nanke's stuff

Well, I managed to scrub the paint off the path in order to improve on it.  The scrubbing went just fine - the paint came off easily just using a rather soft brush and water.  Even the staining color almost completely rubbed off, much to my surprise.  After that, I let it dry completely and then started to noodle around with it.  While there's some things I like better in this version, I'm still not happy with it.  I'm troubled by the following things:  the right side has much more detail than the left in the foreground, and it looks unbalanced;  the darkness around the tall red flowers doesn't work very well;  while I like the "stones" in the path better as far as perspective goes, they're boring; and last, the greenery on the right foreground reminds me of army camouflage. 

I'm going to let it sit for awhile (maybe a long while, who knows!), and go downstairs and make the marinade for Beef in Flatbread (that's what we call it).  It's very tasty, easy and quick to make.  What could be better?  After marinating the beef, it gets cooked in butter (or whatever) quickly over a fairly high heat, then served in flatbread with diced cucumbers and Greek yogurt (or sour cream, whichever you prefer) on top.  You could also put diced tomatoes on, if you want.  Want the recipe?  Here it is:

About 3/4 lb sirloin steak (or some other tender cut) cut into pieces about 2" x 1/4"
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 tsp oregano
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt

Diced cucumbers, pita bread,  plain yogurt (or sour cream)

Mix together all the marinade ingredients, put the meat and the marinade in a zipper bag and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.  When ready to eat, heat butter (or oil, or a mixture of the 2) in a frying pan over medium high heat.  Drain the meat & toss the marinade out.  Sear the meat (it will snap and pop at you ... I advise having someone else do the cooking since you did the prep).  Serve with pita bread, diced cucumbers, and yogurt.

Ok, I almost forgot .... here's the watercolor:

Yesterday my friend, Vicki, and I got together for a day of fun!  She brought me some wonderful goodies to play with (I'll show pics later), and we talked and laughed all day long.  One of the things we did was play with Aquabord.  I'd heard about it and read about it, but never tried it, so we gave it a go.  We each had a small (5 x 7) piece which we proceeded to paint with watercolors.  I haven't used watercolor paint in a very long time (with the exception of adding paint to quick sketches), and I always start with a sketch.  Yesterday I decided since this was an experiment, I would just go for it.  No sketch...... the painting shows it!  I definitely do better starting out with a sketch.

Anyhow,  I used a watercolor painting in one of my books as a reference, and jumped in.  I love Aquabord!  I love its texture, the fact that you don't have to stretch it or prep it in any way, and the way it takes the paint.  As for my painting itself, it definitely has some problems.  I haven't tried correcting them yet (my main issue is with the path that looks more like a wall).  When I finish this post, I'm going to try scrubbing it to see what happens.  If it works out OK, I'll redo the path and see if I can't improve on it a bit.  I'll show you the results - for better or worse.

Oh, by the way, I just remembered I can't upload pics from my camera because I'm not sure I know how.  (Sweetie, if you're reading this, stop grinding your teeth!).

So,  I really struggled with this one, and it shows.  In the interest of honesty, I'm posting it, though I'm not happy with it.  But, it's OK ..... I jumped in and did it.  My rational self knows quite well that not every painting is going to be successful, but still, that doesn't quell the desire.   I was going to stop midway through (actually, truth be told, I was going to stop before I started), but fortunately common sense prevailed and I just kept going.  There's no need to point out all the problems this painting has ... they're self evident.  Since I had already started it before the great suggestions about using smaller paper were made, I painted it on a 9 x 12 watercolor block.  Maybe my next one will be a tad smaller, looser, and a more relaxed process than this one was.  Thanks again to all of you - I really appreciate all your support and helpful ideas!

So,  I'm still struggling with my art.  I've had this strong pull to return to watercolors for quite some time, but I find I've lost my confidence.  So, recently I decided to do a painting of a small corner of one of our gardens.  I could have photographed it first to make it a tad easier for myself, but I didn't.  I decided that I would do a quick sketch followed by a value sketch, then I'd sketch it out on the watercolor paper (which, by the way, I've had sitting next to my drawing table for I don't know how long all stretched and ready to go), and just dive right in.  It didn't work out quite that way. 

I did the sketch, started the thumbnail value drawing, got impatient, did a quick sketch on the watercolor paper, and then just froze.  I even picked out my palette - the tubes  of paint are sitting on my drawing table as we speak.  What I did instead is get out my journal and start a colored pencil drawing of the scene.  I haven't finished it, but since it's been so long since I've posted anything on my blog (another stumbling block, I might add), I thought I'd share with you where things stand at the moment.  As you can see, the drawing isn't finished yet, but I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow.  But here's the thing..... when it's finished, I won't have any excuse not to start the painting.  The thought fills me with dread and fear.  I know, it's totally silly - who the heck cares?  But there it is ..... it's how I feel right at this moment ...9:06 PM on Father's Day, 2010.

