Sheep

Here is my last ATC for the Wetcanvas Project. I have enjoyed doing the cards but as usual, I am glad to get finished.

I have a couple things I want to do. One is the Virtual Paintout. I haven't participated for several months and I want to get back to it. I have been cruising around the towns/countries but just haven't taken the time to paint any of the shots I have saved.

Photo from the Nursery

Photo of a succulent plant at the nursery on Wednesday. I thought it was so pretty. I love succulents and cacti.

Boles Nursery en plein air

My art group went to a local plant nursery today. I hadn't been with them for about 3 months so it was nice to go today.

Here is a cactus arrangement they had for sale at the nursery. The actual size of the painted part is about 8 x 10 or maybe just a tad smaller. Done on watercolor paper with watercolor and waterbrush. pen and ink, and a tiny bit of watercolor pencil added to the large cactus.

Moleskine Project Pages

Here are a few more pages of the project book.

Art House Co-op Moleskine Project

Here are two pages of my project book. One has a leaf skeleton that I found in my back yard. I don't know what caused this but found it very lacy and interesting. I laminated it, mounted it in a self closing little clear insert, and then taped it to the project page.

Wow

Wow it has been a long time since I posted. I have no idea why. I have to get better at it.

I have been working on my Art House Coop Moleskine book. I have done a few sketches in it, but mostly it has some of my rambling words. It is a lined Moleskine and supposed to be at least 51% written. I only have until May first to get it mailed back but I'm moving right along.

The front cover is decorated and I have almost half of the pages done. Well sort of done. Some I left empty spots to do some sketches and one or two pages I taped together for a thicker paper. I have no doubt that I will finish in time. I don't know whether anyone will want to read it, but I am having fun doing it.

Nothing has been scanned yet but when I get to that, I will post some on here. I want to make sure all the empty spots are filled on the pages before I scan what is finished.

I worked on my tax stuff tonight. I will call the tax man tomorrow and make an appointment. I will be glad when that is taken care of. My last time filing as married.

I have 4 more cards to do for the People places Things trade project. I'm hoping someone will start a new project soon.

I have an idea for a journal/sketchbook to do. I am thinking about doing a sketchbook with sketches of people from the Google Street Maps "tours" I have taken with The Virtual Paintout. I have saved quite a few in different poses. One guy is even on crutches. They won't have faces but I will get practice doing the folds of clothes, the position of limbs, and hopefully learn to capture people without going into a lot of detail. I would use watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil.

Another Week And Month Gone This Year

Look how fast this year is passing. It's almost mind boggling. Before you know it, it will be Christmas again. Has anyone seen Christmas stuff in the stores yet? Just kidding.

I'm still working on my art card trades. Only a few more on each to do. I am hosting the March Drawspace trade but so far not much interest. I think we only have 3 other people signed up. I do have a few other things I want to do/try so looking forward to finishing all the trades. Of course if another comes along, I'm sure I will be doing it.

I did get my Art House Journal book yesterday. The cover is black and I have already decorated the front in silver and gold markers. Lots of dots. I also have written a kind of preface of what will be included in the book. My theme this time is my name.

This book has lined pages and is supposed to have at least 51% written words filling it. I plan to do a kind of journaling of my life for the next two months. The date to have it returned is May first so I don't have a lot of time. No time to put things off.

Since I do like "traveling" thru places on Google Street Maps, I will be doing some artwork I find there. People standing around, walking on streets, and anything that might strike my fancy.

I will try to do something in the little book daily otherwise I won't be finishing. I hate to have to tear pages out. But I may be using glue or tape to put two pages together to make one so that I have a little thicker paper to work on.

This is another book that will remain at the Art House Co-op Library. I will be notified when someone checks it out. I think that may be interesting to see how many people are looking at and reading about my art and life.

Here is another ATC that has arrived at their destinations.

Chickens, Kit Fox, and Lorikeet

I have 3 more ATCs finished for the trade. These are all done in Watercolor, cp, pen & ink, and a touch of White Conte Pastel Pencil. The chickens were from a reference from Wetcanvas' RIL as was the kit Fox. Both were featured photos on the WDE for this week. The Lorikeet is from a reference by Nev Cross (Dors husband) and used with permission.

"Another One Bites The Dust"

As the song says "Another One Bites the Dust". I finished another Old Masters ATC. Only 2 more to go and one is already sketched. Just have to add the watercolor.

Almost Finished

I'm almost finished with my Old Masters Project. I finished 3 tonight and have two more sketched. After that only one more to do.

