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!

Way To Go Diahn!

Did I forget to mention that our very own Diahn has written a great article for Wet Canvas about sketchbooks and journals? Nah, I didn't forget -- I just didn't want it to get lost in the earlier shuffle! Yay, Diahn!

Get That Sketchbook Out and Use It!!!!

Road Trips

So, we just got back from another Gulf Coast Run. We started in Panama City Beach, visiting the dear daughter, then moved westward along the Gulf until we arrived at Gulfport, to visit D's brother's family, then up through Alabama to visit his sister's family. Great trip -- and I feel wonderful from the break!

This is the front cover of my book I carry with me now whenever I travel. It is a regular Moleskine (NOT a sketchbook, but still the plain paper) that I use for directions, trip notes, etc. Most of the pages are numbered, and I use them as we go along to make notes about our routes, including interesting exits, best stops, places best avoided... If a restaurant is really excellent, I jot it down, so I can recommend it and come back myself. And if a restaurant is really, well, not quite up to par, it gets a "YUK" beside it. I set up the back pages with the alphabet, where I file phone numbers and addresses, etc. This lets me also cross reference directions and trip notes with the person (or place) we may be visiting. The more I use it, the more I LOVE it!



And, based on my notes from the book, THE BEST RESTAURANT ALONG THE GULF COAST -- and I mean the best, bar none -- is a little place in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi called Rickey's Bar and Grill. The shrimp tasted like what my grandmother used to make in Miami, and that's definitely worth writing about!

I did more photographing than drawing, and more just quiet looking than anything else. Still, here's just a little ink sketch of some of the houses along Florida's Highway 30A, between Panama City Beach and Sandestin. Absolutely gorgeous -- every town has it's own distinct personality.



I took a LOT of reference photos for possible future watercolor play (I DO love to paint those beach-y colors!), but...

... some photos are just meant to be, well, photos.
(Seaside, Florida -- so perfectly idyllic that this was the place chosen to film the movie "The Truman Show". If you get the chance to go there, do. Wear your favorite play clothes, and your most comfy flip flops -- plan on renting a bicycle and riding around through town. Go visit the art galleries. Sit around at a table on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store (really!) or in the little square. Stop. Breathe. Sigh...)

Visiting Family

...and meeting new friends! Taking loads of photos and doing some sketching, but mostly enjoying a little break. Thankfully, the mothball smell had dissipated by the time we left, so I don't dread coming back home, either. Whew!

Internet connection has been iffy ... I'm playing catch-up and keep-up as best as I can.

P.S. Dolphins really DO smile when you look them right in the face ... even the wild ones!
Yipee!!!!

Pastels, Possums, and Other Perils

Pond with Waterlilies -- Rugby, Tennessee. Work in progress ... perhaps perpetually so ...

Saturday afternoon: We came home from having lunch out on Market Square today to find that the left front leg of my pastel easel (in the living room) had collapsed. The whole easel was on it's side, the drawer spilled, the painting on end ... worst of all, a box full of my best pastels had been on the open drawer. The box was upside down, with those gorgeous huge super-soft hand made pastels crushed and scattered in a pile on the floor. I gathered up what pieces I could, then divided the dust into two piles, one of warm-ish tones and one of cool-ish tones, and put them into jars. I guess I'll use the as my neutrals for a while! Fortunately the floor is hardwood, and I'd recently bought a couple of yards of canvas to spread under the easel to catch the dust ... which meant that only a three or four square feet of the actual floor got "dusted." But, boy, did that dust ever get down deep into the spaces between the wood on the floor! And the bright blue is really bright! I just don't have the heart tonight to finish this piece. Maybe tomorrow.

Saturday night: I get the bright idea that maybe we had a small earthquake, which caused the easel to slip. Checked the earthquake center's web site -- 2 little quakes this week, but none today. Maybe something else? D and I talk about checking under the house tomorrow.

