Art
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Art with Hummingbirds
While in New Mexico I had hopes to spend more time working on some sketchbook art, primarily my perpetual nature journal that I started in early September last year. I’m several months behind because I sunk into a pit of not doing anything in May so I’ve been continuously working to get back on top of things. A perpetual nature journal is one that has some flexibility but ideally you are using one page or set of pages to chronicle something in nature for a certain time period on every year until that page is full. Mine is set up weekly, though the weeks will slide a bit as they…
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Postcard Art | 1
Winter means that my studio is too chilly for me to work in usually, and so I have been making do with watercolors inside the house. I keep several sketchbooks and now some watercolor postcard paper on my desk and have been working away these last few weeks on small art pieces that I am mailing out to folks. I’m trying to do monthly themes, January’s was orchids, as you can see. February is currently abstract and I think March will be native plants or spring. All of these are taken but when I have others in the future I will share them here and if you want a little…
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A Bit of Art Tucked Away
Last week I was attempting to organize our office and started pilfering through my desk. Inside I found all sorts of goodies along with this little pastel. It needs a touch up, signing and spray. I’m not sure why I left it in my desk for 2.5 years instead of packing it, but my guess is that my portfolio was already packed in the POD when I found it in my desk in Florida. So there it stayed. I guess I will display it in my studio, but I’m contemplating making prints to sell of some of the pieces I’ve done over the years. Just seeing this little piece reminds…
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Baloo | A Pencil Drawing
Whenever I think of myself as an artist I usually feel like a fraud. The simple fact is that this is the first thing I’ve drawn in a year. The last thing I drew was a sunflower for my sister in law and the month before that a hollyhock pastel. The drawing of this sweet doggie is titled Baloo after the man himself. If you’ve only been reading in the last two years and haven’t followed during my life in Florida, then you wouldn’t know that Chris and I dog-sat this fella for nearly a year and a half with many other fun stays along the way. We became his…
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My First Photo Show | Thoughts & Review
Last weekend I drove down to the San Bernard NWR for the Migration Celebration. It was very busy and full of activities but I only had time for a trip to the San Bernard Oak and to see the exhibit hall which included the photo contest exhibits. The photo above is the 2nd place award I won for the Nature Photography as Art part of the contest. As I said, I entered on a whim, mostly to test my skills to see if I even had a chance. And I guess I did. But, I don’t think I will enter this contest again. The photos above were the rest of…
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Artist at Work
I did this project at the last minute. I’d remembered my sister in law, Stephanie, had once asked for a sunflower painting, but I just never found the inspiration to get it done. Her birthday came up and I decided it was the right time so I went for it. I said in another post that I typically take my time hemming and hawing over things before finishing it up but this one worked quickly. I think the last hour was spent listening to Mumford and Sons on Youtube. Good music to work to. A conversation came up with Chris last week with his mom when she asked if he…
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Hollyhock Pastel—Finished?
Finishing something is a struggle for me. At what point is it done? Right now I am struggling with the background. I don’t particularly like it. I tried to mimic the photo, the blurry background and all but I’m not liking it too much. What do you think? I was thinking of blending it more and making it a more generic darker/darker green background. I just don’t know.. What I want to do is spray it and put it away but I also don’t want something crappy lingering around either. I did the main part of the flower with pastel pencils, which I actually liked except I’d invest in better…
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In Progress | Hollyhock in Pastel
After more than a year and a half hiatus from drawing I’m trying my hand at it again. I’ve been toting around some art supplies every time we went to a project but it had been gnawing at me to do this for awhile. So, here it is. I go back and forth from thinking I’m doing ok to wanting to say it sucks. If I look across the room at it I think “oh, it looks good”, and then I look at it up close I think “who am I kidding?” So there it is. I’ve had the photo I am working from printed for maybe three years. Yep.…
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Where the 20 & 30 year olds have as much fun as the 2.5 year old.
We should’ve used a wax pencil but instead went with tape. Chris did the Z, I did the AT symbol. Mom had the best idea of buying a tablecloth to put down instead of splashing newspapers everywhere. Worked well, too, because I knocked a bowl of coloring over and so did Zoe. Zoe had a ton of fun! Stephanie, her mom and my SIL, said that the adults were having too much fun and it was supposed to be for the kid. I hadn’t done this in, oh, maybe 20 years, maybe less, so it was a blast revisiting a childhood craft. Curt had a lot of fun in between…
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Thoughts on Creativity
This topic has been on my mind a bit lately but it was a post by a friend (that I’ve never met but know through my friends Marc & Eliana), Chel, yesterday that really got me going even more on it. Hiking on the Appalachian Trail for five months will really set your priorities straight. There is tons of time to think and well, when your Google Reader backs up and you cannot possibly keep up, hitting “Mark All Read” is the thing to do. And it didn’t hurt. It actually let me realize that many of the blogs I were reading had slowly gotten off track from either their…
