Skiff of Snow

We were suppose to get a light dusting of snow on Thursday, but we got six inches.

Driving in the morning was pure torture because the roads had not been plowed and the snow was heavy and high enough to hit my axle. It was also icy and slippery.

After the shock wore of it got pretty, and it was nice enough that Paul took Brandy to the dog park. I wish I had picture of that because he said she had such a good time rolling over and shaking while she was on her back. I only had geese to watch, but they appear to be have a good time.

Spearhead of the Chisholm Trail

One of the gals from my painting club gave me a whole box of unfinished wood projects (3-4 paper ream size boxes). We have no room so it will have to go to the shed. Thank goodness we have a shed. I will want to practice before I paint on anything. Anyone looking for a pair of candle sconces? This same lady is going to be my 'roomate' for the decorative painter's convention in Witchita this coming May.  We really didn't get much time to talk because she had to take here dog to the vet.

My painting club meets tonight. Tonight we have a cake decorating demonstration. Seems we will be taking the paints out of painting? So, today I need to forget painting and focus on the club.  Did I tell you that  I am going to the yearly convention for the Society of Decorative Pai;nter's  in Witchita?  It should be so much fun. I have already signed up for classes, gotten a approval for vacation time, and a room at the hotel lined up. However,I don't have my airline ticket yet. The convention is May 14-19.  I will have to practice my Glen Campbell impression (I am a lineman for the county).Or maybe Mel Tillis, but instead of "No one wants to go down to Tucson in the summer,"  I could say Witchita.

I did try to paint over the weekend but I was severely disappointed in the results. I  painted my deciduous trees at least five times, and made at least the same number of attempts to improve my rocks.  The trees don't look any worse, but as many times as I try, I don't seem to be able to improve. On the other hand, and my rocks are astonishingly bad. Maybe  I will get up the nerve to post this weeks failures, maybe not. My teacher says we go through periods where nothing turns out when we go through growth periods, but she could be just trying to make me feel better.

I was also disappointed in the way my acrylic pears turned out.  I have not tried to re-paint yet, but I thought about them while I was trying to paint trees and rocks. I did  talked Paul into buying me a couple of pears when he goes grocery shopping today. So, I could look at them while I paint. Not sure it will help, but it can't get any worse.

I had a mammogram this morning Feb 20, 2012. I am adding this to this posting, because I never remember when I had my last exam. KP has a mobile unit that comes right to my building. You don't even have to schedule you just walk in at your own convenience. I asked the tech who drives the truck and she said they do and they had to a class C license.

Finding My Inter Pear

My watercolor teacher got bored.  So, she wants us to work in acrylics for a while. Historically speaking acrylics have been my least favorite medium. Note there is a cry in acrylics. But now I kinda feel inspired to do better. We use heavy body acrylics. I had never used them better and them before and I was way out of my element.

We had to free hand a couple of pears and then paint'em.  They are not finished. I still have to add the highlights. In acrylics you go from dark to light.

I was way out of touch with my inter pear.  So, I really studied pears, and then I tried to sketch the little guys.

My second inspiration was to see what the would like in watercolors.

And my third inspiration for this week came from the art attack blog.  The drawing of the artist's young son inspired me to post a pencil drawing.  I was unhappy with the rocks in my last posting so I wanted to do something with rocks.

Painting Projects

I do have a few painting projects to post. I decided to do the lessons in the Daniel Smith work book as outlined.  I started at the beginning, with the daisies.

Next, I watched the instruction on daffodils, and the lessons on orchids. After I painted the daffodil, some thing snapped and I could not do the orchids, It sounded way to boring.

So, I painted a small gargoyle.

 I had another tree seminar on the 28th.  I really don't like  the way that these trees  turned out.  So, soon as I got home I tried the exercise over, and over and over and over again. But I was not able to improve.  I am going to give it a rest for a week or two.

Finally, I am posting picture of the project we are working on in class. I like it so far, but there are so many mistakes I could still make that would ruin the painting...

Winter

We had a winter storm starting Thrusday night and finally stopping today.  A good sign that the worse is over is the fact that right now, the sun is brightly shinny.  Here is a picture of our drive way after Paul dug us out.  Denver usually only gets one major storm all winter, So, I am hopefully optimistic that we will not get another for the rest of the season.