Looking forward....

I am in the mood to paint and create. I went through a creative funk recently and had a hard time getting going; perhaps it was the long, rainy winter finally settling into my bones. Now that the sun and warmth as returned, the days aren't long enough for me.

I am...

working on the 2018 calendar (one of two or three I hope to produce this year if I can maintain this level of ambition, that is) called Baby Boomer Toys. Oh boy !  That is quite fun. Everything is at the draft stage, but here's a preview of one month.

Be sure to get on the mailing list at the website if you would like notice of its arrival. 

starting another series similar to the Pears series I did here.  My friend Carol asked if I had ever done apples, so..why not? Just the first steps (painting a coat of red bas a base, painting and blending the local color):

I will be selling these (finished, of course!) in prints, cards, and other forms in my new website shop come late June. 

And I have also started a series i call "Family" using old family photos to paint a little collection. i like to think of myself as a watercolor artist, but I gotta tell you, I am enjoying the magic of painting over mistakes or changing one 's mind midstream ...easy to do with acrylic paints, almost nonexistent with watercolor.

Here's a snatch of the first one:

Still a work in progress but getting there.

Finally, my long-delayed Megazine will be revised and updated of for publishing soon, and i am doing my best to keep  up with Carla Sonheim's 365 every day. Well, at least I'm looking at the videos and prompts and thinking about them. That counts a little.

So my funk seems to be over for now, energy returning...now if only my Cubbies could get out of their losing funk lately...

Ready to cruise down a river or two or three...

This week I finished and sent off 7 travel journals for the seven other couples Bob and I will river cruise with pretty soon. The eight couples (from 4 different states!) will cruise together on the Viking longship from Amsterdam to Budapest. Several will spend extra days before or after in various places, but the book I made focuses on the 15 days of the cruise itself, 

I used the deconstructed journal format Jill Berry talks about in her video and in whose retreat workshop I participated, taught in Jill's place very ably by Caitlin Dundon.

 To make it my own, I added pockets lots of pockets, personalized stickers and tags, a little envelope with more crap ephemera and a "kit bag" with a sharpie, permanent tape (currently all pages are in with removal adhesive tape so that pages can be taken out while on the trip, then reattached afterward more permanently.







Usually, when I am needing to do more than 1 or 2 of the same of something, I get bored by the time I am at the 3rd one. Really intensively bored and hating it by the 5th one. This time, I enjoyed it all the way through and gave myself the time to do the extra things with variety. (Variety is the spice, you know, especially for this earthling.)Each one is unique but similar to the others, so it kept me interested. I loved having the opportunity to use some stamps, rubbings, and doo-dads (see above paragraph ha ha).



Tyvek is a girl's best friend.

A Garden Carnival

Had a dream last night, one I hadn't had before...
It 'twer a flower carnival, and on the garden floor
More toots and ballyhoos and whizzes in the air
'Twas fine and dandy, a visual candy, my imagined floral fair.

Flowers on left and right are the fruits of Lesson 1 in Carla Sonheim's Crazy Flower Mini-class. 

In the mail, a fruity surprise...

Early this morning

'bout 7 a m

Ate the last grapefruit,

a Florida gem.

Would need to buy more

(Grapefruit really rocks.)

What's that?  The postman

has brought us this box?

A box full  of grapefruit?

How are we so lucky?

From Ar i zon a!

Well, that's just plain ducky!

Thanks, Judi and Gus

for  the backyard surprise

And see? The full bowl

is a feast for the eyes! 

An anniversary of sorts.

This was my first post on Blogger seven years ago almost to the day. Just for a second look, okay? As old as this post is, it truly is in the category of buried treasure.

I had been blogging for a few years before that with the Mac web app that looked great but didn't work all that well and then was discontinued by Apple anyway. We Maccers had to scramble for something else. Which was fine; it was time. Except most of my genius was in those blog posts, ya know? Gone forever. Probably a good thing. You can't go home again.

A spot of tea perhaps?

I have had lots of the British and Australian in my life most recently and feel the need for tea or warm beer.

"While WWII rages across the Channel, police detective Christopher Foyle reluctantly remains on duty in his quiet English coastal town. The battle comes to Foyle in its own way as he probes war-related cases of murder, espionage, and treason. Mystery blends with history, moral complexity, and period atmosphere in this splendid British series."

I discovered and fell in LOVE with Foyle's War, the BBC series. Go find it. On Netflix, unless Acorn TV has captured all the rights to it in the past few days. While each 90 minute episode completes a mystery, it is valuable to watch the story in succession as the character relationships develop.

I also discovered and watched in marathon, The Fall, with Gillian Anderson. Another fine mystery. this one should be watched from start to end. I watched it on Amazon streaming.

I am taking online courses from Jane Davenport and Liz Steel, Australian delights, both of them.

