Next project...

This is a quick sketch for a small painting. There's a story behind this image, but when I'm in painting mode I don't want to write and vice versa. So, while I've got some momentum going I think I'd better take advantage of it and get this sketch transferred to paper so I can get out those juicy watercolors again. Such fun!

Maggie, framed and beribboned

Here's the finished version of Maggie - ready to go to her new home. While I'm not pleased with all aspects of the painting, it felt good to get the project finished and I think learned some valuable lessons for future paintings.

What did I learn?

• That a limited time to finish a painting is a great motivator as along as I don't allow time pressure to rush me into making poor decisions or mindlessly slapping paint around.


• That I need to constantly think about what I'm painting when I'm painting it. I've noticed I do much better if I've got some kind of an inner monologue going while I'm painting. For example, I start to paint an area and stop for a minute to study the source and ask myself questions about the size, color, shadow, direction of light, etc, and then try to put down a worthwhile brushstroke. I remember reading that John Singer Sargent would often start to paint a stroke and then stop, brushed poised in midair as he considered what effect the stroke he was about to make would have on the painting. He was thinking constantly while painting. This consistent attention doesn't come naturally to me. I start out being very conscious of what I'm painting and then my mind wanders off somewhere and I just simply paint... and inevitably mess up. So, I need to discipline myself to keep focused. I think this will get easier with practice.... I hope!


• That I need more practice and little projects will probably be a good way to work on technique. There's a book out called "Work Small, Learn Big: Sketching with Pen & Watercolor" and though I haven't read it, I like the sound of it. Makes sense that lots of different little projects will give a wide range of painting experiences - I've noticed that a lot of art bloggers do this so it must work.

In non-painting matters, got my monthly newspaper article finished up. May post that here later in the week.... after it's been published since the paper has first dibs on it :-) Tonight we're having my parents over for dinner in honor of Father's Day. So it's off to the kitchen to make pasta salad and assorted other dishes.

Changes to Maggie

Okay, here's the latest on Maggie. Not sure I like all of the changes I've made. I tend to overwork a painting until I get it good and muddy. (I get good mileage out of a canvas/paper - I usually manage to paint a picture 2-3 times before I quit.) So I'm going to let it sit for a while. Really. I'm serious this time. You'll probably see more detail on this last image. The previous images I took photos and uploaded them. This image was scanned.

Maggie

Okay, here's the Work In Progress. All of a sudden I have a new respect for all of the wonderful pieces of art that I see on blogs! Maggie is a Llasa Apso and belongs to my stepdaughter. I'm doing this painting as a birthday gift for her - but in case it ends up looking horrible I have a back up plan - buy a gift at the store!

I'm working from a photo (this dog is never still for 2 seconds unless she's asleep) and using a limited palette. I've posted several photos showing my progress so far, from the first washes to the last photo where I've put in a background. I'm not sure I like the background - I can't decide if it adds to the painting or is a distraction. I need to work on the eyes... I masked out the catchlights but need to make them smaller and break up the shapes. I've also got some kind of a dark blob going near the right corner of her mouth. Although she's a light golden color I think I need to add in some darks. The fur is tough to do without making it looking "stringy". If you have any words of advice or constructive criticism, please feel free to give them! I think I'm going to let the painting sit for a few hours while I finish up my monthly newspaper article... then I'm going to chill and watch a movie!

Cats and weekends...

I hope to be able to post a painting - more likely a painting in progress - sometime this week.

I normally have more time to paint during the week than I do on weekends. Weekends are generally busy around our house: my husband has a band and 2-4 Saturday nights out of the month we're traveling and playing at various locations. Let me clarify that...my husband plays - I'm the band secretary and P.R. person. If I sang/played I expect there would be a grand stampede for the back door. The hubby plays keyboards and - this is a totally unbiased opinion of course - he's very talented and does a wonderful job. Really! In addition, other than the Saturday nights that we play, on the weekends we're caregivers for an invalid parent. So, Mondays usually bring a return to a normal routine and hopefully the start of a productive week.

