Making the Final Drawing for the Mews

An apology to everyone who was confused after reading yesterday's entry with its proliferation of abbreviations.  A UFO, in quilting parlance, is an UnFinished Object.  My UU (really don't like that very much and will have to come up with something better - maybe Double U) is a UFO Undertaking.  Enough about that for the time being (wish I knew how to create a simple Glossary for this blog).

During today's painting class, I did some drawings for the Mews project.  The tricycle was the first one I attempted from memory.  It will have to be checked, I think.  The second was the large standing planter (masquerading as a garbage bin right now), and the third was the window box.  

Then I cut them out and . . . . . 

placed them on one of the studies-for-color I've done.  Once home, I re-sized them to fit and put a bit of tape on on the backs of the flower containers so they'd stay put at least until I decided where they belonged.  The trike was moved around a bit until I made a slit between the pink and the dark gold buildings and slipped it in there.  It's where Sharon suggested it might do best, and I agree.

The final step was to attach all additions (including  another slightly larger window box on the pink building after fixing its perspective a bit), on the "real" drawing that has all the building details, and make a copy of the whole thing.

 Lots of steps involved as I made up my mind about the final composition.  While it may seem like a lot of unnecessary steps, being able to re-size and duplicate drawings and to move things around without damaging either the items moved or the base drawings, was really a time saver.

Now I have the master for transfer on to the watercolor paper! 

UFO Undertaking

The borders went on the mysterious wall hanging today (cheers!!!).  They are only 2.5" in width which is not what I wanted, but by having them relatively narrow, there is enough fabric left for the binding as well.  That is a major coup!  There is a piece of fabric ready to be put to use as the backing (ugly but serviceable), and I'm pretty sure I have a piece of batting that will suffice.  

I am now free to return to projects that have been put aside.  My intention is to start on my UFOs and try to get two completed before allowing myself to start a new project - after which another two UFOs will be tackled. Help keep me honest by asking me every so often how I'm doing on my UFO Undertaking, okay?

Of course, the handwork I do in the evenings isn't part of the UU.  Well, actually, it is in a way.  I was about to crow and say tonight I picked up a new project to do some handwork on, but it isn't new.  It was started last month, and it's been re-visited only in my mind.  That vacation from working on it allowed me to be a bit more thoughtful about it this evening.  The difference with my night work will be that I will allow myself to work on whichever unfinished piece is ready to be worked on.  Since most of these are "art" or "near-art" they require more willingness, more enthusiasm than the pieced works do.  That's why I've built in a "willingness on my part" factor.

Sound possible?  I hope so.  Tomorrow I'll have a photo of my handwork and maybe some news on the art (as in paintings) front.

Until then . . .

Finding What Was Lost

That was some thunderstorm today.  Short and powerful but not a tornado in our area fortunately.  And of course, the rain started about 15 minutes after I watered the plants.  

The nicest thing that happened this weekend was finding enough of my background fabric to squeeze out a border for my little wall hanging.  I could have sworn I had a piece left but couldn't find it.  That made me think I had used it for the last few strips I needed.  Of course, what really happened was my brain dropped a critical piece of information and buried it under a pile of unrelated memories.  Turns out that piece of fabric was hiding in the bag I took with me a week ago when I went to various stores looking for a possible match. It was my work bag that I used last Sunday, and I thought I had cleaned it out. Turned out I overlooked one pocket - the one in which I stuffed that fabric.  You can't begin to imagine how happy I was to find that elusive piece even after spending a good portion of my time figuring a way around the problem.

Oh well, the solution will stand me in good stead in some future border.  Solutions like that can be put away in a mental drawer and pulled out to be used when needed.

As long as I can remember what that solution was and in which mental drawer I stored it!

From Sewing to Pursuing Possible Paintings through Photographs

While I spent my day working on the wall  hanging I can't show here, I do want to spend a little time talking about it (but only a little time).  I finished the center portion, but then discovered that my fears at the beginning of the project were based in reality.  Since I had pulled my background fabric from my stash, I knew I might not have enough for the borders.  After measuring and confirming that I had been correct, and indeed, I don't even have enough for what I considered might be my fall back design for the border.  After sitting and thinking and doing even more math (you know how much I love that!), my level of discomfort went up as I came up with an idea that I think will be really great.  If I have it figured correctly.  We'll see!

