Woman #14

Last Saturday was spent in bed with a bout of stomach flu and fever.  My pour husband.  Today was so much better.  I received a wonderful  Utrecht Baby Press for St. Valentine’s Day (he really loves me!).  I cannot wear it around my neck or on my finger but it is so much more fun to play with than jewelry!  I pulled out old cut lino blocks and ran a few prints to see how it works.  It is a little persnickety but if you run the plate though with care, it will give you an even, good quality print and is a whole lot quicker and easier than using the back of a spoon!  But I am not an expert yet and did get a little frustrated, so after a while I put it away and pulled out my watercolors.  It has been a while since I had the whole day to just play with art supplies!  Here is my watercolor.

Woman #14  8″x8″

I hope your day has been as fun as mine.

Super Bowl Sunday

It is Sunday and they happen to be playing something called the Super Bowl and I was able to spend the day in the studio.  This is the result – a super bowl chicken.  It is pastel and larger than a sheet of print paper, I am proud to say.  I have only been doing small things lately and I want to paint/draw/create larger, but just haven’t convinced myself to do anything that will take longer than a couple of hours.  Well, this didn’t take much longer than that and it was super fun pulling out pastels.  These were my mother’s pastels (mine are buried under hers) and hers were, I am sure, organized the way she liked them.  I just used what was on top.  And that was mostly Sennielier.  Oh, the pleasure of using Sennelier soft pastels…  What an inheritance!

wrens

Watercolor sketching wrens.  I love seeing them at the bird-feeder. These guys need a background but I doubt they will get one.  Think I will make at least one into a card.

interview-ee

I am very honored to be interviewed over at Mr. X Stitch – Gear Threads Blog today! It is a blog on contemporary embroidery and Gear Threads focuses on machine embroidery.  First time I have ever been interviewed!  Well, I think one of the kids interviewed me in grade school once.  Hop over there and take a look.  I am so proud!

a chair for Santa

Given the charge of creating a backdrop for photos with Santa Claus for Hope for Christmas (a charitable undertaking my church is participating in to help deserving families have Christmas gifts and food), I decided that Santa needed a sleigh.  Found a sleigh online accompanied by a live reindeer (what could possibly be better than that??!!!) and I could rent it for only $2000.  Way out of my budget range.   Ebay had a few vintage/antique sleighs, some so wonderful  I would have dug into my piggy bank to buy,  even if they weren’t in pristine condition.  But they were up North and “local pickup only.”  I am in Georgia.  I asked my kids to drive to Pennsylvania and bring one back.  They asked how.  Maybe a snow machine at the front of the car so that you could pull it home??

Finally gave up on that idea after a couple of days of watching Ebay auctions.  Then I thought Santa could sit on his throne for pictures.  Problem with that idea is that  I couldn’t find a throne at all.  Go figure.  Below is a work in progress of me creating one with some help from husband and his jigsaw.    Reality doesn’t always match the vision in my brain, but I am sort of  proud of it.  Thinking of  upholstering it but do I really want that on my to do list at this time of year?! I think  Santa will just have to lean against hard plywood but he will have a cushioned seat.  You will have to come back after December 8th to see the final product.

If you would like to contribute to Hope for Christmas, visit this site    or this site for ways to help.

That’s 4 coats of red paint and it still needs another!

painting as therapy

After being sick for a couple of months, my mother has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and life as we know it has changed overnight.  Her doctor visits, hospital visits and health needs have become the recipient of my (and my sisters) time and not much is left over for anything else except squeezing in a visit or two to the hospital to visit my just-had-a-total-knee-replacement-brother.   While she was at my sister Donna’s house last week, I did manage to paint a mother/children portrait my cousin commissioned.  It was a good diversion.

So, what do you do when your world has been turned upside down?  How do you deal with the ordinary?  If I am away for another long period of time, I am sure you will understand.

b is for bunny

This weekend had me lying down, bemoaning a cold and fever.  But a weekend when you are not able to do anything but read and watch dvd’s is not so bad…especially when you wake up Monday morning feeling much better.  I stayed upright long enough to start this needle-felted rabbit and finished him up this morning.  (One rabbit, photographed 3 times and photoshopped together. I did a good job with that, don’t you think?  Probably shouldn’t have cut off the rabbit’s tail tho’…) I think he is cute if I do say so myself, but I am not sure I have ever seen creatures more adorable then Gretel Parker’s felted animals.  What a treat they are!  Wish I could pop over to England and take a workshop with her!

My little guy is about 3″ tall (not including block).

painting for rest and relaxation

The busy-ness of Christmas is over (for the most part) and after napping yesterday, I played with a watercolor paint brush my husband gave me for Christmas.  I could have bought a dress for what he paid for this brush but so far I love it!  It holds a lot of paint and still gives a fine line.  A painting teacher once told me to buy the best supplies you can, they make a difference in how good your painting will be.  I do believe she was right and I am not sending my brush back, but I sure could use some new clothes!

Here is a watercolor (8″x8″) I painted last night.  I purposefully skewed the perspective for interest but I’m thinking I should have skewed it more!  Now to see if, with time, my new brush will make me a better painter!

and here is my brush!

Don’t bug me!

Do you ever feel that way?    I remember one day  in the car with husband and two youngish bickering kids, I closed my eyes and put my hands over my ears and wondered how Helen Keller got to be so lucky.

It was a fleeting moment.

Here is the bug that made me think of that moment.  I drew him this week in pen and ink and then used colored pencils.  This is in my latest Moleskine.  The paper is the most wonderful receptacle for colored pencils.  They were so fluid and blend-able.  Makes me wonder exactly what the paper is.

This evening, I drew a butterfly, put some watercolor on it and then collaged paper all over it.  The paper came from the 4th holiday catalog this month from Pottery Barn.  I can’t believe that they can’t come up with a better advertising campaign than to send out un-requested catalogs but I guess it is keeping the printers and mailman employed.  And that is a good thing.  Hope the paper is recycled though!

I have never really liked doing collage (I have never really “understood” it altho’ I have liked many I have seen) but I had so much fun last week doing those faces I wanted to do more.   Always good to push yourself, right!?

This butterfly is about 7″x11″.  I wonder what a layer of beeswax would do to it…

Pairing Paper and Pizza

There was time yesterday to play.  I met with the First Friday Play group (I know it was the second Friday) and under the expert guidance of Joan Baragar, we played with paper collages.  I drew a blind contour face and then cut and glued paper to create this.

I had so much fun making it, I came home and made another!  Thanks, Joan!  And MaryAnn Clayton for the most delicious pizzas!

That is white paint on the background, and I added a little pastel to warm up their faces.  I now want to create something more realistic.  I hope there is more time to play this week!