Pairs

Phooey on orchids! I went to the store this afternoon and picked up a couple of pears and a couple of pomegranates to paint and snack on. Diahn and I had also picked up a couple of packs of 6" x 6" Aquaboard this weekend on our trip to Jerry's, and tonight was my night to experiment.
Different. I'll be doing more, and reporting what I discover about this board.
Meanwhile, Artoberites out there -- keep on keeping on! :-)

Perils of Pink

You know, last year about this time I was working on the color pink, too, and finally had enough sense to give it up.

Sigh. No longer an option. I have to work this out, or it will drive me nuts!

I tried using Sennelier Cobalt Violet Rose, which is a WONDERFUL shade of light pink that is very clear. One of the best light pinks I've worked with -- except that, being Sennelier, it has that honey texture to the binder, and then it lifted very easily when I did another wash over it. I mixed in some DS quin magenta and some quin violet -- and finally tried a bit of Sennelier Tyrian Pink (which is nearly as horrible as Opera, but not so blue -- sorry to all of you Opera lovers out there, but the blue in it makes the backs of my eyeballs itch...) And then there was a terrible chemical reaction when I added some blues to make things dark, and everything pushed away from everything else and weird things started happening, so I quit with the paint.

As horrible as it was, I didn't worry too much, because I figured it could be fixed in the end by adding ink.

No.
Not at all.
In no universe, known or unknown.

Yuk.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.

Pink

Orchids were on sale at Fresh Market -- just 9.99 for a small pot, so I had to get one to paint. Of course, I got the dark pink / light purple one. I'd been experimenting with new colors and really thought I had it figured out -- until I actually started painting it, that is. What was I thinking?

Pink. I will never find the right pink.

Meanwhile today we had a neighborhood garage sale. I sold only a little bit -- it was probably the worst garage sale in the history of garage sales ... :-( Oh well. I got rid of a couple of big things that were in the way and the little things can go to Goodwill or somewhere like that. Thankfully I wasn't participating in the sale because I needed the money; I just wanted to get rid of some of the clutter around here.

Later on Diahn and I went to Jerry's to pick up a little bit of paint. I'd made a mental note to try out Antwerp Blue (based on something I read) but saw that its permenance "fluctuates" -- it fades in light and then RECOVERS in the dark. ?? WHAT??? I had no idea that paint would do something like that. I was too creeped out to buy it. Waaaay too creeped out. What is it, alive??? Weird.

What I did get was a tube of venetian red and a tube of gold ochre. Both are solid classic colors that I don't have and want to play around with. I'll just use a different blue... and I don't want to know if either of them does anything like fluctuate, okay?

Then There Was One

I AM having fun with these backgrounds ... but think I might be getting a bit carried away with the splattering. (BTW -- For really wonderful pears, go visit Diahn. She's doing a series that is really going to be exciting when it's finished!)
As for me, I'm just having fun playing around. These little bits are very fun to do. They are on 1/16th sheet of 300# watercolor paper with a border taped off with one-inch artist's tape, so that the total size of the little painting is about 5 1/2" x 3 1/2". I'm also playing around with the idea of adding some new colors to my palette and have been using Winsor-Newton's Winsor Blue (Green Shade) along with Holbein's Burnt Umber for the final few dark accents. I like the Holbein Burnt Umber because it re-wets well; the Winsor-Newton brand of Burnt Umber tends to dry up and crack and then is lumpy to re-wet. Of course, the Winsor Blue Green Shade is terrific, but may be a little bit redundant. We'll see. The most fun discovery was when I dropped a bit of this mix into wet Cerulean -- it really moves around and gets interesting. There will be much more experimentation before the new colors finally go onto the palette, though -- so if any of you have any suggestions (pro or con) please let me know!

And then there are the pinks ... :-)

Three Little Pears

Well, the pomegranates at the store didn't look near as interesting as the one I've already cut up, so I decided to paint some pears I had lying around. One was kind of a mess and had to been thrown out afterwards, and another was a very nice snack.

Pears are much harder to paint than I'd expected!

Cut Pomegranate

Oh yeah. Let's just cut this thing open and paint it. Yeah right. What was I thinking? My eyes were crossing within minutes of starting! And I DID switch over to ink on this one...
:-D

Pomegranate Study 4b

The lump on the far right was bothering me, so I scrubbed it out. There. I feel better now.

Pomegranate Study 4

From this angle you can see how lumpy this fruit is! :-D Hmmm... shall I cut it open now and paint the insides?

