so much for the mild winter, painting update, and mysteries

Our mild winter is scheduled to come to a screeching halt the second week in January as a polar vortex comes spiraling down dropping us into the 20s for two nights. Damn. Everything blooming and still green will die back. This is what's left of the monster rose bush. All that growth was upright but without all the growth underneath supporting it the first windy day blew it over to rest on the ground but I love the puddle of petals at the bottom. Sorry the picture is so dark but it was midday when I was over there and I was facing the sun. 

I’ll have to deal with dead banana trees which is a major pain in the ass chore. And I’ll have to cover the ponytail palm which is another pain in the ass chore especially if it’s windy which it usually is when I’m trying to cover it. And I’ll have to bring in the plumerias and the night blooming cereus which are even bigger than they were last year. The cereus is going to get pruned back some because it is just a monster. The biggest plumeria is planted in the ground and two pots are sunk. I’ve already talked to my grandson about helping me get those out and in the garage next Saturday. In anticipation, I rearranged the garage Sunday and brought the extra folding table in and set it up in front of the etched glass windows in my bedroom for the smaller things and the stag horn which is also bigger and almost too heavy for me to lift. Guess I’ll start moving things in towards the end of the week.

I worked on my painting all weekend. I’m not completely satisfied. I toned down the yellow a little more by adding a light blue wash as suggested by a commenter. The green at the bottom still needs…something. Composition-wise, the green is too even across the top for one thing and I’m thinking the background needs some subtle vertical elements. Also I can’t decide if the green is too dark or not dark enough at the very bottom. If it’s too dark overall, there’s not much I can do about that. So I’m going to just let it sit for a few days. I’ve removed the cut outs protecting the trees so this is how it looks now. I don’t think I need them for whatever I do next if anything but if so I can put them back on. Most of all I keep telling myself that this was a learning exercise. As usual the colors come out a little more saturated than the actual painting with my phone camera.

We’re all aware I’m sure that Jimmy Carter has left this earth. He was a better president than he got credit for I think and robbed of a second term by republicans. Carter had already reached an agreement to get the hostages freed from Iran but Reagan did an illegal backroom deal with Iran to hold them until after the election. Reagan won and thus began the movement of wealth up to the richest Americans and the hollowing out the middle class. After leaving the White House, Carter devoted his life to living his religious beliefs, doing what he could to help and lift up those less fortunate, a rare thing these days. The world is poorer in deed and spirit with his passing.

Two mysteries…

I got an anonymous comment, which I allow, on my last post yesterday, but mostly they are legitimate comments. Not this one. It was one word repeated at least 100 times, one big paragraph of the word ’die’. Why is it haters are always anonymous? Such a cowardly act. Was this supposed to make me sad or fearful? Did my art offend them? They don’t like roses? Or just some rando picking me and that post at random to vent their own unhappiness.

The other big mystery happened today. Got a package delivered from Amazon addressed to me and with the correct address; a bottle CO Q-10 gel caps. I didn’t order them, there is no charge on my credit card, and there is no record of the purchase on the account our family uses. Ah, mystery solved. My brother ordered them but his app had me as the default from when he sent me salmon for the holiday and he didn’t notice.

 

windy sultry day, mulling over my painting

There’s a strong south wind blowing today and it’s overcast and sultry, spitting rain now and then. I had the door to the little backyard open for a while. The rose bushes are at the south end but that wind blew a single rose petal into the house.

I mentioned previously that the roses were blooming. 

This is the sister to the monster rose bush over in the shop yard that I cut back drastically last month. While I was doing that this one in my yard just outside the fence around the little backyard exploded with growth. It will also get cut back severely when it stops blooming. These both came from cuttings I took of the one I had at my city house that my neighbor gave me as a cutting off her rose bush. I actually made three. The third I sent to Mary Moon and it now lives in Florida.

I’ve been working on the background of my painting. I’d like to get it finished before Monday. No particular reason for the Monday deadline other than I just want to be done with it. As I posted, the first little wash was a bit of blue at the top and I really liked the way it looked but then Thursday I started adding the yellow and green of the distant foliage and I really am not happy. Now that the first watered down yellow base wash and the light green base wash has dried the yellow is so intense even watered down and I’m wishing I had just done a patchy blue all the way. I mulled it over Thursday night during wakeful times, trying to think of what to do. I even thought I could cut the tree trunks out and place them on a new sheet of paper which would allow me to do a different background and also give a little dimension to the finished piece. (I may still do that). But because this is typical for me, not liking where I’m at in a process, whether I’m carving a model out of wax or sketching out a design for an etched glass commission or doing anything really, I’m just soldiering on.

