ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Jump!

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

I WON CAROL'S GIVEAWAY

Carol Blackburn, of Limited Space Art Studio, has been doing giveaways (this is number 4) of some of her ACEO paintings, including a perfect little easel for them - and guess who won the ACEO of feathers?

Me!!

Of course, the crows were on my side for this one :)

Thanks, Carol.  Looking forward to seeing it arrive, like an early Christmas present, in the mail. 

Family and friends have taken me away from painting anything but the small postcards (and can't show those yet), so no artwork to share today...I'm starting to go into withdrawal, not being able to paint something bigger.

SUNDAY SHARING

The new followers who disappeared have now returned (some kind of Blogger glitch, I guess).  Here are 3 new ones you'll want to visit:

1.  Norena Fox has a blog called My Art and Life Blog and it is what is says - all about her creative artwork and her regular life :)  I think you'll enjoy seeing what she's been doing!

2.  Del Ponte Artist is the blog of a Floridian artist, Richard Del Ponte.  His colors will take you to the heat and sunshine of Florida in no time so if you need to warm up, go visit his blog.

3.  Trematel is just one of the three blogs of Brazilian artist, Juan Carlos Sastre Carvajal.  The title of this blog, Trematel, he describes this way:
"At trematel: Make something carelessly, haphazardly."  His views of his homeland are not made carelessly at all - but perhaps they just look that way?  After a short trip to southern Florida, travel even farther to Brazil!

These three bloggers will give you plenty of visual enjoyment today.  Have a wonderful Sunday!

HAVE YOU TRIED POSTCARDS?

I closed the SWAP group earlier this year; just too many years of wrangling a list of 40 members.  After a little chatting about future swaps and who would be willing to run them, one of our regular members, Cathy Geha, has agreed to moderate the group in a new venture = a postcard swap.  It should be fun and less work for any one person (everyone agrees to mail out 1-2 postcards each month beginning in December until they send a postcard to everyone on the list; and they keep track of their sending and such).  All each person has to do it mail their postcards and share a photo or scan of the postcards they get with the group. 

I'm going to be just a regular member this time.  We are going to run it for a year so everyone has a chance to send and receive a postcard from everyone in the group - a membership of about 24 is our limit.

So...I just had to buy a couple of books of the Arches postcards.


Why am I telling you this when the group is, basically, closed to new members this first year?

Because I am wondering if you've ever tried the postcards?  They seemed SO SMALL when I opened the package from Cheap Joe's - only 4" x 6" - but that's our size requirement (it is, afterall, a postcard swap, not a painting swap). 

I'm thinking I'll draw on each blank side lightly in pencil, then maybe add some waterproof ink and then watercolor for a dash of color.  Then I'll spray seal it with acrylic spray so it doesn't bleed or smear in the mail.  (Members can paint in any watermedia but they should make sure their painting doesn't disappear with mail handling so spray sealing is a good thing. 

I'm looking forward to the postmarks and stamps from foreign countries!




The back is already marked for a short comment, and the address and stamp.


I'm already thinking about what to paint - perhaps info about what I'm reading and an illustration of it, or the birds I see around the feeder this time of year, etc. 




What would you send on your postcard?  Here are some fabulous postcards being created and shared by the Sketchercize group on their blog called A Postcard From My Walk.

A GOOD BOOK

If you like Vincent Van Gogh and his life story (or what we know of it), then you'll enjoy curling up with this good book:

Carol Wallace has given us an interesting and lively fictionalized account of Vincent, as told by his psychiatrist, Dr. Gachet.  I think we learn more about Dr. Gachet than we do about Vincent, but all the main players are here and Ms. Wallace has given us an interesting twist to the ending (which we all know will happen even as we begin reading the first pages).







There is a new book out about Vincent and the authors' theories of how he really died and I may get that one to read this winter. 
http://www.amazon.com/Van-Gogh-Life-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0375507485/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322150124&sr=1-1


If you want to skip the stories and just browse through some of his many paintings, then check out this site, sit back and enjoy.  Can you imagine the person who painted these works was tormented and slightly deranged?  So much life and light and beauty.  And a life cut short (he was only 37 when he...died...committed suicide...was murdered).
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=98&lang=en


And Happy Thanksgiving to all those Americans out there, whether you are home in the U.S. or living abroad.  I remember having a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends (all ex-pats) when living in Wales many many years ago.  We had turkey and the whole shebang - even pumpkin pie (which my Welsh friends thought was a disgusting concoction to even think about).