Sunday afternoon: I was just getting ready to work on this piece some, when D comes in from outside saying he needs me to see something under the house. I crawl under with him (glad I'm not afraid of spiders and other DRY type bugs and creatures) to see that a portion of our duct work has fallen. Bad memories of possums from the past ... oh dear. And sure enough, it looked as though some sweet little wild animal had been doing a little something or another in that short piece of duct work. (Grrrr! That section looks like it was pieced together with leftovers and then wrapped with insulation and tape. THAT's a topic for another post, I suppose...) Anyway, the rest of it looked as clean as it could be for as far as we could see, so we put the duct work back together, taped everything up nice and tight, hung it a little more securely, and checked the rest of the crawl space. No problem. D said he'd heard that moth balls under the house really work to discourage possums and raccoons and other wildlife, and I agreed that it might not be a bad idea. He goes off on a moth ball search, while I clean up and start cooking a chicken.

Later Sunday afternoon: D is back from the store, working away. I'm just getting ready to start on this painting AGAIN, but first I go into the kitchen to check on the chicken in the oven, which should be about done. What a funny smell. Come to think about it, what a funny smell all over the downstairs of the house. It smells kind of like ... well ...

D walks in and says, "What's that smell? You cooking something?"

"Chicken," I answer. I know I have a puzzled look.

"No, something else. Smells like something my grandmother used to make."

Of course we figure it out. Moth balls. They are under our house and now our downstairs (but strangely, mostly the kitchen) smells like moth balls. The possums will leave. The raccoons will leave. Undoubtedly any mice, rats, chipmunks, shrews, skunks, moles, snakes, and, oh yeah, moths, will leave. That smell better go away soon, or I'll be leaving, too!

And for tonight, I don't feel at all like painting anymore.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day morning at Knoxville National Cemetery, which adjoins the historic Old Gray Cemetery in downtown Knoxville. I had to go into work for a couple of hours, but did so early enough that by the time I got off the sun was clear up and beautifully bright, and before the arrival of the daily haze we've had in the heat this past week. This monument is known as The Tennessee Monument, The Wilder Monument, or the Union Soldier Monument -- depending on what source you use.

Note: For more information about the monument at the Knoxville National Cemetery, click HERE for a rather interesting history, and, amazingly, the only photograph of the monument I could find on line. I think I'm going to fix that problem, and will be posting a photo soon! If you read the information, you'll note that I took a bit of artistic license with the monument, shortening the tower by about the height of the figure, in order to get the bits I wanted to fit on the page. I wanted to get the top against the sky -- the arches with the door and wreath -- and, most importantly, the nearby bright red, white, and blue flag.

And here are some Canadian geese along with their latest addition at Norris Lake on Sunday. There were several families with baby geese, and they were so cute! Ma and Pa Goose stayed close by, and didn't hesitate to take turns hissing at anyone or anything that came too close to Baby Goose. Since it was a holiday weekend the lake was MUCH too crowded for our taste. Still, we went out to do some start-of-season cleaning and maintenance on the boat and had to take just a short run up the lake and back. NEXT weekend, if the weather holds, we'll be out on the water playing! I do love summer ...

The technical bits: I did this with 2B and 6B pencils in my new Raffine sketchbook -- the very large one (10.4 " x 15.2"). There's not been enough time yet to pass judgement on this sketchbook -- the paper seems a bit more textured than what I'm used to, but I do love the size! However, it doesn't fit onto the scanner, so I had to use the camera, and found that it's much easier to photograph a watercolor than a graphite drawing. I had to adjust the contrast some to get these to look right, and this is as close as I could get it!

After the Art Show

Diahn and I are left standing happy! The art show last night went just wonderfully, with a tremendous amount of fantastic 2-D and 3-D art to be seen. There was a total of 140 pieces, approximately 110 of which were 2-dimensional. The weather was clear, the food was tasty, the flowers were beautiful, the crowd was elbow to elbow, and everyone seemed agree that it was one of the best shows the Art Center had ever had. And, when it came time to announce the awards, Diahn and I were especially honored and thrilled to each receive an award!

I received an honorable mention for my little watercolor "Other People's Stuff":

And Diahn received a third place prize for her fabulous mixed media painting, "Contemplation #5: Fear ":

(note: We both forgot to bring cameras last night, so we came back this morning to take pictures. We really looked much dressier for the real event....)

My little magnolia painting hangs under a beautiful portrait by John Houglam:

Diahn's painting with beautiful blue background was my secret favorite of all the paintings in the show -- yep, a real big secret! (Contemplation #6: Value)

But I think she thinks her self portrait is the best of the three she submitted. I think it's pretty GREAT, too!

