Catching up

I have spent most of Saturday catching up on posts on Wetcanvas. And my project had disappeared so I spent a little time getting that back. There are 6 signed up so far. Can't wait to get started.

No art done today. Just reading about art. I spend too much time doing that instead of actually "doing" it. That will have to change. I have so many things I want to draw, it's just getting started that is causing the problem. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day. Here are a few photos from my outing on Wednesday.

If you want to see larger photos, click each photo.

WC back online.

Well I was wrong. Teresa let me know that Wetcanvas was back online. By the time I found out, some people had known 5 hours before. I am glad Teresa let me know as I probably wouldn't have checked this evening.

So good to have it back. And now to replan my project. That disappeared during the move.

New Message

If you sign on to Wetcanvas, there is a new message giving a slight update. Still no projected date of return. Sounds like the moderators have access as they are helping to solve some problems. At this point, I would be surprised if it came back online before the weekend is over.

I have finished 6 ATCs for a new Disney exchange I signed up for on Drawspace.com. I think there are about 12 participants so far. They usually split their trades up into groups of 5 or so depending how many join. So I may have enough finished already. It was quite a lot of fun. I liked the way they turned out.

The 6 I did were Grumpy (one of the dwarfs), Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Donald Duck, Pinocchio, and a dalmation puppy asleep on a pillow (for 101 or 102 Dalmations movie). I found so many I wanted to do that it was hard to make a choice.

Wetcanvas.com

When I tried to sign on to Wetcanvas tonight, I got a new message saying they will be offline a few more days. They hope to be up and running later in the week. And here I was hoping it would be sooner. I feel displaced. Like I don't have anywhere to go. Isn't that funny? Instead of making more are, I seem to be making less. I need the stimulus I get from Wetcanvas.

By the time WC gets back online, the current Scavenger Hunt will be over. I don't think anyone got to post before it went down. And Thursday is when a new one should bet posted. The new project I started, another postcard/ATC trade will still be waiting for people to join. So we probably won't be able to get started by the first of July.

So in the meantime, I take my mouse and try to get on WC, and get disappointed when I can't. And the internet just doesn't hold as much interest for me at the present. Hurry WC and get everything fixed so I can get my art back on track.

Happy Birthday Stephen

Today is my nephew Stephen's 22nd birthday. I called his cell phone this morning and sang happy birthday to him. He was asleep so didn't answer. What a horrid surprise when he woke to hear my voice singing to him. I usually tell him my present to him is my not singing. I decided after all this time, he should suffer thru my singing.

I remember when he was 14 like it was yesterday. He was such a stoic little trooper when his dad died. More the adult than most kids his age. What a tragedy for one so young to lose his dad.

I remember when he was 2 or 3. He would sit in my lap and want to push the buttons on my calculator. He never tired of it. I would eventually have to tell him it was broken.

I also remember him standing on the table looking out the kitchen window to the highway across the grape vineyard and looking for diesel trucks to go by. His grandpa, dad, and uncle were all truckers. He was so into trucks. He would carry around a pad and paper to take down his "patch" (dispatch for the next day's truck run). He was totally convinced that he could get into a truck and drive it. I have no doubt he probably could have.

He was running a lawnmower at 3 or 4. At 2 put the car in gear and ran it thru the garage wall. Fell from a tree and broke his leg at about 3yrs. And about 5 or 6 could take the air cleaner off the lawnmower when it wouldn't start and use his hand to baffle it and get it started.

Grandma was constantly keeping watch to make sure the only tire he took off of the bike was the front one. She was worried if he took the back one off, it wouldn't get back together right. He would take the front wheel off, put it back on several times a day. Just trying to be a mechanic.

I remember him in the back of my dad's pickup "helping" his grandpa do mechanic work. He would rummage around in all the greasy parts and tools. He would be covered with grease. Grandma would let him have a good time, then would stick him in a tub and wash him down.