And there's always, Downton Abbey, isn't there?

idea grab

inspiration, part many-many

I have been enamored by several lusciously richly photographed magazines, non glossy Anthropologie-catalog-like pages...so have treated myself to some paper or digital new and
back issues. I know you can find current issues of Sweet Paul and Kinfolk at Anthropologie and a few other similar stores. They are pricey, although digital issues and back issues are less so. But they are well over 100 pages loaded with good ideas and gorgeous photography as any similar book so, actually, they are bargains! she said to justify her obsession.  Oh, and also, far fewer ads than most magazines.

Sweet Paul   instagram.com/sweetpaulmagazine

More later,,,,
Chick Pea
The Simple Things

Uppercase

A bit of catching up

Oh my I see I let August and September fly by with few visits here. But indeed I was a busy girl this summer...

tiling an outdoor table (we break a lot of dishes around here)....

 painting....

pictures for the walls...(inspired by Jill Mayberg)

and the walls...Good-bye turquoise: you were fun but it's time to go.

sewing....

colorful bedcovers (using a collection of vintage hankies)...

and new frocks for windows, 

downstairs.....

and up....There's those hankies again!

I still managed to read a lot of books, tho hardly touching my pile.

...and, best of all, having lifelong friends visit us for games (lots and lots of games), hanging around, and a side trip to Vancouver over the border, a hop skip and jump from Bellevue. 

Assignment: Selfies

On both of these sketches, I used regular sketching pencils and a dark wash pencil. I did a few others in ink but then miss being able to shade for the depth and curves of a face. 

In Sketchbook Skool, we are drawing selfless - in real life with mirrors and from photos. Here are a couple of my selfies with my new goodies from Zazzle: a Sketchbook Skool hoodie (I love hoodies in the winter - so cozy!) and my bumper sticker. I also got a mug. Thankfully, I cleaned out my mug shelf a few weeks back in an effort to downsize it. So I had an empty space.

Do they look like me? A little. Parts.

Pretty, darn prickly

I collaged this prickly pear plant with some painted papers and pen..and and a bit of paint. I call it Pretty Darn Prickly but you can add a comma if you have recently fallen victim to its sharp personality as I have. Very pretty though at this time of year.

Have Pages, Will Travel

Some of the signatures made in Mesa workshop last weekend and putzed with since…love lots of color but now will work on toning it all down to post some pictures, drawings, thoughts….

Is this fun or what? 

Wrapping up.

Last summer I painted patterns. I took Mary Ann Moss's SEWN online class to get inspired. I have loved working with these patterns ever since, and am about ready to start a new batch. I made color copies of some favorites - using high quality printer paper - and just discovered another use for them. I have a present ready to go, but didn't have wrapping paper. Voila! put four of these together, covered the seams with pretty ribbon, and a luscious wrap. Don't you agree?

A Quickie Print

Wow. March has almost come and gone already.

My friend Carol and I spent a lovely long weekend making art. Painted and printed and patterned ourselves silly. It was so much fun. Posting some pix soon.

Meanwhile, thought I'd share this surprise. I knew that embossed wallpaper held promise for printing and/or textures, but didn't expect it too be so cool. The my stuff is hard to find these days. I want more!

Out of the garage….

Surprise! That big blue tub is loaded with everything I needed. 

For those unfamiliar with it, that yellow thing is the Gocco printer. 

...and into the studio. After a pleasant lunch with Claire this week, I dug out my Gocco printer. It seems that we both are lapsed Print Gocco fans.  Actually, she authored a book about the Gocco screen printer many years back that I have (somewhere!).  Lo and behold, except for needing new batteries, it was ready to go. I had working flash bulbs, several screens, lots of block printing ink (even pastels, good grief), and I found it was like riding a bicycle. A few nudges from the translated directions, thank goodness since everything else is in  Japanese, and off I went. Grabbed a quick carved image and word stamp, took a good black-and-white copy, and away I went.  Think I'll keep it out awhile, It's really a clever little printing tool.

Three Goodies

After mulling over it for awhile to consider my level of commitment, I enrolled in Carla Sonheim's year-long fairy tale class. I am fond of fairy tales, much more so now than when I was wee. Every year my teaching partners and I would teach fairy tales to our classes: the structure, folkore, similarities and differences, and artistry - visual and written - of classic and unknown fairy tales. Then students would write their own, illustrate them, print out the tale on pages that were sewn into a book. Then we looked at suns in art and they designed a sun cover which they batiked. It was all long, arduous, and fun as heck and the products were amazing. I'll post a photo or two when I run across them again. Talk about love-hate relationships....like most people, I live in Digital and Film Purgatory; what have we wrought?

So I continue to be drawn to them. I have several beautifully illustrated ones on my picture book shelves. Carla's delicate and whimsical style is perfect for the genre and I will enjoy going through these "assignments" and illustrating fairy tales. I am catching up, as the class started a few weeks ago.