Pomegranate Study 3

So ... how long do pomegranates last before they go bad? And how do you know they've gone bad? This one is starting to look a little bit leathery. I think I'll pick up another one tomorrow.

We took today off and went up to Dollywood with D's family. A beautiful day, but not near as clear as this weekend when Diahn was up in the mountains. Still - blue skies and lots of bright colors in the park. I may have an idea or two for a painting....

Zelma and Jerome

Okay -- so here's the BIG NEWS from watercolor class. My girl Zelma, shown here, did that wonderful huge painting of irises you see behind her. Her painting very deservedly won the distinction of being chosen for the POSTER for the 2008 - 2009 Artapalooza fundraiser for the Fountain City Art Center. People, this painting absolutely ROCKS. And so does Zelma. Posters are available for $30 from the art center.

When she told me she'd entered her piece I knew she'd win -- when she told me she'd won, I was as thrilled as if it was my own. Way to go, Zelma! ;-) Now, don't you guys think Zelma needs her own blog? I do! Let's take a vote!

And, as promised, here is my little unfinished painting from yesterday's watercolor class. It was from the WC teacher's files, and so I really thought it was probably California. Actually, it turns out that it is from Bethlehem ... which isn't too much like California, I don't think. Or maybe it is. I really couldn't tell you. I'll bet they have different views on guns...

Anyway -- I loved the way the statue was framed in the archway, and am having a great time playing with different darks. Now I just have to bite the bullet and ACTUALLY WORK ON THE STATUE, which is, after all, the SUBJECT of the painting. Enough twiddling around with the background already! (The statue, by the way, is of Jerome - also known as Hieronymus.)

Eh, maybe later. Pomegranates call...

And, again -- Zelma's painting ROCKS, doesn't it!

Pomegranate Study 2

Pomegranates are very interesting fruit to paint. I struggled to find the right color and texture, but resisted the urge to finish off with colored pencil or ink. Fun stuff!

The painting from WC class today is, as yet, unfinished, even though it is just a little bitty. Maybe tomorrow ... and maybe other stuff about watercolor class, too ...

Green Vase

I'm enjoying getting back into the habit of drawing something daily. It isn't the chore now that it was the first day or two, and I actually feel some inspiration returning. For me I think the trick has been to do a drawing every day, but not post it until the next afternoon when I get home from work. In the past when doing daily drawing / posting, I've always drawn, scanned, and posted in the same day. For some reason, doing it this way has taken the pressure off. Go figure.

I'm also drawing just whatever the heck is in front of me, without getting too worked up about subject matter. Like this green urn or vase or whatever you would want to call it -- let's call it a vessel for the sake of artistic sounding conversation. It's a really old piece ... I mean, kind of an old piece that I snagged from my Mom when I was a kid and she was going to throw it away. I've kept it all these many years ... I mean for the past few years, and just love it for some reason.

I drew this while listening to part of the debate last night. I don't normally talk politics, but... Okay ... this time.... I thought one of the candidates sounded good and presented well, even if not accurate on all points, while the other started off a little bit slow but then blew me away with her straightforward talking, attitude and intelligence. I'll let you guess who I liked best.
:-D

Silly political thing I heard said today (on a podcast, so it was probably really said a day or two ago and I'm listening to it late..) from a respected person talking about the economic situation:
"Why doesn't McCain or Obama do something about this?"
Uh ... because neither has been elected president yet? You think? Why, indeed... (Is there an emoticon I could use for eye rolling? Imagine. I'm rolling my eyes.)

Ornamental Peppers

A little sketch of a little pot of ornamental peppers for Maggie's birthday. They look just like Christmas tree light bulbs...
:-D

Duh

Well, the scanner is up and working. I can't tell you guys what was wrong with it ... let's just say it was fine and it had operator issues. (If I told the truth, the computer police would come to my house and take all my electronics away. Sheesh. Some days I wonder if I deserve a computer...)
:-D Anyway -- here's the quick sketch of the geraniums hanging on the back deck Sunday -- what a beautiful day!

I now drive out into the country to a little town (Loudon, TN) about three times a week. There are all these great old metal towers along the way. I'd been calling them water towers, but now I'm not sure that they're not some kind of silo. I may have to drive a little closer to one to see what it says, or maybe somebody out there could enlighten me. I love the way the light hits them in the evening. Good light can make something ugly into something spectacular.

Not a Liar

... even though I haven't posted any drawings. I'm having scanner trouble -- there's something about a cable that has happened before, but I'm just too swamped to pull out the manual and figure it out. Tomorrow or Thursday. Meanwhile, I promise... drawings of geraniums (or would it be "gerania"??) on the deck, a water tower, a new mouse. I'll get them up when I can!

