A FEW MORE NEW TOOLS (TOYS)

I finally got my order from Cheap Joe's of the Open Acrylics so I can experiment more with my GelliArts gel printing plates.  It's always like Christmas, to get those art supplies in the mail!

I didn't go crazy - just bought a few little tubs and an introductory set (the tall tubes) - all Golden Open Acrylics (which stay wet longer so you can work with them without rushing).

I think I'll spend some time playing and experimenting with these for the next couple of days and make some more monoprints.

SUNDAY SHARING

Today, you are in for a treat on my regular Sunday Sharing post.  I have two new bloggers who are simply wonderful bloggers and artists. 

1.  F.M. Marrouch, is a Spanish blogger and artist.  He paints like I wish I could paint.  What IS IT about European watercolorists that make you drool over their paintings?  Loose, filled with light, just enough detail, oh, it must be something in the water or the wine!! 

2.  Angela, in her description on her blog (named The Wandering Wayfaring Tree) is describing me!!!  Except I don't spend spring through fall in Italy and don't live near London in the winter  - and I'm not a happy traveller or a winter loving person! ha ha
Anyway, her blog is lovely with not much chatter - just specific quotes that compliment the paintings and sketches well. 

I definitely will be returning to visit both of these new blogger friends - and I hope you will, too!!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  We are having summer now - temperatures in the low 90F's every day.  Too hot.  Too humid.  And I had to go buy new shorts.  I hate wearing shorts.  But my old stand-by shorts make me look so old and dowdy.  I used to have beautiful legs. 

Summer - time to shed some clothing; time to try to be comfortable in that clothing; time to cut the hair short and just don't give a damn about it; time to think about dipping my toes in the ocean, putting on my mask, fins and snorkel and getting under the water like a mermaid.  I am, afterall, an Aquarian!

JUST SOME UNFINISHED THINGS

Looking at this one through the red glass, it is pretty dull in value differences.  I need to pop up some darks to get this little blossom to pop more.  It's just a fourth sheet painting I'm fiddling with when I don't want to paint on the Jester.

I'm spending no more than 1/2 hour at a time on her, slowing adding in things and trying to work slowly to see the shapes (that jester costume can make you cross-eyed!).

(The glare is from the overhead light on that side of the full sheet painting - sorry about that!).




Today is Friday before a 3-day weekend here in the U.S. (honoring Memorial Day on Monday).  The weather is supposed to be blisteringly hot hot hot for everyone's cook-outs on Sunday or Monday.  I guess that's better than rain but when it goes over 90F, I get wilted.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are.  Stay safe!

NOT GOING TO BE READY

She's not going to be ready in time to enter the Viewpoint show.  As the kids say, "Whatever!" 

I've got lots of excuses, including Mom being put into the hospital again, then my getting sick with a cold that turned into a sinus infection.  Mom's back home (with oxygen this time) and I saw the doctor Monday and got some good meds for this so am on the mend. 

Let's see, what else could I use as an excuse? ha ha 

When I decided not to let this stress me, I didn't and I won't.  It won't be ready in time.  I don't like anything else enough to try to get it in.  So...now I have to be thinking about other things and I'll work on this when I feel like it.

I like the crow on this one :)  Maybe she'll be ready for the watercolor society summer show in July. 

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Friends

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

LANDSCAPES FOR CLASS

Today, I talked about composition with my beginners.  They are photographers and have good eyes for composition but I talked about what freedom painters have that photographers don't have to move and change and delete things from a photo (unless they are really good at PhotoShop and all those things and want to spend that amount of time in front of a computer screen).  I took a photo Sweetie had taken during a trip down to Cumberland Falls.  A simple photograph.  Nothing spectacular about it.

But it gave me a chance to talk about how artists lead the eye into a painting; how we can rearrange things, pushing some things back, bringing some things forward.  I didn't know I knew all this stuff and continually amaze myself!  (I guess I really did learn from all those teachers I had, from books and videos and real life teachers like Sandy Maudlin, Janet Rogers, Nick Simmons, Myrna Wacknov, and Carol Carter; and even the very intense online landscape classes I took from Johannes Vluithus who know teaches via WetCanvas). 

So this is the photo.

And this is the painting started today (on 9" x 12" Arches 140# rough watercolor paper).

I gave them a colored photo and a black and white version of the photo, then had them trace the shapes/elements in the landscape, making changes (like leaning that little tree on the left side into the painting not out of it), and noticing how the overarching trees frame the center of interest = that white patch on the water.  And I got to demo wet-in-wet painting and talk about atmosphere as well as dry brush painting and how to add colors to each successive pass still using dry brush (and how rough watercolor paper is great for this technique and good for landscapes in general).

I hope they are learning every day they meet with me; and I hope they are also having fun each time.  I think I learn something each time and I do enjoy it.

We won't finish this painting until next meeting, but I hope they may paint something on their own (perhaps more tree practice or a little landscape out their back door) between times. 

A POEM

Sea Rose

by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

Rose, harsh rose,

marred and with stint of petals,

meagre flower, thin,

sparse of leaf,

more precious

than a wet rose

single on a stem---

you are caught in the drift.

Stunted, with small leaf,

you are flung on the sand,

you are lifted

in the crisp sand

that drives in the wind.

Can the spice-rose

drip such acrid fragrance

hardened in a leaf?

Sometimes we feel like that sea rose:  not so pretty, a little bedraggled and perhaps

battered by the wind and water.  But when someone loves you, they love you just as you are!  Isn't that an amazing thing?

I hope you feel the love of someone who accepts you just as you are today.

PUSH

Do you push yourself?  Do you step outside your comfort zone to do something different just to see what will happen - or what it will teach you?  Or do you have a standard recipe for success which you keep using over and over?

For me, I have to keep pushing.  I keep trying something new.  At times that, in itself, feels like I'm running away from success (because learning something new takes time and effort and there is always a learning curve before you feel good about it).  At other times, it feel perfectly right.  How else will I learn if I don't try?  And it isn't boring!

For me, painting the same thing over and over and over again - even if it's beautiful each time - would bore me to death!  And boredom definitely stifles my creativity.

So choose your path - only you can choose. 
For me, I'm the one you see getting off the well-trod path and stumbling over the broken, uneven ground!  If you see me fall, just know I'll get back up and try again.

Just some words of "wisdom" for your weekend :)  Take them with a grain of salt, and a pinch of paprika or a bit of cumin powder or...you get my drift! ha ha

GELLI ARTS GEL PRINTING PLATES

If you're interested in trying out the GelliArts gel printing plates, check out their site here.  It's easy and fun and you can add anything to your monoprints or leave them "pure" - whatever you desire.

I'll get back to mine as soon as I get over this horrid cold I've picked up.  YUCK :(

Have a good weekend, everyone.