Then I took a break and went outdoors to water D's bonsai, check the plantings I did yesterday, and see if I could snap some photos that might make future painting subjects.  See what you think ;

In this first one, the crimped edges of the petals would make me suitably un - comfortable!

Oh, the colors and shapes of these make me swoon!

And then there is this one - drama personified.  But is it a painting? or really a photo? or even, maybe, a drawing?

Busy Day

What a day! Our tree man came - rain and all - and took care of some tree limbs that were in need of removal.  They (arborists) are amazing; they need more than a smattering of knowledge about trees and the machines they use.  To say nothing about the danger of the job. When he left, our trees were safer for people wandering under their branches and let in more light all without compromising their integrity.

The light rain we had this morning made it possible for me easily to do some planting.  The white flower garden now has two more white delphiniums - let's hope they all (including the one I added last year) make it through the winter and are ignored by the chipmunks.  My white lilies were found over the winter by the beasties, and only one came up in the spring.  It grew and set its buds, but one morning I went to get the newspaper and found the lily stretched out on the ground.  The bulb had been completely eaten leaving the stalk with no roots.  Sigh.  The same thing happened in the back yard, but until this year, the front was safe.  "Was" being the operative word.

The rest of the day I spent sewing on another secret project which I hope to have finished by the end of the week.  

All in all, it was a successful day - except for the "no painting" part.  

Progress in the Studio

The heat seems to be making me muzzy-minded tonight so I'll make this short.  

The first thing we all did when we got to the studio for class today was give Sharon our money for the latest order of sable brushes.  Excellent news that Sharon as a small business owner and as one who has placed several orders in the past was given a good discount on all brushes.  Nice, since as you can imagine, sable "doesn't come cheap".  The other bit of good news on this front is that it appears the US has lifted the embargo on sable - for brushes, anyway.  That last bit has to be checked a bit further before we get all excited about it, and even then, who know if US imported brushes will be the same price we are paying now or more or less expensive?  Time will tell.

Then we all settled down to work on whatever our current project is.  One student is trying out a variety of media trying to get a good feel for the best fit.  She worked on pencil sketches today.  Another woman is continuing with her exploration of acrylic paints; she's done quite a few and has mixed feelings about them.  That leaves three of us chasing the elusive magic of water color.  

My time was spent on another study for the mews.  I experimented today with seeing if I could paint the buildings without laying down a pencil sketch first.  It is possible, but with buildings, doorways, windows, etc., I think I will draw very lightly first.  Another thing I worked on was adding some additional items to make this area looked lived in - flower pots, window boxes, and a few other things.  

My plan at this moment is to do some sketches of those new additions, and then start two paintings as final drafts hoping that at least in one of them, I can stay out of my own way.

Discomfort Walked In

Here is the photo of the unfinished study of the "Stourhead Stables" (aka the "Blue Doors" which is the title I would have used if I hadn't been afraid that I wouldn't remember where and what that building was).  The basics are recognizable - especially if you've seen the finished article, but a lot is clearly missing.

Here's what my brain was thinking.  The final painting is complete, and this study helped me get there so it deserves something.  I'll make it an experimental study and introduce that hint of discomfort.  Okay, explanation time: being slightly uncomfortable keeps one from being predictable or from getting into a creative rut.  Discomfort is a desirable state.  

That's when I decided to finish this study using ink.  By the time I worked with a set of 4 Faber-Castell artist pens in sepia, I was humming.  Not a good sign if I were look for a sense of discomfort.  Then I added Inktense colored pencil and that worked.  I've never worked much with "real" colored pencils (as opposed to the ones designed for children) and the small bit I've done was disaster.  Discomfort walked in and sat down for tea.

Here's what happened to that study you saw above :

While it isn't a great work of art, I think it has some merit.  And I've learned that experimenting is worth it.  Now I know using pen with watercolors is something I'd like to try from time to time.  The colored pencils???  Not so much.

Clive Amazes Again!

Last week brother D and "sil" E came for a two day visit which is why there were no entries at the end of the week.  We were having such a good time I actually forgot to write!

I assure you one of things we did was take a stroll around the gardens - not that there is much to see.  Nothing has been done in the back for a couple of reasons which seemed good at the time but now make me wonder.  We talked about ticks, and D came in sporting a couple of them (fortunately not deer ticks) which simply reinforced the idea that neither of us should undertake cleaning up the garden alone.  We know that we need to check each other for those pests as neither of us is good at scanning our own back.  At any rate, privately I suspect that my real reason was that I wanted to spend time painting or sewing rather than weeding.  Oh well - next year for the big back yard gardens.

