WHO’S A HANDSOME BOY? OTIS

 

Our dentist got a new dog.  His name is Otis.  He is an old soul, totally chill and so people friendly that  everyone who meets him loves him - he’s great for hugs and attention when you need a therapy dog at the dentist!  The dentist posted a photo of him (he posts one every so often so we Otis fans get our fix) and I liked it so much I thought I’d try to paint this mostly black dog with the pretty golden brown eyes.  This is on a block of Arches 140# coldpress using only 2 colors - Lunar Black and a bit of Cerulean Blue.  

CHICKADEE ON STONEHENGE AQUA HOTPRESS PAPER

 Made a few changes and I think I like it better now.  

STONEHENGE AQUA HOTPRESS PAPER - ANOTHER CHICKADEE

 This one is on Stonehenge Aqua hotpress paper.  I purchased a block a long time ago and only use it rarely but wanted to try to do the chickadee and berries loosely.  No drawing, just painting. It may need something else but maybe okay for now, although now I’m looking at it, I see I didn’t think about those hard lines of the branches.  May be able to soften or change them so they aren’t so straight. 

BIG RED

 

 About fourth sheet Arches cold press.  Big Red.  We have a few come to our suet feeders and they are loud - but I love ‘em.

Painting a few holiday cards for next year, but in between cards, I’m painting a few birds.  Trying to stay loose and light.  Next one will be on hot press (I don’t use it often).  

Sweetie and I got boosters this afternoon.  Hope we do well with them as I have a recheck with the ortho tomorrow morning (hope to be able to leave the boot behind although walked with both shoes on today and it was painful and my right foot is swollen so much…hope I don’t have to have a bigger size shoe as then I’d need 2 pairs all the time to fit both feet right!!).  

BIRDS

 

Well, made a mess of the cardinal but it was the first thing I’ve done other than small cards in weeks.  I became less heavy-handed with the second one - the little chickadee.

Have another to share and another in the drawing stages.  Just fourth sheet paintings for now.

Still in the boot and have had one physical therapy session (with exercises to do at home on my own until I can get a second session later this month).  I should be out of the boot and walking (without a limp, I hope) before Christmas.  

A FEW MORE CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY CARDS

 

Just a few more cards…

SEEING RED - BUT IN A GOOD WAY

 

Walking in the boot to the back deck and finding lots of reds all around, so took a few photos.

HOLIDAY/CHRISTMAS CARDS

 

Used the silver Schminke dry pigment on the flower.  Some of these may turn out to be Christmas cards this year and some will not make the cut.  

FINALLY IN MY ART ROOM

 

Finally made it into my art room - had the inclination and the ability in this boot (slow going down the stairs but I can do it).  So made up some Christmas/holiday cards.  Some will make the cut this year and some won’t, but at least I’m getting out the paint, pigment and paper after weeks of doing nothing creative.

Used the gold dust dry pigment (Schminke) on his star but it’s so heavy it tilts his head :)  

PHOTOS

 Not sure what kind of planting this is at the Extension Center garden, but was surprised to see the little blue berries on it as it was also blooming.  

The folks who take care of the Extension Center garden are always planting new things - I imagine it’s a full time job for several workers and it always gives us something interesting to see.  I admire anyone who can keep a garden going in all seasons.  

A tree in the cemetery with some interesting seed pods.  Our neighbor has one in their back yard and the tree flamed out pretty yellow-orange leaves this year.

AUTUMN ISN’T GOING TO BE SHOWING OFF THIS YEAR

 Our autumn colors are not going to be very colorful and bright this year.  Not sure why.  But the trees are green and yellow, or green and red, or just a dull quinn burnt orange color.  But this was a planting at the extension center garden the last time Sweetie and I went to see what was blooming.  

Seems like autumn colors are coming on later and later in the year.  

WELL, AT LEAST IT’S BLUE

 

Not fun.

Four weeks of 

Not fun

in this blue cast.

And then,

if it’s healing well,

four more weeks of

not fun

in a walking boot.

OUCH

 Won’t be posting any artwork for a while.  I fell this week and now am in a big ole cast which is making it hard to get around on the main floor (my little art room is on the lower level with 2 sets of stairs so it’s off limits for a while).  I am not handling the pain, the stress, or anything else about this, very well.  But once I start feeling better I can post some photos from walks.  

Slipped during a walk down a little hill before getting to a walkway and heard the ankle pop.  It’s a broken fibula (the thin leg bone on the outside of your leg that connects from the knee to the ankle) at the ankle.  Out of commission for 8 weeks, minimum.  

FINAL VERSION AND PUMPKINS!

 

Finished with the poke berries painting.  

Started another of some pumpkins and a little crow watching from afar.  

Blogger is acting strange and I think it has to do with the 2-factor verification Google now has started on your accounts - each time you sign in to Google for anything (Blogger, Mail, etc.), they send you a text on your phone.  I removed that because I don’t want a text sent every single time I sign in to Google - so now things are funky.  Plus, when they had the 2-factor verification on, they send a number to verify your account which you had to type in…and it had 2 numbers too many and wouldn’t accept the code numbers!!  D’uh.  I guess they’ll get it worked out after everyone complains.  

Today there is an online course from John Muir Laws, teaching how to draw owls.  Should be fun.  You can find it through Audubon or through John’s site.  It starts at 11:30 Pacific Time and is through Zoom.  

ANOTHER GO AT THE POKE

 

I drew these larger and really spent time on the first dark and wine-colored berries.  They look more shiny than the first attempt at painting them.  

