TOO BUSY

Another intense week and next week will follow the same insane 12-14 hour schedule. But AFTER THAT, things should (I HOPE) slow down.

Sketching this week fell to those minutes prior to falling into bed ... but I did manage sketches each day. I have one to add watercolor too before I post.

This sketch is of Rebecca's hurricane candle ... what interested me in this was the egg-holder shaped 'vase' holding the candle. I brought this piece to my room to sketch, knowing I had only a small amount of time before sleep would claim me. Since I had but a card table and chair -- I was gazing at the candle from a weird angle ... looking INTO the cup pretty much -- and compressing the hurricane shade INTO the glass plate it all sat on.

I thought I'd have time (HA HA!) to redo this for the EDM challenge and sketch it from a different angle -- but meetings ran far too late for me to do it again. So here it sits in all it's 'squashed' lookingness.

Dogwood Blossom

Palm Sunday - Easter, and the dogwoods are bright against the Carolina blue sky. I snip a stem from one of the trees, and place it in a vase for my daughter-in-law's birthday dinner. I sketch the blossoms, in their unnatural face-on view .... but I'll have to do this again standing by a tree and stem to capture their quality of DANCE that I see each time I look at those blossoming trees.

I also found trying to capture that light yellow/chartruse/sienna/gray that lines the cupping petals a REAL challenge!

Flower Practice

At night when I want something to sketch and can't seem to settle on something, I grab a wee book I picked up before the holidays, "The Watercolor Flower Artist's Pocket Paintbox." It came with a few pan paints (unknown brand) -- but I bought this for the book. It's only 63 pages -- with tiny illustrations of watercoloring the most common flowers. The authors would lightly sketch a flower, then show in 2 illustrations how watercolors are added. What I like best is being able to SEE the colors they are using and how their shading is done.

What I'm finding, is the most I study THEIR methods -- the better I am able to SEE the various hues and tones in 'real life' flowers! It's as if someone is say "See, Lin -- there's a bit of blue in that green" or "Look at that splotch of yellow on the petal." And then, when I go out to my own garden -- I suddenly can SEE!! (or at least see a bit better!)

So last night, in the rain and dark, I practiced a tulip and sunflower. I added a bit more of my own 'twist' to the coloring since i"m familiar with these flowers .. but I really like having a few other artists at my fingertips to study!

Virtual Asheville Sketch Crawl

Due to unexpected expenses -- eye doctor, Easter, new contacts, etc., etc., my plans to join the crew at the Asheville sketch crawl had to be postponed. SIGH. Big disappointment! Undaunted, though, I decided that I would join them virtually.

It rained on and all off day today, so instead of crawling at any of the local Arboreta, I dropped by the N.C. Museum of Art. I hadn't been there for a while and so I took a bit of time to walk slowly through the paintings, some wonderful statues, some GORGEOUS etchings (teeny) by Rembrandt (SORDID AND SACRED: THE BEGGARS IN REMBRANDT'S ETCHING--Selections from the John Villarino Collection), and some marvelous Egyptian vases!

I knew any rendering of statues would take me several hours and much consternation, so instead, I focused on some of the vases (which I really love!!!).

I'd never sketched in a museum before (I think this is also an EDM challenge!) and so was not sure what to expect. I quietly pulled out my folded sheet of watercolor paper, stood in front of a case of vases (no nearby seats, and I sketch SO SLOWLY), and used my pencil to sketch. MAN, those museum lights are LOW!!!!!

I sketched without anyone stopping me and pretty soon lost track of time. I made notes of color, and then found a seat and opened my wee portable wc pallet and began to watercolor. I went back and forth from seat to case to try to get the colors as correct as possible. (DARN those shadows -- I MUST LEARN MORE about how to do these!) Anyway, I was able to mix and paint, correct, walk back to check, return to seat....... But holy moly, those lights are so DIM!!! BTW, the vases range from 300 bc to 3500 bc!

I was about done with the vases when a young couple came by and asked me to see what I was sketching. (blush blush) I explained that I was a novice and trying to sketch the vases since photos were not permitted (why did I feel the need to justify??? LOL). Anyway -- they made very nice comments .... and I went on to finish my vases.

I stood up -- and got a bit lightheaded. WOW!!! Already 1:00 and a LOONNGGG time since my tiny bowl of cereal. I was in a quandary. I really wanted to do more vases, but my stomach, its emptiness now acknowledged, began to embarrass me with its rumbling. So I had to leave and give it some sustenance.