Since I don't have any art to post today, I've had a request to introduce you to our children (thank you, Jeanne). The four-legged variety. The two-legged variety have long since flown the coop. The tabby is Millie, a rescued stray and the gray/white Rag Doll is Bailey... also known as His Majesty, H.R.H. or King of the Roost. I found Millie a few years ago when I happened upon her just as I had purchased a chicken salad sandwich for my lunch. She rushed up to me, thin, obviously desperate with hunger and meowed so insistently that she left me in no doubt as to what she had in mind: my sandwich. Did cats eat chicken salad sandwiches I wondered as I tore off a quarter of the sandwich and handed it to her. Yes, they do. The food was wolfed down. I sighed, hungry myself, but knowing where the rest of the sandwich was going. That was about five years ago. Millie came to live with us and has since adopted my husband; he belongs to her and I belong to Bailey. Bailey is the opposite of Millie. He was born with a silver spoon in his dainty, aristocratic mouth (but don't let that fool you... he has a voracious appetite and could put a herd of pigs to shame at dinnertime) and he fully intends to maintain his position as Feline Royalty. He purrs and sighs when I brush him as if he just knows that my highest purpose in life is to groom him and attend his every need. But he really is a sweetheart. He's a perfect companion for quiet times of reading, movie watching (when he insists on getting in between me and the hubby so that he's right next to me) and knitting. Guess there's worse things in life than being butler to a cat?

The Siren Call of Watercolor...

Well, I did it. After five+ years I pulled my poor neglected watercolor supplies out of storage and actually got some paint on the brush. I'm not an accomplished watercolorist (yet!) - just a dabbler - but the airy brightness of watercolor is more than I can resist. I've been reading Jeanne Dobie's Making Color Sing and decided this time around I'd try using a limited palette that's loosely based on her "Pure Pigment Palette" - plus a few other colors. For me, too many color choices is more of a hassle than an asset so I'm going to use some basic colors and add sparingly as I go. I'm hoping that using a limited palette will also help me to keep the focus more on values than color. Since it has been so long since I've used watercolor, a color chart seemed like a good place to start. Boy, was that fun! I was surprised - and thrilled - with all the bright, yummy colors I got from just twelve basic colors (Aureolin, Rose Madder, Cobalt Blue, Viridian, Cad. Red, Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue, Hooker's Green, Gamboge, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Phthalo Violet). I'm posting a pic of the chart I made - it was just slightly larger than my scanner bed so a little of the edges got lost.

Here's what I learned from making this color chart:

1. Aureolin plus Cobalt Blue, or Viridian, or Phthalo Blue or Hooker's Green makes beautiful Spring-like greens.

2. Rose Madder and Alizarin Crimson both make a gorgeous purple/burgundy when combined with either Cobalt Blue or Phthalo Blue or Phthalo Violet. I immediately wanted to paint blueberries when I saw those color combos!

3. Phthalo Blue is STRONG! Wow. This is a very dominant color - use sparingly in mixes.

4. I got some great dark shades without having to use a black or dark neutral from a tube.

5. I'd like to add a Cerulean Blue to the palette.

I plan to keep the chart close by when painting...as a guide.... and an inspiration!

Blog in a bottle?

A line drawing of a friend's house. I added text and her name to the front of the drawing (A Note from Carolyn's House to Yours) and printed them out as notecards on linen cover stock and packaged them with matching envelopes to give as a personalized birthday gift. The best part was when she opened the package, looked at the image and realized with surprise it was her own house!

I enjoyed doing the sketch. I've always been attracted to pen and ink drawings...I love the crispness and simplicity.

BTW, this post is backward. I keep forgetting that it posts in the reverse order of how I type it in. In other words, I wanted the sketch and accompanying text after the bit about being offline. Oh well.... you learn as you go!



Well, after a few days offline (and off computer) due to havoc-wreaking Gremlins running amok in my system I think I've finally banished the irksome little beasts (fingers crossed).



While offline I was thinking about the subject of my next blog post. And couldn't help but wonder if anybody had even read it - or would read it? I write a monthly column for our local newspaper... it's a small rural newspaper, but writing my little column is an enjoyable task. I get to ramble a little about whatever is on my mind at the time and occasionally get comments here and there from folks I run into while doing errands around town. Writing for a newspaper gives you an instant audience. But a blog is different - especially a new blog when you don't have an established readership. I look at it as a message in a bottle. You write the message and send it off, not knowing where it's bound and when - or if ever - anyone will read the message. The bottle may be found quickly or might float for a long time before anyone finds it. Sometimes it may not be found at all. But you want to put a good message inside - a quality message - because you never know where it might end up and who might read it.



