- After much discussion, the title “One With The Rod” has been changed. It is now “One With The Stream”. While playing horseshoes our friend Mort says, “I’m one with the pit”. I took the saying to my studio, but felt more at one with the pencil than with the paper. Since a fishing pole is an arm extension, I thought it was fitting that my husband would feel one with his fishing rod. Not so! He is “One With The Stream”.
- This is how Zeke looked through my steering wheel as we waited for his vaccination turn at the pet clinic on Saturday. He was happy to sit on my lap and get combed while we waited, but it took some persuasion to get him to climb up after I opened the cat carrier. This little upsetting situation had to be repeated 2 more times. We were not having fun.
- The 8 Hidden Gardens paintings have been delivered to the gardener extraordinaire for first pick before they all go public. ‘sides, I didn’t photograph them all yet, and 2 aren’t even signed! Here is one:
- On a recent walk, a dogwood in bloom had blossoms with 5 petals and 6 petals. I think that is peculiar. Does anyone out there know anything about this behavior??
Lovely diversion
The wage-earning husband found himself with the afternoon off. The self-employed artist wife has a hard time saying no to fun interruptions when there are no pressing deadlines. We took a bikeride.
We stopped on the bridge. Looking upstream, the eagle-eyed husband noticed a raft coming; see it?
Looks downright scary to me!
We continued uphill for about 2-1/2 miles until there was a gate. Sometimes I will climb them and go trespassing. Michael is more law-abiding than I am. Besides it is a pain to toss a bike over a gate. When it was time for us to head back down the road, Michael said he was in sight-seeing mode. Me? I hate to waste a good gravitational pull, so I flew down, stopped, went back, flew down, stopped, went back, etc. My sight-seeing-eagle-eyed husband spotted this next, probably a red-tail hawk’s. No one was home.
The man who made my throne also makes lovely granite benches. We sat on one for awhile, and this is the view:
How is a self-employed artist supposed to get any work done with all this lovely diversion? Perhaps Three Rivers isn’t such a good place to be an artist after all!
Odd Job revisited
I hate to say it but “Here I go again”. The window looked brighter with the paint side toward the wall, but of course it hid the detail of the poppies. Now I am repainting it on the side that will be out. Live and learn, live and learn. (If I’m going to repeat the window, I need to repeat the maxim.) Ahem. (I am a California artist, painting California poppies – are you listening, Google?)
The Promised Roses
Rose-colored glasses, everything’s coming up roses, bed of roses, roses and lollipops, a rose by any other name. run for the roses, looking rosy – wow, that flower has really captured our language! Since a picture is worth 1000 words, here are 18000 words worth for you to feast your eyes on today. Because of the great quantity, I made them smaller than the usual photos. I’d love to hear which are your favorites!
BTW, Happy Birthday, Bert!
Morning walk in Three Rivers
Kind of handy to be able to combine exercise with gathering inspiration for new work, wouldn’t you say? Here are some of my usual scenes and thoughts (although I’ve been told my thoughts are rather unusual, and occasionally downright weird.)
The beautiful wooden garage doors, the arched gate and the odd coincidence of star jasmine blooming next to a star always catches my attention – one day I will see how to turn it into a painting or drawing.
Pink Lady Banks roses in the sunshine! We had yellow on our shed at our old house – it might be all that keeps the shed from collapsing. We have white in the herb garden. They grow super fast. Just telling you that in case you have a shed that is about to collapse.
Did you know that new grape leaves have brownish-red in them? Apparently some do. If I painted it this way, it would look as if I am trying to force in a color that isn’t really there. Other artists can get away with stuff like that. I am known for authenticity (or just being literal).
This one little piece of river brings to mind the beach. I miss the ocean. When I lived there, I missed the mountains. It would be WONDERFUL to find a place to sell my work on the coast. I have a place, but the work isn’t selling very well. I hate that. Time for happier thoughts.
I just love the red and white with the blue car in the background. Roses have been spectacular this year. Tomorrow’s post – roses!
There are many many more flowers in bloom besides roses. These were particularly stunning today.
Mr. Burns used to be a regular on this walking route. He had binoculars and knew all the birds. All of them. He died last week and now his gate is closed. Sniff.
Mid-May and the sycamores are only now leafing out!
Brian and Cheryl planted a new Japanese maple. Their old one seen in the background has caused great admiration, many photos and a little envy in me. Maybe I should just get the name of the variety and try NOT TO KILL ANOTHER ONE!!
