Tuesday, February 22, 2022

new painting in progress and not quite spring


Looks around at the house...if dust is mostly dead skin cells, I have to wonder why I have any skin left at all.

Well, I managed to get one room vacuumed.

Monday was warm, mostly cloudy, some blue, with sustained SSE winds of 30 mph with 40 mph gusts. That's windy y'all, push you around outside windy, make you go back inside windy. I did sit on the deck some since it's on the north side and protected. But mostly I didn't feel like doing anything.

I moved the bird feeders around yesterday putting the squirrel proof feeder on the shepherd's crook because I can see it better from where I sit than the other one shaped like a house which hung lower. The squirrels easily climb the shepherd's crook and would gorge on the sunflower seeds from that one. I moved it to the tree outside my window and of course I'm having to chase an occasional squirrel off it. There's a young squirrel in the yard, I think maybe this is her first year as an adult, and she spent yesterday trying to maintain her balance on the shepherd's crook in the strong wind while she tried to get at the squirrel proof feeder. It was very entertaining. She'd try for a while then find a seed or two on the ground then try again completely ignoring the peanuts I put out for her and the others. This morning I'm seeing cardinals, chickadees, titmice, goldfinches, white wing doves, and sparrows.

Another watercolor class today. We started a new painting, another landscape. The picture to emulate...

First we lightly drew in the lines of the roof, the edge of the house, the window, and the curve of the road. Then we painted the trees and bushes with a piece of natural sponge. Gay's example for what we were to accomplish today...

my progress today.

It's warm today, overcast with some humidity which I'm glad for although another cold front is blowing in tonight and it may be our last. I do enjoy the dry days but after a while, there's a little blood when I blow my nose and my already dry skin gets even worse. Also, the humidity brings out the curl in my hair which gives it some body.

The birds are convinced it's spring and they're all looking for mates. The plants however have yet to start putting out new growth. Still dead and dreary looking out there except for the 10 petal anemones and the woodland violets which are blooming all over the yard.



 

33 comments:

  1. I do like painting with a scrap of sponge. Now I really fancy doing a bit.

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    1. It was fun after I got over my tendency to have the paper too wet.

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  2. I like the outline of the house as is. Like a ghost.

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    1. It does look pretty good but I'll paint it in anyway since I'm learning techniques.

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  3. Looks really good so far. The front just came through in Seguin. The stray that had the kittens and then adopted us is in the house for the night. She's really a good cat. She doesn't mess in the house and goes outside in the morning. David and I are thinking someone had to have owned her before she came to us. She's a sweet baby girl and knows not to get on the counters in the kitchen.

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  4. Nice watercolor beginnings, and nice flowers. Especially the violets!

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    1. I was thinking I would do a colored pencil drawing of the violet and maybe even a watercolor.

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  5. I am jealous of curly hair! Lucky you- you got the long straw this time!
    Your painting beginning looks promising, sponge sounds fun. I think I will trty that.

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    1. I did not care for my curly hair as a teen when we all wanted long straight as a board hair. I like it now though because I don't have to mess with it.

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  6. You make me want to take up watercolors. I'm still thinking about your dad wanting you to be a painter. And so you are.

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    1. I'm really surprised at how it's going. Of course I have the instructor there giving me feedback and suggestions. Haven't tried one on my own yet.

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  7. Ellen! I love the way this one is going!
    For once we're not getting the same weather as you, a day or two later. It's back into the eighties here during the day and hardly a breeze right now. But the birds are the same- showing off, hungry, and cleaning out the feeders.

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    1. So far so good. Now let's hope I don't mess it up with the cabin. I think this may be out last cold spell though we could still have a wave or two in March.

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    2. We were just discussing whether we should go ahead and plant tomatoes or not. Sure would be nice to get a jump on the dang pests.

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  8. You have made a great start on this picture! It is obvious that you have artistic talent!

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    1. Thanks. I'm still not comfortable with it, make a lot of mistakes. I guess they say it's the hardest medium to paint in because you can't erase unlike oils or acrylics which you can paint over your mistakes with. In that way it's like etched glass. No erasing there either.

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  9. That painting reminds me of the Thomas Kincaid jigsaw puzzles I've been doing with my dad - just lovely! I noticed that our phlox has started blooming. Today it's supposed to be up to 70 degrees!

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    1. Yes, I can see the similarity though if I was better at it I'd be a little insulted.

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  10. When I first just looked at your drawing I thought, clever, she's going to fit a haunted house into this bucolic landscape. But never mind, you'll do a great job whichever way you'll decide.

    There's this quote by the English writer Quentin Crisp: "no need for house work, after four years, the dust doesn't get any worse" or something like that. (Quentin Crisp was an eccentric. Sting wrote a song about him "An Englishman in New York" but never mentions dust in it.)

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    1. I love that quote! I may just have to incorporate it into my adages to live by.

      Since I'm still learning technique, the cabin will be painted in. We'll see how well it goes.

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  11. I like the way you draw and I like the way you are using watercolor. Good teacher and good student.

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    1. I'm impressed that you are drawing with your left hand!

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  12. I'll be happy when our weather matches that portrayed in your painting. It really is lovely. I had no idea that sponges can be used with watercolor, but of course I know almost nothing about watercolor generally -- except that water probably is involved somehow. I do remember having those little watercolor sets when I was a kid, but I certainly didn't learn any techniques. It was more a matter of using the paints pretty much as I'd use crayons--just filling in designs in books or whatever.

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    1. You can use anything that gets paint on paper really. I'm finally learning about mixing colors, something I never learned with oils or acrylics but then I never took a class in oils or acrylics, just had them gifted to me. Probably one reason I never learned how to use them. And I'll be glad too when things start popping out. I hope this is our last really cold front. I'm tired of temps in the 30s and 40s but I'm not ready for summer yet.

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  13. We're colder than cold here on top of the mountain. Must have 4-6" of snow on our deck. Poor birds--their pan of food got pitched off the railing and the pan I filled and sat down on the deck got covered with snow. I put out another pan of birdseed but the pan is in line with the door to the office so every time we go by it to go to the kitchen or the living room or the other end of the house, the birds are startled and all fly away. Our deck is an absolute mess, but we love watching the birds.

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    1. I'm glad we don't get snow here. Maybe once every 5 years or so and it melts off by mid-day. Maybe get a bird feeder you can hang from the eave in front of a window, that is if your house has eaves. I'll never understand why builders stopped doing that.

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  14. I love watching your art work progress. It's beautiful.
    Cold weather here too. 28 degrees this morning. Spring is coming soon... isn't it? I'm hoping for lots more flowers!

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  15. You can tell you are an artist because you do paint the subject but have a little bit of style and fashion to it.

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    1. I don't know if it's a style so much as I don't really know what I'm doing.

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  16. Our birds are flitting around flirtatiously as well.

    Your painting looks great. You have a more detailed hand than the instructor, who seems to favor a more "washed" look.

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    1. I think she just didn't put a lot of heart into her demo because it wasn't something she was going to keep.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.