on parole when we figured out that we were going to get to leave family obligations behind for a few hours and go to First Friday together last night. Really, it was kind of sad. Two grown women getting all excited about a few hours out in the heat. Pitiful, actually.

Still, we had the BEST time! We wandered and saw some great art, including the most fun exhibit of all at the UT Downtown Gallery -- Shoebox Sculpture -- some small and very interesting / entertaining / thought provoking pieces of work. I'm sure we are both secretly digging up old pieces of small junk and cigar boxes and considering how they could be glued, welded, or otherwise attached together...

When we decided to REALLY eat (not just M&M's and squishy squares of cantaloupe) we settled on Trio Cafe because (1) they had available outdoor seating, (2) they weren't Thai -and-something else fusion food, (3) neither of us had ever eaten there before, and (4) they had salad, which we could draw for this week's EDM challenge.

I have to point out that the salad bowls really were oddly shaped -- round with a slanted rim (kind of like these, only smaller, white plastic, and with much more slant) so that if you turned your bowl JUST SO ... with the high side in the back ... only you could see your salad. You could hide behind the high rim if you wanted, so nobody could see if you dripped salad dressing down your chin or if a long piece of frisee didn't quite make it into your mouth in the one bite you thought you could pull off. (Well, nobody except the well dressed business man sitting at the table BESIDE you, looking on in horrified disgust. Oh well.) At any rate, the salads looked deliciously cool and refreshing in all that heat, so I sketched as fast as I could, and then tucked in before the whole thing wilted.

(How often have I said how much I admire those of you with the discipline and self control to draw your food before you eat it?)

Afterwards we wandered out into the square to philosophize and listen to a little music from a street musician and draw a few people until it finally (all too quickly!) got too dark to see the details. It was a good night. A very good night, indeed.

Birch Color Study

Finally -- tonight some time to work on painting and sketching! It's so frustrating now to try and re-create the sense of our trip to Canada. After some stalling and hemming and humming and self-distracting and working on other "non-Canada" art, I finally did this quick color study with pastel pencils* -- smeared them around with some water -- then added more pastel and fixative -- then some white acrylic -- and am beginning to get the feeling back! Up north in these woods is one place where the shadows really and truly are BLACK -- once I remembered that I felt more on a roll. And that amazing little streak of turquoise peeking through the clouds on the right? It's true. Yep, the sky there is truly turquoise along the horizon. Even my very literal and non-poetic hubby said, "it feels like you're on top of the world or something..."

(*Carb-Othello pastel pencil in Raffine sketchbook -- not the best surface for pastel, but very nice for a quick study!)

Oh Canada!

We have returned from vacation -- we were "dropped off" into the middle of the wilderness in Ontario for a week of fishing and COMPLETE removal from the world at large. Right now I'm re-adjusting to the "real world" -- feeling way over-stimulated by traffic and crowds and general busy-ness, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff here in my own house, even feeling a bit cooped up by the fence in my own back yard. Tomorrow is the return to work, and I'm just not sure how THAT'S going to go... Oh my, but what a wonderful week! The only thing we missed were the family members who weren't able to make the trip. We nearly missed our luggage, courtesy of NWA, but that's going to be the topic for tomorrow's post, I'm sure.

I did NOT get much art done on this trip -- but I did spend a fair amount of time contemplating my surroundings and just how I MIGHT do some art if I wasn't on a rocking boat coated with northern pike goo. I took some photos -- got my sister to take more -- planned and thought and now am crazy to get to work painting some of the weird scenery I saw up there. I don't know if it can be done, but I'm going to try, so look for it soon!

Here's a cool thing I found out. There are some bald eagles here, and loads of bald eagles up in Ontario, so I've heard them cry before. The first time I heard a bald eagle call I laughed, it was so high pitched and rather wimpy sounding compared to a hawk, and didn't seem to match the bird making the noise. Over the years I've gotten used to it, though. But -- THIS week -- for the very first time, and I heard it twice -- I heard a bald eagle SING. Not call out, or chirp, but sit in the tree and very sweetly and seriously SING A SONG. Who knew?**

Oh well. I will be working this week catching up on blogs, painting some paintings, washing up some nasty smelling laundry, and trying to get some things worked out with Northwest Airlines (who, if you haven't noticed yet, are currently on my short list...)

