Sad

 I'm sad that David Crosby passed away yesterday.

 

 

Christmas Card for This Year

 This is the Christmas card I'm sending out this year.  In past years, I have usually done 2 or 3 different paintings.  I like this one because it has our dog, Georgie, and a snowman:)  As I type, Cary Grant and Chip, our two cats, are helping me and giving hints that they need to be on a Christmas card, too.  Maybe I'll do one more...  I use white only in an emergency, but I had a heck of a time with the trees, so I used some white on the branches:)

One More Time!

 I tried drawing this portrait of my granddaughter (Jade) and her girlfriend (Daphne) one more time.  I think this one is a little better, but I still didn't get Daphne's head tilted back far enough.  It was a tough angle for me.  I do have fun with charcoal.  I told Jade that it reminds me of painting because of the way you can move the charcoal around on the paper.

Getting Ready for the Daniel Smith Zoom Meeting

 Jim and I do the Daniel Smith Zoom meetings on Fridays.  We love the meetings.  We always learn something, see great demos and get that international feel.  Alex Hillkurtz was the guest artist at one of the meetings.  We liked him so much that I ordered his book.  The book is excellent!

 

Today's guest artist is Jim L'Oste-Brown from Australia. I'm not familiar with his work, but I'll let you know what I think.

Oh, and speaking of that international feel, we've discovered a show called The Brokenwood Mysteries.  Have you seen it?  So far, we've watched 6 episodes.  It's really good.  It's filmed in New Zealand.  It has a little bit of everything - interesting plot, likeable characters, humor, mystery, drama.  Check it out.

Drawing People! Yikes!

 I seldom draw or paint people, definitely not portraits.  This means I need practice.  I decided to draw my granddaughter, Jade, and her girlfriend, Daphne.  This drawing is pencil on 16"x20" drawing paper.  It's off.  I'm going to try again.  I finished drawing and whining to my husband about how hard this was last night.  This morning he showed me a video.  This is how it's done.  I totally cracked up.  I hope you guys think it's funny, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enZbw1j8-ZE

I don't understand how she does this, but she's awesome!

 

 

Hello Out There!

 I should probably make some changes on my blog.  A lot of my blogging buddies have stopped posting.  I'm not keeping up with it very well, but I'm not giving up.  I can't bring myself to delete the links to the artists who have stopped blogging.  I enjoyed following them for years.  Does anyone know if Chris Lally is posting her art in a different place?  Any news on any of the others who have stopped?  Where did they go?

I'm still focusing on drawing.  I'm working on a drawing of my granddaughter and her friend right now.  I'll post it when I finish.  Don Andrews offers an online watercolor demo once a month and I usually watch that.  He and Martha are so much fun!  Jim and I still do the Daniel Smith Zoom meetings on Fridays.  

 

 Have a fabulous weekend!  Keep on making art!  Keep on posting!

I Love Daniel Smith!

 I've talked about this a little before, but I decided to post this link https://danielsmith.com/weekly-live-demos/ because it is so much fun and so interesting that I have to share.

Every Thursday, Daniel Smith has a meeting on Facebook and every Friday they have a Zoom meeting.  Jim and I do the Friday Zoom meetings.  John Cogley, the owner of Daniel Smith, is charming and very knowledgeable about watercolor paint.  He hosts the meetings.  An artist shows his or her work,  does a demo and answers questions.  The meetings last about an hour.  You can participate without being on camera, so there's no pressure to get out of your pajamas and get dressed or put on makeup😊.  The artists are from all over the world.  It's so exciting to watch them work and listen to them talk.

Just to give you an idea of what this is like, at one of the past meetings, there were two artists painting and one artist interpreting.  They were at the home of a Frenchman.  One artist is Russian, one is Peruvian and the interpreting artist is Spanish.  Everybody speaks English beautifully, but just in case someone needs assistance, the Spanish artist steps in.  It was a wonderful demonstration with the Russian and Peruvian painting at the same time on the same painting - so lively and exciting with an international flavor.  At the end, the French host broke out the champagne, of course!  It was like we were at a party!

They have past meetings posted on their website.  If you check out a meeting, let me know what you think. 

I almost forgot to tell you - the meetings are free!