It was FUN! Though I know it would have been much more enjoyable had I been able to join the others in Asheville. But I was there in spirit and hope to make the next crawl!

Iris on Fabriano

I still cannot believe how beautifully the watercolors are absorbed by this paper! I used WN watercolors and added a bit of Prismacolor pencil for a few highlights. This 'testing' is addicting!

Irises

I'm still field-testing my WN paints. I sketched a few irises on this Cotman 140# watercolor paper. I wanted to see how the paints reacted. They did well, I think, but the paper was not as smooth nor as absorbent as the Fabriano Artistico.

My Trellis

I woke up this morning to rain. After a few hours, the sun peeked through the clouds, only to play a game of 'Where Am I' with the clouds and the wind. The pollen is getting thick and heavy, and with the wind blowing, sure makes a wonderful coat of yellow over everything!

I've been sketching flowers for the last few weeks, so I decided today to broaden my subjects. HA! I walked outside and was hit with so much in bloom I could hardly stand it! Flowers on the elm trees, flowers still on the maples, flowers on the oaks, the pine flowers covered in dusty yellow, my allspice bush (along with heavenly wafts of perfume!), and my trellis--abloom with Carolina jessamine.

So I gave in -- and sketched the trellis as it welcomes guests to the secret garden. Guess you could say I've got a soft spot for the flora! LOL

EDM 61 Grouping

My 'real' paints arrived today! I purchased a dozen Winsor-Newton artist watercolors as well as some Fabriano Artistico 140# coldpress paper. I decided to 'test drive' the paints and paper while meeting this challenge.

I grabbed three lemons from my refrigerator (gee, it's so good to be home!!), cleaned out my portable pallet, and used a pencil to sketch the lemons and some of their values. I used cad yellow, olive green, French ultramarine and burnt sienna to paint them.

MERCY! WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The paints were like butter, especially on THIS paper ... they actually FLOWED on the paper .... evenly ... cleanly ... I could add water and yet keep a consisent coloring! I could add several glazes without puddling or shifting (too much) the layer underneath. MY GOODNESS ... why did I wait so long!

I'm pretty pleased with this sketch and the watercolor ... and my new toys!

Lady Banksia Roses

One night this week after a very stressful few hours, I drove around campus and found the Lady Banks in full bloom. I broke off a cluster of the flowers and sketched them while I listened to a book on tape and ate dinner. I really MUST have my students propagate this lovely shrubby vine!

Four Oaks Park

I was beginning to 'not see' the flowers I've been sketching over the last month, so I decided to sketch something different to 'wake me up' again. Just before dark, I drove to this lovely little park and attempted to sketch the pergola. SIGH. I must admit I'm out of practice here and must vary my subjects to keep SEEING!

Another busy week at work. By the time I would arrive at the bed and breakfast, I had only enough time to sketch some of the glorious flowers from Rebecca's garden as they sat in tiny vases throughout the house.

Here are some of them: azalea, petunia, phlox, and a few others.

Tea Olive

While I was cleaning some of the flower beds, this heavenly scent just about took my legs from under me. TEA OLIVE!

The tiny white bell-shaped flowers are so well hidden and so small that they're often missed, but that delightful scent can make one swoon!

If the perfumers could ever come CLOSE to matching this fragrance, they'd be rich. But the 'tea olive' fragrances' I've tried don't do the plant justice!

Eleagnus in Fruit

We spent this gloriously warm and sunny day doing yardwork -- cutting back ornamental grasses, spraying weeds, raking. In my tidying, I spotted my Eleagnus in FRUIT!! I don't remember EVER seeing it in fruit before.

Because we were determined to finish as much of the clean-up as we could before we collapsed, I snipped a stem to sketch this evening.

Although I am all aches and pains and can barely get down the stairs without 'oohing' and 'ouching,' I was really pleased with the way this sketch and watercolor wash came out.

For those unfamiliar with Eleangus, the undersides of the leaves are the grayest green and leaves, stems and fruit are covered with these tiny yellow ochre spots.

Crabapple

My crabapple is abursting with blossoms. I sketched a stem earlier when the flowers were only buds. Here, they've opened. The tiny leaves are so young, they are still more reddish than green. I'm hoping for another crop of fruit for crabapple jelly!

More Something from Splotches

Doing these varigated washes stretches my mind and imagination. Here are a few more flowers made from washes. FUN!

