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.

JANUARY 17TH AND 18TH

Birthday cake for Bill's 79'th birthday.

Gary watching the football game this afternoon.

14th, 15th and 16th

I was asked to show some of my paintings at the school for a few weeks, and decided to include some of the watercolor postcards I had done in 2006. I mounted about 60 of them on 4 pieces of matboard and hung them yesterday. It was fun to get them out and go through them and reminded me what a worthwhile thing it was doing them. And after doing them now for 16 days without fail, I am resolving to do one everyday of 2009. Well, I've done it now; guess I am committed.

I've been having trouble getting on line lately.... something to do with power outages in Juneau, I've been told by AT&T. Rather frustrating. So I will probably continue not posting them daily.

Wednesday painting was out the window again, but on different paper in a different book. Smoke from a neighbors fire and the rare sun shining through flattened out the trees.
Merlot and crackers, after a busy day.
Thick fog today, and another painting of my view from the studio window.

JANUARY 12TH AND 13TH

A still life on Monday with gouache. The snow is melting, its raining. I don't want to be out there, I don't want to look out there.


Its still raining. I found a little bit of color out there today. I'm still not liking this paper.... nor the only rapidograph ink that I have which is brown and bleeds.

JANUARY 11, 2009

The sun tried to come through today around noon. It doesn't look like the sun is much higher in the sky, but I trust it is. The weather has changed sometime over night.... now rain. Most of the snow is off the trees. It was gorgeous last night with the closest moon of the year lighting up the snow covered landscape, though I didn't see it through the clouds.

JANUARY 9TH AND 10TH

Friday's little painting is our house and was done from a photo I took on Thursday afternoon.

Saturday, the 10th: I scanned the whole page in my book, cropping out the writing on the sides. The trees once more are some of what I see south of the house. The stained glass, also a view in the window was a gift years ago from friend and mentor Carol Janda. The ice cycles have been growing since before Christmas. They are gone now. Van knocked them off and soon after snow poured off the roof.

JANUARY 7TH AND 8TH

Yesterday's views outside were so, so the same.... more snow and painting it again just wasn't what I wanted to do. So a still life instead, something about somewhere else... we are going to Florida about 6 weeks from now and I'm beginning to look forward to it.


This morning, six moose were roaming out in the field while I was fixing breakfast, so I just had to sketch some. I put the trees around these two and am loving the beauty around me again.

I'm not loving this paper I'm painting on though. But I am still determined to fill the pages of this book before starting another one. Another foot or more of snow predicted today and tomorrow.

JANUARY 6, 2009

It stopped snowing today, but hasn't gone away. We have over two feet accumulated. I painted this looking out my bedroom window this morning.... not very happy with it (the scan looks better than the painting) and planned to do it again later today, but as usual, the days are just too short to do all I want to do. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. Frustrating day in the studio today; the painting I've been working on for several days is garbage.

JANUARY 5, 2009

I've used these for models before, and after doing this little painting and I might do something else with them. I used white qouache for the lines on the origami crane.