STILL TRYING TO CATCH UP

Not much time to write much before the library closes... I could and might go out on the bench in front afterwards. And now I see that some of these photos of the paintings are out of focus. Well, darn.
This was from the side curb by the Baptist Church... I go there to make phone calls sometimes. Its on a hill near downtown and in the shade in the afternoon. That's a cedar tree.

This is an oak tree.... I posted the sketch I did on site on my last post, and finished it with gouache from a photo.
This is my cousin Martha's house across from where we are staying here in Cedar Key.... I love the crossed palm trees in front.

And this of a renovated historical house, relocated to the grounds of the very interesting museum grounds here.

Well, that's going to be it for now. I have kept up with my goal of a painting everyday, or I should say a painting for everyday, because there have been a few days that I haven't picked up a brush. Other days I've done 2 or 3. I'll get them posted sooner or later.

CATCH-UP TIME

Oh my! We left home 2 weeks ago today.... I probably have 14 postcards finished, but I haven't taken pictures of all of them yet. I am at the Cedar Key library using the wi-fi here, and will upload what I have. My AT&T wireless won't get even a slight signal where we are staying. I can sometimes use my cell phone if I go out in the middle of the road in front of the house. And I thought things were bad in Alaska. Nothing else to complain about here though. Though its been cold a few days (Florida standards) we've really enjoyed the weather.

On the way here, we spent a couple of days in Juneau, staying at the Extended Stay Motel. This was the view from our window over towards the glacier.

This was from Alaska Airlines flight 10 on Saturday, February 21... somewhere over Oklahoma or Texas.

Sunday, February 22, from the bench next to the lagoon looking towards my brother Ken's house near Lake Wales.

On Sunday, we drove to Lake Kissimmee State Park where we walked around.... visited a "cow camp", saw some wildlife and enjoyed the hugh live oaks..... I had time to do this little sketch with watercolor pencils. Yesterday, I painted over it in gouache and will put on the next post.

We came to Cedar Key on Monday, Feb. 23, and are loving it. This is the view in the west from our porch.... the bayou, painted with gouache in the morning.

and this with watercolor.
Afternoon and high tide, the colors are quite different.

I've started painting little botanicals in an accordian Moleskine.... so far using gouache. I'm hoping I can fill it up with Cedar Key plants while I'm here.
This is a sprig of cedar from which the town was named. There was a big industry here years ago using the cedar for pencils.

We are in an upstairs apartment on a canal. This is looking across the canal South. First painted in watercolor then a lot of gouache on top.
Another house across the canal done in watercolor


The same blue house in gouache.

MOUNT FAIRWEATHER ON FAIRWEATHER DAY

Busy, busy, packing and doing all the last minute stuff before we leave tomorrow..... still lots to do. But this being just about the nicest day in months, I had to get out and paint. I did this of Mount Fairweather just before the sun went down. I live in this most beautiful place.... on a day like today, I don't want to leave. As luck has it, tomorrow it will probably be snowing and the planes won't be flying.

TWO LITTLE PAINTINGS FROM KIM'S

I ran in to a my friend Kim this afternoon and invited myself to her house to paint. She has fabulous views from her windows. This is out towards Icy Strait with the Salmon River in the foreground. I painted it in my book from Florence with the Fabriano paper and am liking the paper. I have decided to take the book to Florida. Did I mention that I'm leaving tomorrow on my way there? We will be staying for 2 months.

I did this one today too...same view on Arches 140# cold press, the paper I must often use.

MY GAS STOVE AND A NEW BOOK

This gas stove replaced our oil range about 15 years ago. It has a great little oven, but we use a stove top on our counter for other than baking. I was a little over confident with my drawing with pen, and frustrated with the bleeding ink when I added the watercolor.

I started using this book today for painting my postcards. I bought it in Florence last year at Il Torchio Legatoria Artigiana It was handmade there with beautiful Fabriano watercolor paper.

TWO ALASKA SHELLS

More snow and at a loss for something to paint. I put off painting all day, finally forced myself to pick up some shells and start drawing them . Once again I am reminded that inspiration is not necessary to do a satisfying sketch, and I'm finding that since I've started drawing and painting every day, I rarely use an eraser and get what I'm after in a lot less time than before. I can't remember what these shells are and am too lazy to get out my book and look them up.

