art stuff, flowers, weird aging

I made a decision about my drawing. I left the large central petal for last because those white filaments coming off the side petals were tiny and fussy and with small gaps where the petal in the background shows through and the shading of them and quite frankly I don’t think I can detail them in any way that they will look right or that I will be happy with. I looked at lots of pictures of violets yesterday and many, maybe even most, don’t have those things. So. I’ve decided to take them out. I thought maybe when I finished the drawing I could use a little thick watercolor and add them in, experimenting on a scratch piece of paper but then I realized that colored pencils are wax based it might not work. I’ll still test it out so we’ll see. I did a quick little test and it might work but I still don’t think I can get the definition. 

I worked on it more yesterday, the bottom petal, and finally put it aside because I didn’t feel like anything I added or slightly erased was changing it in any significant way. Not sure I’m through but I probably am. Not sure how happy I am with it, for one I know I omitted part of the flower and two I don’t think the shadow reads as a shadow like it does in the photo but, hey, can’t expect every drawing to come out to my satisfaction. I’m not unhappy with it just eventually I get to the point where I’m ready to move on. I think I’m there.

So, now, do I do another drawing of the other violet while I have my pencils out or go straight to watercolor. Or maybe I’ll get out the watercolor pencils and play around with them just to see what they do. And speaking of drawings or rather prints of my drawings, one of my framed prints, the yellow trumpet flower, sold at the Hesed House market.

I had to get up early this morning, and by early I mean 7 AM, for a dermatology appointment in Rosenberg (or Richmond, never sure as the two towns are contiguous). It’s a 25 minute drive mostly on the highway and my appointment was for 8 AM. By choice. Am I crazy? I think so until I get there and no waiting because I’m first and back home by 9. The other choice is in El Campo which is closer but would actually take about the same amount of time to get there. Today is also the day I do my weekly grocery shopping and one of my days to fix dinner so not much free time today.

Just some random photos…Next year’s zinnias. There’s a seed at the end of each petal, not all mature but most.

The indigofera,

the beauty berries turning purple.

Can you see this? That black line in my palm is a rogue hair I pulled out of my left eyebrow. It’s over 3/4” long. Aging does weird things to your body.

drawing in progress and cats

I finally stopped dicking around with the violet drawings and plunged ahead with a colored pencil version. I’ve been working on it for an hour or so at a time. Usually until I reach the point where I’m not happy with my progress, can’t seem to get it where I want it (this is a typical stage for me whether I’m drawing, painting or sculpting wax models) and I put it aside. When I return to work on it again it’s never as bad as I seemed to think it was. Except with the sculpting. I always hit that stage where I think I’ll never get it right usually about midway and then it all starts to come together. I think I miss the model making the most about not working in glass anymore, the working in 3 D. Anyway, I’m pretty happy with the way this first drawing is going. Since I haven’t been able to print the picture out that I’m using for reference, I’m working on the drawing in front of my computer.

Edit: as requested by Codex, I’ve added the photo of the violet I’m using for reference.

Not much to report, short forays out in the yard watering pots and moving the sprinkler around. Picked up the pile of tree debris by the driveway and tossed it in the truck on Saturday, then drove it over and picked up the tree debris from Gary’s work and the boys unloaded it onto the burn pile for me. Sunday I mulched two of the front flowerbeds with pine needles after watering them. We had a small brief shower that barely got the ground wet but was very noisy with thunder rumbling so I suppose somewhere was getting a good rain.

When I went across the street late afternoon yesterday to feed the cats Momcat followed me home and if I had given her even half an invitation she would have come in the house. 

She did that Saturday too. Friday morning when I went out Lovey was on the driveway 

and after I came in I looked out the window and there was Twin. Last night when I went out to close the garage not only was Momcat still there but Lovey was too. And this morning when I opened the garage door, Momcat and Lovey were right outside under the car. Cat is not pleased that Lovey is hanging around. 

Some of you may remember that these are the cats that live under my sister’s old house, the one we put on the shop yard for her. The summer before Pam died Momcat showed up and had three kittens over there and Pam started feeding them but she didn’t intend to keep them. She expected that the local animal rescue would help her find them homes. She did trap Momcat who we think was dumped when it became obvious she was about to drop a load of kittens, and got her fixed but couldn’t get any help getting rid of the kittens that were living under her back porch. And then my sister died when the kittens were about 5 months old so I started feeding them with the same intent but the local rescue is less interested in cats than it is in dogs, preferably puppies. I did, over the next few months get them to trust me enough that I managed to get the three boys fixed and by that time they were a bonded trio and I was sure that if I tried to split them up and find homes for them, most likely as barn cats, they would run off and become feral. Plus while they now let me pet them and cuddle them they are distrustful of any other humans other than me and Robin who feeds them on my yoga nights. The boys, Handsome Boy, Lovey, and Twin, are two years old this summer and live under Pam’s house. I lifted one of the skirt panels enough so that they can go in and out for shelter. Momcat, who is not attached to her sons at all, roams a little more but it’s also her home base. And the feral male Ghost who first started showing up last year and now makes himself at home though he still won’t let either of us touch him, so we feed him too.