Nick Redex

Okay, call me stubborn! I could NOT rest until I tried little Nick again. I'm more pleased with this one -- but I will continue on these faces until my son can say "Oh YEAH! That's Nick. or Emily. or Charles...." SIGH

Back to Faces

I was feeling rather comfortable with sketching and watercoloring flowers and so I thought I'd give myself a challenge and return to faces.

It took me so many attempts to sketch a likeness of my granddaughter, Emily, I thought I'd give my grandson another go.

SIGH!

Not too bad, but not as close as I had gotten with Emily. I'm giving myself an assignment this week -- "sketch more portraits of the grands!"

I've got my fingers crossed.

More Jonquils

The jonqils in my yard are just beginning to pass their peak. I decided to sketch them in the ground they occupy. By the way, the lightest grey shading doesn't show in the scan. (Cotman watercolor paper 140#)

First Lesson Homework and Tree Challenge

The alumni from Kate's classes set up a monthly challenge. Last month was windows; this month is trees. My first lesson focused on watercolor washes, so I combined the challenge of homework and the tree challenge to create this watercolor. (Sioux did the same combination!)

I painted the tree twice (though the trees here are the same painting - one darkened by Photoshop to help get the colors on screen closer to real life) -- and I'll probably paint it again while I continue practicing using more watercolor than pencil!

Graded Wash

Although you can't see it in the scan (DRAT the thing!!) I've sketched my redbuds against a pale blue sky. (WN paints on Fabriano #140 coldpress.) This is much softer toned in real life.

Graded and Varigated Washes

I'm finally getting a chance to 'play' with my watercolor assignments. I've done two washes - flat and graded - on Fabriano 140# cold process -- seemed to do very well! The tree was done on a graded wash on hot pressed paper -- MUCH more difficult. (Tree painted with Micron brush). The flowers were created after a few varigated washes. I sketched the flower based on the shape of the wash. FUN!

Two for Tea

I'm continuing my watercolor practice. Last night while I sipped on the tea inside this cup, I sketched two versions of the cup ... one with more intense shadows than the other (my intention was to get the shadows on the saucer since the light came from overhead).

The scan is much brighter than the painting; my scanner really brightens the white of the watercolor paper and thus the subtle shadings don't show in the scan as they do in real life. I've tried fixing this in PhotoShop -- but no luck thusfar.

Rebecca's Irises

While my irises at home are barely buds, 80 miles south of me, Rebecca has been filling her vases with these purple beauties for the last week. This week I sketched one of her smaller arrangements (on sketch paper).

EDM #60

This week was consumed with construction and landscaping where I work. Fields were cleared and graded, drainaged was corrected, a new patio was created with awesome looking pavers, and all the while, heavy equipment stirred up dust, dirt and pollen to land in even the smallest of crevices. Instead of sketching my dust-baked car for this challenge, I sketched that fascinating Bobcat that moved soil, stone, pallets, gravel and more. What a nifty piece of heavy-duty machinery in such a compact size!

I sat in the field and sketched this Bobcat from its side as darkness fell. With all the stone and machinery around, I couldn't get a better angle.

Rebecca's flowers

I sketched one of Rebecca's vases of flowers on watercolor paper so I could practice both sketch and watercoloring.

Violets

I've signed up for Kate's watercolor class but haven't had a chance to do any homework. To get familiar with watercolor paper (I've been sketching and applying a watercolor wash to my text-weight sketch paper), I played a bit with some paints and Fabriano watercolor paper.

Brunch

We're continuing our food-ish weekend. For brunch, Charles made an absolutely scrumptious omelette using Vadalia onion tops and the remaining basil cream sauce from last night's pasta. He added a side of cantaloupe and strawberries, bacon and toasted whole wheat apricot bread, and a steaming cup of coffee. INCREDIBLE!

My diet is shot! I'll need five miles on the treadmill -- but oh my, it was SO worth it!

'What the World Eats'

The day began with rain and a bit of sleet and a bit of snow. SPRING??? HA! Poor flowers!

I read the New York Times' article on food in Rome as I ate my English muffin and drank my morning coffee. Our plans to begin yardwork being 'rained out,' we decided to see the exhibit 'What the World Eats' at Exploris in Raleigh (www.exploris.org).

We ate lunch at the Carolina cafe and then drove across town to the Museum. WHAT A NEAT EXHIBIT! Portraits of 30 families from all over the world (including Raleigh!) were displayed with a week's worth of typical groceries (some included Australia, Ecuador, England, Greenland, India, Japan, Kuwait, Mali, rural China, Turkey, Mexico, Greenland, Italy, France, Germany, India, etc. Alongside the portraits was a list of all the foods and their respective costs (including costs of eating out).