I wonder what's next for us? Now that we're "award winning" (okay, we say that phrase to each other now just so we can roll around on the floor laughing until we cry, while spouses, family, and friends just stand around looking bemused...) what shall we do? We have to set the bar up a little higher now! We'll see -- for now, we're just having fun!!!

If you haven't already, go visit Diahn and tell her congratulations!

May Goal Update and NEWS!

Mayapple from an old art journal in ?2004?

I just started playing with watercolors then -- doing them only occasionally in my journal, and then abandoning them for months and months at a time.

(**NOTE: BIG NEWS AT THE END...)

Diahn and I met the other day to go over our 2007 Art Goals and were both pleasantly surprised to find how much we had accomplished in a relatively short period of time. We even had to UPDATE them ...

(1) PROJECT -- 500 Objects. I'm still working on this, and gave myself the task of doing 5 in May, 7 in June, and 10 in July. Seems like I'm having a hard time with this, and needed to "chunk it down" a bit.

(1.a.) NEW drawing related goal -- I will be doing value studies before any new painting and really studying composition. Composition, value, and temperature seem to be going awry lately, and I think it's because I've gotten sloppy.

(2) I will be working more in pastels. Well, I've been doing that! A more specific and updated goal NOW is:

(2.a.) I will be doing one pastel landscape a week. (Maybe I'll do Landscape Thursday, like Teri does Cactus Monday and Wild Wisconsin Wednesday!) :-) It's doubtful that I'll be posting all of them... I'm still at the stage of putting out some serious FLOPS!

(2.b.) I will set my sights on having at least one piece that I'm willing to enter into Pastel Journal's Pastel 100 Competition in September. We'll call this a tentative goal, okay? If not this year, NEXT year, if pastel still feels good!

(3) I'd like to take an art workshop sometime this year ... I got to do that! And I'm hoping that Paul will be coming back to town to give another workshop, which I will take. What a wonderful teacher he is, too -- he's graciously given me some very helpful, positive, and HONEST critiques of a couple of pieces that I sent him via e-mail. How many workshop instructors have that kind of follow up?!

(4) I WILL be hanging art for sale at the gallery at the art center. Ahem. See BIG NEWS below. :-)

ACCOUNTABILITY -- Diahn and I decided that we are going to review our 2007 goals with each other on the 17th of every month. We've done exactly that! And folks, I highly recommend that you have a buddy to meet with regularly to help keep you on track. You DON'T both have to be artists -- maybe your friend has goals of another type entirely. You will STILL help each other more than you can imagine!

We are also working on studying marketing, since we really need to do something to help support our art habits!

NOW for the BIG NEWS!
Last week I submitted three pieces for a juried show at Fountain City Art Center -- a BIG first for me! This morning I heard that ALL THREE were juried in ... :-)
Diahn entered three awesome pieces, too, and they were ALSO all juried in ... we are flying today!

I entered: Gossip, Other People's Stuff (listed for sale!)and, Magnolia Bud
Go visit Diahn and let her show you what she entered! It will rock your socks off!

The reception will be Friday night ... and I believe we will have treated ourselves to new clothes by then...

Double Tag

I'm posting this depressingly overworked bit of pastel because this is an art blog and I feel obligated to post a picture. Don't worry, I'm working on it. Newbies take heart! A new medium is TOUGH!!!

WHY I POSTED -- because I got tagged. Double tagged, actually, by Janey and by Jan, both wonderful art bloggers!

So, the tag is to tell 7 little known or odd facts about yourself (as I recall), and then tag 7 other bloggers to do the same. Since I don't very often say things like, "bah, humbug," and because I like games and never get to play them because SOMEBODY else around here does not ... somebody who shall go unnamed but who I married anyway... since I think this is really kind of fun, I'm going to play along.
;-) If I tag you, I hope you play along, too! (hmmm... now I have to think of seven interesting things...)

1) I once spent a week alone camping along the Gulf coast of Texas on up into the Louisiana coast, with no itinerary other than starting out in Port Aransas searching out whooping cranes. I wonder if it looked to some people like I kind of ran away from home, since I left my husband and daughter behind (although I called every single day -- and this was before cell phones.) It was one of the greatest trips of my life, and I'm really glad I adventured solo! Everybody should do that once in their life. (I was also very glad to get home!)