This conversation started because I wanted to exclaim over our clivia plant.  It bloomed during the winter for the first time in years and years which excited us both a lot.  So I figured that in order to get a repeat bloom next winter, I should try to do this year what I did last (I can hear you snickering from here because you think I can't remember what I did).  Anyway, it is out on the front porch, and I have been watering very sparingly.

It isn't working.

Clive (my pet name for this plant) is flowering now.

Fate of an Unfinished Study

Even when a day seems mired in necessary chores, the brain keeps working - possibly in its subterranean depths hidden from the conscious mind - on problems or ideas related to the creative part of the brain.  That always amazes me; I know I've written about how I may go to sleep with an insurmountable problem but wake up with its solution clear in my head.

Anyway, today's "solution" was about a small issue - too small really to even rise to the importance of being classified as a "problem".  When working on studies for "Stourhead Stables", I had one study that I really liked but left unfinished.  At that time I was ready to leave the drafts behind and go on to a finished piece.  After that painting was completed, I still had this unfinished study.  The only two things I thought I could do with it was first, work it into another, almost identical version of the stables, or second, file it away somewhere.  Neither suited me. 

While I was doing housework today, a possibility snuck into my head so unobtrusively that I didn't realize it was there until this evening as I sat almost dozing in front of the TV.  What if I took the unfinished study and completed it in a very different way?  Drawing the missing details in pen and ink would not only be unlike the painting; it might turn out to be rather interesting.

At least doing it will be.  

I'll take before and after pictures and post them when it's done.  

Beginning a New Oil Painting

This house has not smelled like oil paints in a looooong time.  It's been two years this coming August since the construction of the studio began; that's when the decision was made not to risk wet oil paintings being knocked over or coated with dust.  That's when I started working with water colors, but now I have decided to do what I've been threatening to do for some time now.  Begin working in oil again.

 There are several views of the lake I have never painted, but one in particular is special and has been calling my name loudly enough that the correct size canvas was ready and waiting for me.  I had also had time to think about how I would go about painting that particular scene.  

 

My decision was to under paint with complementary colors using a brush instead of my usual palette knife.  First, I used a brush because I wanted the under layer to be mostly smooth so the top layer would glide over it.  Actually, it's the way I usually paint my skies anyway and then layer clouds with a palette knife.  

Why the complementary colors?  It's not something I have invented; I just decided to try it and see how it works for me.  Here's the reasoning.  If my palette knife doesn't cover every infinitesimal bit of the canvas and the under painting shows through, the complementary color will make that area sparkle.  Remember, we're talking about tiny spots here - so small that when I show you the finished piece, you probably won't be able to see those wee areas.

So, are you ready for this beginning of the latest lake painting?

Notice that I did use my palette knife after all.  Can you see where?  Also I clearly didn't have as much time as I would have liked to work on this today; I was able to work with only one color.  If you know your complementary colors, you know that orange is the complement of blue, and the different shades and tints of orange show where, in the finished work, you will see different shades and tints of blue. Therefore, you can also figure out that I have under painted the sky, distant mountains, lake, and pond areas.  

Weirdly satisfying.

Fellowship of Hand-Piecers

Do you ever start a project, work on it enthusiastically for a while, work more slowly as time goes on, put it down, and walk away?  Then one day you come across it while cleaning out the deepest, darkest corner of the closet no one ever opens and say, "So that's where it was!  Maybe I should finish it."  The cycle may repeat until you either throw it away or . . . 

FINISH IT!!!

Behold, the "Carpenter's Star" wall hanging with hand-pieced pattern blocks as it looks now - hanging on my design wall(with a corner refused to stay where I put it).  It has borders and is ready to go off to a quilter, but getting it to this point once the blocks were finished was a trial. When I was ready to cut the background and border fabrics I had selected back at the start of this project, I discovered that they just wouldn't work.  I also discovered that I was so tired of the project that I couldn't even begin to choose an alternative.  

That's where the Fellowship of Hand-Piecers came to my rescue.  At the end of  the search, they had several very good possibilities lined up from which I could pick.  It was Sue R who spent the most time and came up with the best choices for me, and I owe her a return favor.

Thank you, Sue, call on me when you need a helping hand!