I've been a tad under the weather for over a week now, and it's been impossible for me to do any art because of it.  I had a medical procedure last Monday, then got bronchitis on Thursday (I like to cluster my ailments - it gets them out of the way faster).    I have a few more antibiotics to take and I'm much better now, but I'm waaaay behind in lots of things, not the least of which is making/playing with art.  I'm not quite finished with the Rubens drawing, but I just haven't had the wherewithal to keep an appointment with her.  Also, I'm so far behind in my email that I think I'm just going to have to start over.  I hate missing all the wonderful posts to people's blogs (I've been doing my best to visit them and leave comments, but I'm drowning!), so I think the best thing to do is start fresh and just accept the reality of my current situation. 

I've been feeling really guilty about not posting anything on my blog, and as I'm sure all of you know, feeling guilty sucks (to put it less than delicately, but then, guilt isn't a very delicate emotion, is it?).  So, since I don't have anything current to show you, I thought I'd post a picture of some inchies I did a while back for an inchie swap.  I like making inchies - it's fun to have such a small canvas to work on.  I'm thinking of making more with an eye to incorporating them into a larger piece .... a sort of inchie assembly.  So, anyhow, these are the ones I made that I rejected for the swap and so kept them.  I put them in my art journal

Yesterday I was meeting a friend at Panera Bread Co. for lunch, and I got there early.  I knew I would be early as I had an appointment in the area that I was certain would finish in plenty of time for me to get there before my friend.  I wanted to score a booth - I like the privacy and comfort of booths, but they can be hard to get.  Sure enough, when I got there all the booths were filled, so I took a small table where I could eyeball the booths, whipped out my new sketchbook, and settled in.  I just got going on my first sketch when  a booth emptied - I was on it in a flash!  The cost of the booth was a partially finished sketch, and I was sitting where I couldn't see my subject anymore. 

Undaunted, I just started a new one, and soon my friend arrived.  (We had a great lunch, a great chat, but sadly, no dessert).  But, I digress.  Back to my new journal.  It's by Savoir Faire and it's filled with handmade paper.  I had no idea what it would be like to draw or paint in, so I was very interested in what happened.  I used my .005 Micron pen which was a bit too fine for the roughness of the paper, but it wasn't all bad.  I did the painting at home tonite, and I used a Very Old Set of pan watercolors by Pelikan. (It's the first set of watercolors I bought as an adult, and I think I've had them about 30 years ... no lie!)  The paintings are nothing to write home about, but I think I do like the sketchbook and the paper.  I have to work with it a bit more to be sure - it's very different from what I'm used to, but it was fun to play with.   So, here they are - the guy who got stood up (I made that up), and the woman who had such a great story to tell, her friend's hair stood on end (I made the story part up, but her hair really was standing up on end).

I've been hungry for watercolor for quite some time.  I think about it, eat,  pace around pondering, eat, read about it, eat, ..... well, I bet you get the idea.  I've been avoiding it.  Why?  Well, the truth is Fear.  Yes, that old voice in the head that keeps saying, "You don't know how to do it.   You can't even think of what to paint.  Just get out a pencil (with a Big Eraser), or maybe do a collage".  It causes great anxiety in me sometimes.  My reasonable self knows what's happening, and also, there's always my mantra (it's only a piece of paper, what's the big deal), and yet, here I am dithering and blithering around. 

So, today I bit the bullet.  I decided to start out small .... just dip a toe in, so to speak.  I got out my jar of shells and my trusty .005 Micron pen and went to work.  It's modest .... small .... tentative.  But, It's Watercolor!!   Hooray for me!!!  I have to go lie down now with a cool cloth on my head to recover.

Well, I haven't heard from Sabine, the winner  of the giveaway yet, and I've tried contacting her without success, so if I haven't heard from her by tonite, I'm going to draw again and  give the book to someone else.  I'm sorry to have to do that, but this is the 3rd day since I announced the winner, and I'd really like someone to have this book!  So, Sabine, if you're out there, please contact me! 

On another note,  because spring is almost here (yippee!!), I thought I'd share another watercolor painting I did of a greenhouse.  It's another one that I sold a few years back.   This one is the "Geranium House" at one of our local flower centers.  I have a hard time restraining myself when I'm there seeing all the beautiful flowers.  All too often I come home with what seems like just a few plants when I'm buying them, only to find out  they multiplied  in the car when I got down on my knees to plant them  (the little devils!).