Thunder was rumbling in the distance when I got up this morning and three hours later the sky was dark and the lightning was, if not right over us, very near with the flash and the bang happening almost simultaneously. Now, an hour later, it seems to have worn itself out. It’s quiet and the sun is shining. Did it bring us any rain? 

No. 

Oh, and I told Blondi Blathers that I would post a picture of the morning glory bush so here it is.

a post just about art

At the risk of seeming like I am fishing for compliments (I’m not, however don't let that stop you if you feel so inclined) I'm going to post individual images of the art of the notecards and framed prints. I should have done that last post I guess but there was just too much other stuff weighing on my mind. But not just those. I’m posting all the colored pencil drawings in my sketchbook in the order in which they were done. I'm showing them on the page in my sketchbook so you get an idea of the size of each drawing. The pages in the sketchbook are 5 1/2" x 8 1/2".

First, I think I have finally admitted to myself that I am not going to be doing any more glass sculpture. While I have several unfinished models and ideas of what I might create I seem to have lost any desire to do that work. It is time consuming, it is labor intensive, and while I did enjoy the submersion in creating in 3 D form, of sculpting the models out of blocks and sheets of wax, I’m just not feeling compelled to get in there and do it because the rest…the mold making, filling the molds (tedious and also time consuming and a process that really needs to be done in one sitting taking an average of five hours to complete), the firing, the finish work with my very old worn out expensive to replace equipment…was just work. And to start again would involve having to go into the city and get fresh plaster and silica flour and moving the kiln over here to our garage from the shop since Mikey is using the bay with the appropriate plug. I look at my shelves of frit and wonder what the fuck am I going to do with all this.

I suppose I could post on the glass SM groups to sell it all, first come first serve, but I’m not quite ready to do that. As for the sculpting part, I could switch to ceramics but again no kiln, no glazes though there are a couple of people here in this town that I might possibly be able to get to fire my pieces for me. So, something to think about.

In the meantime I’ve turned to colored pencil drawings and watercolor paintings but I’m not very productive with the drawings or paintings. After 40+ years of making art every day I’m finding time for other things like gardening and yoga and reading and sewing (again, some).

So here are all my colored pencil drawings. The ones with two drawings on the page was just because there was space. 

Blue Jay Feather

White Orchid Tree Flower and Bean Sprout

Poppy Seed Head and Wren Skull

Morning Glory Bush Flower and Acorn

Green Pecans

Amaryllis Bud

Zucchini Flower and Zucchini

Iris Bud

American Lotus

Heavenly Blue Morning Glory

Yellow Trumpet Flower

Chinese Tallow Tree Leaves in their Fall Colors

Buckeye Butterfly

Honeybee (I don't have the original anymore and I seem to have deleted the picture of the whole page but the bee itself is 3" square)

I have even fewer watercolors so that can wait.

a quiet day

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I don’t do christmas. There are many reasons and evolutions of my dislike of the holiday. I’ve written about some of them in the past and may do so again in the future, but not today. In a way, now, it’s one of my favorite days. Weird, right? But it’s a ‘dead’ day. It’s a day in which there are no expectations, no demands on my time or attention, no things that need to be done because the country has basically shut down, quiet and still. I couldn’t get anything done even if I wanted to. It’s a day when I can do whatever I want or not do anything. 

So what did I do yesterday? I wrote some, sort of a chapter in the biography of my life which I may add to at some point and I may or may not ever publish. I worked on my painting finishing the last tree and starting on the background,

I made an apple crostata with some of the apples from SHARE. 

I fed the outdoor cats and gave them their daily dose of affection. Even Twin who now lets me pet him fully with long strokes before I put out the food instead of just his head while he eats though I have to approach him slowly. It took almost a year for him to trust me enough for this while I’ve been able to pick up and cuddle the other two for six months.

And now that the day is over I can post a picture of my latest drawing. I did it as a gift for my brother. He and Pam exchanged gifts every year but it’s been decades since I sent him anything even though he always sends some edible goodie to me. But Pam is gone, the glue that held us together so now more effort is required of me to have a better relationship with my brother. So, one of the things my brother does is keep honey bees, hence the subject of this drawing. The bee itself is 3" x 3", colored pencil.