2) I'm addicted to Sudoku. I tried not to get addicted, but it happened. I even have a small Sudoku book stashed in the back seat of my car , just in case. I'm also addicted to books on tape...

3) Speaking of addictions, I smoked for about 33 years and quit a little over a year ago. (Specifically, 1 year, 3 months, 12 days, and about 3 hours ago...) I still have a half pack of cigarettes in my drawer, and will keep them. I'm allowed to start back anytime I want, but I have to start with THOSE. (They are pretty nasty by now, wouldn't you imagine?) I truly believe I will never smoke another cigarette again.

4) I've been the bride more times than I've been the bridesmaid -- that sounds really tacky, but I've only been a bridesmaid once (about 20 years ago), and I still have the blue dress with the big bow on the butt. Seems like I have one of the other bridesmaid's dresses, too. Up until a little over a year ago I could still fit into my dress. Now I can't. (see item #3)

5) So, Jan's afraid of grasshoppers; Janey loves grasshoppers, but doesn't care at all for ants... along the same line of conversation, I'm 100 percent terrified -- horrified -- mortified -- phobic!!!! --- about slugs. I shudder to type the vile word! YUK! I am, however, not at all afraid of snakes.

6) So, here I am not afraid of snakes, yet I'm the only person I know who's been bit by a snake not once, not twice, but three times. All three times the snakes were in the right, I was in the wrong, and they were just looking out for themselves! Fortunately none of the three were poisonous, or snakes might have moved down on my list of tolerable animals.

7) I'm blind in one eye. (Stick with me here -- there's a moral to the story) It happened suddenly some 18 or 19 years ago. I noticed a small grey fuzzy bit in my vision that didn't go away. That afternoon I went to a walk in clinic, thinking that maybe my contact lens had scratched my eye, and the doctor prescribed neosporin ointment to put in my eye, even though he didn't see any kind of scratch. This was on Friday. By Sunday morning I had NO vision in my eye -- total darkness -- and went into the hospital where I was diagnosed by an ophthalmologist with acute retinal necrosis (the retina just started dying -- they never found a reason!) With treatment, the necrosis stopped, and in time reversed. For a bit there I didn't have any color vision in that eye -- everything was really and truly black and white. Then one afternoon I caught a flash of something from that side, and turned to realize that I could see the color orange in a bowl of fruit on the table -- it looked like someone had colored over a black and white photo -- cool, huh! Eventually I got most of my vision back, but several years later some of the scar tissue began to contract and pull up and cause problems again. I ended up having to have laser surgery, which basically wiped out my central vision. Now, if I look straight at you with that eye, I'll see your shoulders and maybe your hair, but not your face. I have terrible depth perception in certain ranges, but since I'm fortunate enough to have peripheral vision so I'm good to go with distances. Still -- the moral of the story is -- TAKE CARE OF YOUR EYES! Don't trust them to anyone other than an eye doctor! Don't fiddle around and be afraid to have any change of vision checked -- if your vision changes, you need to consider it AN EMERGENCY!!! If I had gone to an eye doctor the day I first noticed the problem, I would have been treated so quickly that the whole incident would probably have been forgotten by now. Trust me.

Now -- let's think of who to tag next ... some are well known to EDM'ers (this meme is going around EDM pretty fast) but some may be new to you. If they are, stop by and say hello!

1) Diahn , mi amiga, who puts up with me in person on occasion, and who also happens to be an awesome artist! I went to her house the other day and was stunned to finally see her original paintings in person ... wow! (She's also one heck of a decorator.)

2) Lynne ,whose gorgeous pastel work just blows me away. I go look at her stuff regularly, and look at it REALLY closely so I can try to see how she does it! Lynne is Wally's sister, and I'd bet she could come up with seven very interesting things to say, if she decides to play!

3) Joey, who not only knows what the word quotidian means, but actually POSTS daily. I love visiting his blog!

4) Bonny, who has travelled a lot lately and told us a lot about it. I wonder if she can come up with seven odd things she's seen or done in her travels??? ;-D

5) Annie, who was one of my earliest visitors and is always supportive. She is a great photographer and writer!