** Ornithologists know, I suppose, and my mother knew, because she had heard it before, too. I can't find an audio clip, though!

Skull and Bones Society

Well, not exactly. Just two middle aged women -- okay, one middle aged and one early aged, but both looking pretty good for their respective ages, no matter what those ages might be -- oh, what the heck --

NOT the Skull and Bones Society.

Just two darned good looking women out running around for a few hours this morning at the McClung Museum. Yep. You've got it. Diahn and I met for a few hours today to do some drawing and we settled on bones. I love bones. It was especially exciting to meet Lucy (above) who was surely a little dynamo in real life. If I've guessed correctly, based on what little I know of skeletal features as they relate to muscle size and function, she probably could have bitten your hand off with very little effort. Don't let that sweet little grin fool you! Although she was just as cute as she could be...


There's something about bones that I just love. Diahn loves fossils and rocks -- so next time (I promise, Diahn!) we'll be drawing crinoids or something along those lines. I'm looking forward to it, and feel like we've found a treasure trove!

After the McClung museum we scooted over to KMA to see "Sordid and Sacred" ,the exhibit of Rembrandt etchings of beggars. If you get the chance to see this, go, go, GO! It was fantastic. (I'm scrabbling around looking for triple-aught-one pen...) ;-)

I may be laying low for a bit -- still busy but it's calming down and it's nearly time for some R&R. Thanks for all the thoughts and encouragement!

(You may see that there is a scribbled note to "look up John Gould". Well, I didn't know who he was, but they had the most beautiful collection of his hand tinted prints, which were all just fabulously rich with color. Check him out here! He's now on my list of "artists that I must study up on.")

In The Weeds

I'm in the weeds (as in busy over my head!) more often than I care to think about. The past two weeks have been crazily hectic -- a co-worker changed jobs (a nice way of saying quit), leaving me doing the work of 2 1/2 people, right at the same time that we got busy again at work anyway, right at the same time that we had a huge garage sale planned here at home, right at the same time we're getting ready for a vacation next month, right at the same time I had a pastel workshop to attend, right at the same time that I have an out of town meeting to go to ... you see how the list goes on?

So, this means I've been a baaad blogger.
I'm waaaaay behind on reading e-mails.
I'm too tired to draw or paint much more than a few lines.
And I've not gotten to visit my favorite blogs to see what's going on in much too long a time!

BUT -- I see a light* at the end of the tunnel:
We may have a NEW co-worker in the next week or two (which would be in record time! Keep your fingers crossed and good thoughts happening for me!) This would take me down from my current 6 or 7 days a week back to the standard 5.
It's actually good that work is busy -- makes the days go by better, don't you think?
Our garage sale was today and it was a huge success. (This is despite the fact that a rather large bag of rubber stamps "walked away" from the garage sale ... we're wishing flat tires and bunions on people who steal from garage sales -- and may they get splinters in their fingers, too.)
Now that the garage sale "junque" is out of my house, I can actually see the room where I'm supposed to be painting.
Hubby and I decided to just go and buy a few extra clothing items, which let us get packed for our vacation way early, so that's DONE already!
The pastel workshop (yesterday) was another huge success, and I learned so much hearing it all again. If he comes back to town in the next six months I'll take it yet again -- I need repetition if it's ever going to fully penetrate this thick head of mine.
And the out-of-town meeting -- well, we're staying at a really nice hotel, and it's early next week and will all be over with soon, so it will be another thing off of my list.

Whew. I sometimes have to make myself stop and remember that I'm SO very fortunate -- great family, friends, job, etc. -- that there's really nothing to get stressed about. Nothing at all.