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Pretty

Photo by Rhonda H. Carpenter

WATCH THIS PROGRAM!

You won't regret watching this 1 hour Nature program.  Check your local PBS stations to see if you get it in your area.  Sweetie and I have watched it twice and enjoyed it both time.  The photography is fabulous and the story is so unusual and beautiful.  I think I may even buy the book to find out more about Joe Hutto's experiences as he raises 16 turkeys from eggs to adulthood, experiencing their lives on the daily basis.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/my-life-as-a-turkey/introduction/7268/

And, no, it is not anti-Thanksgiving turkey in any way.  Hutto makes it very plain that the wild turkey is as different from our domesticated turkey as a wolf is from a dog.


And if you don't get the Robert Genn Weekly emails, you should check out this one - the current clickback at the top is something all of us should watch.  So get a cup of something, sit back and really watch and listen to this video created by Louis Schwartzberg of movingart.  It will change your day.
http://clicks.robertgenn.com/critique-self.php

CAW GIRL

My friend, Sharon, came up with the title.  She was thinking about shadows and crows, but instead I came up with this. 

She looks a bit rough,
a bit overly made up,
the type of a girl who'd hang out with crows?


Caw Girl I
Full sheet (22 x 30) Fabriano Artistico
140lb cold press.



Not finished yet but I don't want to do too much more.  (And I think I'll do a few of these caw girls; I have some ideas for the the next one.)

DISAPPEARING FOLLOWERS

I checked my Followers on the sidebar and found 4 new followers and was preparing to do a Sunday Sharing feature of their blogs (the ones who have blogs).  Then they all disappeared.  Perhaps it's a Blogger glitch and they will return...when they do, I'll be glad to feature them on my blog.  Strange.

Today is the final day for the Viewpoint show (1 - 4 pm) and my sister and BIL are going to see the show this afternoon.  Then all artists who have not sold a painting pick up their painting from 4 - 6 pm.  I was actually in 5 shows this year, 2 of them juried.  Not bad for me.  2012 may be a year for me to expand a bit and try for the Ohio Watercolor show or the Kentucky Watercolor Show or even the Indiana Watercolor Show; but haven't decided that yet. 

Hope you all are having a good day.  I was awakened by the neighbor's Dachshunds this morning before 7 am.  They bark at everything and everyone; they even run up into your yard and bark at you as you get into your car = annoying.  But when they stopped barking (gues they'd gone back inside), I heard an owl softly hooting.  So I thought I'd share this photo with you, taken by Sweetie, at his Raptor Rehab volunteer job.

This is Kentucky,
a great horned owl. 


Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

REWORKING SOMETHING OLD

This was done year's ago when I was still doing work on YUPO in Sandy Maudlin's class.   

YUPO is a very white plastic so the paint just sits on the top until it dries, creating some wonderful runs and merges of colors. 

At the time I did this, I had a horrible looking bunch of greenery and a pinkish red blossom in the metal jug.  It was horrid.  I used alcohol to remove it and then a Mr. Clean eraser to get the last bits and worked on it without the flowers.  The other glass jars weren't touched.  (I had to use alcohol and the eraser because it was spray sealed - something you want to do if you work on YUPO because it can always get moisture in or on it and ruin your finished work.)

It was even framed (at the time I didn't know it was so awful).  A few years of sitting in a frame in the garage and the white YUPO is very definitely yellowed where the mat did not cover.  Interesting that it changed.  Which means the YUPO under the painting is yellowed, too.  Not exactly what you want if you intend to keep a piece for a long time?

I won't do anything more with this - it'll just be a piece from the past...I usually tear up and throw away old paintings that I review (once a year) that don't live up to my current standards or that I think can be fixed.  I never paint on the back of paintings - for some reason I think, what if I painted something really great and wanted to put it in a show and that bad painting would be on the back giving it a bad vibe?  That's just me - I could just play and test things on the back of old paintings, I guess.  I just remove the work on YUPO as much as I can and then play with it sometimes when I'm in a rut.  I don't use YUPO seriously anymore after hearing about it getting moisture in it (even under glass) and being warped when hung in the sun, etc.  Now I know it also yellows after a few years (even when not hung in the sun).  I guess I'll stick with quality watercolor paper.

PRIMARILY CROWS - STEP 2

I finished the shadows and put in the crows.  Now to refine their bills and eyes and call them done.  Not sure why the Step 1 painting is more warm - this is the actual look of the piece to my eyes.

It looks like the crows are on a wet pavement or something wet so maybe I should break up the shadow shapes a bit.