BACK TO THE BEACH

It was a low energy day after playing dominoes and cards late last night. After working at the library this afternoon, I drove down to the beach to paint from the car again. Sun was above the clouds and shining brightly, but behind the cloud when I painted. Colder than yesterday, in the high 20s.

BEACH TREES

I never tire of painting these trees at the beach. It was another mostly sunny day, so I once more headed to the beach in the car and was able to pull of the road and paint this and another one of the same view in gouache that needs some more work.

PAINTING FROM THE CAR

I drove down to the beach and painted a couple of views looking North..... this is the best of the two. It was so enjoyable painting this.... so good to be out of the house on this rare sunny, beautiful day. And the painting came out half way decent.

YET ANOTHER VIEW OUT THE STUDIO WINDOW

This is done with gouache and smaller than most of my postcards..... 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches, and painted on a dark gray piece of mat board.

PINCUSHION AND SCISSORS

I made a dress for my grand daughter, Alyssa, today. It was the first garment I've made in years.... my sewing for the last few years has been on quilts and mending. I think I'll paint this arrangement again, and put some pins in the cushion.

FEBRUARY 8TH AND 9TH

I've really been at a loss for something I want to paint lately. I'd really like some flowers around. This cactus, which I've painted before (seems like I've painted everything around the house at least once ) seemed a little more interesting than most things. I first drew with pencil then painted the green with watercolor followed by the spines with gouache. Then I outlined with a silver Jelly Roll pen. I painted a Mexican sort of design pot which looked goofy, then glued over it wit a piece of paper that I had previously painted and stamped. It was fun.
Monday mornings are busy... I work at the local second hand store until 12 or 1. Today, I took my paints with me, intent on going somewhere afterward to paint, and ended up at the Wing's building at the airport, got a sandwich and prepared to paint the trees and mountains from the window, then Doc came and parked the snowplow right in front of the window and came in and talked while I managed to draw part of the plow above the railing, even while 3 other guys joined us all talking guy talk.

I got tagged by R. Gerriot who is a fabulous painter and who has a great blog with information about photoshop that you can go to by clicking here. The result of being tagged is that I am suppose to list 7 unusual things about myself. So, here's my list.

1. I cut with scissors backwards... I'm left handed and cut with the scissors pointing towards me rather than away. Always have, dispite numerous gifts of left handed scissors.

2. My first trip ever out of Florida where I grew up was when I was 20 and went to California on a Greyhound and worked at Yosemite for the summer.

3. I lived without electricty for most of 8 years.

4. I lived on a one acre island for 3 years.

5. I live in Alaska and never voted for Sarah Palin.... and I always vote.

6. I never voted for Ted Stevens or Don Young either.

7. I've never eaten a Twinkie.

Now I'm suppose to send this to 7 bloggers. But since most all of the blogs I read have already done this I'm just going to list 7 here that I like to read, and hope you will check them out too.


http://lindablondheimartnotes.blogspot.com/
http://makingamark.blogspot.com/
http://pharmwife.blogspot.com/
http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com/
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/
http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/
http://foxyartstudio.blogspot.com/

FEBRUARY 4,5,6, AND 7

Its been a busy week and I've been derelict with my blogging duties. I spent most of the last week making a woodblock print for the Baren Forum Year of the Ox exchange. You can read more about it on my other blog here. Also derelict in painting on Wednesday, but since each of the 70+ prints were printed by painting on the block with watercolor, I guess I can get by with a print counting as my post card for Wednesday.
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Painted on Thursday, these are the last of the tomatoes, and I took a little longer to paint them this time. Not so happy with the arrangement on the cloth. I painted it upside down from this, but like this better, and maybe with my signature in the right bottom corner it will balance out more to my liking.

I painted these yesterday..... brush and the baren used in my woodblock printing.

And tonight, I painted this of my husband Van, watching a movie.... MEN IN BLACK

FEBRUARY 2 AND 3

These tomatoes are the brightest things around now. Wish I had some flowers. I've been painting the still lifes after dark while I prepare dinner.

It was quite windy today, from the west. A bit of sunshine and more snow.

FEBRUARY 1, 2009

Yet another paper.... Lenox, in one of my handmade books. The sun came out this morning, and I put hand warmers in my boots and gloves and went out with my paints. When I got out beyond the trees, I realized the wind was blowing quite hard. I found some shelter on the smokehouse porch. This was done very quickly with too large of a brush for my liking, looking across the river towards P. Island. The sun was so bright that I couldn't see much color.... the scanner couldn't either.