I watched Billy Showell (well-known botanical artist) on video showing how to paint a single cherry - OMG! she took forever lifting and lifting and lifting and lifting and…nope, not the style for me!  ha ha. She had a lovely, shiny cherry when she was done but I skipped through a lot of the middle part of the technique.  Did learn to use lifting preparation (WinsorNewton makes it) prior to painting anything = makes it easier to lift back to white if you don’t use any staining pigment.  

POKE BERRIES AGAIN

 

Tried to spend some time making these more rounded than I got in the first go-round.  And cropped off some edges that were unnecessary.  

I’m having to really think about the shades in the berries and how to make them look shiny.  

FROM A WALK IN THE GARDEN

 

Another nice walk in the Extension Center gardens to see what was blooming.  

The bumblebees like the long flowering bits of this plant (did not see a name tag to tell me what this was called).  Do you think certain pollinators like certain plants for their color?  What does a purple flower taste like, compared to a pink one?

Lots of plants with berries in various colors - red, orange, even blue berries for the birds and still some hardy flowers for the bumblebees, butterflies and (a few) honeybees.  

POKE BERRIES

 Poke berries.  These plants grow 6-7 feet tall with berries and red stems; lots in our wooded walks.  I have one in my planter on the deck (put there by a bird, I’m sure) - was going to take a photo of it (about 2 feet tall) but a mockingbird jumped onto it, pulled it down to the dirt, and ate every berry off it while I was watching the other day!  Guess those red and black berries taste good.

ELEPHANT EAR PLANTS AND OTHER STUFF?

 Finished version.

GREENS A’PLENTY

 On Aches rough paper.  Needs a bit more work but almost there.  

SAVANNAH MAGNOLIA

 I’ve painted a version of this one several times.  I think this one comes closest to what I envisioned when I saw the magnolia bud on a trip to Savannah, GA.  

AND MORE MILKWEEDS

 

This one was painted directly, with no drawing.  I did have to use gouache for the white stuff holding the seeds.

PITCHER PLANTS FOR DEBBIE

 

Debbie asked if I’d ever seen pitcher plants - these are the ones I saw during a walk through a nature/park area in Florida one year - took several photos of them hanging down from the pots (which were at the top) for sale.  Pretty cool plants but I’m not sure they grow here in KY.  

ANOTHER WAY OF PAINTING MILKWEEDS

 

This one has some pods and pods that have opened, trailing the white stuff and seeds.

FRUITS OF SUMMER - DONE

 Finished.  

FRUITS OF SUMMER

 

Another started - fruits of summer, which is now over, but FALL is here = YAY!!!

BLUES IN THE LANDSCAPE

 From an online demo…can’t recall who or where and it looks nothing like the painting the artist did but it was fun playing.  Went in after I figured it was finished but it wasn’t working so…more changes.  All monotone and looking like winter coming…not too soon, I hope!

MILKWEED PODS - 2ND VERSION

 Much better after going back into the background with darker colors and more variety of colors.  Sometimes I quit before the painting is finished and I should go back and revisit some after they sit for a few days.

MILKWEED PODS

 

 

Milkweed pods before they burst open and have all that white fluff blowing around.  Hadn’t seen a milkweed pod since I was a kid - but the Extension Center in our neighborhood has a wonderful pollinator/butterfly garden full of flowers the butterflies and bees love.  

Every time I take a walk there, I think I should learn more about gardening - but I don’t.  I just paint flowers.  

PITCHER PLANTS - 2

 

Another version.  Wanted it to look somewhat like a fence behind it.

PITCHER PLANTS

 

From photos taken at a garden center during a recent walk.  Pitcher plants were in a large orange pot with black fence railings behind them, but I didn’t want to do it that way.  

I’ll try another version and see how it turns out.

PLAYING WITH COLOR AND SHAPE

 

A couple of small pieces on scraps of watercolor paper. 

Just playing with colors and shapes and seeing what happens.  

No rhyme or reason in mind when I start.  They still look pretty organic to me so that seems to be my thing.

A LITTLE VASE - JUST FIDDLING

 

Just a little vase using watercolor dabs and some oil pastels here and there.  

Trying to play to get myself back in the mood.

EVEN MORE UNSURE

 Since this wasn’t going to work out anyway, I took some inks and played with this painting.  I guess it’s just practice with the inks but now I’m not sure when or if I’ll use these inks - what made me buy them in the first place?  I should not purchase art supplies when I’m not feeling well - I make rash decisions about wanting things!! ha ha

But Laura wanted some line work on the trunks and this is what I came up with, spending the most time and effort on the central trunk.  

UNSURE

 

The ink is going to take some getting used to as the 2 dip pens I have tend to drop blobs of color down every so often so just trying to learn with the green and yellow ink on the leaves.  I don’t think marking the trunks will do anything but be a learning experience.  May just use the inks for sketching.

CURVES

 

From a photo taken in Florida of beautifully colored and shaped banyan (?) trees outside our rental that year.  I’ve cut it down into a square to get rid of unnecessary stuff at the bottom (leaf litter I could not create to look right) and the top (more green) so the focus is more on those few leaves and the tree color and shape.  I need to darken the tree trunks more to show the sunlight was behind them.

But I think I’ll get out my new inks and play with the leaves a bit and see what happens, just to experiment. I have 2 pens and some odds and ends of things (sticks, bamboo stick pen, etc.) to use with the inks and I’ll play with those.  

I’ve been in a rut with painting and drawing lately (haven’t even finished my weekly lesson in the Strathmore Artist Series online course).  But might be coming back and it seems playing with the new inks will help get me back in the mood.  

I did read on the boxes of inks and found they are not lightfast - so…maybe they are just for quick sketching or learning rather than for finished works?