When you're an artist you keep your eyes open.  You never know when you're going to see a great subject to paint.  It always amazes me that I can look at the same thing a thousand times and yet one day the shadows on it will be really awesome, or maybe the color looks just amazing.  There are so many variations in the way to see something that its kept art fresh for thousands of years. 

A couple of weeks ago I had to wash some vests for Mike's work.  They were really filthy dirty, having spent the winter in the back of his pickup.  When I pulled the vests out of my washer I saw a leaf clinging to one of them.  It mesmerized me.  It was mostly whole, but you could see through it's web-like veins.  It was a beautiful orange color, too.  I thought it was heaven sent. 

Carefully I laid the leaf flat to dry.  I didn't really have plans for it, but I knew it would come in handy sometime.  The very next week I found a use. 

Our next project in class was Ink and Gouache (pronounced gwash).  First, using a paint brush and India ink we did the line work.

Then you paint over the top of the inked lines with gouache paint. Gouache is a little like water-color paint.

Next comes the scary part. You take your piece of hard-worked-on art to the sink and run a stream of water over it, washing off much of the paint. this reveals your inked lines and leaves some beautiful stains of color on the paper.

You can then go back in and paint more on top, as little or as much as you want.  You can also rewash off the gouache if you want.  I mostly left the leaf alone, but redid the background.  I also threw on a few water droplets and let them dry without disturbing them to get some interesting water marks.

I will submit this piece tomorrow for the first critique.

I’ve been practicing listening to the inner voice. You know the one. The one that makes you hesitate at the curb right before a car runs a red light and would have smashed right into you. The one that tells you what you need to say to a grieving friend, or how to reach a wayward child.

This morning I very clearly heard my inner voice tell me to go get my camera and take it with me to work.

I obeyed, retrieving the camera.

As I’m heading down the stairs to my car I again heard my inner voice tell me to go back and get my zoom lens. I obeyed and returned to my room where I grabbed the zoom.

For over a year I’ve been wanting to get some shots of this flock of wild turkeys that has decided to set up housekeeping near the road I travel every day. I thought there were only hens in that little gaggle, but the other day I saw a beautiful round puffed-up male, glorious in his brown and red.

Today I crossed the river and was delighted to see the entire turkey family on the side of the road up ahead. I immediately stopped the car and changed my lens to the zoom as fast as I was able. I fumbled a bit in my excitement, but was pleased to see that I hadn’t spooked the turkeys. They were pecking lazily beside the road.

Finally I got the lens on, the camera turned on and the lens cap off.

Then I tried to lower my window.

It was frozen shut. Even at 10:00 this morning our temperature was only 12 degrees.

AHHHH……NOT NOW!

I knew if I opened my door I would spook them, but had no choice. As quietly as I could I opened my door wide enough to get my camera in position. That seemed to threaten the male who puffed himself up even larger. I was excited! He was showing me all his glory and here I was with my camera in position.

I pressed the shutter gently waiting for the automatic focus to kick in.

Nothing happened.

NOOOOOOO NOT AGAIN!!!!

I had not yet figured out why my camera would suddenly stop focusing. I had read the manual, searched online, and had fiddled and searched with everything in the menu mode. I just could not figure it out.

In my desperation for the turkey shot I yanked my camera around and stared at it.

There, right where it had always been, was a button on my lens. I hadn’t noticed it before.

I pushed it, then I pushed down the shutter.

It focused. wow

By now the agitated turkeys were trucking across the field as fast as they could waddle.

I had missed the shot, but I learned something.

I have to tell the inner voice thank you.

My daughter showed me her workout shirt. 

I think I'm the Rhino.  I'll never be the Unicorn, but oh well.  You can have dreams, can't you?

Took this shot in my front yard tonight at 9:30.  Long exposure time , no flash. I love the cast shadows glowing on the snow.  It still doesn't look much like spring around here.  See that big drift to the right, past the pole?

I was so tired today that I kept putting off fixing this.  Finally I just plunged in and did it.  It took about an hour.  I had to grey down the sky, lighten up and add more detail to the lighter tree, and add a couple of bushes in the foreground. I really like how it turned out.  I turn it in tomorrow for my final grade on it.