Realization of an "Artistic" Sort

Oh my, it's been almost a month since my last entry!  First there were computer problems that necessitated the installation of a new hard drive, anti-virus program (which should have been on all ready but wasn't), and finally, a return to Geek Squad because a virus was still lurking. And if that weren't enough to delay my entries, D and I went to D.C. for a week.

Now we are back, and life is beginning to return to normal.  I do have photos from D.C. which I will share over the next weeks, but today I want to talk about other things.  On our trip to Washington, I took drawing materials with the firm intention of doing some en plein air (art done outside) work.  That is something I have very little experience doing; you may have noticed that I work from photographs a lot - rarely out in front of my subject.  So I took what I would need to do that sort of sketching with me.

I've written before about obvious solutions, conclusions, realizations, that take me an embarrassingly  very long to arrive at, and this is one of them.  By the end of the week in D.C., I had only one sketch - that of the interior of our hotel room completed one evening while I was alone. 

The last part of that sentence was my "Aha!" moment.  I was alone when I got out my drawing materials!  

Almost all of my time I was with another woman in friendly companionship as we traveled around from site to site.  Almost every evening, I was in the hotel with D and sometimes others who were there for the same meeting he was.  I didn't have the opportunity to sit alone on a bench on the Mall, garden, museum, metro station, or hotel lobby and work in silent concentration on drawing.  When with people, I expected to be social, to converse, to listen.  "Silent concentration" would effectively shut others out and be rude.  Had I been traveling with other artists or with D at a time when he would be immersed in his own interests, I would have allowed myself to close myself off and focus on drawing.

Will I take art materials with me when I travel again?  Yes, always.  There is always a chance that the right opportunity will occur, but if I return home with blank pages, I won't be upset for now I understand why.

Computer Glitch

For the last few days I have been struggling with a recalcitrant computer.  Tonight I couldn't get it to work at all so I am now on D's computer.  Tomorrow I am taking the machine to be serviced which is difficult but necessary.  D is at a point where he needs to spend a lot of time each day completing reports for his three major activities; that puts my desire to blog, check email, play solitaire, etc., low on the totem pole.

The positive note for today is that I cut out almost all of the pieces needed for a wall hanging that I must have made by the end of July.

I will let you know how my poor computer is feeling and how long she might be ill and write entries when I can.

Until then, keep smiling!

Readying a Quilt

This is the week quilts must be mailed to Vermont for the Vermont Quilt Festival.  My quilt is almost ready, but there are still some things I need to complete.

First, there is a piece of muslin masking my name and quilt information as required.  However, that piece of muslin has the registration number from my guild's fall quilt show written on it.  I either should take that piece of muslin off and make another or simply put duct tape over the number and leave it.  That's a lesson learned because you know what I feel I should do!

Second, I should check - again - that there are no loose embellishments or or other surface problems.  I think I'm all right there, but because of the packing/shipping issue, I do need to check.

Third, another requirement is placing the quilt in a plastic bag, and I have to check the one I have to be sure the quilt will fit.  Yes, I should have done that sooner, but it's a new regulation (or new since the last time I sent a quilt to that show) and I forgot about it.

Fourth, after re-reading the instructions for getting the quilt from here to there, it will have to be taken to UPS for mailing.  Even that may take a while depending on any number of things.

Fifth, once the quilt is mailed, I shall have a glass of wine!

Peonies Instead of a Selfie

Another day of errands, and this time some were even important.  Okay, as important as groceries (more of those came home today, also).  First on the list was a hair cut; if I could stand it, I'd take a selfie of me pouting and fluffing my hair.  No, wait, I don't think I could do all of that at one time and take a selfie, too.

Oh, I did take time to cut a few peonies instead of that selfie.

We're getting ready to take a flying trip to our daughter's home to check on her and our grandson who took a grounder in the face Monday.  He's up and doing fine, but we need to see for ourselves.

Tomorrow night is the last meeting of one of my quilt guilds so I won't be writing an entry tomorrow night. 

Have a terrific weekend!

Monday as Usual

Laundry Day, and that's about it.  No artwork but a wee of sewing before errands claimed the rest of the day. So I will leave it at that for today. However, here's some kitchen photographs:

The ingredients for pasta primavera in the foreground with lots of fruit for later in the background - all newly washed.

Tomorrow is studio day.  I wonder if I'll come home with a signed painting?

Stourhead Stable

Well, what did you expect?  No one offered a better name for this painting so I was left to my own devices.  Does it look like a stable?  No, actually it looks more like a garage for elegant early automobiles, but the word "garage" doesn't actually trip lightly off one's tongue.  So "stable" it is - for now.

