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Showing posts with the label playing at artist

Sit Around Sue

Dive bomb!  I wonder what the blue jay saw on the decomposing leaf covered ground, and what was he eating in the leafless persimmon tree.  The sun is out. The sky is a clear blue with fluffy white clouds streaming by. The clarity after the storm.  This winter we certainly are having our share of storms with floods, landslides, broken levees, fallen trees, and evacuations. Three weeks worth, so far. Fortunately, the Husband and I haven’t had to experience any of that, knock on wood.  With all this rain and reports of oversaturated ground, some people probably believe our drought is over.  No more need to conserve. We can go crazy with lush lawns, landscaping, and vegetable gardens once again. Nope! Uh-uh.  No, siree, Bob, and Nancy.  Parts of California, including our area, may be good for water this year, if that, but the drought is far from over. We need it to rain throughout the winter and early spring, gently and kindly, alternating with dry days. Maybe then, our reservoirs and grou

Starting the Year with Art

Bunnies dancing through fields of wildflowers towards the sea. This week I’ve been participating in The Happy New Year Challenge, hosted by Artist Karen Abend , a free five-day event with prompts from Artist Gaia Marfurt . The drawings on this post are from days two, three, and four. You can see day one’s piece here .  The challenge has been fun. And, self-revealing of sorts.  Hearts Born While doing this challenge, I’ve learned that prompts tend to freeze me up rather than free me to create. That’s bothersome. Maybe my deeper self is reminded of art time in grammar school when I felt discouraged and timid to draw, paint, paste, and craft my creations because they didn’t look like the ones the teachers favored. House and Fly flying high and loose in the cerebellum. Another aspect of the challenge that reared up my young insecure self was sharing my work at the challenge’s Facebook page. I got one, two, once three, likes for my work while others got double digit and triple digit likes.

Cheers to 2023!

Merry 1/2/2023, One and All!❣️ It’s a blustery California winter day outside my window. Lovely! In all this cold, angel’s trumpets, orange roses, and pink geraniums are in bloom. The lavender plant says to not forget her. And, now, the rain is showing itself. Hurrah! I’ve made no resolutions, unless my staying the course with trying out stuff as well as practicing stuff a bit more consistently counts.  This morning I practiced walking up and down  the sidewalk with my trusty walker. Happily tired me out. My first new try for 2023: I signed up to do a five-day Happy New Year creative art challenge, co-hosted by artists Karen Abend and Gaia Marfurt . Via email, I receive a prompt each day and do whatever comes to mind.  Today’s prompt, the first one, was a bellish blob shape. This is what came to my mind: A timid, yet daring, heart who put on green sneakers and snuck outside to ride on her sensible, sturdy skateboard. Do you think she’s sporting a new knee joint under that skirt? Knee-h

Ordinary Days

For  Art for Fun Friday : Acrylics on tiny canvas (turned into a magnet) This week I’m sharing with  Thursday 13 ,  I Like Thursday ,  Art for Fun Friday ,  and  Friday Writings .  For  Thursday 13 and Friday Writings (prompt: ordinary) ( 1) Where oh where are my red reading glasses? (2) What oh what do I make for our main meal? (3) I’ll vacuum tomorrow. Maybe. (4) Dear Diary, says the Husband as he passes by me clickity clacking on the iPad. (5) What shall I do today? (6) I’m doing a load of bottoms. Do you want your jeans washed?  (7) Have you been drinking water? asks the Husband. (8) It’s garbage day. (9) Mail call! (10) Sniff, sniff, achooo. . . Really need to dust. (11) Jazz, rock, swing, tropical, what shall we listen to? (12) Going outside. (13) Kiss, kiss. I love you. Night-night. For  Art for Fun Friday : Acrylics on canvas For  I Like Thursday:   Mama’s Gravy LeeAnna, host of I Like Thursday , asks participants to share a Thanksgiving recipe that we love. If I could, I’d s

Something Different

Landscapes usually make their way out of the recesses of my mind to paper or canvas or fabric. I don’t think about it.  It’s what happens.  This time I experimented with something in mind. I wanted to compose a scene with people and to use bold colors. It turns out hearts like to find a place in my pictures. I like that. Okey-dokey. I’m sharing with Art for Fun Friday . Cheers, One and All!

