DON'S HOUSE

The sunshine didn't last much longer. It has snowed and has mostly been raining for the last few days. I've been continuing on with gouache paintings. Here is one I did a while back.



gouache on mat board 3.5x5 "

I took a walk in late afternoon fog and took a photo of my nearest wintertime neighbor's house and painted this next morning. Kind of reminds me of one of those Kincaid guy's painting.

SUNSHINE!

gouache 3x5 1/2"

Friday was the sunniest day I can remember in a long time. And the first time I've painted outside the house this year. I drove down to the beach at about 2 and painted this from the car ....the Beartrack Mountains. I took a long walk on the beach and took lots of pictures of trees and the sky as the sun set and disappeared behind Chichikof Island at about 4 in a blaze of color.

Some years in the past I've been able to paint outside in January.... not this year. Maybe its just that I'm more susceptible to the cold (age can do that) but for the last month, just getting to the car has required walking on ice, and except for the paved one, most roads and paths have been sheets of ice.

With the days getting longer (about 8 hours now) I'm vowing to get out more. The snow is gone in a lot of places and hopefully we it won't get really, really cold.

Hard to believe how fast time flies. In a little over a month, we will be heading for Florida.

TWO LITTLE GOUACHE PAINTINGS

I needed to do something in color yesterday. Working on the monochromatic gouache studies has been getting monotonous.... just like the monochromatic landscape outside lately. I did these 2 little paintings from photos. Both were done on a manila colored paper.



This is Shelikof beach of Kruzof Island.... I did a larger watercolor of this last year but the bottom half of that painting got cropped.... I didn't nail the water coming in on the beach here either.


This is from a photo I took in Glacier Bay in October when Van and I were up there fishing. I think near the mouth of Geike. I'm not happy with the rocks.

SOME TREES

I've done several monochromatic gouache paintings in the last couple of weeks as I follow the 2010 Gouache Corner Challenge Thread on Wet Canvas. This is one I did today.



These are some trees I see from my window..... there are some behind them on the right that I left off. We had over a foot of snow this week and now its raining and there's starting to be some bare ground out there.

DOW AND TAO

I haven't quite gotten rid of this cold. Maybe it's flu. I've been painting everyday though, mostly working on gouache with great help from a Wet Canvas challenge here.



Another tea cup with my favorite tea. I've been studying this book, by Arthur Dow, in particular the part about Notan.

TEA AND BOOKS AND W,X,Y AND Z

Nursing this cold for the last few days. I've finished 3 books since Christmas (The 13th Tale was the best), written often in my green journal, and drank many cups of tea. I should have included my laptop here too. Feeling better today, but not great. Tomorrow, I'm spending in the studio regardless of how I feel.

Goofy looking ellipse.

And here's the rest of the alphabet:

A START FOR 2010 AND T, U, and V

For the last few weeks in the overwhelming month of December, I was contemplating whether or not to keep on with this blog. Though I've done some sketching last month, I've hardly put a thing here (though the scanner not working was a good excuse for a while.) I had just about decided to give it a break and not make any sort of resolve to try to paint every day this year. Having 2 blogs and trying to put something here every day in addition to getting other art done and on a blog, and, not to forget, my non-artist life.....life takes energy and time and I become stressed when I don't do what I've committed myself to do.

For the last few days, nursing a feverish cold, I've gone back and forth on the matter, writing and deleting these last few days. Tomorrow is Sunday, another day of renewal, so its time to stop the anguishing and decide and put it down in writing:

I will draw or paint every day for the rest of 2010. And the small watercolor sketches will be posted here.

and I'll get more larger work done this year... and delve more into some other media... and get more serious with my gallery next summer.... and its way past time that I have a show in Juneau so I will make an effort to arrange one.


So, maybe there won't be as much here. I hope to be be putting more art on the other blog this year.... guess I never should have named this one "Watercolor Postcards" because that limits what I can put here. I hope my few followers will look at both blogs.


Notice I said "rest of 2010." On January 1st I hardly felt like getting out of bed.



But today the fever is gone, I'm feeling better, and got the last 2 oranges and painted them here.


And here are T, U, and V of Alyssa's alphabet book.

PQR and S