Painting Day

 

                                   My painting buddy Louise came over yesterday. She is working on an amazing project--about which I'm not at liberty to say more or show any.  She is always an inspiration.

I fiddled around with some partially finished projects, giving myself permission to be sloppy and take liberties with color--the photos I was working from were either black and white or kinda boring browns and grays. Several of these were on the backs of other unsuccessful pictures and I was ready to call them done and move on.

On the way back from taking Louise down to her car, I was stopped by a young black snake stretched across the road. It seemed in no hurry to move so I got out of the car (forgetting my phone) and poked at it with my walking stick, expecting it to slide into the weeds.

Imagine my surprise when it coiled up and threatened to strike. Okay, then, I said, and retreated back to my car to wait.

After a few minutes, it came to its senses and headed for the undergrowth. It was maybe a yard long--just a foolish teenager, I guess.
                                                          

 

A Book for Calder

 

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My talented friend Louise came over to paint and showed me this charming series picturing her dogs Stokely and Pippi on a rabbit hunt. The book that it will become is to be a gift for her grandson Calder.

 I LOVE these lively images as the dogs encounter all the wild creatures but the rabbit, till finally, scared by a bear, they run home to dream of rabbits.

   

                      

                                                                             

Chasing Bubbles

O                                                                    

 I was attempting a picture of Josie from a photo and was reasonably pleased with how the face was coming. I left it unfinished to work on the bubbles and disaster struck. The more I tried to.make them look like bubbles, the more they didn't. 

 So I went online and found a tutorial on watercolor bubbles

 Voila! Evidently I'd been going about it all wrong. So I've been practicing.                                             

 Eventually I'll have another go at a second picture of Josie and the bubbles. Right now, I'm having fun practicing

             

            

 

Learning Curve

                                                                                     

Between the continuing cold weather and the ongoing bad news issuing from DC, I'm spending large amounts of time working on watercolors and trying to move beyond my comfort zone (which is painting pictures of flowers--not from life but from...pictures of flowers.

While I draw or paint, I've found that listening to audio books really helps me loosen up and not worry about getting things just so. Currently listening to an excellent reading of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Here I'm working from pictures on my cell phone. The first is the early morning view from behind our house--taken when I was walking Jenny.  

Otter in her tie-dye hoodie. She makes me think of a chubby little girl in a party frock. I was delighted to feel that I'd come close to an actual likeness.

Unlike this 'portrait' of a late neighbor (based on a fuzzy old photo grabbed from the internet.) I'm still futzing with it but don't have a lot of hope. I wonder if my inability to produce a recognizable person is linked to the fact that I often have trouble recognizing people if they are in an unexpected place or, heaven help us, have changed their hairstyle, shaved a beard, or added glasses.

I've attempted Josie with terrible results and have a half-completed sketch of her dolls Margo and Dolly in which there are traces of Margo, but Dolly seems to have been inhabited by a demon.

Ah, well, back to the drawing board.

                                                                                    

 

Vicki Paints (but, unlike Josie, has no dreams of stardom)

 

Josie Paints (but she really wants to play the guitar and sing)

We have had LOTS of snow days and Tuesday was another one. It was also a remote learning day, and I was supposed to do six pages in my workbook, but I did them already. 

Meema was painting and she gave me a new paintbox to use. There are 100 different colors and some are VERY bright.,

First I did a tiara.

It's fun to have so many colors. (Pink is still my favorite.)

Then I did a rainbow. The clouds came out really good. Grumpy and Meema both said so.

                                                        

This is my best picture. It is about what I want to do. It says WHEN I GROW UP AFTER HARD WORK I GRADUATE FROM MUSIC SCHOOL. I SING IN A BIG CONCERT. 

I AM A STAR.

 

More Ordinary Things

 

Warts and All

 

Ordinary Things

 The Tampa cousins (both painters) have nudged me into attempting more drawing from life (rather than photos as is my wont.) This is the mug that follows me around all day--usually with hot water, sometimes tea, occasionally grog (hot water, rum, lemon.)

Next up, my grandmother's biscuit cutter and spatulas. I don't use these--but can't get rid of them. Maybe painting them will allow me to let go.

                                                    

Moonrise? Sunrise?

Who knows? Not I. Nor do I know who took the picture (below) that I painted from. It's from the coast of NC, where John used to keep a sailboat, so he probably took it. Or our friend Vic, who also has a boat there, and is an excellent photographer. 

I have always liked the composition and the serenity of the photo, so I tried to paint it. But it kept looking too pink and washed out. So I deepened the colors with some Pthalo Blue and set it aside. 

When I returned to it, I found some tiny paint smears in the sky. Not removeable.

Hence the addition of a bird (crow? hawk?) being harassed by some smaller fowl.

 

For the Castle People