An artist friend invited me to join an ATC group. I thought it sounded like fun. The theme is "Winter." I had a good time painting. It was HARD for me to paint such small (2-1/2" x 3-1/2") paintings.😊 I finished them and mailed them off yesterday morning.
I've missed my blogging buddies and I've missed writing. I hope everybody is doing well. I admire those of you who have kept blogging. Hooray for you guys! I thought I would post this year's Christmas card. It started out as a desert scene. A friend said I need to do something to tie everything together. She suggested a wash. I couldn't bring myself to do anything for a couple of weeks because I liked it the way it was. I kept looking at it. I decided to make a snowy desert. I had to cheat and use gouache because I hadn't planned on snow in the first place, so I hadn't left any whites.
I've missed my fellow bloggers. I usually make prints of Christmas paintings on card stock. This year, I decided to get an early start and paint cards. It has been fun. I'm almost done.
Here are a few that I've done so far. I just realized that our feet are in the first picture.😊 Hope you don't mind.
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:)
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.
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.
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!
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'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!
I've been drawing lately. It's so much fun. This is Levi.
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Daniel Smith offers Zoom chat/demos on Fridays with some wonderful watercolorists. Today's artist was Milind Mulick, an Indian artist whose work was new to me. I fell in love. My husband did, too. I'm so grateful to John Cogley, the owner of Daniel Smith, for presenting these wonderful artists. The presentations are free, but the catch is that you'll want to go shopping for art supplies afterward.😊 How much more fun could you ask for? Here is a link to Miland's work. https://www.milindmulick.com/ Let me know what you think. Have a fun weekend!
September is still pretty warm at the beginning of the month, but the light and the heat are different than in the summer. The last two weeks of September are usually perfect here. I love it. I feel so sad about all the things going on - floods and fires. I haven't painted anything recently, so I decided to post a picture of Georgie to maybe make you smile. He makes me smile. He's wearing 3 leashes because he's a canine Houdini and he's standing on 2 legs because he likes to get a better look at the world upon occasion.
Hello, Friends! When I finally got around to posting to my blog, I couldn't remember how to get back in😊. I hope everyone is still making beautiful art. I started taking Zoom classes from Don Andrews in April. He's a talented artist and a good teacher. His wife, Martha, handles the technology. The two make a great team. They're both really nice. The classes are once a month on a Saturday. Don was a guest at a Nevada Watercolor Society Zoom meeting in March. I did a painting from his demo. I would post a photo of his painting, but mine won't stand up to the comparison😊. Anyhow, enjoy this lovely (extremely hot even by Las Vegas standards)Monday!
I painted this pretty baby in my sketchbook. I've started painting the same cat on 1/4 sheet. When I finish, I'll post that. I'm going to try to loosen up on my next painting.
We parked out at a school on the southeast part of town at a higher elevation so we could observe The Star of Bethlehem tonight. I was amazed thinking that Jupiter and Saturn hadn't come so close at night in 800 years and also thinking that this was what the sky probably looked like 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born.
We've been in the Christmas mood. We painted the front windows and put up lights. I made Christmas cards. My sister sent us a package with instructions to open immediately. They were our Christmas slippers.
Jim and I watched a David Smith demo Tuesday afternoon. It was so much fun! I need to work on things like my roots, my water and my rocks, but I learned a lot and, as always with David, I had a blast.
My sister sent me this T-shirt. It came in the mail today. I had to show you guys because I think it's so cute. I love it!
Jim and I just watched a wonderful documentary called "The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story." It's free if you have Amazon Prime. What an amazing guy! He did caricatures of Broadway stars for over 70 years. I love theater, Broadway stars and Mr. Hirschfeld's art! This was the perfect thing to do on a 110 degree Las Vegas afternoon. Happy Tuesday!