Saturday Sketch

This little watercolor quickie from class yesterday morning counts as my drawing for the day ... right?

We have boxes and boxes of photos in WC class, and yesterday I just grabbed three from the middle of a stack, and then picked my favorite of the three. I was so happy to play with painting the shadows that I didn't plan out the foliage very well. I may try this one again...

(P.S. I know -- I still have to do one for today, so there may be TWO POSTS in ONE DAY. Exciting stuff, you know...)

Shell

So... if you ever want to accidentally challenge yourself, try drawing a shell. Yikes! Still, a drawing was done and all that good stuff...
(The colors scanned very oddly, too. That big orange stripe isn't really there in the original, although I suppose something is there. Funny!)

When Totally Stuck

When totally stuck -- draw the pen.
Yep. STUCK. Diahn and I met up at Panera last night. We've done that regularly, but have spent most of our time drinking coffee, eating, talking, people watching ... you get the picture. Drawing has been sadly neglected and we realized it, so last night we promised ourselves from the onset that we would draw. Diahn did beautifully -- I struggled.
SO. Yesterday I made a promise. It went like this:

"As of TODAY -- I promise to draw every day for the rest of the month. That's six more whole days. And I will post them."

Tonight I drew a leaf. I drew the cat asleep on the sofa. I drew this pomegranate. I'll not bother showing you the others ... this will have to do!

And I'm going to blame part of it on the pens ... I kept having to throw them away and dig into my bag to get another! Seems that when they just sit for a while they dry up. Sheesh.

And I just HAVE to share THIS clever little idea from Design Sponge -- found via a link on Lorna's blog.

End of Summer

Well, summer is nearly over here. My watercolor class has been on summer break for the past six weeks and I haven't painted a thing during that time. That's kind of odd -- I normally paint like crazy when we're on break, but not this year. Like I've already said more than once -- and I'm not whining when I say this! -- things at work have been busy, and work and family have taken the whole front seat for a while. Now things are settling down a bit. Or at least I'm making a bit of a stand about it all now that I've laid the groundwork for a more normal schedule.

When I got to art class this morning I realized that I hadn't grabbed the right little stack of paper. Rather than my stack of 300# hot press I'd grabbed a miscellaneous handful of light weight hot press WC, cold press WC, drawing paper, and some unidentified paper, which I used today for fun . This paper is a total mystery to me. It has a wonderful soft hand and takes watercolor only OKAY, although it appears to be some sort of watercolor paper. It has a bit of a texture to it -- almost in a grid pattern, or like you would find in laid paper. Oh well. It was all about getting started again today anyway, so I made the best of it and did this little bit of a painting. What fun to get back into the groove!

Now I'm ready to clear the cobwebs off of the drawing table, clear the piles of miscellany out of my drawing area, fill a brand new palette with some fresh paint, and get back to work. Yay!

All Is Well

Today I did not suffer a chronically debilitating neck injury from holding my head at a totally weird angle trying to see my computer monitor, which is tiny and was perched up on an absurdly high hutch on the desk.

Today I did not suffer any painful injuries when I ripped same hutch from the desk, in a daring Incredible Hulk-ette maneuver.

Today I did not suffer severe electrocution from an electrical power strip that had been placed in a sink that, as it turns out, DOES still have water running to it -- and from it...

Today, so far at least, and it's been nine hours, I have not suffered and signs or symptoms of food poisoning from my lunch.

All is well.

All of these things really and truly could have happened today. While on my walk after work today, I called Diahn up on my cell and filled her in on all the hilarious and horrid details. When I got to the point furthest from my house, it started raining. Comedic cherry on top.

All is well!

I've been very busy lately, and haven't had time or energy to paint or draw. Work has quite literally doubled and I've been presented with a big new challenge -- and lots of little challenges, headaches, aggravations, and other various anti-perks. And I'm having a BLAST.

All is well!

I DO remember what today is. Do you? It helps put things in perspective. I remember exactly how I felt seven years ago today. There have been times in my life when I've been more frightened for myself or for a family member, but there has never been a time when I felt more frightened for our country. I have patients who can describe where they were, what they were doing, and who they were with when they heard that Pearl Harbor was bombed, and I always wondered how they remembered so clearly. Seven years ago, I found out. I remember still, and know that I always will.

Day is done,
Gone the sun,
From the lake,
From the hill,
From the sky;
All is well,
Safely rest,
God is nigh.

All is well. Life is getting back into balance and I'll be back with paintings and drawings soon! I love you all.