I had a very busy day yesterday and have another fairly busy day today, so I thought I'd post a picture I painted some time ago.  We took a trip to northern Michigan one summer and I was really taken with this little wall.  In the picture it looks like it's quite high, but in reality it is only about 2 feet high.  I loved that it was made by hand with native rocks, and that the rocks had so many different colors and shapes in them.  I also loved the view of the lake in the background.  This painting took me  quite a long time to do, what with all the details in each stone.    The colors in the scan are more intense than the actual colors in the painting - the actual painting is more subdued and subtle.  But it's one of my favorite paintings that I've done ... maybe because it brings memories of our wonderful vacation with the boys, and also much of it was painted with a group of artist friends.  The group is no more - some moved away, some moved on.  But when I see this painting, I remember them all with love.

   

I've been pretty busy the last few days and haven't done much with art except look thru some of my new books to decide on a new "masters"  project.  I've narrowed it down, but no decision, yet.  So, I thought I would share a couple of watercolors I did some time ago.  I took reference photos in a local greenhouse, then painted them in the studio.   They were hung in a solo exhibit I had a few years ago, and I sold both of them.  I have a hard time letting go of my paintings sometimes, and yet, I also have a nice feeling knowing they are "living" someplace where they are appreciated.  We are complicated little beings, aren't we? 

It's been too long since I've posted - things have been pretty busy around here. Most recently, we discovered we've become the home for yellow jackets and another kind of wasp. Now I don't mind the bees and things, as long as they stay in their place - which is outside!! Last week I started seeing (and killing) bees in our kitchen. At first just one or two a day, but by Friday, I was killing several of them a day. Then I discovered the floor of the furnace room in the basement littered with their little yellow jacket bodies, and several of them hovering around inside the window. Time to call the exterminator!
It took several phone calls: "sorry, mam, we only kill mammals", "sorry, mam, we can't come for a couple of days", "sorry mam, we don't go out as far as you live". You'd think that exterminators would do a great business out here in Hooterville where all the critters live, but nooo. Finally this morning I found a nice man who would come out today! Yea!!! They're called Maples Exterminators, for anyone who lives in Livingston County, Michigan (they go to other counties, too). So, as the nice man in his space suit was outside spraying the dickens out of the little buggers, I stayed in the studio playing. I could hear the buzzing in the walls - it was a bit disconcerting, but I kept at it, working on a mixed media page in my journal. I had to go to the window in the guest room and watch from time to time, but I was afraid he would look up and be startled to find me staring at him and fall off his ladder, poison and all. He went around the house and ended up spraying 3 separate places outside and then came in to spray in the furnace room. He said it could take up to a week for all the bees to die ... I'm betting they'll be gone before then.
So, here is what I did while he worked. I like parts of it, and parts of it I don't like at all, but all things considered, it's a wonder I got it finished!


P.S. I just noticed that I spelled the name of the plant wrong .... it's Caladium!

Here is another flower - this one is a Purple Cone Flower. My flowers are fading and falling apart fast. I need to really get going (at my usual snail's pace) if I'm going to draw many more of them from life. Oh well, there's still the mums which haven't bloomed yet!

Well, lucky me!! I recently won by random drawing 2 wonderful ATCs from Marva Plummer-Bruno. Visit her blog at http://pencil-paper-paint.blogspot.com for a real treat. Her drawings are wonderful - I've added her to my favorites list. Thanks again, Marva!


Now, there's another reason why I'm so lucky. On Thursday I picked up Ben, Sarah, and Clyde (my son, daughter-in-law, and 16 month old grandson) from the airport. They live in Nashville, so we don't get to see them nearly enough for my taste. They spent the night with us, and then on Friday they left to go to North Muskegon where Sarah's parents live, and then they were all going to the UP (as in Upper Peninsula) for a week long vacation in St. Ignace. Next Saturday I'll meet them in Lansing and they'll spend the night with us before we take them back to the airport to head for home.
Every time I see Clyde I'm so amazed at how much he's grown, learned and accomplished since I saw him last. He will put his toys away when asked, wipe up spills, he can put on his shoes (not always on the right feet, but we don't care for rambling around the house), and he plays really nicely with our old dog, Abby. He's beginning to talk, and of course, he's running all around. He's truly a joy to be with - fun, funny, affectionate, and very interesting, not to mention really, really cute! Ben and Sarah are most excellent parents. I love watching them with him, and it makes me so proud of them.
OK, I guess that's about enough touting the joys of being a grandmother, right? I'll try to use more self-restraint in the future! ..... but don't bet the farm on it. LOL

Well, I did another wee painting of the same subject, only this time I used a heavier hand with the pencils and crayons. The two paintings are very different - interestingly they seem to be paintings at different times of the day. I think I like the lighter version better until I look at the darker one again. I guess it doesn't have to be one or the other - it's ok to be ok with both of them! I'd love to hear your thoughts about them. I clearly have a lot to learn about this medium.