In case you're interested, It was my Dad's 80th birthday today.  I gave him the portrait I did of him.  He seemed to like it pretty well.  We hung it on the wall opposite from his chair so he can sit and look at himself.  Not something I would enjoy, but hey, to each his own.

For this week's assignment in art class I wanted to do something a little less realistic.  I still used the photo reference, a class requirement, but I put a more fanciful twist on it.

The assignment: Using acrylic paint and gloss medium, paint a piece using the gloss medium built up in some areas, sanded down and then painted over again to create a textural piece.  I built up the medium in a couple of spots in the ground and put in on most of the branches.  

I really enjoyed doing this one.  I just started painting and lost track of time.  I couldn't believe it when several hours had passed when I decided to take a break.  I guess that's what's called "getting lost in your work".  I hope you like it.

Photo reference:

Final piece, before the first critique:

Some of my friends to the south are complaining about sunburns.  Okay, maybe complain is too strong of a word. (brag?)  (you know I'm kidding you, don't you?)  I took these photos today. 

   See that pile of snow in front of the car?

    Oh wait, that's not a pile of snow, that's another car,  BURIED ALIVE!!!

   Someday we'll have spring.....

"Drive, or get off the road, Grandpa"

Is there anything better than enjoying the journey?  No hurry, no worry, just go where the road takes you and enjoy the view. Or maybe he is on his way to visit his beloved companion, wasting away in a hospital bed.

"They are so in debt they'll never get out."

Unseen medical problems can cause severe financial stress.  Or maybe he is so caught up in helping his friends or neighbors, so caught up in relationships and service that he doesn't always manage his resources in the wisest way.  Does that make him a bad person?

"Did you see how much weight he's gained?"

So what.  A better question would be, "I hope he's okay.  I know stress and some medicines can cause weight gain. What can I do?"

"What an ugly dress!"

A dress lovingly given by a spouse or children maybe?  And who's to say it's ugly anyway.

Dreams

Something I have been thinking about, researching for, and planning for at least 3 years now is really on my mind today.  I think its time to get back on it.  I've had 2 dreams in the last 3 days, a seeming "kick in the pants" to get going already!  If I say what it is, then I'm more committed to actually keep working on it this time.  So, I guess I'll say it.  I'm writing a book.  Not the epic novel that my brother Storyteller is writing, and I don't pretend to have his way with the words, but this is my own story.  It came to me as I was driving home from Seattle years ago.  The rest of the family was asleep in the car and I was alone with my thoughts.  It just fell into my head.  I've researched enough already, time to start the tale. 

Good cheer for a great weekend, my friends.

I never professed to be good at faces.  That's one reason I decided to tackle this one.  I'm still not real happy with it, I think oils would have been easier, but it's as good as it's going to get.  My dad likes it.  He wanted to know what I was going to do with it when I got it back from the teacher.  I kidded with him about making a dart board, or kindling for my fire, but he looked so horrified that I thought maybe he wants it.  He turns 80 in 8 days.  Maybe I can get it back in time to present it to him for his birthday.  Shhhhhh.....don't tell.

Before:

After:

Assignment:  Paint a piece on a piece of wood using acrylic paint.   Use sandpaper to sand off areas creating interesting effects.

For my practice piece I painted this wooden bird that was sitting on a glass table top.  I took a little field trip over to my parents house looking for subject matter and snapped a photo of the bird.

I also took a photo of my Dad.  He just got home from taking his round of chemo and was sitting on the couch with the light streaming in through the window behind him.  My instructor wanted me to try this, so I did.

Here's the photo reference.

It's a work in progress at this point.  I need to work on the face some more, then I'll be sanding and glazing the background some more.  I'll post it in class tomorrow no matter how done I am and will get the critique.  I'm starting to get blurry-eyed and need a little advice on it anyway. 

At the critique I just kept staring at my art up on the wall and I liked it less and less.  I was the last one to be critiqued so I had a lot of time to stare at it and pick it apart.  Finally 2 hours into the class he finally got to mine.  By then I think he was tired of critiquing, so he didn't have a lot to say, good or bad.  I took my shrooms home and redid it anyway.  My final piece is a combination of the two preceding it.  I think I like it.  I'm not sure, but it's done now, and I turn it in for good tomorrow. 

My next project is done with sandpaper.  That should be interesting.