Tumbling Out

The poem I wrote last week settled something deep inside me. It also opened a gate of craziness, a joyful one.  I wrote, I painted, I breathed.  So, today, I’m sharing this post with Art for Fun Friday , hosted by Gillena at Lunch Break  and Friday Writings , hosted by Poets and Storytellers United.    For  Art for Fun Friday : A month or so ago I bought a package of canvasses of different sizes online. I didn’t read the descriptions carefully so disappointment was mine when they were delivered to our door. I thought they would be canvasses stapled to frames. Oh, well. Next time. They were cheap, so I kept them for those times I want to throw caution to the side and let the visual artist in me explore, experiment, enjoy.  Wow, I really said that: artist. It did not come easy to believe. Okay, back to topic. This painting is Exploration #1.  Yesterday, I globbed pastels, crayons, and acrylic makers onto an 8x10 canvas. Yuck. Today, I turned the painting upside down and continued onward,

Scratching Out a Painting

My latest painting experiment was slathering, scraping, and scratching acrylic colors with a palette knife. Scritch, scritch….scrape, scrape… scratch…scratch…skritch… scrape….I love the sound of painting. I’m sharing with Art for Fun Friday , hosted by Gillena at Lunch Break . ❤️

A Work in Progress

I got brave and tore the wrapping off a brand new canvas a couple weeks ago. Here’s my work in progress.  Sharing with Art for Fun Friday , hosted by Gillena of Lunch Break . 

Being There

Once upon a time I felt brave to take a beginning drawing class from a working artist. She was totally into calderas. All over her studio were canvasses, finished and not, of all sizes of calderas, realistic to abstract. They were all awesome and amazing! Such passion! I wondered if I ever would be passionate about something like she was of painting volcanic calderas.  I painted this landscape for our upcoming July calendar. When I was younger, July was all about backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas, thus the mountain scene. I have no idea what I’m doing when I paint. It just happens.  Today’s link up is with  Art for Fun Friday . Come along and visit with me. 

Mssr. Monsieur

Meet Mssr. Monsieur.  He revealed himself last night. His story?  Mssr. says all we need to know is that he likes turtlenecks and monochrome outfits. And, some time ago, his passion was tippy-toeing the tightrope and dancing the limbo. Sometimes at the same time.  Mssr. Monsieur agrees to tell us more should he come this way again. 

A Birthday Painting

I like to do things on my birthday to set up my new year. For instance, one year, I made sure to go swim laps. And, did I swim laps that year? Yep.  For my 67th birthday, which was in December, I set up a tabletop easel on a TV tray table in our office where the afternoon lighting is the best to paint. So I did. I painted this imaginary scene on cardboard with acrylic paints.  Cheers!

Perihelion

Early this morning, which was 5:51 a.m. in California, we were as close as we'll ever get this year to the star of our solar system, the Sun. Those in the know call this point on Earth's orbit perihelion. Now, you, my friends, and I are in the know. I learned about it at Earthsky . (Gotta love the Internet, and access to it.) I slept through the perihelion but nearly an hour later an earthquake woke me up. The bed and house seemed to be floating on choppy water for a few seconds.  I'm not sure if it's my imagination or if I actually heard a faint rumble. Reports said it was a 4.3 on the Richter scale. There were several smaller aftershocks, but I didn't feel them. We're within spitting distance (well, we can quite easily) of two major faults in the area: the San Andreas and the Calaveras Fault. It's only the jolting or rolling ones that I feel.  It's great to be alive, tripping through the Universe on the Earth.

Hidden Pixies

A couple weeks ago, my fingers were blackened from playing with charcoal. I wasn't ready to wash my hands, still more playing, you know. I also didn't feel like fetching a rag so I cleaned my fingers some by smearing them on a page of my drawing pad.  Over the last couple of days, hidden animal pixies revealed themselves in that charcoal smeared page. No doubt there are more pixies than what I found. Do you see any not outlined? Remember Highlights for Children ? The hidden pictures page was my favorite feature. Still is, for that matter.

A Red Leaf

A red leaf. I forgot everything else I saw yesterday morning. The first sunflower in bloom. The wispy pink and white morning glories. The white African daisy with its dark purple center. The red leaf. Fall in summer. "Hey!" said the sunlight. Red leaf in bright light. Red leaf in some light. Red life in shade. "Hey!" said the sunlight. When I previewed the photos on the computer I saw it then. Had I looked away? Had I blinked? A shiny black bug on the red leaf. Where did it come from? A black-and-white map? An overview of a terrain of some sort? For reconnaissance? A red leaf. It's Mosaic Monday , so I thought I'd try something different today.  Good cheer, Everyone!