Anyway, it's a full sheet (22 x 30) and was fun to do after the idea bounced around in my head for a while.

SOMETIMES IT WORKS, SOMETIMES IT DOESN'T

What worked:



Shadow Selves in Florida


I worked on the background waves and beach, then darkened the shadows.













What didn't work:

Nautilus Blue


I admit, I didn't like that untouched white background on the blue nautilus painting in the original even though it was a sketch and playing with color.  I wanted to do something, but didn't have a plan.  So added a pale yellow wash all around the background.  Didn't like it.  So I thought about it, then splattered miskit all around; then painted Lamp Black and Indanthrone Blue in over the yellow.  I removed the miskit.  It now looks like it's floating in a faraway galaxy. 

It didn't quite work and the nautilus, which was so fresh and beautiful before, now looks overworked. 

Some you win, some you lose - but you have to keep playing!

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Solitude

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

WHILE WAITING FOR A PAINTING TO DRY

At Deb's last week, my crow painting was really saturated so I had to wait to let it dry.  I didn't want to use a hairdryer on it because I had miskited off some areas of the crows so...it went on the floor for a while until Deb moved it to the piano bench for fear of Stray (their big old goofy lovable dog) bounding in and stepping on it. 

So...what to do while waiting?

This:

It's on a half sheet (15" x 20") Saunders Waterford 140# cold press (same thing the crow painting is on).  When I got home, I put masking fluid (Pebeo Drawing Gum) over the figures that are going to be shadows on the beach and worked more on the sky, water, beach area.  It's coming along.

Painted from a photo taken by Sweetie last time we were in the St. Augustine area - a picture of our shadows on the white sand outside our rental on Matanzas Inlet.

SAD DAYS FOR SANDHILL CRANES IN KENTUCKY

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Hunters interested in participating in Kentucky's first sandhill crane season can begin applying for permits.


The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources said it will take applications for permits from Nov. 15 through Nov. 30 and hold a drawing Dec. 5 to select up to 400 hunters.


Hunters are allowed to take up to two sandhill cranes and must register them with the department. The hunt will begin Dec. 17 and continue through Jan. 15, 2012, or until hunters take 400 birds.


It will be the first hunting season for sandhill cranes in a state east of the Mississippi in a century. The birds were nearly extinct in the early 1900s because of overhunting, but officials say the populations have rebounded enough to allow a limited hunting season.


For a look at what the cranes are like, please go to Vickie Henderson's blog and see her information and photos. 
 http://vickiehenderson.blogspot.com/2011/07/intimate-visits-with-sandhill-crane.html
Vickie kept the petitions going through her blog and all those who read it, back in the summer.  Sadly, we didn't get enough signatures or letter or phone calls to make a difference.

I have uncles in my family who hunt, but aren't deer and turkey enough? 
Can you even eat a sandhill crane?  Is this just for sport?
Because the population, which had gone nearly extinct, is rebounding? 

There are very few areas in the U.S.  (but I admit, there are some in Kentucky) where you have to hunt to eat, to feed your family, to survive. 
What harm are the cranes doing that legislation in Kentucky thinks we need
to "cull" them;
to "take" them;
which means to KILL THEM?

PAINTING AT DEB'S

I had the beginnings of an idea for this full sized sheet (22" x 30") painting of crows when I went to Deb's last Thursday.  After some discussion about what I was thinking, this is what I started with.  I want the shadows of the crows to be primary colors (or very close to just pure primaries without being pure color) = one crow shadow will be the blue + red leaning to blue; one crow shadow will be the red + yellow leaning to yellow; and one crow shadow will be the red + blue leaning to red.  Just 3 primary colors of red, blue and yellow for this painting.

Primarily Crows
On Saunders Waterford full sheet (22" x 30") 140# cold press paper.



It may work.  It may not.  I'll keep going and we'll see what happens.  The crows will be "black" mixed with the 3 primary colors and nothing else.  I'm putting the shadows in first.

WINNER OF THE 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY GIVE-AWAY

There were a lucky 13 entries and Sweetie picked the name again.  The winner of the crow painting or print is:

Irina!!! 

Irina, please send your full mailing address (and last name) to me at my gmail address and let me know which piece you'd like, the Rain Crow painting or the Curious Crow print.  It will be mailed this week to you!

Hope you enjoy whichever piece you choose and that it wings its way to your home carrying much happiness.

Wish you all could have been winners.

FIVE YEARS OF BLOGGING??