The three I have finished are: Portrait of George Washington by Rembrandt Peale, Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the younger, and Self Portrait by Diego Rivera.

All are ATC. One is done in watercolor, pen & ink, and a touch of Conte pastel pencil. The other two are graphite. All are on watercolor paper.

I will be glad to finish this project. Not because I am not enjoying it, but because I have several other things I want to do. And I still have over half of my cards to finish for the People, Places, and Things trade. Plus I will be hosting the March trade at Drawspace. That is still plenty to keep me busy.

Bunny Rabbitt

Everyone who knows me pretty well knows that I have boxes of drawing references. Not just photos but the actual things. Lots of stuffed animals, ceramic animals, a few assorted dishes, twigs, leaves, pine cones, and just about anything I might want to draw some day. I probably have more references than I do pencils and that is saying a mouthful.

Well this latest ATC card I just finished is from a ceramic rabbit I bought about a week ago. Sadly as I brought it into the house, the bag slipped a little and off came one of his ears. $2.99 and already broken. I tried to fix it with super glue but it wouldn't hold I need something that will bond faster. Maybe the super glue wasn't good for the ceramic material.

I will keep my rabbit. It is still "drawable" even if the ear is a separate piece. I don't want to spend another $3. But I have learned not to try to carry too many bags at once.

This one is another for the trade on Wetcanvas. I used watercolor, pen and ink, and a touch of Conte white pastel pencil for highlights on the eye. the white dot is white-out stick. (If it works, why not?)

I'm On A Roll

I finished two more ATCs today. I didn't have much to do to them as I started them and had the ink on. Just had to add the color. On watercolor paper. Watercolor, watercolor pencil, and pen & ink.

The cow is from my own reference. Another ceramic cow from my cow collection.(Which got so huge, I had to downsize it.) The bird is a Female Mountain Bluebird from a reference by Dave Slaughter on Wetcanvas. Thank you Dave.

The project list was sent out today so the 6 I have finished should be able to go in the mail on Tues (Monday is a holiday...President's Day)

Saucy Bird & Happy Puppy

I finished two more cards tonight. These whttp://www.blogger.com/ere done with watercolor, watercolor pencil, and pen and ink. The dog is from a photo I took of my Great Niece Kylie's Valentine Dog. The Bird is from a reference by Macdragon from Wetcanvas.

That's four finished and two more are sketched and have pen on them. They are another bird and a ceramic cow from my collection.

Elliott

This is Elliott. His photo was one that was provided by Valri for the Wetcanvas WDE this week. I believe that he has passed. This was done in watercolor with some micron pen. ATC size.

I have been playing around with pen and ink plus watercolor. I want to be able to use a medium that goes a little faster than cps. I still love doing cp but sometimes I just want to do something quickly. I have been known to put cps over watercolor. I like combining the two. But this time I wanted to try watercolor with pen.

I have done two others in the same way. One of my hand and one of my lab Penny asleep on my bed. These are also ATC size and will go to participants in my new Wetcanvas project.

Reading

Lately I have been reading a lot and no artwork. I did sign up for another Art House project. This one is a writing Moleskine project. I chose to use my name as my theme. I will be telling tidbits of my life and adding some artwork with it kind of like journaling. It's due May 1st so I don't have a lot of time and can't wait to get started.

The books I have been reading are by Lee Child (the last one was 84 chapters. The Jack Reacher series. There are 15 books in the series, and I have read all but 2. I'm half finished with one of those.

I love to read. I have loved to read since I was in 6th grade or before. I remember reading a book a day back then. Of course the books then were small. I loved mysteries. I still do. I also read police stories and spy stuff. Then there is my "fluff" reading. Lilian Jackson Braun and The Cat Who....series. I love those.

Since I have no artwork to show, I will show a photo of my husbands pride and joy tree. He was a truck driver and we lived in Oregon for 4 years. There he hauled logs from the woods to the mill. He loved the fir trees and missed them a lot after we moved back to Bakersfield.

One day we were in Petsmart and they were giving away these little 3-4 inch seedlings with a tiny root area. He brought two home and put them in pots. When they were big enough, he planted one in our front yard and put up a chicken wire fence around it to keep the dogs our. It's maybe 10 years old or so and now probably 10 feet or better high. It has lots of pinecones on it and each year they seem to get larger.

He made sure he came home every night and watered it even when he was tired. He took such good care of it. Well now I take care of it and it is a nice reminder of my husband. When I look out the front window or out the front door, there it is. I just hate to think what will happen if it gets as big as the ones in the woods. And I hope it has a good root system so it doesn't one day fall on my house.

