My first 3 "captures" in the 18th hunt

4th"capture"

Here's another capture. I have been so inspired by the community of folks making art and sharing on the web; unexpected, fabulous or just so-so, the making of it is worth every minute.

Portrait of Hugh playing chess

This was my 5th "capture" in the #18 Scavenger Hunt (Wet Canvas) It may be my most successful sketch of a live person in years. I was using my favorite medium, a dense black pastel called CHAR-KOLE.

Full Circle

Being here alone over the past week or so, I've had a very difficult time motivating myself to make art, or do the laundry, or much of anything. This was a forced session with the ink and watercolors and I had an absolute ball! I was in the moment the whole while. Thinking it was a big, rushed mistake from the start... I didn't much care how it turned out. I'm thrilled! I feel like living again, if only to make the next picture. Daniel Smith watercolors rock... and so do waterproof pens!

Hugh on the Porch and one more day til we take it back

I am so excited about the elections tomorrow. We've waited so long for the chance to begin to turn this madness around. I wish Hugh could be here to watch the returns with me. He's in Minnesota for a while looking after his mom. I drew this picture before he left.

I got the scanner!

A little painting in my sketchbook of my afternoon on the porch. I am finding it difficult to get the vivid saturation I want from the colors.

Frida for Halloween!

I had so much fun doing this. I decided I'll wear flowers in my hair when I'm very old. It's empowering.

Painting for Terry

This is a very bad photo of a little 5 x 7 painting I did this weekend for my friend's birthday. I'm finding I can make a better sketch with my pen than I can with a pencil. But taking a pen to nice watercolor paper is a bit intimidating. I suppose I was pleased with this as a first attempt at painting glass.

Gibbs House-Pawley's Island

The house turned out okay for a first effort. I was happy with the shadows made by the awnings. I worked a long time on the drawing. It's only about 6 x 8 inches. The sky was extremely blue and I chickened out. Didn't want to "mess it up"! The foreground escaped me. I'm only just learning to abbreviate leaves and things. The live oaks there are so amazing. Dense and dark. And gnarly!

Progress

Last night I set up my new painting table in what we call the closet room of our house. Learned I absolutely cannot tolerate the light I bought to use for painting. I have always hated flourescents and this one is no exception. It has a "full spectrum" bulb which I thought would be helpful, but it is so harsh and bright that I immediately felt carsick. Or bulbsick, if you will. My eyes felt as if they were being pressed on really hard. I have to replace it tonight with an incandescent.

I also made a list of which paints are staining, transparent etc and studied some color studies in a new book I bought. Learning just what I can do with alizeran crimson, ultramarine and indian yellow. Fascinating! Some of my paints aren't in yet so I can't do the studies myself. I learned that transparent colors don't make "mud" the way some others do.

I sketched the couch with a really dark soft pencil that is all pencil, no wood. It's buttery! I tried hard not to worry about getting it right but just kept making marks until the shape and perspective were right. I drew it right over a pencil test I did...no idea I was going to like it at all. I love it when I surprise myself.

I see now I will have to get a scanner. Or digital camera. I feel guilty about bringing my sketches to work and having a coworker scan them for me.

A Sense of Responsibility

Now that I've started this....I'm feeling a certain obligation to it. That is exactly what I had hoped would happen! I did do 2 drawings this weekend. One very bad one of a perfectly decent piece of pizza on a perfectly boring gas range-top and another of a bottle of one of my favorite condiments: Red Pepper Flakes! That one turned out well and I think I'll paint it tonight. I am also working on setting up a little studio space in my house so I'll have a place to work that I don't have to clean up. I can just leave the tools out so they're always there waiting and calling. I'm pretty excited about this. I'm tricking myself into doing art....and it's working!

Zinnias and one cosmo

This turned out much better than I thought it would! The paper is really thin out of a sketchbook similar to a Moleskine but a different brand. I did this as a total challenge to myself that I could do something without having just the right paper and paint, etc.

My first mouse drawing

View from my computer drawn with the mouse....I won't be doing too much of THAT in the future.

Poppy the dog

This is my dog Poppy. He has no idea how small he is!