*(The light may be actually located in September, but it IS there.)

**And -- not to make excuses -- but I could NOT get this pastel painting to photograph correctly -- and no matter how I goofed around with the color, couldn't get it to look right. This is as close as I could get. For once I'd say that the original looks MUCH better than the photo! Still, here it is -- In The Weeds.

***AND I have to add, the nice little light feathery marks at the tops of the weeds on the right side of the painting are from Paul DeMarrais, the workshop instructor, who gave it a little touch here and there to show me how to tie it all together. I just realized that I can't take full credit for this painting at all! THANKS, PAUL!!!

;-)

Captain Paul Dunn

First off, let me say that this is NOT a sad post. So please, don't think it is! I'll try to keep it brief, but I just have to write about this.

Today I got to attend a fireman's funeral. The fireman was Captain Paul W. Dunn, shown above with his wife Jan and their little dog Harvey. I took this photo of them just over two months ago, about the same time Paul, at the age of 70, went on medical leave from the fire department because of brain cancer that had progressed to the point where he could not work any longer. Since his diagnosis early this year, he and Jan have shared with us their courage in the face of fear, their joy in the face of sorrow, their ability to laugh and find the humor in life's sadder annoyances, and their very great faith and love. Over the past two days everyone has talked about Paul's good nature, even temper, great sense of humor, devotion to the department and to his family -- in other words, we all agreed that he was a good man.

Again, I don't want to get sappy --Paul wouldn't appreciate it at all! But today I got to attend a fireman's funeral. From what I witnessed over the past week or two, let me tell you all -- THERE is a fraternity. It's not just the stuff of movies -- it's real life. And I wondered, why ARE firemen like that? Then I thought about what they do for a living. Right off the top of my head, I can't think of any other occupation quite like the job of a fireman. They MUST become a team, a brotherhood -- their very lives depend on each other every single day that they go to work. And the honor that they bestow upon one of their own is something to see. I can't begin to describe the ceremony, but there was a 21-gun salute, a fly over by a local medial emergency helicopter, bagpipes and drums (including the solitary bagpiper who turned and walked away across the cemetery, still playing Amazing Grace), a last dispatch call to Paul on all emergency radios, sirens from fire trucks -- it just goes on. It was a beautiful memorial to a good man. It was a celebration of a good life.

So, this is to say "thank-you" to all the firemen, policemen, emergency workers, soldiers, and all the others who I can't think of to name, but who risk their own safety for the rest of us. We should say thank you more often. This is also to say "thank-you" to all the good nurses out there -- the oncology floor is a tough one and the nurses at St. Mary's were great. I know at least one of you readers out there is a pediatric oncology nurse (Marta!) and I don't know how you do it. Thank-you!

Again -- this isn't a sad post! It is a celebration! There will be some art coming along in the next few days.

But TODAY I got to attend a fireman's funeral.

Wow.

News Video

and Ceremony News Video

Obit

EDM Challenge One Million and Six - Sky

Okay, it isn't really challenge 1,000,006, but it feels like I'm that far behind. I'd decided that I needed to get back into the habit of doing the Everyday Matters weekly challenges, and when Karen announced that this week's subject was "sky" it suited me fine!

This is from a photo taken during our most recent trip to Florida -- the cloud was forming and rising in the otherwise clear blue sky, and I took several photos of it with the idea that it might work into a painting. I'd already picked up a 24 x 12" canvas to try this on, thinking it would also be good practice with acrylic. I guess that means this meets two challenges for me -- the EDM "sky" challenge and my own personal "acrylic" challenge!

The bottom part isn't nearly finished, and I'm actually not sure the cloud part is done. Acrylics dry so darned fast that they're hard to blend, so I went and picked up some retarding medium today. Anybody know how well this stuff works, or have any suggestions for smoother blending? There are NO good acrylic books out there, at least not that I can find!