A Little of This and That

Can I get a "cute"?  How could I resist showing off that photo of Molly the pinky-nosed (wild) Cat's recent cuteness. So, what kind of little of this, little of that have you been doing while staying at home? This afternoon I made a delectable dish of creamy brown rice and mushed red lentils that I savored slowly, the way I do with desserts. Sure I'll combine brown rice, lentils, fresh garlic, kim chee, and eggs again, but the exquisite taste (there I go floating) won't ever get repeated, even if I knew the amounts I used.  Oh well, c'est la vie. :-) Clackity clack clack clackity clack clack. . . . I've been sewing covers for the outside pillows. See the top two pillows. The covers were made from Mama's nightgowns that she liked but hardly wore. Must wear out the old stuff first you know. The fabric of the flowered pillow on the bottom is from the Husband's mom's stash. I wonder what she was going to do with the upholstery quality mater

Another 13 Thursday

1. Frost! I thought we were done with it. 2. Mama called the icy stuff snow. "There was lots of snow on Marie's roof," she'd say as I stumbled into the kitchen to fix breakfast. She'd be almost done with her big bowl of different cereals mixed together. 3. Now it's me or the Husband that opens the kitchen curtains on chilly mornings to see the icy roof next door. "Lots of snow." 4. Flutter, flutter, flutter. A whole lot of tiny birds flew out of the tree on our front yard. I watched them all fly as one up into the sky, circle about, then take off to the northeast. 5. Then I noticed the light of the rising sun. Wowza! 6. And, then I wondered why everything was drippy wet. I looked up at the roof next door. Frost! 7. For once I was wise and went back into the house to fetch a shawl. And, my camera. Of course. You never know when the fish may be out.   8. This afternoon I asked the Husband, "What kind of guy are you?"

Today

"Why are you cleaning? "asked Molly the pinky-nose (wild) Cat, as she scrambled among our feet, the broom, and the vacuum cleaner. "Are we having another party?" Nope, it's the 23rd, our monthly housecleaning date, a 2020 venture. So far, so good. With the Husband and I working together, we're done in a couple of hours. So it seemed today. Sweep. Dust. Vacuum. Scrub. Molly made sure she was somewhere else. This is what you see when you walk up our driveway. Sorry, I don't remember the names of anything that's not a rose, daisy, spider plant, California poppy, canna lily, jade, or uhm, I think that's it. Geranium! How I can forget geraniums? We have pink, white, red, bi-color, vine, bush, smelly, and not smelly at all. They live in the front yard, too. They're up towards the house so you can barely see them in the photo. I have a decent success rate of propagating geraniums for someone who goes on intuition and by hit-and-miss.

One Week Later

1. Pop! went the left lens of my eyeglasses. So much lighter with just one lens. And, when I perch the frame on my nose just so, and hold my head just so, everything straight ahead is clear and in focus. 2. It was one week ago that steady-handed Dr. Eye made that slit in my eyeball, extracted the cataract, and implanted a brand new artificial lens. Hmmmm. What if the science fiction stories about implanting chips into unknowing people were true?  Shudder. 3.  Purrrrrrrrrr. "It's only your imagination," says Molly the (wild) Cat. 4. Yesterday, the Husband drove me to the library. I don't want to drive until I have full vision in both eyes again. That may be May. Was that a sigh I heard? 5. "I'll take that." The Husband carried my bag of books from the house to the car, then from the car to the library counter, and vice-versa.  I'm not supposed to handle anything over 10 pounds for a while. Jiggity-jig. 6. I'm not allowed to bend,

Something New Tried

"Let's make cards," I said, practically pulling the Husband down on the seat next to me. That's what happens when he follows me around a holiday festival that has free arts and crafts workshops.  I thought about telling him to go ahead, I'll catch up with him, but I remembered we were just talking about making Christmas cards this year. Once he knew that the idea was to make a collage card, he enjoyed himself. Any remorse, I'm sure of sitting down at a table with colorful papers and cut-outs, was gone. This, below, is his card. My card is the picture at the top of the post. Did the giraffe surprise you? While we were admiring our cards, again, at home, the giraffe invited me to draw her. So, I did. Then, she asked to be colored. Fortunately for us, the watercolor pencils were on the table. Before I knew it, Juliana the Giraffe came to life. I wonder if she knows Ghandi the Giraffe . Mosaic Monday , hosted by Angie of Letting Go of the Bay Leaf

Another Mountain Scene

Usually my paintings and drawings end up being a wilderness landscape such as the scene I painted on the box, which I'll use as a planter in the backyard. The Husband noticed the running theme, too. He wondered if it's somewhere that I want to be. I certainly do. The Husband says he'd like to be there, too. I backpacked a regular bit from my 20s to 40s. Desolation Wilderness in the Sierra Nevada, mostly. I rarely carried a camera on my trips because the beauty of the land did not translate in my photos. Now, look at me. The essence of what I experienced in the wilderness way back then is pouring out through paints, pastels, and pencils. Yippieee! Off I go to All Seasons , a weekly meme hosted by Jesh at The Jesh Studio . Come chcck out the other participants with me.