One of our exercises if to copy faces with our nondominant hand to learn how faces"work" - I draw and paint  faces a lot (I love trying to draw faces from the newspaper, cops and robbers, living and dead, heroes and villains.) So I sort of jumped over that part, but did look at some faces while using my left hand and stylized them  as I went along. Then I went back and tweeked with my "good" hand. I did find that using my left hand allowed more freedom of imagination as I drew. More likely to get wonky shapes and lines to build upon. That was fun. These aren't final faces; I will play more until I choose the face I want for my  FROG PRINCESS!

Even if you decide not to take this on, you might enjoy watching that introduction at the top...and you really must see her paper doll tutorial

 2. 

Did you know that Michael's now carries Moleskine journals? 40% coupons make them quite palatable. A bit of art store guilt here, but I'll get over it and don't see my art store spending inhibited much. (Daniel Smith loves me. The Michael's selection is limited, and I actually have a love-hate relationship with Moleskines, but I do like their creamy-thicker- pages-one.  Since I only have (XXXXX) other blank journals on which to do my fairy tale drawings and light watercolor. I bought a red one. It will be perfect.

(Number was redacted to embarrassment of number of other blank sketchbooks, journals, ready signatures, and Anthropologie catalogs to gesso over that I also could have used instead of buying another one. I love using the word "redacted." It's so...current and important-sounding.)

3.

Saw an ad for "Double Scoop" gelatos, which I have put on my wish list. I love those creamy gelatos and will use the larger sizes. I walk around with fingers of various gelato colors quite often from rubbing them into my art work. Delish.

Tool Time

Husband Bob  just cleaned out the kitchen tools drawers. (He's the cook in the family so it was understandably annoying him more than me.) Among the amazingly large pile of Stuff We Don't Ever Use and What Is This For? and Do We Really Need Twelve of These? tools were a few I rescued for a second life in the studio.

Work in progress, playing with my new tools.

So I am putting these on trial. I've set aside a little place for them. I  used some to start a page...Hmmm...I may like that serrated circle edge or interesting potato masher pattern. And the little handle on the ...what-is that-anyway-a-special-salt-or-sugar-thingabobbie?....has a clever pattern for spraying.

The boy in the photo is my great uncle Les who I figure was about 3 at the time. Which makes this photo more than 100 years old.

This was part of a vacuum thingie for wine to keep oxygen out.  We don't have a bottle long enough in our house to make that matter much. :)

Promise. If I don't use them again in the next, oh, couple of months  (I shall put it on the calendar), they will lose their second life. It's just that I cannot resist a Texture Maker or Pattern Producer for the life (much more than second) of me.

January Kings

....a postcard of some carved images that I exchanged in a carving group awhile back.

Thinking About Crayons. And a New Book About 'Em.

I am intrigued by Crayola crayons. And memories of fresh new boxes the first days of school. And my curious, serious attraction to color when making purchasing decisions. And the conversation at the tables of Naming Committees for crayon, nail polish, and wall paint colors. 

I wrote a poem once about crayons that I posted previously.  I am posting it again in honor of the new school year and the book I just bought. 

from About.com: "Crayola brand crayons were the first kids crayons ever made, invented by cousins, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. The brand's first box of eight Crayola crayons made its debut in 1903. The crayons were sold for a nickel and the colors were black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney (wife of Edwin Binney) who took the French words for chalk (craie) and oily (oleaginous) and combined them."

My new book is called The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. 

 When Duncan opens  his box of crayons, he finds instead that his crayons are on strike. Among the complaints are red's, who thinks he has to work too hard because of all the red things Duncan likes to draw. Dark Tan feels unloved and unused. 

Orange calls yellow a whiner who doesn't really know the color of the sun. 

And purple thinks Duncan is a pretty bad colorist and should color more inside the lines. 

I love my new book that I bought at Elliot Bay Books. You should check it out for  your pleasure. 

You can see a list of all the colors, past and present names, and colors "retired" here. You KNOW you want to see this!  

Read about new color John Boehner orange! 

Wherein I Paint Pears....

I was so inspired by Angela Anderson's video on how she guides her students in painting acrylic pears. So inspired that I painted four of my own large size. I did revise a few things along the way, and next time I'll definitely need to go off on a tangent of my own. Nevertheless, we needed something for the mantle, book club was coming, and I had an itch to paint. Great fun. The two best things were a reminder to paint an undercoat of red. I first learned that from Teesha at a Play retreat. It makes the pears almost glow. The second was the white reflective spots. When painting them, it is hard to imagine it will look like anything except a white spot you stuck a perfectly good piece, and, it does take a little manipulating, but voila! love the look. All of a sudden the pear is really truly round!

Angela has a rich, resourceful site with great ideas for teaching students that can also be inspirational for one's own art. You should check it out! Here is the video and here is her YouTube page.

Not sick of pears yet, I painted ten postcards for two months' worth of a postcard exchange I am invariably late for every month. I added some textures to the backgrounds and worked the colors a bit differently. Each one had its own personality. I got a lot of mileage out of those pears, yes I did. I blogged about the first set I sent out. I took the photo before I added the spots, though. The spots really make a difference, I think. Thanks again, Angela!