Yesterday I took a wet paper towel and lifted some of the first yellow wash pigment and then used a sponge to splotch on the next orangey yellow. Then I waited for the paper to dry so I could add the last brownish yellow with a brush though I may put a light wash of brown over the whole thing. Then go through the same process with the green shrubbery at the bottom.

Turns out I didn’t get any more time to work on the painting yesterday because yesterday was Marcmas! Our son came out for a visit from the city and our daughter came over with her traditional gift of bagels from The Bagel Shop in Houston and then we all went out for a late lunch and margaritas at the Mexican restaurant here, just our core family. Of course I love my grandkids and great grandkid but there’s something special when it’s just the four of us, when our kids aren’t distracted by their spouses, children, and grandchild.

I did a bit of the brownish yellow which looks more yellow orange, so here's how it was this morning.

It’s a little misleading as the tree trunks aren’t the ones I painted but are cut out from a copy of the picture printed on card stock, taped at the bottom and top to protect the ones I painted while I work on the background. I think I’m going use the sponge instead of the paint brush to add more of the brownish yellow and then the brush to add in some brown. I may even put a light wash of brown over the whole thing to tone down the yellow because I want the tree trunks to be the focus of the painting, not the background.

Ended up I used the sponge with the brown instead of trying a light wash. I'm more pleased with it now. Tomorrow I'll concentrate on the green tones at the bottom.

rose rustling, eclipse, addressing the shop, and folk art

Friday evening my brother arrived for a week's visit. He lives in the PNW in Washington state across the river from Portland. He stays with our sister who lives across the street from me because I don't have a guest room any longer.

Saturday was the last EarthLab speaker for the year at Hesed House in the red house. A woman from the Rose Rustlers came and spoke about the organization. They started out by going around to old cemeteries and abandoned homesteads and taking cuttings of the old antique roses that thrived even with total neglect and have brought some of them back into commercial availability by propagating them and then she talked about how to do that. She was through with her talk but still answering questions when I left to go out and check out the eclipse over at the welcome center (the white house) where a group was standing out with the dark eclipse glasses. Pretty cool. We didn't get totality of the ring of fire but pretty nearly. As soon as I walked out of the red house I could tell it was going on. Didn't get dark by any means but there was just a different quality to the light and air. Meanwhile back at home Marc took this picture of the multiple images as the light filtered through the yew tree onto the deck.

After I got home I finally went over to the shop and opened up all the bay doors and the door to the studio with the goal of cleaning up the studio and putting way all the packing material and in general getting it ready for work and beginning to reorder and clean out the big bays. We've been retired from the etched and carved glass for 6 years now and it is time to get rid of all the materials and supplies used in the production of same. I cleaned off one of the metal shelving units in the big bay and dragged it into the last small room that has yet to be built out from when it was torn out to the metal walls after the flood 6 years ago and has boxes of stuff covering the floor and stacked up full of stuff from the back room and stored over there for 6 years like all those small bowl reproduction molds and other miscellaneous molds and waxes, games and puzzles and craft items, books and cast glass experiments, open house display stuff, just stuff too numerous to name. So I flattened the boxes and organized packing material that was taking up floor space in the studio and put it all on that. When I was done the studio looked like this (of course there's no before picture because...me).

Sunday we, my sister and brother and I, did a day trip into Houston to go to the Orange Show and the Mosaic Park. I hadn't been to the Orange Show since the kids were little and it looked basically the same except for 40 or so years of decay.

The Orange Show is a folk art construction that was built by Jeff McKissack on a vacant lot across the street from his house. It is constructed almost entirely of found and scavenged items he collected throughout his life. He initially had a nursery on the lot for 10 years and in 1968 began building the Orange Show in earnest and ending in 1979. In his words the purpose was to encourage people to eat oranges, drink oranges, and be highly amused.

Without further ado or information (you can go to their website for that), here are some pictures.

Next: Smither Park (the mosaic park). 

miscellaneous stuff

One more day. My sister is returning tomorrow but not until late so one more day to look after the Demon Duo. They will be glad to have her back. I haven't minded because I get about an uninterrupted 45 minutes or so to read while they play or lay in my lap. It does play hob with my routine since I like a leisurely morning and going over in the middle of the day breaks it up just enough that I don't get much else accomplished but it is my choice when to go.

Speaking of routines, I've done my yoga routine 5 days in a row now. Yay me! I used to wait until after coffee and reading and writing blogs and before breakfast but always ran out of time so now I've been doing it first thing after getting up and before I sit at my desk and have my coffee and that seems to be working out.