From the least amount of money spent on food for a family of four in Bhutan (I think it was $30 US currency) to a family of four or five in Germany ($500 US currency) for a week- not only the cost of the food but the different (as well as similar) foods was eye-opening! One could clearly see the influence of pre-packaged and fast foods. (KFC is the biggest Western fast-food chain in China) and of the 30 families featured in the exhibit, only 11 did not have a Coke or Pepsi product represented in the photo!

We spent a good amount of time reading each feature and grocery list! The exhibit has a book "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats," Material World Books and Ten Speed Press, if you're interested. The exhibit sure gave us a lot to think about!

Afterwards we did a bit of grocery shopping and made it back home in time to cook dinner.

After a day focused on food .... what did WE eat???

Porcini Mushroom Tortelloni with Peas covered with a Basil Cream Sauce!

AWESOME!

Poppy

I'm still experimenting with the Fabriano watercolor paper. I sketched this poppy from a book and tried to focus on the highlights and manipulating my paint. OH MY! There's a lot to learn!
This looks more like pencil than watercolor! SIGH!

Flowering Almond

Behind the house, tucked in a semi-protected area, is a gorgeous flowing almond -- the most peachy-pink-orange that I've seen. I sketched a flower cluster, again on 140# WC cold press Fabriano paper. The sketch in real life matches the color beautifully -- but I'll be darned if I can't get my scanner (and all my adjustments) to cooperate! SIGH!

My Jonquils

After spending a week among Rebecca's flowers, I dashed outdoors to see just flowers were abloom on my own property. DRATS! We are still weeks behind those further south of us (even 90 miles!), and so, besides my trees, the only flowers I could find blooming were a patch of jaunty jonquils -- and here - only THREE!

Sketching this was a new experience for me. I've been sketching on 60 pound sketch paper and adding light watercolor washes. To prepare for the class I'll take online with Kate Johnson, I'm trying out Fabriano 140 pound watercolor paper. MERCY! How very different the paint behaves! I wound up adding paint, removing paint, scanning and rescanning (since my scanner turns the colors into something very weird!), and have settled on this version.

All I can say is I'm eager to learn more about watercolors--from their properties to papers to brushes! But for now, all I can say is -- THE PAPER REALLY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!

FINALLY - A Redbud I like

I got to Rebecca's earlier than normal last night, and I used the opportunity to sketch one of her beautifully shaped redbuds. I like this a lot and HOPE that I've finally captured its delicacy and beauty.

Those Redbuds

When the sun finally came out this week, I sat in my car and sketched the very young redbud near the former greenhouse of my students. I wanted to TRY to capture the fragile look of it and the bright, pink blossoms. Though I've come pretty close to the actual structure of the tree, it so reminds me of something Walt Disney would animate that it makes me laugh!

Rainy Day Boredom

We've had several rainy days this week with a return to cooler temperatures. Unable to get out to sketch the blooming plants (or walk!!), I wound up sketching my CD player and a copyright free image of Tuscany. I liked the way both came out -- and after struggling with so many angles and placements with the Tuscany image, I will have to do more of these to ready myself for the Oxford sketch crawl in April!

Rebeccas Vases

I told Rebecca (owner of the B&B I frequent) how much ya'll were enjoying my sketches of her flower arrangements. She was so delighted, that she made sure I had something different to sketch each night! AND, she wants me to make more notecards from them!! WOW!! Here are the three from this week.

Dinner

Before I left for the week, my dh and I had dinner at a lovely, quiet Italian restaurant. While we waited for the food, I sketched the Chianti bottle/vase.

HEADING OUT AGAIN

My weekend was sort of disorganized. Typically chores are done on Friday so that we have Friday and Saturday for doing those kinds of things we'd prefer to do. THIS weekend though found us replacing cell phones, shopping for odds and ends, visiting grandchildren, and taking care of arrangements and attending one of my husband's cousin's funerals. Seems like the weekend flew by without much awareness or much groundedness.

As we ate lunch, I sketched my overnight bag, packed again for a week out of town. BIG SIGH!

EDM #59

This week's challenge is to sketch signs of spring. Though we've been having warm temperatures up until now, THIS week, the first week of spring, our temperatures are dipping into the 50s ... BRRR!

However, my property and the plants on it, is about two weeks behind those where I work since I'm about 80 miles north. So for this challenge, though I've sketched similar plants at work, I've included three plants from my property: forsythia, crab apple and flowering almond.