JANUARY 31

This cup and saucer are part of a set of dishes that my Aunt Lou gave to me some years ago when she made a move. I've used them ever since, though I don't use the cups often.
I'm using a different paper today, the same I used for my Jan. 14th painting. It is a rough handmade paper (from India, I think) in a book that I got from Daniel Smith quite a while back. I'm seeing with this painting every day how differently I paint on different papers, out of necessity, I guess, to obtain what I'm seeing. In the end, my paintings seem almost a different style using different papers. The paper is presenting a challenge but I'm kind of liking what I did today, so think I'll keep working in this book. I got another book with the same paper at the same time I got this one, and ended up using it for collages because I found it difficult to paint in at the time. Or maybe because of the format.... the one I'm using now is landscape format, the other one portrait.

JANUARY 28TH, 29TH, AND 30TH

I decided to try painting another leaf after doing such a lousy job last week. I did this of another leaf on illustration board.

I worked all day painting a larger painting on Thursday, and so for the first time this year didn't do a little painting. But I did 3 on Tuesday and this is one of them. I drove down to the beach, too cold and windy to go for a walk, but painted this from the car... lots of snow and very dark water.


Yesterday we got a box of fresh produce flown in from Juneau, the first in quite a while. Its so nice to have fresh tomatoes and avocados this time of year.

JANUARY 26TH AND 27TH

There was lots of snow on Monday. Two large moose wandered through, probably bucks, more skiddish than most. I resorted to taking a photo in order to draw this one walking.

No snow today. There were short instances of sunshine showing through above dark clouds. It looked like an Ansel Adam's photograph, but I didn't get my camera in time. After the sun was gone,I painted this pine tree, using gouache for the white. This is the best one of the two.

THREE MORE DAYS

Friday, January 23, was not a good day... sometimes life just throws you a curve ball. That might be evident in my painting. I just couldn't get the dried up curled up cottonwood leaf to look like anything. The one on the left was done in watercolor and the one on the right in gouache....its shadow ends where it ended as the leaf set on my sketchbook. There is a faint indication in the scan of a drawing of a spruce cone between the two leaves.


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A much better day on Saturday than it was on Friday. This is the same old view out my window. I had great hopes that it would look good painted with gouache.. started in the morning when the light was interesting making shadows in the snow, but got distracted by something or other and by the time I got back, everything was an uninteresting silhouette. Late afternoon, when I finished it, the light was completely different, the shadows gone, and this is what it is.

It has gotten cold again, clear and sunny yesterday, and the snow has hardened up so you can walk on top.... even the moose aren't sinking in... at least not the young ones. I took a long enjoyable walk, out beyond the trees here to the beach. I had my paints with me, but didn't even try to get them out... just taking off a mitten with a glove underneath to take a photo was enough to put a damper on that idea.

This is todays painting, yet another view out the window. I painted it in one of the little sketch books to try out a new set-up to paint. I got the idea on one of my new favorite blogs, Gurney Journey , written by an extraordinary artist named James Gurney. There is all kinds of great information there.


Here is my set up. I've tried for years to get something I could hold in one hand, and this is it.... I never thought of using the clips. Had tried rubber bands and just holding it all together with my hand. I glued the water cup to a piece of plexiglass and can mix paint on the other side of it.
I've had this little palette for years and it is now hinged together with duct tape. The paint is from my tubes. It fits perfectly on the books which is a favorite size for me. I'm left handed, so a right handed person would put the paint on the other side. You can see Mr. Gurney's set up by clicking here.


The little book on the right is the one I just painted in. They are both 4" by 6 1/2 " and both almost full, so I think I'll make a new one.

JANUARY 22

Another try of the same place... this one is a little larger. The weather turned colder, down in the teens and sunshine this morning.

JANUARY 21

The ditch running through our property has filled up with water, a combination of melting snow and rain. This is the most water we've seen there in the 34 years we have lived here. I painted this from the kitchen rather than down stairs as usual.

JANUARY 19TH AND 20TH

I had about 45 minutes to kill yesterday between helping out at the school and tai chi. Stopped into the library and drew this. Added the paint after I got home.
I spent today glued to the TV, starting at 8AM (noon in DC). What a great day for our country. Not a good likeness, but you must get the idea.