So here is Bill's tree with Dizzy next to it and another photo of a closeup of a pinecone on it.

Amadeo Modigliani

Another of my Old Master representation ATCs. This one is "Lunia Czechovsla" by Amadeo Modigliani. I like his portraits even tho they are not realistic. It doesn't show in my ATC but his portrait subjects have really long necks. And they really don't have eyes. Their eyes are a little like zombie eyes. Blank and a little haunting.

Two More Old Master's

I have finished two more of my representations of artwork by Old Master Painters. I did graphite work of their studies. One is "The Study for the Raft of the Medusa" by Theodore Gericault. I picked it just because I liked the way the light was hitting his face.

The second was "Head Studies of 3 French Magistrates". I chose to do only one of the men, the center one, as I liked the look of his face and the expression.

These were both done with a mechanical pencil on Bristol smooth. They are both 2.5 x 3.5 size. They will hopefully be mailed tomorrow if I get them sprayed in time for the mail.

Happy Birthday Papa

Today would have been my hubby's 61st birthday. Papa was the name we used for him for the dogs. We miss him.

Bill and nephew Stephen. Bill and Jerry (friend who passed away about a week before Bill).

Bye Bye Tree

There has been a tree in our back yard since we moved here 18+ years ago. If you held a yardstick in front of it, it would span the whole yard stick or more. When we moved here it would have been about 12 inches across. There were branches sticking up that were almost the 12 inch size.

Well now the tree has had a major crop on top. It still has some really gnarley areas at the top of the trunk but hopefully in the near future it will be taken down to about table level.

The tree has been interfering with our plumbing pipes for years. The tree is a Mulberry and they are famous for causing plumbing damage. The roots grow right thru the pipes and cause a clog. We have been trying to get someone to take it down for years but the prices were always more than we could afford.

Well I finally asked the neighbor's gardener. He said yes and quoted a way low price for what had to be done. But I jumped on it. Now my back yard is full of branches and big post-sized branches plus a big huge gnarl. And now I have to find a bargain to get it hauled away. The young man did it all by hand...no chainsaw. And all in parts of two days. In fact he was working until way after dark.

I am very thankful to have the job done and I did give the man more money than he quoted. He worked very steady and hard and did a wonderful job and even stacked everything and raked.

Drawspace Trade - Snack Foods

On Drawspace forum we combined January and February for one trade. This is so everyone can catch up and get everything done. Snack foods is usually a safe bet for a subject as everyone snacks. Some a little more healthy than others but snacks nonetheless.

Since I don't cook many meals anymore, there are always healthy and unhealthy snacks around. I don't find it fun to cook for one and I don't really like things that are leftovers from the freezer. So I tend to just make a sandwich or do what my aunt used to call "Piece". Sort of like "grazing" but not exactly with healthy food or "greens". So I had plenty of subjects to choose from.

"Self Portrait" by Albrecht Durer

At least it is my version of Albrecht Durer's "Self Portrait". This is postcard size and is done in graphite. This is the fifth card for my Old Master's Trade Project and the first I have done in graphite. It felt really good to use graphite again.

Chocolate

An online friend posted a chocolate candy recipe on her Facebook site. It sounds so good that I couldn't help but pass it on. I am afraid to make it as I would have to eat it all. No one here to share the calories. but I could sure enjoy a piece of it right now. Yummy. If anyone makes it, let me know how it tastes. And go into details. lol

Crockpot Candy

Ingredients
1 16 oz. jar roasted, unsalted peanuts
1 16 oz. jar roasted, salted peanuts
1 12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bar (4 ozs.) german chocolate, broken into pieces
3 lbs. (two 24 oz. pkgs.) white almond bark, broken into pieces

Put ingredients into a 4 or 5-quart crockpot in EXACT order as listed. Cover and cook on low 3 hours. DO NOT remove lid! Turn off and allow to cool slightly. Mixture will not be melted but will be soft. Mix thoroughly and drop by teaspoon size cookie dropper or a teaspoon onto wax paper. Let cool thoroughly. Makes approximately 150 - 170 pieces.

See photo here.

My Greatniece Kylie

Kylie now has a playroom. She has a book shelf, toy box, table and chairs, her ride-in cars parked against one wall, and a kitchen play set. I decided to make her a little apron and some other things for her room. I will make some little patchwork placemats, napkins, and potholders. Maybe a couple of dish towels.

I found a cute little apron pattern with a bib and a ruffle at the bottom. It will look so cute on her. Her mom says she puts on her high heels and takes out her play vacuum and goes to work.