This next project was not one of my favorites.  It took me way out of my comfort zone.  Maybe if I did it again I would like it better.  It was just so different from anything I've ever done.

First we had to pick a subject, find reference photos, and paint a nice acrylic piece using it.  I didn't really know what I was going to paint.  I toyed with the idea of painting some cool trees that I'd photographed a few years back, but then I got hungry.

In fact I was starving.  On my way home from work I decided to stop in and get a pizza to share with Andy.  I hardly ever stop to get pizza for myself, but like I said, I was hungry!   While I was sitting on the bench waiting for the pizza I started looking around at the advertisements on the wall.  And there, right in front of my eyes, was my next subject to paint.  MUSHROOMS.  I love mushrooms.  They are yummy to eat and cool to look at.  I came home and dug out all my old mushroom photos, picked one out and began to paint.

This piece is done in three layers.

First layer - paint the subject using ONLY warm colors.  No white, no blues, greens, or purples.  This part was easy.  I love warm palettes.

I had to admit that I was not happy about the next step.

Second layer - completely cover the painting with a layer of clear packing tape.  You can see the horizontal lines in the photo above.  I rather liked my warm mushrooms and was even less thrilled by step number three.

Third layer - using ONLY cool colors completely paint over the packing tape covering the entire piece.  Then scratch off the cool layer in all the shadow places to allow the warm layer to show through.

That was HARD!  Not only is it hard to use acrylics on top of a shiny slick surface (it tends to bead up) but I was not too excited about using pasty cold colors over the top of my nice warm mushrooms.

But it was an assignment and it's due tomorrow so I plunged in and panted over the whole thing.  The longer I worked on it the more I hated it.  The colors were not working for me, so I kept changing them.  The result was a pretty thick layer of paint that was hard to scratch off.  I did not like scratching it off either.  It kept coming off in blobs and was really hard to control.  I finally had to take a break from it.  I went out and groused to Mike about how much I hated this piece, got a drink, and then went back to it. 

I have to admit that after walking away from it for a few minutes I was surprised that it looked better than I thought when I came back in the room.  Anyway, it's done enough for the first critiques tomorrow.  

     I still like the warm mushrooms better, but I have to admit, this turned out kind of cool.

The first scan shows my acrylic piece after I finished with it, but before the teacher had finished criticizing it.  He gave a lot of very good suggestions.  My values were pretty close, but the light areas were too cold.  I had to warm up the whole thing more.  I definitely think it looks better after I tweaked those things he suggested.

Before:

After:

This month I have been thankful for:

~ My art class. It's been one of the best art classes I've ever taken.  The teacher is so good!  He worked for "Dreamworks" before coming here to teach.  I'm so glad I was able to take it.  It forces me to actually DO art, which I love, but tend to keep putting off by doing mindless time-wasting activities.

~ Twice monthly semi-private geology lessons.  I used to always say that what I wanted to be when I grew up was a professional student.  I love to learn.  I'm kind of getting my wish.  Every other Tuesday morning the geology department chair gives me and the secretary a private geology class.  He jokes that he is teaching us about geology at the speed of geology.  I don't think it's really going to take us millions of years to learn everything he has to teach us, though.

~ My job.  Ideally I would stay home and "create". But because I have to work I am so grateful for a good paying job, great fellow employees, the "perks" that come my way (like free tuition and seeing my kids so much while I'm at work), and the mental and physical challenges and stimulation that I get just about every day on the job.

~ A generous neighbor who plowed out our driveway.  After having to walk out to the main road for 5 days hauling groceries, art supplies, work items, Etc, back and forth I really appreciated it.

~ A wood-burning stove and wood to burn in it to take the chill off the basement.

~ An axe to chop with, and muscles strong enough to do it.

~ Having a temple right in town.  Mike and I have been twice since it opened.  I know, we were spoiled before, having one only 30 miles away.  Now we are doubly blessed.

~ A grandson who is so easy to make laugh.

~ The ability to dance.  No, I'm not good, and the only one I want to dance for is my grandson.  His belly laughs tell me how ridiculous I look, but as long as it makes him laugh so much it's worth it. (and no, Emily, you aren't going to get a picture of me doing it.)

~ Of course I am also very grateful for my husband, children, other family members, and friends near and far.