When Marc gassed up the car and had the oil changed the other day, the guy discovered a big rat's nest under the hood. We drive that car nearly every day so that surprised the hell out of me. Now I'm wondering if there's one under the hood of the truck as it rarely gets driven these days. I suppose I should look but haven't so far.

We've been having a spate of really pretty days, not too hot during the day, not too cold at night, blue skies and low humidity, just really pleasant. The downside is we aren't getting our winter rain and we could really use some. The other downside is all the early spring weeds are already rampant in the yard...chickweed, cleaver, clover, henbit, oxalis, etc. The woodland violets are blooming and the 10 petal anemone are emerging but not blooming yet. The climbing roses in the crepe myrtle and oak are blooming but I can't tell if this is their fall bloom or their spring bloom.

The place I found out here in Wharton, Hesed House, that has yoga classes and other community activities and lectures and stuff is having a six week series of free classes on Watercolors For The Beginner (for adults) so I signed up for the Wednesday classes which start tomorrow. I'm not exactly a beginner artist but I have never taken watercolor classes. I'm sure I'll learn something and it will be an opportunity to engage in a broader range of art or it may be so basic that I'll be bored. We'll see.

I just took the dog out to see if she had some business to do while I watered the poppies before the dip into the 30˚s tonight and looked up to see her hauling ass across the 12 acre field behind us chasing that gray cat into the scrub on the other side. She ran full out without a thought but coming back she slowly picked her way with her dainty feet.

And now I'm going to go finish my book.

gloomy and wet, but warm

All of a sudden 5 days have gone by. The days have been dawning overcast but the sun manages to break out in the afternoons for a couple of hours until it clouds up again around sunset. There's a mockingbird sitting out there somewhere just singing away. I can hear him through the open front door. I got up to rain yesterday morning but it cleared up by noon, and more rain this morning and while it has stopped, it is very gloomy out.

Last Friday I drove into the city sixish to pick up my grandgirl Jade who wanted to come spend the weekend. We poked around antique and junk stores in Wharton and outlying towns. We stopped in a new place that I thought was a small building and turned out to be a huge building full of stuff. Overall, the whole weekend I came away with two pressed class coasters, a blue glass salad plate, a little sock foot bunny for my daughter, and a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. I also found a present for my sister for her birthday, no mean feat let me tell you. Jade had her own cache of treasures and gifts.

Monday I spent the morning digging up walking onions in the Little Back Yard. They are edible and totally invasive and come up thick every year. I didn't plant them, they were here when I got here but all they want to do is reproduce. Tuesday, I dug up my flowering senna which was not thriving. It's been planted there for two years I think but it has steadily declined and I finally decided to pot it and see if I could get it healthy again. Poor thing had been planted in thick black dirt/clay (and is in serious wilt right now). We have terrible dirt here. Sticky sticky stuff. Plants need new dirt and raised beds or really working an area with sand and compost and good topsoil. Yesterday it rained in the morning so I didn't get any outdoor work done. I've been trying to get some outdoor time before lunch and then work on art work for the commissions we have in the afternoon.

It's been a blah spring here. The flowering trees aside, things aren't blooming like they should be, late or lackluster. The overcast and wet days of winter have continued into spring. It did warm up but we haven't had our glorious sunny days with no humidity and flowers and buds busting out and busy bees and butterflies. The birds are chirpy but that's about all. I spent about an hour this morning pulling up clover from amongst the bluebonnets in front. It's been a banner year for clover at least. It's knee high everywhere and crowding out the bluebonnets. Marc finally mowed for the first time over at the shop and our little 'lawn tractor' was having a hard time of it. Our neighbor, Jimmy, was also mowing and took pity on him and came over with his big powerful 'lawn tractor' and mowed down all the clover for him and then went back and finished the yard he was working on.

The climbing roses in the crepe myrtle are doing their spring thing. As you can see, overcast and wet.

All right, off to get my hair cut.

rosy

All the pink roses, and one red, seem to have exploded in the last couple of days. The pink ones generally bloom twice a year while the red ones, which are just starting to open, will bloom all summer.

I thought this bush in the back yard was in full bloom last week but now it has twice as many blooms.

This red climber only had one or two open a few days ago.

Pretty in pink, one of several in the front yard.

This one is different from the other pink roses, it blooms mostly just in the spring. Poor thing is crowded by the althea next to it so it was hard to get a good picture.

This old climber blooms twice a year and is way up in the crepe myrtle and the lower branches of the oak.