Such beautiful memories of a now grown up young man with a very bright future ahead of him. Happy Birthday Stephen. I love you.

Virtual Sketch Date #2

Here is my version of the flower photo (provided by jennifer rose) for the Virtual Sketch Date #2. I decided to leave mine in graphite this time.

Today is the 19th Worldwide Sketchcrawl. I will be going out in the morning before it gets too hot. We are having very hot weather lately. I will go to my parent's house. They have a really nice variety of plants and a vegetable garden. Hopefully I won't get heat stroke while I am sketching.

Blog Anniversary

Today is my blog's 2nd anniversary. Two years, wow. I haven't posted every day, but I think I do a pretty steady job of it. Of course when I had the knee surgery, I was absent for some time. It feels good to realize I have made it two years, and I still haven't run out of words. They get a little sparse sometimes but are never missing.

Happy Birthday To My Blog!

Wetcanvas Down Time

In case you are trying to get online to Wetcanvas, they had a message in the forums. Here is basically what it said:

"Site Going Down!!

---

Hello All,

I'm sure you've been wondering how things are progressing with the site upgrades. As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I will be keeping you updated through this process as much as possible.

This week, the database has been down for several days, and our amazing tech staff has discovered that it is corrupted. It will need to be repaired before we can migrate all of the data to the new site.

The site will be pulled down for several hours tonight while this repair is taking place.

Then, over the next few days, the site will be monitored to determine if we are in a healthy place to make the migration. If things are good to go, we will take the site down again and load into the new servers with the new software".

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Karyn

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Plein air today

Well today wasn't really "en plein air". We were at a members house and most of the ladies watched watercolor videos. I did both. I drew a plant that was on the table and looked up at the video at times.

Two oil painters went a little distance from the house to paint the mountains. One braved the outside to sketch one of the water features, but got "well done" and escaped inside.

A couple of the ladies sketched each other while watching the video. I did find out some information. In the American Artist magazine, there is an ad to get 3 Daniel Smith tubes of paint and a brush for just about $20. And our art association is going to have some beginner watercolor classes starting in Sept. at our gallery. I also got names of 2 watercolor teachers who do workshops. I will look them up online. I can't go take the workshops, but I can take a look and see what else might be available.

Hubby is out of town for work, hot water heater is not working, I don't have to cook, I can't run the dishwasher, and I am hot and sleepy. May have to take a short nap before I stay up till 3 am.

Thank yous

Here are a couple I haven't posted here yet. They were made for thank you cards.

While I was in bed after my knee replacement. The ladies from Bible study cooked up a bunch of dinners and froze them for me. I received enough food to take care of almost a whole month of dinners. All hubby had to do was cook them in the oven. My dog groomer/neighbor also brought over a dish. She brought it the night I got home from the hospital. I have such good and thoughtful friends.

Wow! What a Ride.

I saw a saying on someone's signature line on Wetcanvas today that I liked very much.

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in, broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, WOW, What a ride!

-Anonymous

Lazy Sunday

Not much done today. Hubby's dad has been gone many years, mine doesn't celebrate Father's Day. Our extra dad is in Oregon and we sent him a card. We have only fur babies so don't really celebrate it either.

I did some browsing of some terrific blogs. Saw some amazing art. Hubby cooked breakfast (lots of breakfast). The teens came to clean house. And I did my chores but other than that, I have been pretty lazy today.

Here are sketches done for the scavenger hunt. We backtracked to #88. #89 is done, so the next will be #90. We are getting realllllly close to that #100. Yay!

Too much walking

This week I have done errands that required too much walking. My ankle is complaining fiercely. It wants a rest. A long "sit on my rear" type rest. It hurts to even stand up. So I am blaming my ankle for the fact that I am doing nothing tonight.

Here is one I did for the WDE for 6-13-08. The photos were provided by Beth/Signchick. The one I picked to draw was her hubby. He has a very interesting face, and I really enjoyed drawing him.

