Sunday, December 9, 2012

New Learnin's

For the last two weeks we have been working on a painting using paynes grey (brand name Maimeri) and freeze dry coffee (Kava) in my Wednesday night watercoloring class.  I think the effect of using just these two colors is stunning.



The only other project I have completed recently is a study the President of the Rocky Mtn Hi, Marilyn, taught at the Ross U Hill Library on November 17th.  A good time was had by all that mattered (me).

 

We used an upgraded craft paint called DecoArt Americana Traditions.  I love, love, love this paint!  I have not been able to find the upgraded paint in town, so have been ordering online (Dick Blick). 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Gourds and More

My Painting teacher has been pretty busy this month and we have not met since the last part of October. So I have no new water color painting  to show this month.

On the other hand,  the decorative painters have kept me busy this.  For our October meeting I took a co-worker and we painted gourds. Neither one of us had ever painted on gourds before, and as you can see we did not see how to paint a gourd the same. Then when we had our November meeting a few gals brought their finished product and they did not see gourd painting like me or Roxanne.
Roxanne's Gourd
Verlene's Gourd
Gourds brought to meeting 

The decorative painters sponsored a class using Dr Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Liguid Watercolors towards the end of October. I know the drawing has issues (especially the butterfly) but I do like how vibrant the colors are. This is the first time I have ever used this media. October was full of first for me.

Even back in the 80's I did better with my colors than most, but not better with my drafting ability. Anyway,  here is my painting.



Saturday, October 27, 2012

Pumpkins and Hillsides


The decorative painters had a workshop last Saturday. A rubber stamp was used to emboss a pattern on paper, then filled with gold embossing powder. then we use H2O twinkle paints to fill in the leaves and pumpkins. A good time was had by all.


In my regular painting class we have been working on a hillside landscape for the past month.

 

We took Brandy to the vet two weeks ago and the vet said he could hear a heart murmur  and the best thing we can do (besides expensive testing ) was to reduce her weight. So, I have been pretty diligent about only giving her dry dog food. Unfortunately, I do not believe Paul is doing the same.

 It is so much easy for me to control her food intake than to control what I eat.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

A Really Big Shew

Yesterday was the annual art show for the Rocky Mtn Chapter of the SDP. I enter five pieces and three actually place. I feel so validated!

My aspen trees placed 1st in the landscape group.

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The lilacs placed second in the floral/fruit group.



And the cow placed second in the animal/bird group.


 Here are the ones that did not place. In one respect, they are like children. You like 'em just as much as the ones that placed. However, it was nice to receive outside validation for the other pieces. Does that make me shallow?



In other news, I ran into my friend Sheila Hutchinson at work the other day. She will be working in my building for at least six months.  I haven't seen her in about ten years!  Ten years ago she lost her job, got another job and was working in Montreal. She looks really good. I had lunch with her today, but I forgot to take her picture.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Puppy's First Haircut

We have been thinking about having Brandy 'groomed' since the spring and finally because I had a bit of a bonus ($175), we decide to spurge and and just do it.  We took her to Petsmart, and I must say that for a seven year old puppy she looks pretty spiffy. Her hindquarters looked the best, but she would not let me take a picture of her backside.

We spent the rest of the bonus on a sauce pan, a set of sheets and I think we still have seventy dollars.  Bonuses are great.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Could of, Should of, Would of

I got to kinda of carried away with my alternation of dominoes.  I really like them even before I put a rubber stamp on them.

I have been able to give them away so far, but that is a bad thing because it means I can do more.  So far I have probably done close to a hundred.  Its the age old question of which came  first, the compulsion or the obsession

I decided to try a six inch tile. And because at  the last meeting of the Rocky Mtn Hi chapter of the Society of Decorative painters was demonstration on rosemaling I decide to use a Telemark style stamp.  What do ya think?

Some of the rosemalers brought  project of things they had painted in the past to the June meeting. I am in awe.

I agreed to be in charge of finding programs for next year for the monthly meetings for the chapter.  If you have any ideas let me know.  

I have to find something the rest of the society might might interested in learning more about and then calling a complete stranger and asking for a (free) demonstration.  Marilyn made a suggestion concerning pryographs.  Know of any wood burners in the metro area that are open to free demos?


Here is a picture of Paul and his hobby (camping).

In Judy's class we should have finished the elephant,and  a moose.  I also decided to try a llama on my own (using one of Judy's pattern) The picture of the elephant is my own and still unfinished.  I should wait until I am finished to post but who knows when that might be.


I am posting pictures Judy painted of the moose and the llama rather than my own, because my might have beens do not measure up to the way things are (moose looks real bad and llama has not even been attempted).

Monday, August 6, 2012

American Idol Bus

Just saw a posting in the Billings Gazette indicating that American Idol is auditioning contestants at Zoo Montana today. Turns out that the American Idol bus will be visiting 10 small towns around the country  starting with Idaho Fall.  The article stated that over a thousand hopefuls lined up at the zoo. One can but wonder what kind of acoustics the zoo had to offer.
 