6) and 7) good grief. I think everybody who might have time to play has already been hit. If you haven't yet, stick your name in here and get writing! :-D

One Evening in Gulfport

I know -- it's been a while since I've posted! We've had loads of fun company (my parents passed through and D's parents came last weekend) and some not so fun company (corporate types invaded us several times the past two weeks at work...) I'm way behind on e-mail, too -- so if you've had some big news, and I haven't responded, that's why. There's no way I'll catch up with all the EDM e-mails -- whew -- so I'll just be reading the past three digests or so. I'll try to catch up with everybody's blogs over this week as I can! :-)

So, this is the start of a pastel piece that has been in my head for a few weeks. It is based on a photo of a palm tree shadow against a white building taken one evening when we were in Gulfport (or it may have been in Bay St. Louis?) -- anyway -- southern Mississippi. It's the kind of thing that really catches your eye, but makes a lousy photo -- exactly the kind of thing I'm thinking pastel is probably perfect for.

I didn't think to take a photo until about stage three -- I'd already sketched it out, done a pretty good layer of color, and then gone over it all with acrylic medium and more grit. I don't know why I did that -- I'm overusing that technique, I think!

The next step, after everything had dried, was to add some good color. Here I have the sky blocked in and some nice bright blues... (I think I was also at this point wondering what the heck I was getting myself into???? )

Here I've blocked in even more... This is the best part, because I get to add all kinds of reds and weird stuff in that area behind the trees. It's really a hotel or something totally boring in the photo. In the painting, it doesn't have to be anything but the right value, I hope!

Still work to go, but wow -- have I learned a lot on this one so far! I just have to let it rest for a couple of days - I tend to overwork really quickly with pastel. Pastel artist friends -- I'm having a hard time getting the space behind the trees without having all those obviously jagged-y MARKS. I've followed the rules of using my softest pastels last, but that's messing up my detail. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using pastel pencil last to tighten it up, but wonder if that isn't going to be too much. I like the almost abstract quality of the left side ...

Wonder what it would look like as a watercolor?

And here's something fun to do when a work looks iffy big, but looks pretty good small -- take a photo of it with your camera phone and use it as your wallpaper. This one works great! ;-)

( "One Evening in Gulfport" work in progress - pastel on sanded multimedia board)

Just Waiting On A Friend

One evening, as I was sitting down to dinner, this little chickadee came to the feeder outside the window and perched. He ate only a few bites, and then just sat on the perch, looking around for well over twenty minutes. It reminded me of the Rolling Stones song ... "I'm not waiting on a lady.... I'm just waiting on a friend..."

Anyway, I'm trying to see if this one is finished. Getting the foreground yellow flowers to stand out has been tricky -- too much "fiddling" and they blend into the background. What do you guys think? What and where would it benefit from a dab more work?

My original idea for this, by the way, was to have a very solid gradiated wash background. Yep, solid -- I wanted to empty space to emphasize the feeling of waiting. And I planned on a very neutral and light space, too! Unfortunately, I messed up the wash (experimenting with a pour -- sigh) and then created some SHAPES in the background when I tried to fix it. I was going to abandon the whole thing, but my WC instructor convinced me to carry on along this new direction. (Truthfully, I think she PREFERS this direction to the one I was planning! :-D

OTHER exciting news of the day ...

I got to spend the morning helping to judge and elementary & middle school art show. Our very own Diahn was the Art Fair Chair Person (hereafter known as the AFCP) and she did a fantastic job of organizing and pulling off what had to be a really really tough job. I got to help judge the older grades, so I wasn't forced to avoid bias for Derek's and Josh's work, which was great -- be sure to go see it!

I LEARNED so much from helping with this show! I'm entering my own first juried show in a couple of weeks, and now I know a little tiny bit about what judges look for. I know that it is tiring work. I know that it can be hard. I know that you have to do something that really stands out in the end! Hmmmm... means I need to really think about what I'm entering, doesn't it!

("Just Waiting on a Friend" approx 11" x 21", watercolor on 300# Arches hot press)

DeMarrais Pastel Workshop

I've just spent the past two days at a wonderful pastel workshop given by Paul DeMarrais -- a FANTASTIC pastel artist, who truly paints like one of the old French Impressionists. What fun. He stresses value value value -- you can use any color as long as it is the correct value. With pastels he was able to demonstrate value lessons and principles easily, much more quickly and with less fuss than with paint. We learned to make our own surface, using aluminum oxide and acrylic medium on multimedia art board -- and this surface is amazing. It holds an incredible amount of pastel and makes working fun. (This little piece, still in progress and done this afternoon after I got home, is on Colorfix -- which is a nice surface, but doesn't measure up to what we were working on with Paul.)
Best of all -- Paul loves what he is doing -- the workshop was pure FUN and felt like playtime.