The welcoming committee. And thus, we conclude our morning walk in Three Rivers. Am I inspired? More will be revealed. Back to the easel. p.s. This is a California artist’s thoughts. Just sayin’. . .
Odd jobs, odd artist
Some days are completely full of random tasks. Wednesday was just such a day – there was a long list of unrelated items that needed completing, and it rained. (random, see?) One of the list items was to paint a sign that says Pet Clinic. I spent a ridiculous amount of time messing around with typestyles, looking for little images of cats and dogs, realizing that I have a ton of cat photos from which to work. trying to design something, deciding it wasn’t really worth all the time because it is just a favor, and finally just doing this:
That is little Butch on the left and Dancer the Jack Russell terrier on the right. There wasn’t enough paint to coat the entire background, and I just couldn’t figure out what I was trying to do. It’s sort of obvious.
Then I did a few more errands, kept running into friends and then a friend/customer that I’d been trying to connect with. Ended up delivering 8 paintings to her house, so that worked out well. But, when I got home, I looked down and discovered this:
Odd Job continued
First layer continued/completed
Second layer on flowers, first on leaves and stems
Ooh, ooh, am I finished? More will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Pencil Explanation, Part Four
This is a post on how to layer with drawing pencils. I used to only use a 6B; you can read about it here. Then, I met someone who drew beautifully using the full range. I had no idea how to use them and figured they must layered lightest to darkest. Or maybe they were meant to be used one at a time, depending on how you wanted things to look. Kind of weird that as an art major I never learned these techniques. Anyway, I never could quite achieve the kind of blacks that my drawings needed. After joining the Colored Pencil Society of America, I began applying things learned from their workshops to my graphite pencil drawings. Look at what I learned about layering graphite pencils:
Defies logic! But the evidence is right here. If you have paper and pencils, try it for yourself! I’d love to read your comments once you have experimented with this sort of layering.
Third and Final Day
Isn’t that amazing??? I am amazed, stunned, and sort of relieved because it is so hot on that wall in the mornings.
This morning when I arrived at the wall, this was facing me:
Looked like a long day of crawling around on the ground. Bye-bye, little Lift friend. No more getting high for me on this job!
Mural painting involves relationships. Thank you, Betsy, for the step-ladder. Thank you, Larry & Dora for the loan of the ladder. Thank you Sylvia for that fantastic Dr Pepper, my first in 2 years, tasted like heaven. This little heart rock is for you:
It’s not perfect, but they never are in nature. Always fun to discover – hope you have fun finding it on this wall!
And thank you to Paula for the visit while I waited for the shade to cover the wall. (Found your home page – it will be a very thorough website when it is completed and just as lovely as your store!)
And thank you to Rocky Hill Ice Cream for being there while I waited for shade.
And this is for Rachelle:
I know, I know, just show us the finished painting!
The end.
Second Day
First, some observations about mural painting. This is a long one – might want to grab a snack first.
- Technology is very helpful. Today I studied some photos on my laptop, enlarged them vastly to really see what the lines in the juniper were actually doing. Cappella Coffee House is next door to the mural and has wi-fi, which enabled me to email some photos to another artist who needed to borrow them. And, my cell phone sort of works so I can take calls while painting (not as dangerous as taking calls while driving.) Plus, of course, my digital camera records all sorts of things to share with you all. Wow, all this from a self-proclaimed techno-avoider. . . !
- There will be discomfort while painting a mural. It could be heat, cold, bugs or wind.
- There will be deadlines – lift rental, hot weather on the way, or an upcoming event. The pressure can either motivate an artist or freak her out.
- There will be hassles – the lift might not work or the scaffolding might not roll or the cell phone company might be having a bad day.
- There will be lots and lots of interaction with people – the mural team will offer encouragement and help, other artists will stop by to see how things are progressing, tour groups will come by, individuals will greet the artist as they pass to and from their cars and places of business, there will be occasional folks just touring the murals who have lots of questions. These are great marketing and public relations opportunities for Exeter, the mural project and my art business!
- I will spill paint on the ground, the lift and my clothing. Can’t be helped. Paint wants to be distributed – it is its nature.
Today it seemed like a good idea to take the lift to the very tippy-top of its capabilities. That’s 19′ in the air. It was fun! Now look at the rooftops, Rocky Hill and the rest:
Look at my shadow DOWN on the roof of the building I am painting!
And here is what got completed today after I finished goofing off with the equipment:
See how well it carries over from the other mural?
2-3 days left, that’s all! To be continued. . .