 List of the small towns "American Idol" will visit for auditions:
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Billings, Montana
Casper, Wyoming
Grand Junction, Colorado
Dodge City, Kansas
Rock Rapids, Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Joplin, Missouri
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Bowling Green, Kentucky

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Wanna see my etchings?

                                         Rocks, Birds nest
                                        Raspberries
                                          Chickens
                                           Arches, Fruit
                                            Woods
                                          Buckley
                                         Daisies, sheep in bit of a bind
                               Dogs, marking from twig on cardinal picture
                                         Cardinal

                                                 Lilacs
                                          Puffins

                                            Sheep
                                         Not sure I lost my reference picture.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Wichita

The last couple of week's have been tough, and without my incredible family I don't know how I would have survived!

Thank you, Mom for coming out and taking care of Paul so I could go to the SDP convention. Thank you Barbara and Kent for taking care of Mom and Brandy while I was away. And thank you, Annette for flying out and helping Mom drive home.

My SDP chapter has about 35 member, 15 active (sounds like church) and of those 15 six of us  went to the convention. My roommate, Elissa, was so kind and thoughtful. She was the best roommate ever!

 I took two watercolor classes, two oil classes and one theory class. I was introduce to a lot of new concepts. By the time I got home my head was spinning. None the less,  there are so many interactive lessons online I would like to take, but Wichita was pretty expensive so I will have to cool my jets for a while.  Anyway, here are my paintings.

This one is my favorite. The instructor, Mark Polomchak, told us that with the decorative painters there was no such thing as to much glitter. After we painted our skies, he took an air brush (cobalt blue) and where ever the colors looked kinda muddy he made corrections ( for 45 students). The last thing we did was the wave. He showed us how it was done with a toothbrush, then if we didn't like our wave he helped us make corrections. I would say he made corrections to also every student wave. I am not sure I could paint this one by myself.  But the class was a lot of fun and it is nice to have at least one painting that looks good.

















This one is a mess, but nothing that can't be fixed. We really didn't get much in the way instruction, but it is my understanding that the seventy one year old instructor (Louise Jackson) had just spent three days of 12 hour days of intense judging, so I need not be so harsh. I had a hard time with the class because a lot of techniques she used were not watercolor techniques but techniques we use back in the 70's with acrylics (floating, blending double loading) I haven't used those techniques in thirty years, but I suppose it is just like riding a bike, and I knew those techniques once I should be able to learn them again.


This one was taught by Linda Coulter. I wanted to buy her products so bad, but right now I just can't justify the expense. Anyway we under painted every thing in differ shades of gray and brown acrylics and then glazed over with  transparent colored oils.
This last painting was done on the last day and the teacher (Marie Merritt) that was in a hurry to get out of town, none the less, I learn a lot from her and she gave us a packet that has all kinds of information. She uses a limit palette.  Just white, burnt sienna, raw umber, cad red, cad yellow and ultramarine blue. Then she mixed these colors for all the other colors.
 I also took a theory class from Ann Kingslan who is one of the Decorative painters founding mothers.  It seem like the class and the teacher were tired before the class started and it's hard to teach theory, but she gave us a packet of all kinds of information. I didn't even realize how great it was until after the class. I am getting emails from her (and her daughter who is also a decorative painter) concerning products she has available. Her online class do not seem to be too expensive. So I might give it a try.  But then again, I am not sure I should because she said pick one specialty and learn it, don't try to learn too much at once and she work in oils.  Here is a link to her web site:  http://kingslan.com/index.php

Mean while back at the ranch, this is the last acrylic painting we did in Denver. I miss acrylics. I still have one more painting I will have to finish outside of class of some purple prickly pears. I will post it when it is finished. I really liked acrylics. I also really liked working with oils. But I know I need to pick one medium and master it.
This painting was what we were working on in class before I left, I missed two weeks so now I will have to finish on my own, but I kinda like the way it looks now and I am not sure it will look better after I work on it by myself so I am posting it now.

 I also took a water color class from a local fine artist, Charles Danford, right before Wichita, it is not quite done.. but I may never finish it so this is what it looks like for far.


When I went to my watercolor class on Wednesday, my teacher decided she wanted us to focus on drawing. I must have drawn at least 15 pictures since Wednesday. She said if we were taking drawing at a University we would have to produce several drawing a week (Kent Evans told me when he took a watercolor class at the Y he was suppose to paint five paintings a week). So, my goal was to draw a drawing a day. Since Wednesday I have produced 15 drawings (it helps me coop with stress). Speaking of stress, Paul left this morning for Oregon. I guess, we need to take a break for each other of a while. He did call me this evening to let me know he made it safely to Pendleton.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Abstract Thoughts

This painting suppose to be a representation of southwestern pictographs. I think it looks rather abstract, but I like it.  Maybe I should switch my focus to abstract art.
 This painting reminds me of the Indian caves we frequented when we were young.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Domino Effect

Last night the Rocky Mtn Hi Charpter of the SDP met. We changed dominos into really cute magnets.