He makes his own pastels (which he sells) and we were able to go through and get a set if we wanted. They are big and bulky and soft and lay down like buttah .... even Senneliers feel hard next to them. Of course I had to get a set. I'm going to save them for when I get some big sheets of paper made up, though, so I can really lay 'em down!
I've walked away from this workshop inspired, and able to see a potential painting everywhere I turn. If you ever get the chance to meet Paul or see any of his work, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity -- you won't regret it!

Now, I have to take care of my assignment and get my pastels out of their nice little compartments, organize them by value, and let 'em get a little bit messy. Pastels just aren't happy being kept cooped up like that ...

Wishful Thinking

"Other People's Stuff"
(watercolor on 300# hot pressed Arches)**

From a snapshot taken on our quick trip to Destin to visit the Dear Daughter a couple of months ago. The weather was warm and beautifully sunny, and we got to spend about an hour on the beach. Oh, to be there now! The cold spell that came through our area two days ago (and is expected to last for another couple of days) has destroyed the blossoms on the dogwoods and azaleas, which were both reaching a fantastic peak. Crepe myrtle bushes had begun to put out leaves, which now look like wilted salad that has been slung into the branches. Most of the trees that had begun to leaf out look okay -- I think it was just the very tenderest leaves that were so badly hurt.

Thankfully, I had taken a few photos of the dogwoods the day before the weather turned so cold...

The pink dogwood flowers were intense this year, not at all pale and washed out. Until now, at least.

The white ones, of course, were at that particular stage of perfection that makes EVERYONE break out their cameras and start taking photos!

**Now that I see the watercolor painting on screen, I see that I need to darken some areas in the water, at the base of the central wave. The yellow towel probably needs to have a nice highlight scrubbed out, too. Originally, the far left beach chair was one of those short, "down on the ground" chairs, and was navy blue (based on the photo). I painted it that way, and then realized that the smaller chair just looked like I drew it wrong. I was all for tossing the painting and starting over, but my WC instructor insisted that I scrub out waves and just make the chair larger -- changing the color from dark blue to pink was my idea -- the towel changed from a dull red to yellow. Really, it's amazing what you can do with the right paper. This is just a small painting, and I think I'm going to do it, or something like it, again larger.

By the way, right now I'm working on this, which is not turning out like I'd originally envisioned -- not at all! It may be a do-over, too.

Rushing

Spring has arrived in Tennessee in a great rush!

I've also been rushing along -- busy busy busy at work the past couple of weeks, but still painting (just nothing ready to really show.)

It is time for a self report on how I'm doing with my New Year's resolutions, though. Do you realize that the first quarter of the year is now gone?

(1) PROJECT -- 500 Objects. I don't know why 500, it just sounded like a good number. I will be drawing 500 objects over the next year and a half or so.
Gulp. Blush. Sigh. Well, I'll work harder at this one.


(2) I will be working more in pastels.
See small creek study above. See Item #3 below, too! Woo hoo! And for all you shoppers out there -- I bought some new pastels at the amazing April Blowout Sale at Jerry's. Yep. Sometimes it really IS all about the art supplies.


(3) I'd like to take an art workshop sometime this year ... I don't know where or in what...
Friday (yes, THIS week!) afternoon I attend a workshop by Jon Houglam on portrait and figure drawing. AND ... drum roll please ... the weekend of the 20th and 21st of April, a two-day pastel workshop with Paul deMarrais ... an artist whose work I've watched for several years now. I'm VERY excited!

(4) I WILL be hanging art for sale at the gallery at the art center. Period. I'm running out of room here...
I'm planning on entering a couple of paintings into a juried show at the Art Center in May -- we'll see how that one goes! There will also be a student show in July. I need to work on something else, too ... I guess this one is still an EARLY work in progress!

EXTRA -- GALAPAGOS in 5 years --
I've started to teach myself Spanish. Well, it's a start!


How are YOUR plans for the year coming along? I'd love to hear about them!