So, even though this is a new blog, starting out without readers, I shall strive to make it an enjoyable blog and one that's worth reading. If it picks up some readers along the way, that's wonderful! But until then, I'll consider the posts as good practice to hone my writing and art skills.

Keep it simple...

Keeping it simple hasn't always come naturally to me, although as I get a little older the concept becomes more and more attractive. Sounds rather inviting and relaxing doesn't it?

So, with simplicity in mind, I recently gave myself a very short time period in which to sketch and color something. I chose a foxglove that was in bloom in my garden and decided to do the sketch digitally (using Corel Painter and a Wacom tablet). I worked with pen and ink and digital watercolor.

I've got mixed feelings about the result. Looks a little untidy to me but at least I stayed within my time limit... and away from the details!

The Sketch That Started a Blog

Here's the original image for the Virtual Sketch Date (Tripod the Cat).

Image courtesy of Jeanette Jobson.

And here's my sketch of Tripod

A new venture (or, how another blog came into being....)

A couple of months ago I discovered the world of blogging.

I was immediately amazed that (a) there was a whole new world out there and I had remained ignorant of it for years - even though I work on a computer 5 days a week-, and (b) there were lots of really nice folks busily blogging away who were kind enough to share their knowledge and offer encouragement.

After discovering blogging, I signed up for a dozen or more art blogs and enjoyed the colorful postings. But the idea of having my own blog never occurred to me. Actually it was suggested to me. By Rose of Rose's Art Lines. Rose initiated a Virtual Sketch Date in which one person picks a photo, emails it to all the participants and after a week each participant uploads their sketch to their blog so that we can all see each other's drawing. Great idea. And of course everyone participating in the Virtual Sketch Date had a blog.... except yours truly. Rose was kind enough to upload my image onto her blog, giving me the thrill of seeing my work on the net for the first time ever. (Ask my husband.... "Honey, my sketch is on the net!" I said as I dragged him over to my computer for a look).

The next sketch date is June. I considered starting a blog. Nah. I know nothing about a blog. I don't have time for a blog. Nope. No blog for me. But the blog idea wouldn't go away. I remembered Rose posting on how a blog motivates you to make more art and knew that I needed to make more art. Plus, if I had a blog I could upload my own sketch for the Virtual Sketch Date and could share recipes, quotes, a good book I'd found. Might be fun? Is this how we talk ourselves into something?

So, here we are. I'm not sure how often I'll post or what will be in the posts. You might get a quote, a recipe, a sketch or painting or just a little chat. And, of course, I'm new to all of this so bear with me as I experiment and learn my way around.

Thanks for stopping by!
Teresa

Blueberry Pie Recipe

Blueberries aren't just for summer around here. Every July and August finds us spending many hours perched on ladders and crawling through bushes to pick the fattest, sweetest berries. We freeze blueberries by the gallon. Throughout the year we enjoy them on cereal, ice cream, stewed and... the hands-down favorite.... Blueberry Pie!

Here's my recipe for Southern Blueberry Pie (makes 2 pies)

4 deep dish pie shells, thawed (2 for the pies, 2 to make the lattice top)

3 cups white sugar

10 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons cinnamon

12 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 stick butter or margarine

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

- Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon.

- Place butter in large boiler and allow to gently melt. Add blueberries. (If using frozen blueberries allow them to thaw before adding the sugar mixture). Add sugar mixture and stir well. Bring to a low boil then immediately reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Stir regularly and cook for about 5 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

- While the blueberry mixture is cooling, prepare the pie shells. Remove two of the pie shells from the foil pan, place on wax paper sprinkled with flour and cut into approx. 1" strips.

- Place the blueberry filling in each of the pie shells. Use a little water to moisten around the edge of the pies, then make the lattice top using the strips of cut pie dough.

- I usually place a pie edge protector on each pie to keep the edge of the crust from burning.

- Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Allow to cool.

- Enjoy.... especially with vanilla ice cream!

-