My Representation of 4 Old Masters

Here are the four cards I have finished so far. These are my representations of the artist's paintings. They are from top to bottom:

Portrait of a Woman By Rubens
Julius by Raphael
Emma Dubogny by Degas
Woman with Morning Glories in Her Hair by Jules Le Febvre

I am doing all portraits (at least that is the plan at the moment). I am doing crops of the heads or faces. I like "up close and personal" crops. I don't crop first, I start with one thing like the eyes, then work out till I run out of room. Easier than trying to fit a certain piece in such a small area. These are all graphite with colored pencil and are ATC size (2.5 x 3.5).

ATC Trade Project

I finally have two finished for my Old Master's Trade Project. I did crops of two portraits. One by Raphael and one by Degas. It was nice to just get started.

I missed Bible study tonight as I was having so much pain from my ankle being sore. I guess there are repercussions from hibernating in my house during the bad weather. I need to keep my ankle working some but not overdue it. Not using it at all made it very painful doing errands on Monday. Too much use causes me to have to use a crutch. It is just something I just have to live with. Most of the time it's bearable. Until I overdue it.

Well since it is 3 am, I guess I should go to bed. Will probably read a little and hopefully it will make me sleepy.

Start of a New Week

A new week and quite a few days of this month are already gone. They sure do pass fast. Before you know it, Christmas will be rolling around again.

My Moleskine is now on its way to the Art House Co-op to be entered into a permanent Art book library. Thousands of little sketchbooks available for checking out like a regular library.

I signed up to be notified every time my little book might be checked out. There is a bar code on each book and any activity of the book will be recorded and sent to me by email. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live close enough to go there and browse. Or maybe it's better I live too far away. I could probably spend a huge amount of time in there.

Now on to my ATC project of Old Masters. I am going to be doing portraits. I finally started one tonight.

Sketchbook Project - Trading Forever

I'm finally finished. I just finished scanning all the pages. Now that was a chore. My printer/scanner is on a shelf above the monitor so it was "stand up, sit down" and on and on. Not good for the knees.

I had to improvise some and I did tear a couple of pages out (Thanks to someone's suggestion). I expanded to include the stamps and some of the notes I received when I got mail from others for the trades. I also listed all the "trade names". Anything to stretch thru to get it finished. I'm satisfied with it. Not the best or the worse thing I have ever done.

Here are a couple of examples.

Sketchbook Project - Trading Forever

The final date for the Sketchbook Project books is coming up. I believe it has to be mailed by January 15. Well I still have about 30 pages blank. I finally put something on the front cover tonight but not really happy with it. It doesn't "zing" I figure for someone to want to check it out from the library, it would have to draw their attention with "zing"/

I wish I had chosen a different subject. I started it rather late. Wasn't going to join. But couldn't resist. So I didn't have as many months to finish it.

I chose to do a lot of Zentangle-type things in it as I can do those quite fast. But now I am on overload with them. I'm using the card trades as my subject. I have samples of different trades inside but mostly the tangles.

I did finally find something to do with the wonderful stamps I had collected from the envelopes I have received. I even had something from the United Arab Emirates. So I pasted those into the book to show where some of the trade cards were sent and received from. I also devoted a double page to list the subjects of all the different trades I have participated in.

Now I am bored with it but have to force myself to finish and finish fast. That means everything else goes on hold. I won't be wanting to do any more tangles for awhile after this. And just watch them change the due date after I rush thru. They did that for the last one.

And just in case there is someone out there who isn't dieting, here is a recipe for something my sister-in-law served for dessert on Christmas Day. She sent some home with me and after reading the recipe, no wonder if was so wonderful. And I probably gained 20 lbs from it.

If you try it, let me know how you like it. Soooooo yummy. Worth a few added pounds. Not sure where she found it or what it is called. She had it cut in squares.

It's crescent rolls top and bottom, cream cheese and apricot jam in middle and pecans. Here is the recipe:

2 8oz cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
2 8oz packages cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan
2. Press one can of the crescent rolls into the bottom of the prepared pan. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Spread over the crescent layer. Unroll the second can of crescent rolls and lay them on top of the cream cheese layer. Do not press down. Pour the melted butter over the entire pan. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the top.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is crisp and golden.

I added some apricot preserves over the cream cheese to give some additional flavor and put chopped pecans in the center and on top. I already had some sugar and cinnamon that I bought so I didn't have to mix the 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. I just sprinkled from my container.

This is a great dessert to take to a pot luck as it seems everyone likes it.