Plants and Necessities

Four more of my art exchange cards. The coleus and the variegated canna were for the spring fling and the other two are everyday items.

The coleus and the canna were from photos I took at my sister-in-laws when we were there for a barbecue. She has a huge assortment of things on her patio to photograph. These two I did the sketches while I was there. Then finished them with the color from photos at home.

My Version

This is another of my Master's postcard exchange. This one was my version of an Alexey Venetsianova painting. I liked the youngness of the girl and the colors. I am drawn to portraits of Old Masters. Many of the ones I have done were portraits. I find a lot of the still life and landscapes not very interesting. In fact most of the still life ones seem the same. But the portraits they did show a variety of faces, styles, colors, and the way the subject was portrayed.

One old master gave all his women very long noses. It didn't make them look ugly, but they weren't pretty. More plain somehow. But they looked very interesting. I noticed with portraits of the same painter, I would see some similarities even tho the subjects were different.

Drawing Day

Today was Drawing Day so I did some drawing. Here is one of the things that I did. This is my bird Bozo. It is postcard size and is done in watercolor, pen and ink, and a touch of colored pencil. I was planning to send this as one of my Everyday Items. But for the first time, I am torn about letting it go. I probably will but this one is going to be a little painful.

I am so attached to this bird. She is in her cage behind me as I sit at my desk. She keeps me company. She keeps me entertained. She talks to me. And she wants me to talk back. She is a special girl. Very protective of her cage. Full of life. And has a pretty good vocabulary for a bird.

When I am eating something, and the dogs get a bite, she is pacing back and forth waiting for hers. She likes sunflower seeds very much. But will have a bite of cookie, cracker, carrot, bread, cheerios, broccoli, and even potato chips. She pitches a fit if she doesn't get her bite. She even plays hide and seek with her papa.

When he comes into the room to say goodnight. she goes to the back of the cage and waits for him to pull up the towel and say something to her. She gets all fluffed out and tries to attack him. Then she waits and watches as he goes to different areas around the cage. She waits for this every night. When she hears his voice, she jumps to the floor of the cage and waits to attack.

BMOA Dada Project

Bakersfield Museum of Art has a project going. It is a project where they take artwork by 3 different people and put them together. They provided 3 possibilities. Head, torso, or legs/feet.
They provided about 5 inch squares. These blanks even went out with the local newspaper.

Each person was to draw/paint their version of whichever piece they received. You didn't get a choice. The blanks had the part you were supposed to do. They had a few in the newspaper that had already been done. One had a mermaid tail for the feet. Well I did the "torso" of a cactus. I haven't yet been to the museum to see the results. I would like to see what head and feet were paired with my cactus.

It was a nice project as all were invited to join. You didn't have to have art background, and even kids could participate.

Spring Fling Cards

Here are the spring fling cards that I sent and they have reached their destination.

Shopping Day

Today I had my monthly hair appointment. Then shopped for groceries. I was totally exhausted and everything hurt when I got home and got everything put away. I called hubby and suggested if he wanted to eat, he pick up Chinese on the way home. All I wanted to do is sit and not move. I haven't done much tonight but draw.

I worked on and finished two more Spring Fling cards. That makes 4 ready to go but I need Everyday Items cards to go with them. Oh well.

While under the heat machine today I sketched from a photo of my dog Penny. I started an eye while I waited for my turn, and twenty minutes under the machine. I got quite a lot done. The stylist couldn't believe I had done that much in 20 minutes. She grabbed the postcard it was on and was showing it to everyone. I am having trouble with my scanner. It keeps telling me I need to install software. It does that just about every time I go to use it. It's probably time for a new one but it is a 4-in-1 so not real cheap. And not that old.

Here is the latest Everyday Item card that was received in Thailand and the 2 that arrived in New Zealand. I had 5 cards arrive at their destinations today. I will post the 2 Spring fling cards tomorrow.