Friday, August 27, 2010

Another Friday post...

Just two pieces of art to share, this first one is my DH done in charcoal, still in progress...


and the second one is a pastel self portrait done by looking in the mirror with strong light on one side of my face.


Both of these portraits make us look way younger then we are.  My sister says, that's probably because I see us as we were instead of as we are.

What are your thoughts on that? Is my inability to draw the extra chins from my vision problems, or am I subconsciously too vain to include them?. Even at age 57, I have very few wrinkles, so I'm ok with that part.  The mirror was about three feet away from me, so maybe I couldn't see the imperfections, or maybe they just don't show up in a "painterly" portrait.  Anyway, I wish I looked this good.

Well, that's it for this week.  Perhaps I'll have something new next week.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Say a prayer for DH and all the folks that will be attending various events in D.C. this weekend.

Take care and let us hear!


Friday, August 20, 2010

Working for the weekend...

Everybody's workin' for the weekend.  Remember that song?  Whether you punch a clock or need to get all the lessons done for home schooling, or like to make sure all the laundry is done before Friday, we all seem to work for the weekend.  There is always the chance that something really awesome will happen on Saturday or Sunday.  I don't think we ever get over that feeling.  I've heard folks say "everyday is the same for me".  How sad that must be.  No Siree, not this little red hen.  I'm always on the lookout for something fun and most certainly looking forward to starting another week.

This week I did work on a new painting.  Remember the snapshot I posted several weeks back?  Well, here is my take on that photo.


Since this was my Grandmother's home I felt authorized to take artistic license.  The siding was actually gray, but I couldn't make any of the grays that I have work, so I went with blue. The size of this art is about 16 x 20.  I have gone back and forth about the bricks in the foreground, but my sweet hubs, who is an excellent carpenter and a stickler for detail and preciseness said it looked good.  That's high praise in my book. The bricks seem to be leaning a bit, but I think that gives it a bit of charm.  The main theme of the painting originally was going to be the flowers, but I had so much fun doing the house, that I just let things happen as I painted.

I did have the painting of my sister's house and flowers framed and am sending it to her today.  I also included a little surprise for her, so there will be more about that later.

So I guess that's it for me today.  Oh, one other thing.  After shopping at our local Kroger's today, I was sitting in the parking lot getting ready to call DH on the cell phone (I don't usually drive and talk at the same time) and I suddenly felt the car lurch forward.  I checked to make sure it was it park and it lurched forward again.  I thought an earthquake was unlikely, so I quickly figured out someone had just hit my car...twice.  I waited until the little old lady (she looked a bit like that little old lady that stole the stuff on the Andy Griffith show.  You know, the one that they weighed because "little old ladies oughtn't rattle"), finally got into the space before I got out to look at the damage.  It wasn't that bad, but when I realized she was trying to sneak into the store without acknowledging the incident, I had to say something.  Fortunately for me, several folks witnessed this (with jaws dropped, I might add).   When we shouted at the little lady to come back, she had hit my car, she came back and started shrugging her shoulders and saying she didn't understand me.  She then went on about her business.  Well, that just wasn't going to do.  A really nice gal named Monica, got out of her car (on crutches) and said she saw what happened, and did I want her info.  She also took photos of the damage while I was getting the tag number, etc. and said she would e-mail them to me.

The little lady came back while we were still there and I finally made her understand that you don't just hit someone's car and shrug and walk away.  After refusing to give me any personal information, I asked her where she was from and she said Brazil.  I told her that here in the States it was against the law to refuse to exchange information when you hit someone and that I would just give her tag number to the police and let them take care of it.  Ok, maybe that was a bit much, but a person needs to take responsibility for their actions.  When I said this, she suddenly was willing to give me name and phone number and ask me not to call insurance people without talking to husband. He pay.  Oh, now she remembers some communication skills.  There was actually very little damage done to my vehicle, good thing I was driving that big old dreaded SUV.  If I had been in my Subaru she would have ruined it. She really did a number on her own bumper.  Now I need to decide...do I call her and let her off the hook or do I just let her wonder what's going to happen?

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Enjoy the weather. Smell the flowers and give someone a big hug.  And if you get hit in the parking lot, don't take a shrug for an answer.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Friday AGAIN???

Obviously I cannot believe that it's Friday again.  My studio reorganization is still a work in progress, but I did have time to watch some really good videos on Artist Network.  Just to keep my creative juices surging, I did a small watercolor from one of the demos.

That's all I've done this week as far as art goes, but I'm hoping to be back soon with my complete pastel painting of the flowers at my grandmother's house.  I might start a series of paintings of her flowers.  She and my uncle lived right on Main Street in Small Town, USA.  She was one of those folks that had the knack for growing flowers.  People would drive by the house just to see her flowers.  The house had a big wrap around porch and all summer long there was a constant stream of folks coming up on the porch and plopping down in one of the rockers for a chat.  Those days are gone now, that house is sold and instead of geraniums there are rebel flags and pink flamingos in her brick flower boxes. Ahhh, the times they are a changing.

Just wanted to offer a quick thank you for all the well wishes for DH.  His stitches are now out and he is able to get back into a routine.  He had developed a place on his back, right were the guitar strap hits and it needed to be taken care of.  More of a nuisance than anything, and he recovered nicely.

So that's it for today.  Hope everyone has a great weekend and hang in there, Fall has got to be right around the corner!

Friday, August 6, 2010

It's almost the weekend

Well, this is my first post since Blogger decided to change things, so watch out.  Things might go wonky.  This week I have been trying to keep DH quiet so he can heal from some outpatient surgery.  Nothing too serious, but he does have several stitches and since the area is on his back, I am playing Nurse Suzy.

I have also been re-organizing my art studio.  Since I'm having such fun with pastel painting, I will be putting away some of the mixed media items that I haven't used for a while.  I did decide on my next painting and have been doing some preliminary sketches preparing for that.  I have an old snapshot that I took years ago and I think it will make a pretty good painting.

You may be able to tell that something has been spilled on the photo and the house is tipping backward due to the angle I took the picture, but I think it will be fine for my purposes.

Well, that's all for me until I actually do another painting.

Take care and have a great weekend.