Wednesday, April 21, 2010

A Few Flowers

Over the weekend my daughter, my granddaughters and I traveled to my niece's for her housewarming. It was fun to get together with the family, see her new house and enjoy my babies! I managed to get in a few minutes of drawing and painting.
These are some flowers from the housewarming. They were a beautiful golden orange that doesn't really show well in the pictures.



I also attempted to draw some flowers from the bedroom.




I thought it would make a great value study with the white flowers against the white comforter, but I started losing light, getting uncomfortable on the floor, and then the kids came in, so this drawing is incomplete. But as I'm learning, it's not the product but the process that is important. And I had fun!

EDM #76 Draw some flowers.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Mobile Botanical Gardens

What a wonderful day of painting I have had! For the first time, I was able to meet with the plein air group in this area. We painted at Mobile Botanical Gardens and we could not have ordered a more gorgeous day! The azaleas were all in bloom, everything smelled wonderful, and the weather was spendid. Here's a little bit of the beauty I encountered on first arriving.





A half dozen or so met to paint and we got busy. Here is my first watercolor painting.



And this is the area I was in.


After seeing another artist doing a close-up of these amazing azaleas, I decided to give it a try, even knowing I couldn't come close to how good hers was. Here is the result.

This is the azalea I painted.

Though I know my paintings don't do justice to the beauty I stared at for hours, I had such a good time. I was able to lose myself in the artwork for a few hours. I will do more painting en plein air.
I believe this will qualify for EDM #193 Draw a closeup part of something, and EDM #136 Draw or paint something that's alive.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Struggling through a valley...

It's been a while since I posted anything on the blog, a while since I did any drawing or artwork at all. In January, my mother went into the hospital, later to a nursing home, and passed away at the end of February. She was 85, had lived a good long life and was ready to go. But even though we were expecting it, it hasn't been easy. I miss her terribly and sometimes I just have to cry.
It's been hard to get back into any kind of routine, even now, a month and a half later. My mind is muddled lots of times and everything seems harder. I'd begun to wonder if I'd ever get back to drawing.
Today, in trying to catch up on emails, I read an email from Danny Gregory, who began the yahoo group Everyday Matters after he wrote a book by the same name. The email was a couple of weeks old. Danny's wife had died the week before and, even in his grief, he was encouraging the members of the group not to give up on their artwork, even if it had been a while since they'd drawn anything or if they didn't feel they had any artistic talent. He emphasized that it is noticing and appreciating the little things that occur each day that make life enjoyable. Taking the time to draw what we see becomes a way to record those memories and find beauty and meaning in an everyday moment.
I also read a blog post from another member who observed that she'd learned to appreciate the "dull" colors of the palette because they make the brighter colors really pop in comparison. She has also begun to see the valleys we go through as a time to really see the mountaintop when it comes. In other words, going through difficult times is like those dull, drab colors; they make the good times even better.
So a combination of the words of these two people and the vivid colors of spring and a somewhat less muddy brain finally got me drawing again.

Today would have been my sister Sharan's birthday. We lost her 5 years ago to cancer. I've been feeling that loss more intensely today, along with missing Mother, whose birthday is also in April. So I decided to draw one for both of them. Flowers seem appropriate for them both, this a stargazer lily for Sharan, a pink rose for Mother, but it didn't turn out well at all so maybe I'll try it again tomorrow.
One of the things I'm missing about Mother is she was my greatest fan. No matter what I brought to show her, a drawing, a quilt square, a good grade on a test, she loved it. She would get that little grin and say, "Oh, I'm so proud of you!" Thank you, Mother, for your words of encouragement!

Monday, November 30, 2009

On November 30, I made the end!

Today I worked on my final project for my 2D Design class, the Picasso. This project was pure fun, even though there should have been a feeling of pressure because it counted as a final exam. Don't worry, it's not really supposed to make much sense!
It's hard to believe this month is over! It has flown by. Though I haven't been able to produce as much artwork as I'd hoped, I think it has helped me to think more artistically, to train my brain to see things a little differently. Confession time!! I didn't really meet my challenge of blogging every day--Blogger has a neat little trick so post dates can be changed and I utilized that to have a post (almost) every day. But regardless of how precisely I met the challenge, my overall goal of building the habit of making art each day has been achieved. I don't feel pressure to post every day, but I will try to keep up that habit and stay creative. I'd love to hear from any readers out there with ideas on how you stay creative.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

On November 29, I made it all over again!

We had Thanksgiving dinner again because my oldest daughter and her family were out of town on Thursday with my son-in-law's family. The day was full of joy and thanksgiving, the smiles of the grandbabies, and lots of food. Again, no pics, but I thought I'd show my monster from a few days ago, mounted for class. Strange what that black frame can do. I wound up getting an "A" for this project and it was lots of fun!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

On November 28, I made eggs!

The puzzle I'm working on is so much fun, a bunch of painted Easter eggs (yes, I know I must be weird putting together a puzzle of Easter eggs between Thanksgiving and Christmas:o) that it inspired me to make my own designs.








And the strange thing is that Blogger is changing the orientation of my picture and won't let me fix it--imagine it turned the other way. I've been working on this off and on as inspiration strikes so it may take a while to finish. My eggs are not anywhere near as fancy as the ones in the puzzle picture, they are more like zentangles in circles and ovals. These are done in colored pencil so they don't show up well in this pic. Wishing I had a better camera...

Friday, November 27, 2009

On November 27, I made a good choice!

And stayed at home, away from the maddening crowds at the stores on Black Friday! There has only been once or twice when I actually went shopping on the day after Thanksgiving and I wished I hadn't. Now I just stay home and work on a puzzle or play games. Today I also worked on making a better bag.
I made my bag better by adding a pocket with a button and stitching around the outside edges to give it a little more shape. The fabric I used to trim my bag is actually from a men's cotton shirt and the pocket is straight off the shirt. I sometimes pick up pieces of clothing at the Goodwill store, especially on Sunday when they have some items for 99 cents. Blue and white is one of my favorite color combinations, so while I was sewing, I made a pot holder/hot pad, too, perhaps to practice... Christmas is coming, after all!