On a side note -- The show last night went great -- it was a lot of fun to see friends' work framed and hanging, and it was especially nice to meet several VERY talented artists from east Tennessee's Tri-Cities area. Scott, the manager from our local Jerry's Artarama, was at the show and Jerry's very kindly donated some FREE samples of art supplies AND a great door prize. (Hmmm.... I just realized I probably picked up a little free bottle of acrylic retarder at the show, yet I still went to Jerry's and bought a big bottle , stopping at the same time to say hi to Scott -- I guess that means that his marketing plan worked like a charm!)

Serendipipaint

One Saturday morning not too long ago, when I had finished a painting in watercolor class and had about 30 minutes worth of time left, the instructor suggested that I take a small piece of watercolor paper (a little larger than postcard size) and make a "monoprint" of sorts, pressing the paper into the wet mess in the middle of my palette. I did that, spritzed some water from a spray bottle onto it all, dragged the edge of another stiff piece of paper though some paint and scraped it along the painting, ending up with a, well, mess. It kind of looked like a lighthouse on a cliff to me, so I refined it a little bit, tossed it into my bag, and forgot all about it.

Tonight, while doing a little cleaning I ran across it, and decided to play around with colored pencil on it. Oh yeah, the word of the evening is "EUREKA!!" I'd played with colored pencil over watercolor before on cold press paper and on 90# hot press, and was never all that impressed. This is on 300# hot press, which has just enough soft tooth to remind me of Stonehenge paper, so the pencil goes on just perfectly. And while it is not strictly lighthouse-ish to the seasoned lighthouse keeper or collector (unplanned and just out of my head), it strikes me as a mighty fun way to spend a couple of hours with art supplies! It scanned fairly dark, and I never could get the color to adjust properly, so lighten it up in your mind, and you'll be on the right track. I do wish I'd scanned it before I did the color pencil work, just to show the difference.

I've finally started working on the painting of Miss Vanilla Cupcake, feeling my way along with composition and color. Right now I seem to be having a color crisis -- I can't decide which I really prefer -- glazing or mixing the colors on the palette and NOTHING seems to be turning out right whichever way I go. So, I'm going s-l-o-w-l-y!! Must be tough to have such terrible problems, huh? Yep. I'll tell you folks, I'm grateful every single day for my problems, 'cause they are few and the ones I have are small ones.

And, actually, life is going pretty good right now. We took down the art show the other day, and I have three more pieces going into another show that opens Friday. (I'll post photos!) A local shop is carrying one of my paintings now ("Other People's Stuff") and has started out with two copies of my Gossip print on commission. There are FOUR paintings on the drawing board in my room, and another pastel workshop with Paul DeMarrais is in the very near future. It's an interesting time! We'll see what the future has in store!

P.S. The thing that appears to be a small flag flying off of the top of the lighthouse is just a blob of paint. It makes the whole thing look a bit like a castle on the cliffs, rather than a lighthouse, doesn't it!? Well, it's just whatever you want it to be. Isn't that nice?

;-)

Happy Fourth!

So, I'm working on a painting of a cow, of all things. We saw her just off a local rural interstate exit, and I just fell in love with her. (So sweet eyed and creamy white that I've even named her -- Miss Vanilla Cupcake -- although sometimes I call her Miss Vanilla Cream Tart -- at any rate there's a general name thing happening here between the two of us.)

Of course, I looked like a crazy person, out there in the middle of the country, climbing around in the weeds taking photos of COWS ... just waiting for somebody to come up and say, "What's the matter there, girlie? Ain't you never seen a cow before?"

And actually, I find that while I've seen plenty of cows, I've never actually SEEN one before trying to draw this one. What a skull these animals have! It's going to take a lot of sketching before I'm ready to paint. (Weirdly I begin to understand some artists' fascination with cows ...)

And click here for something REALLY special that I've saved to the Fourth of July holiday. Artists, you will love this video -- how a very very special woman uses her art in an amazing way.

And -- Diahn is on Moleskinerie! Wow, that girl gets around, doesn't she!