Day 3's work:

At this point - well, some things I like and some I don't - as always.  It's already overworked, but it isn't finished.  The copper beech that hangs over the building (whatever you want to call it), the bushes and the burn barrel need more work, and heaven help me I wanted to be able to do something about the bush on the left talk about overworked!) and the driveway.

Today's work is, I hope, the end even though I know Sharon will have suggestions to make it better.  

For example, the copper beech, and that's just for starters. 

Stourhead Painting Days 1 & 2

The fact that we had construction-caused outages of our computer, television, and computer had an up-side.  It gave me more time for - yes, organizing, of course, and painting. But on Monday, I decided to draw and to use a "dip" pen which I don't think I've done since my college days.  A dip pen, as you've probably already figured out, is one that is actually dipped into a bottle of ink.  They are used by calligraphers as well as people who like to sketch.  Since it had been so long since I'd used one, I decided just to play.

 First, I just drew over the outline of the call box (telephone) already done in pencil; straight lines can be difficult for anyone using any implement, but it made a great way to start.  Fortunately, I had a very good nib (pen point) in a cracked but still extremely comfortable pen shaft, and quickly I rediscovered how good it feels to draw with this tool.  The practice was in straight lines (as in driving look where you're going not where you are) both long and short (call box and grass/weeds), curvy lines (tree and red flowers), and textured surface (tree trunk and stone wall).  I used India ink which is both waterproof and fade resistant, but the downside is that it doesn't flow.  One cannot make a wash with it.  Ah well . . . one can't have everything.

Tuesday was studio time, and I was able to get started on the Outbuilding (I could really use another name for this painting; anyone have an idea? please let me know!).

Not too exciting at this point.  The roof is almost a disaster except it's only the first wash.  That means that I might be able to do something about it.  I did like the start of the trees in the background; they have promise.

Today I feel better about the roof, still like the background even though it's not finished yet (though nothing really is at this point), but now the bushes in the left foreground and on the building itself need help.  

Oh, the yellowish dots in the tree overhanging the building?  Don't worry about them; they're masking fluid that can be removed when I'm ready to add the red for the copper beech.

Experiment with "Blind Contour Drawing"

Sharon sent us a link to an interesting article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-blind-contour-drawing.html

It makes good reading, and I remembered doing this exercise years ago.  As I remember, the experience was fun so I thought it would be worth trying again using a window sill in the family room as my subject:

Unwittingly, I included an additional restriction; I did not raise the point of my ballpoint pen from the paper.  So the following was completed without looking at the paper and without raising the point of the pen.

Here is my continuous line, blind contour drawing, and I love it!  As the article suggested, I find this sketch so unlike my own work that I feel quite liberated - as though it were done by someone else, I can comment on it objectively.  Unlike the author of the article, I don't find this work ugly.  On the contrary, I like it quite a bit.  It looks like Cubism, doesn't it?  I would not have been able to do this without the freedom this exercise gave me.

Now, will I do it again?  Yes, because I find the results interesting and because it is freeing.  I do look carefully at the relationships between objects differently.  Do I get a Zen-like feeling about the objects?  No.  Or maybe just "not yet".  I think I will add this to the studies I do and see if it makes a change in my work. 

Stourhead Study #4

After a walk which at one point turned into a run (we saw the garbage truck - four to five hours early coming down the street, and we hadn't put our bins out yet), we took care of errands and had lunch.  D then got caught up on computer work while worked in the studio.

But I did get to painting practice today.  It is silly of me to call these "wash" studies because I haven't really been using much in the way of large watery paint areas - or washes.  My studies are too small to do much more than work with a few watery puddles.  Anyway - today's work:

Not what I was hoping for, but I realize that I learned a few very good lessons.  Here a just two of them.  First, as Sharon told me, it really isn't wise to use pieces of watercolor paper that have already been used so I wind up using the wrong side of the paper (yes, there is a significant difference), nor is it wise to use inferior paper.  I made both mistakes.  Because of that, there is no light in my final study; it was like working on drawing paper.  Oh well.  Tomorrow I'll cut up a piece of my good paper; that's hard for me to do!

Second, because I started the roof with alizarin crimson, the copper beeches ( left side and right top) aren't going to work.  The roof is too warm especially if I'm going to include copper beeches and maybe even if I don't put that kind of tree in.  

I'll have to think about that.