I began my blog on November 12, 2006.  That means I've been doing this for 5 years.  Wow, that is a long time and many who have been blogging that long are thinking about quitting or backing off or just tired of the whole experience.  I think I'll continue until I get burned out :)

Here is my first blog (saves you the trouble of searching back to that date):
http://rhcarpenter.blogspot.com/2006/11/sunday-november-12-2006.html

To celebrate 5 years of blogging, I'm having another give-away of a crow painting.  The only thing you have to do to enter the drawing is:

Send a comment to this posting saying, Count me me! or Add my name! or Me Me Me!! :) and I'll put your name in the hat for the drawing on Sunday.  Whoever wins will have to send me their mailing info via my gmail address - that's all you have to do.

And what is the painting?  Well.....I'm going to let the winner choose between these two:

Rain Crow
Watercolor on a fourth sheet (11" x 15")
of 140# cold press paper.

Curious Crow
A watercolor monotype print on printing paper  (it's a softer paper than cold press or hot press). 

The print is on a fourth sheet (11" x 15")
but should be cropped down to about 9" x 12" to show the print info, title and signature. 


The winner in the drawing gets to choose which one floats their boat!

Good luck!

THANK YOU, VETERANS

I want to thank all the veterans all over the world who have fought, all those who returned leaving parts of themselves on a battle field,
all those who never returned to their families,
and all those who fought and returned, forever changed by the experience. 

Thank you for your service.

WHAT ABOUT THESE CROWS?

Well, after the watercolor society meeting yesterday, looks like we have new people to fill the open spots beginning March 2012.  Deb Ward will be President - why not, she's been Program Chair, Membership Chair, and coordinated 3 of our art shows!  I will be Program Chair - I've already been Recording Secretary and coordinated 1 of our art shows, so I guess next term I'll be President! ha ha Too bad Deb and I can't clone ourselves and then we could do it all!  Thank goodness there were two other members who are willing to be the new Recording Secretary and Treasurer next year.

I'm going out to Deb's today to paint with her and Sharon and come up with something, I hope.  Lately, I've been sketching and moving things around on paper, trying to come up with something.  Nothing seems to be gelling yet, but I've got a few things started that I could work on.  Or maybe I'll start something new there from inspiration during the day.

I'd like to do something with interesting shadow shapes as much a part of the painting as the crows but I'm not quite there yet as these two look more like mockingbirds than crows - have to make them bigger and more massive beaks to be crows.

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Steam

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

NAUTILUS BLUE

I have some ideas and crows flying around but nothing concrete yet so...

I just played with some loose wet-in-wet washes of lovely blue colors today.


This is a fourth sheet (11" x 15") Fabriano Artistico 140# cold press paper, cropped down to a square.  I'll do a bit more on this to finish it up, I think - but not much more!  It can't just float like that...or can it?



The Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society meeting is tomorrow 10 am - noon in Mt. Adams at the Cincinnati Art Club building.  Since it's at the CAC building, all the members who attend will get to see the Viewpoint Show. 

The guest artist/speaker tomorrow is Jean Vance.  And we are going to hold voting for President,
Program Chair,
Recording Secretary
and Treasurer. 
As far as I know, there is only ONE person willing to be President and ONE person willing to be Program Chair.  Don't think we have anyone willing to be Recording Secretary or Treasurer, but I may be wrong.

HAVE YOU EVER...

I must humbly and with much embarrassment apologize to NorthLightShop.  I just received an email from their service which pointed out to me that I DID get the 15% discount - it just wasn't noted on the invoice as such.  I got a book for $16.49 for $14.02 and a book for $21.21 for $18.03.  Yes, math has never been my strong point but I should have checked the prices instead of just seeing there was not discount listed on the invoice.  I apologize and now will fill out all those surveys and things they send without asking for anything to repent for my rush to judgment about them. 

So, if you get their notice and you fill out their forms, do go and order something and get an even deeper discount!  Perhaps time to think about books and DVDs for the holidays?

Please disregard the following rant from me. 

After a long walk, I am in a better mood and the ibuprophen is keeping the pain/achiness away for now.  I'll be fine in another day or so, I promise!


Have you ever ordered from NorthLightShop?  Have you ever filled out one of their surveys?  I just did both.  After taking time to fill out a survey, I was given a code for 15% off an order so I clicked on the link and went to the shop to look around.  Found 2 things I liked and ordered them.  I put the 15% discount code in the box as required and went to check out - and didn't get the 15% discount.  I thought I might be able to catch the problem and get my 15% discount so I emailed with the problem and got a nice thank you and a promise they'd contact me.  I just got a notice that my order (without the 15% discount) was shipped - they are quick about that!  But I've not received a reply to my email about the problem.

