First Snow

It's unusual in our neck of the woods to get snow before Thanksgiving, but here we are on November 23 with several inches of the white fluff covering the ground. Last night we had a lot of wind and hard rain until sometime after midnight, when Mike woke up with little white snowflakes blowing through the window onto his face.

 

Snow on my last roses.

We are traveling to Vancouver, WA tomorrow (knock on wood) to spend Thanksgiving with our children and grandchildren. I'm taking the desserts. So this morning I had a mostly empty schedule, with only second pie to make, laundry to move from washer to drier on my list of "must dos."

 

My version of Penzey's Spices recipe for Chocolate Walnut Pecan Pie.

Normally what I'd do with an open schedule would be head to the studio, but I've been feeling ambivalent about my art since a failed painting two weeks ago. But this morning I read a post on Facebook from my friend Liz Walker. She was sharing a website http://www.art-adventures.com/tip06.html telling how to make a crystallized texture with acrylic paint on smooth paper in freezing cold weather. This was perfect for me--no skill involved--just a quick creation to work on later.

So here is my route to the studio. Mike found bear footprints out by the barn earlier this morning.

 

I followed the directions which included mixing fluid acrylics in water to pour over the wet paper.

 

I was working outside of the barn's shelter as I wet the paper and poured color over the paper. As I worked, snowflakes drifted onto the paper, and I wondered if that would effect my final product. As I finished the pours and moving of the paint around by tilting the papers, I laid the papers out on the barn floor to freeze.

 

Before leaving the studio area, I could already see some crystals forming, although they are very small.

 

 

Now I have faith that after we have our feasting and celebrating our older daughter's birthday (which is tomorrow), I will have the inspiration to go paint. Probably only other artists understand the ups and downs of the process of putting something of yourself on a piece of paper in hopes it will be "art."

And as for the disappointing painting--I won't show the whole, but here are a few small bits.

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

A Totally New Take on an Old Painting

I think I posted this painting as a failed piece a couple of months ago. It was a full sheet of watercolor paper with a fairly good drawing on it, but as you can see below, I got very lost along the way. I had an idea that didn't please me, so I ended up scrubbing off all the paint, leaving a ghostly image of what once was.

And there sat the paper, still taped to a board until this week. I have several old bits of work just hanging around the studio, so I decided to attack this one. What did I have to lose?

 

I started with a fresh pallet of pure colors and just started to have fun with shapes and patterns. And I just let myself paint quirky stuff. Every time I stopped to question myself, I just shrugged it off and repeated, "What do I have to lose?"

 

 

As I moved along with the background I saw problems to be solved, so I conjured up some little cabbages (among other fixes) to place in the foreground.

 

I love those cabbages!

 

As you can see, my biggest dilemma was how to bring the architectural reality into the fantasy I was creating. It took a considerable amount of just going forward and not thinking too much.

 

At this point, I just started doing what artists do: ask questions. Is it balanced? Are there pieces that don't fit? Are there bad shapes?

After some tweaking, here is what I felt was finished for today.

 

Checkered Past 30 x 22

If I were to start over, I would make the house more out of whack to begin with. Putting this realistic home into a fantasy did not work as well as a more whimsical abode.

I can hardly wait to hear what you think. And saying I'm nuts is really okay.

Card Making

Playa Del Ray by Henry Fukuhara

I recently read an in memorium article on Henry Fukahara who died this year at the age of 96. He was a remarkable watercolorist from the Edgar Whitney school of painters. I've long admired his way of abstracting, using shapes, colors, marks and lines. He is also an example of how art helps a person live a long and interesting life. He only gave up teaching in the last couple of years!


Reflections by Henry Fukuhara

The article reported that Fukahara sent many notes to friends and acquaintances, always creating art for his notes. This is not the first time I've heard of this, but it is such a personal touch and something I admire.

It struck me that I, too, could add this personal touch to my communications, and I had two cards to send out. One a thank you card for a gift, the other a happy birthday card for a 6 year old granddaughter.

So I headed out to my studio ready to make 2 cards. And a great thing about this task is that it was not the daunting idea of covering a 22 x 30 inch piece of WC paper. All I had to do was put art on a 4 x 6 inch surface.

 

Here's the small collage I made for the thank you note.

 

And this is the front of the B-day card.

For the inside, I rendered Mike and me to cartoon likenesses and put them on a paper spring so that we would pop out of the card.

 

Give it a try! It can be a jumpstart to the 22 x 30 white paper.

Family, Family, Family

What does an artist do when the grandkids arrive? I drop the brush and play!

Weekend before last, Rachel brought down all four Vancouver grandchildren (her three plus Angelica) for a weekend in the country. Mike and I arranged for the two oldest to have a horseback riding lesson.

 

Marin on Mocha

 

Angelica riding Bloomer

After the weekend of fun on the ranch, Mike and I headed up to Vancouver to stay with Rachel and her kids, while her husband went to Amsterdam for work. On the way North, we stopped by Birch Home to introduce my mom to Hannah, her youngest great-granchild.

 

Hannah with Great-grandma Margaret

 

Great-grandma Margaret with Angelica, Marin, Noah, Rachel and Hannah

The week in Vancouver whipped by. The week had very few outings, but we were really busy none the less. Rachel and I did take Hannah over the river to Portland one day to visit my sister and niece.

 

Hannah and sister Barbara

 

Hannah and neice Becky

Both of my daughters lead very busy lives. But Rachel is especially busy with 3 children now and her return to graduate school. Luckily, one of the most helpful things I could do was hold Hannah.

 

Me nodding off with Hannah

I ended my week with a morning of baking with Noah. I had a dinner party to attend Friday night and Noah was great help making brownies for dessert.

 

Noah cleaning up