Over the years I've read quite a bit about how much artists like watercolor pencils and crayons. The first time I read anything about them, I ran right out and bought some because they sounded not only fun, but also a tad easier to control than watercolor paints. But, I just couldn't get the hang of using them. When I used them the colors always seemed too garish - not at all like I expected them to look, and not really very much like the lovely pictures I saw in magazines. So, today I decided to give them another go. This time, I used a really light hand, and just did a simple drawing in my journal to see what happened. My light hand was too light! As you can see, it's pretty timid and uninteresting. Even so, to me it is a bit of an improvement over what I've done in the past because at least the colors don't knock you down with their volume! I'm going to have another go at it painting the same thing again using a bit more color. I used both watercolor pencils (a set of 12 Derwent Watercolor pencils) and crayons (Caran D'Ache Neocolor II Watersoluble and Karat Aquarell by Staedtler). I used a couple of different methods - first putting the color on the paper dry and wetting it with a brush, and wetting the brush first and applying color to it directly from the pencil or crayon. I can see how each method has its uses and benefits. So, here it is:

I've been asked to post the template I made for the Mica Magic color weavings. Since each weaving had 10 colors in it, my template had 10 sections and I decided to make each one 1/2 inch square. I used watercolor paper because of its sturdiness. First I drew a square the right size, then added about 1/2 inch to each side making space to put each color. After I got it drawn, I made lines 1/2 inch apart both horizontally and vertically. Then I cut the large center square out and cut it out around the outside perimeter, leaving a frame with guide marks to use when setting up the grid for the actual paintings. That way I didn't have to measure it out each time - I could just line up a ruler with the marks on opposite sides and draw the lines. To use it, I placed it on the watercolor paper that I would be painting on and traced around the inside square and around the perimeter of the frame (forget about that wide margin on the right side in the picture - just pretend it's only 1/2 inch wide!) Then, without moving the template, I used a ruler to draw the lines across and down the center square. After removing the template, the lines will have to be extended into the "frame space" so that there are delineations for each "pure" color" There is a notch in the upper left corner because that square won't have any paint in it. You do that so that there is one example of each color that isn't mixed with any other color. When you paint, the color in the first vertical line and the first horizontal line is the same. Similarly, the color in the second vertical line is the same as the color in the second horizontal line. As you continue in that way, the weaving will end up with each color crossing itself once, and crossing all the other colors once.
Now, is that as clear as mud? lol .... Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please feel free to let me know!

Today I finished painting a landscape (8.5 x 6.5) using the Mica Magic paints. I did a similar painting not very long ago on an ATC using traditional watercolor, and I have to say the mica added an interesting dimension to it. I'm still not very good at adjusting colors on the computer, so they are off by quite a bit in the photo. For example, the reflections in the water actually have green and gold in them, and the trees are a variety of rich greens. The more I use this paint, the more I learn about it and the more I like it. I haven't used watercolors in quite awhile, other than the ATC, but I have to say, I've really been enjoying painting again! I think I just might start another painting soon!

I've talked about the new Mica Magic watercolor paints by USArt Quest before and posted pictures of 2 of the paintings I've done using them, so I wanted to show you some of the color weavings I've done with them. In the past all of my watercolor paintings have been done using transparent paint, so the opaqueness of these paints was a new realm for me. Before I started on the paintings themselves, I decided to do some color weavings. I used the paint very thick on 3 of the ones posted here, and the 4th is just the opposite - very dilute. Unfortunately the scanner can't pick up the sparkly, reflective quality of the paint, but they really are quite special. Oh, and when I cropped these for posting, I accidentally cut off the name of the 3rd one - it's called Stargazer. The Pastelle weaving is really too light to be able to see what it's like, but it's very soft and lovely, and behaves very much like transparent watercolor.

Well, now that the studio is in better shape, I've started working on 2 paintings for Susan Pickering Rothamel of USArtQuest, Inc. I'm using her wonderful new Mica Color watercolor paints, and I'm telling you, they are really, really nice. They're similar to the LuminArte Twinkling Watercolors, but the colors are much more saturated. That means you don't have to use nearly as much paint to get great coverage. The paint is opaque, which makes it very forgiving to use. Also, they are very creamy so they go on smoothly and easily. Below are the beginnings of the 2 paintings. The subject of the first one is purely fantasy, so I'm showing you 2 versions - the very beginning of the painting, and where it is now, which I'm hoping is near completion. The second one is more realistic and conventional, and it also needs a bit more attention. I'm not entirely sure where to go next with it, but I know it's not finished. As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I hope you enjoy seeing what I've been working on and that you will feel free to leave your comments and suggestions for me.

I've recently joined an online group called Fine Art ATCs One to One. What makes this group special to me is that every ATC has to be an original, and it must be hand drawn or painted (not mixed media, no stamping, nothing glued, etc). Here's one of the earliest cards I made and traded. I did it with watercolor and used as a reference a photo I took while on a trip out west many years ago .....




I hope you can come back and visit often!