That's my rant for the day.  There will be more coming.  I just had another "diagnostic" mammogram - which means 6 views of one breast; which means PAIN like I'd never felt and I came home in tears, feeling like I'd been mauled.  I am sore, achy, and angry.  And I get to go back for another in 6 months after just having 7 views done 6 months ago?  I don't think so.

1.  7 + 6 + ? = how much radiation can you get on my breast before, surprise, it's cancer this time??
2.  How much pain can you take and willingly return for more?  I actually cried out at one time, it was so bad - that was the 4th view (before the tech returned to tell me the Doctor wanted 2 more views).  I told her to get the male doctor in there so I could put his balls in the thing and squeeze them down to see how it felt.  Yes, I did. 

She just laughed.  Fun for her, not so fun for me. 

SUNDAY SHARING

Sunday Sharing is all about focusing on a few new followers of my blog who have shown up on my followers block of folks.  I'm happy to share them with you and hope you'll have some time to check out their blogs and webpages.

1.  Felicity Grace has several blogs and a website so you will see many beautiful things if you follow them all today as you sip your cup of coffee or tea this morning.  I'll send you to the first one and you can go on from there - I recommend that you do!  Sketches by Fiz, her colored pencil sketching blog, had me at the first page.  Lovely, light, airy renderings of nature caught my eye and made me stay there for a while and decide I had to add her to my blogroll so I remember to return :)  This is a lady who has talent and skill and I imagine her life story would be very interesting - she currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland but has lived in Kuwait.  Perhaps she should chronicle her life story??  Whether she does, or not, there are plenty of beautiful works to see in her blogs and in her webpage.

2.  Jane Sorgetz is another new follower from Brazil.  Her blog is full of powerful color, great shapes, and much creativity.  If you like seeing art taken to it's craftiest side, visit her blog and see some things you'll want to own - or at least see some things you'll want to try your hand at making :)

3.  I am very happy to share this next blogger with you.  Lisa Le Quelenec is a wonderful artist, painting loose lovely soft watercolors and acrylics.  I discovered her from Maggie Latham's blog and the 100 Washes Challenge blog and had to add Lisa to my sidebar.  She paints the way I wish I could paint - and I'm finding there are many artists out there who have that light touch that I seem to yearn for but know isn't in me - so I get my visual pleasure from seeing paintings like Lisa creates.  If you love watercolor and what it can do when it's allowed to flow and be watercolor, you'll enjoy this trip over to her Seaside Studios blog!

I hope you enjoy all three of these artists and their creations!  Have a good Sunday.  Go create something beautiful! 

(If you're in the US, did you remember to "Fall Back" today?  I didn't, so now I have an extra hour of time I didn't think I'd have this morning! ha ha)

AFTER THE OPENING

Well, Sweetie made me attend the opening of the Viewpoint Show (see yesterday's post for info on hours); and it was wall-to-wall people.  But some I knew and others I talked to and Deb did a great job sharing the judge's comments on the winning paintings while awarding the ribbons and $.  I didn't win anything, but it doesn't matter at all.  It was a fun evening and everyone anxiously awaited the awards and visited with friends and family.  There were entries as far away as Alaska, so it's becoming more and more a national show although the locals feel it's their big local show.

It was so crowded, you couldn't get a decent photo of anything during the opening, so we returned today to walk around more leisurely and get some photos this afternoon.

Here are some of the watercolors that got into the show - you'll see some with ribbons were winners (2 were awards that were given by wives of artists who have passed on as a way to honor them; the wives get to pick the award winners so they were not chosen by the judge of the rest of the show).

Upper left:  Gaylynn Robinson's watercolor titled Locked Out.

Right:  Lorri Davis' watercolor batik titled Afternoon Shadows.  Gaylynn and Lorri were there so I got to chat a bit with them.  They are both members of our local watercolor society.

This watercolor painting, titled Lonesome Bicycle, is by Raymond Burt; it won one of the special awards.  The woman who awarded it said her husband would have loved the loose style.  I don't know Mr. Burt but he is going to coordinate the show next year.











This watercolor, titled Ready to Fish, was painted by Joan Rothel, a local artist who is a member of the Ohio Watercolor Society..