Speaking of bees, this bumble bee was burrowing deep into the throats of the pink trumpet flowers.

shoes again, drawing, burning, streaming

And this is why I don’t like buying shoes online. My orthos came yesterday and they feel great and I like the way they look but I think they are a half size too big. My feet measure 9 1/2”. My current sandals, size 8, according to the chart on their website, measure 10 1/4” toe to heel. The chart on the ortho website also said 9 1/2” feet, size 8 but the shoes measure 10 3/4” toe to heel. So now my quandary is do I send them back and reorder 7 1/2 or order 7 1/2 and compare the fit and then send one pair back for a refund? I have 60 days to return them. Here’s a comparison of the two size 8s and how they fit.

Thwarted again Friday when I tried to torch the burn pile for the third time still with no success and it’s been 3 weeks since we had any rain. The first time it had been nearly a week after rain and I used my usually successful method of twisting up newspaper, sticking it in near the bottom in three places and dousing it with trimmer fuel and lighting the paper but the debris was still too wet. Second attempt a week later same method still wouldn’t light. Yesterday I used the newspaper and charcoal lighter fluid and liberally squirted it all over including the paper. Fuel burned, paper burned, debris did not. It should have gone up like a torch. My grandson Mikey came over Saturday with some old diesel fuel and got it to burn so today I emptied the truck and then used the diesel fuel he left for me and torched it again because all signs point to a burn ban starting tomorrow.

I’ve started a new drawing, well, I transferred faint outlines to the page in my sketchbook, a buckeye butterfly. Here’s my first day of working on it, one of four wings

and today’s effort

but when I was working on the first wing Friday I was thinking I really can’t call it a drawing since I didn’t draw, only traced the main lines, more like working in a coloring book so what do I call it, a coloring? But today as I was working on the body of the moth, I did redraw the shape more accurately from the faint outline so I don’t know. Maybe the next one, I have another butterfly lined up. Or maybe something different. Once I get the buckeye finished I plan to add a little watercolor background.

Other than going to SHARE Thursday mornings, working on the butterfly, and burning tree debris I haven’t done much else. We’ve been streaming Continuum on Prime. We’re not quite to the middle of season 2 of 4. In the future of 2077, corporations have total control and with high-tech surveillance the police, called Protectors, keep the population on a very short leash and tightly controlled; no dissent allowed, books are contraband, history is treason, people are constantly in ‘citizen debt’ (think of company towns on steroids). A terrorist group trying to break the hold of the corporations is sentenced to die but instead escape via time travel and a Protector is inadvertently taken with them. But instead of the 5 years in the past they planned, something went wrong and they went back 65 years. Liber8 is still trying to prevent corporate takeover, Protector is trying to preserve her future, the genius responsible for all the tech that keeps the population under control is now just an 18 year old kid. And lots of other stuff mixed in. It’s really good if you like sci-fi.

 

first fall day, lilies, and progress

Between Friday and Saturday I’m four piles of tree debris down, two on the burn pile, two in the truck, and three more to go. I’m not done making piles but I want to get the ones I already have either burned or moved over to the burn pile first. I’m only burning one truckload at a time so that the bonfire doesn’t get too big. Fortunately this stuff is very dry despite the rain we’ve been having and it goes up fast.

This picture of the back of my property past my property line is for Sabine who asked if I could leave some of the tree debris for the bugs and what not. It’s the Wild Space I refer to that is really part of the field behind but all this wild growth has grown up from not being mowed completely when they hay the field which they’ve only done once so far this year I think. 

Saturday was a beautiful blue sky day, low humidity. When I woke up it was cooler outside than inside for the first time of the coming fall season or what passes for fall around here. I opened all three doors to air out the house. Today is just as nice. Monday it starts to cloud up again and by mid week more rain is predicted. Even though it got hot later, up to 90, and supposed to hit high 80s today, nights are down in the 60s.

Walking around the yard, admiring the oxblood lilies popping up everywhere in the front

with Cat following me around,  

I noticed these. 

Last spring I dug up a big clump of surprise lilies (what Ms Moon calls hurricane lilies) that never bloom, or just one flower once in a blue moon, and replanted them where I thought they would get more sun and were less crowded. Two of the clumps are sending up bloom stalks. The third is a no show so far so I guess they aren’t happy there but I’m going to have at least 13 blooms!

Current progress on my colored pencil drawing of the tallow leaves. I had put in the dark gray shadow that shows in the picture but it just did not read as a shadow from the curled up edge of the leaf on my drawing and I really didn’t like it so I took it out altogether. Still need to work on the stem a bit but this leaf is essentially finished.

My only task today is to torch the burn pile if it’s not too breezy as I think I overdid it yesterday. I didn’t feel like I was exerting myself all that much just dragging dead branches out of the truck and tossing them on the burn pile or walking back and forth between debris pile and the truck and the stuff isn’t heavy but I was hot and sweaty when I came in and I definitely felt it later. I’ll spend some time working on my drawing and maybe sit out on the deck and read.