This painting won one of the special awards and the woman said it was because of the lovely loose style and the maintained whites throughout.  It's by Carolyn Ross Hibbard and called Bloomin' Beauties 2.  Carolyn is a lovely lady and a member of our local watercolor society.  She also has done artwork for the Cincinnati Zoo.

Another prize-winner (this time from the regular judge) was this watercolor on gessoed paper by Vivian Ripley and it's called Rush of Water.  Because of the position, it was hard to get a good, clean photo of it without the lights.





And I have to show you my painting in the show and what it was hung beside.  I loved it!

The painting, an oil painting, was called Bird Tribe by Gregory M. Dearth.  I loved it so much, I voted for it for Viewers Favorite (although it didn't win, it won a regular award in the show).

That's all for the watercolors.  I did take a few of my favorites from the show.  I'll share those tomorrow.  Until then, pop over to Deb Ward's blog and read more about the show and the juror's comments.

VIEWPOINT SHOW TONIGHT

The show opens tonight and I've said I'll be there, so I have to go (I just am not social enough to want to be in crowds of people, many of whom will be strangers to me).  But my friend, Deb, has coordinated this and it's her last of a 3-year stint so I should go, right?


I found out that I'm ONE of only TWELVE watercolor artists who got in, so I'm pretty pleased (but secretly wondering:  What was the judge thinking? because all of the rest are very very photo realistic painters!)


If you're local, stop by and see the show on a Saturday/Sunday so you can take your time to walk around and view all the artwork.

PLAYING WITH AUTUMN THINGS

I have had this Strathmore Visual Journal now for months.  I bought it, thinking I'd use it for an online Strathmore Journal workshop I signed up for.  I never used it although I enjoyed watching the other students create things in their journals.  So...what do you do with a 90# watercolor paper journal?  Just use it for doodling and sketching, I guess.


So I got it out of the bookshelf in my art room and set up a little autumn still life of pumpkin, leaves in a holder, and pods from a tree in my step-daughter's yard (a sweet gum, I think).

Took a few photos.

Then sat down and sketched a couple of the set-ups out before deciding to add some color to one.

Painted wet on dry paper so the 90# paper wouldn't buckle or give me problems.  The only problem was my overworking the orange of the pumpkin and not getting a good shadow shape or color under the pumpkin (ugly brown!!) or the leaves (charcoal grey, are you kidding me??).

This will have to be a practice excuse, and I'll take a bit more time with the next one.  This one, unfortunately, isn't worth finishing up although the pumpkin looks pretty anemic.

What was my intention?  To create a popping painting using the orange and turquoise teal color against each other.  Perhaps simplifying the composition with nothing but the pumpkin (larger) against the turquoise blue would have been a better idea?
Ah, the best laid plans....

I could only show my finished, successful work - but I hope my mistakes help you learn as well as my successes (plus if I only showed the successes, you'd begin to think I knew what I was doing!!!).

I still have a tendency to rush through a painting and come out with a very unsuccessful result, as you can see.  But, what the heck, it's just sketch paper, and the time was not wasted, but used for learning how the 90# Strathmore paper works (since this was the first time I'd used it.).  Am I justifying this mess?  You bet'cha!!

Now time for a do-over since I still have the little pumpkin although the leaves have been drained of color (perhaps a chlorophyll vampire came on Halloween night?).




Unfortunately, this one isn't much better than the first - a bit to heavy on the colors.  Have to remind myself:  A Sketchbook is for Watercolor SKETCHES, not so much complete paintings and leave more to the imagination.  I like the little sweetgum tree things that I picked up from the ground, though (and I should have made little scary critters from the shadow shapes :)

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Survivor

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

CAWS FOR CELEBRATION

I put the slips of paper with names in the bowl of candy on the table and asked Sweetie to draw a name.  He pulled out a KitKat bar first; I told him he had to put that back and get a slip of paper with a name.

And the name he pulled is:


Carol Blackburn


Congratulations, Carol. 


Email me your mailing address and I will get this out in the mail ASAP (with a few little extras thrown in the mailer just for fun).



Sweetie worked hard for me Monday, driving me up to the Evergreen Retirement Center to pick up my paintings from the GCWS Show; and then home.  Then after lunch, he drove me to the Cincinnati Art Club to drop off my entry into the Viewpoint Show; and then home again after a short trip to Lowes for bird seed and paint swatches (we are finally going to get up the gumption to have our livingroom/entry/hallway painted!!!).  So he did a great job as chauffeur and carrier for the day + extra duty as drawer of names.  
He got to eat the KitKat bar :)