Just Dropping By

 

 

Hi All. In case any of you wondered if I had dropped off the edge of the world I wanted to say I'm fine. Some time back I got fed up with Blogger and wandered away and just didn't come back. I haven't done much painting lately and I felt that my blog was becoming a photo documentary of the minutiae of my life so I quit. But I am fine. I still work at the arboretum and I still work with the seniors at the nursing home, among other things. I may be back from time to time if I have anything worthwhile to say.

 

That said, here is a watercolor pencil painting of my Caribbean Christmas Tree. I have cats and a traditional Christmas tree with all its little hanging and dangling toys is just too tempting for them so I decorate my artificial tree in my living room. The decorations are up high enough that they don't mess with it. I use ribbon streamers, handmade ornaments that have been given to me, Mardi Gras beads that came from Las Vegas, and white lights to adorn this tiny tree and it suits me just fine.

 

I'm wishing all of you a Happy Holiday Season and a very good New Year!  

 

Fall Fun

It's beginning to look a lot like Autumn.

I took this photo last Friday after I finished working at the Arboretum. I love how they made such a beautiful setting in front of the lake. Our trees are slow to change colors this year so we have to make color on our own.  

One of the things we've been working on at the Arb are these giant cement leaf castings. One of the gals I work with does an amazing job with these. This castor bean leaf casting measures about 16" in diameter and can be used as a garden ornament, a ground birdbath or for holding seeds. Faye took the unfinished casting home and painted and sealed it and brought it back to be sold in the gift shop. She does a wonderful job with the painting, don't you think?

 

This is how they look wet. We use equal parts Portland cement and sand. To give strength to larger leaves like this one Faye adds a little acrylic cement bonding liquid found at the hardware store. Then add water to the mixture until you have the consistancy of mashed potatoes or peanut butter. Build a mound of wet play sand on a plastic covered board roughly in the shape of the leaf you choose to use. Then lay the leaf face down over the sand and begin adding the cement mixture to the back (veined) side of the leaf. For a little personal touch Faye adds a little leaf imprint to the base.

Cover the wet casting with a sheet of plastic and wait about a week. Once the cement has set up you can use a wire brush to gently scrub the remaining leaf from the cement. Letting the leaf completely dry out will make removal easer, as the veins will shrink when drying.

 

 

This is how a casting looks when dry. For this casting we used an elephant ear leaf. You can see where some of the leaf is still adhered to the cement. A little more scrubbing will remove this but be careful not to scrub away your cement.

 



Here we are working on a new batch of leaf castings. Faye is working on the castor bean leaf shown above. You can use any size leaf to do this. We are making smaller, thinner leaf castings to be sold as tree ornaments or tiny dishes. These are not food safe when finished, so be careful what you use them for.  

This is a sampling of the finished leaves that we made in the above photo. Try painting them in different colors.  

And this how the unfinished leaf turned out. So beautiful! After painting them Faye sprays them with an acrylic cement sealer to help them stand up to the elements. It is not advised to leave them out through the winter as the freezing of water in them may make them crack.

Give this a try. It really isn't hard at all and it is so much fun.  

My Little Getaway

I slipped away for a visit to New York State last week and wow, did I have a good time! I went to the town of Painted Post in the Adirondack Mountains and stayed with a group of 40 at a nice littel homestead tucked away in the country. We hiked a little and toured museums, did a little wine tasting and went on a boat cruise of the Seneca Lake. We learned about gorge formations and the Iroquois Indians and so much more. I'll show you a few of the highlights of my trip.

The most exciting day of the week for me was a visit to the Corning Museum of Glass. You all know how much I love glass. Well, this visit was equal to visiting the Queen, for me.  

I love the archetecture of the building, first of all. I did think it should have been made of glass however, but it is still a striking building.  

They are really into making glass pumpkins of all sizes at the present time. I'm not sure if this is something that is always offered or not, but I was really wowed by the variety and the amount of pumpkins! They were everywhere you looked! I didn't buy one, although they were very tempting. They were not inexpensive and I felt it was a lot of dough to shell out for something to just put on a bookcase somewhere in my house. I purchased a few other items but I can't show you them now because they are to be holiday gifts for friends.  

I was excited to be able to watch the pumpkins being made. These are students of the studios and they work under the supervision of a teacher (the fellow blowing the glass).  

This pumpkin is just about done and he is getting ready to give it a final going over with the blowtorch to make sure it has a glossy, smooth finish and that there are no sharp areas to it.

Here he is making the stem and the leaves on the top. Looking pretty good, I think! This one will be a keeper and after it spends 12 hours in the annealing oven cooling down it will go into the gift shop collection for retail sale. 

I was also thrilled to see a couple of Dale Chihuly pieces in the museum. Dale is the modern day master of blown glass, for those of you who are not acquainted with him. This is one of his chandeliers and this piece is lighted from inside. I wish I could have seen it with its lights turned on.  

This is another wonderful piece from Chihuly. This is a twelve foot glass tree. Amazing!  

After the museum tour we walked Market Street in downtown Corning. This is a beautiful old and charming town with the most intresting archetecture on the building fronts, dating back to turn of the century and forward. There was too much to take in.  

I did find this one of the most interesting ornamentations, however. This was on the front of a ladies clothing store. Very clever. The giant roses are made of metal, painted black. So striking.  

 

I will show a few more photos at a later date. I have some nice ones of Watkins Glen Gorge that you may enjoy.

It was a very interesting week, for sure, but I am a little glad to be home now. 

Gettin' In The Mood

For Fall!

 

This is the project I have planned for my seniors this Wednesday. I think it will be fun. I have painted faces on four sides of this mini pumpkin to serve as examples for them to follow. One is this goofy face, one is a snarling cat, one is a scary spirit, and one is a sweet lady with a kiss puckered on her mouth. I will be interested to see what they come up with. My group has grown so much over the summer that we now have to meet in the community room where there is more space to spread out! I started with about four or five and now we are nearing a dozen. I'm so glad that the creative juices are alive and flowing!

 

We have had such a string of stunningly gorgeous days this last week and I have spent a lot of time outside in my sorely neglected garden. I've been pruning back, pulling weeds, planting chrysanthemums and flower bulbs - blue tulips!- can you believe that?? I'll be really anxious to see those come spring, and some double daffodils, along with some pretty little grape hyacinth, which I adore. I wish there was a way to bottle these beautiful days and let them out slowly one by one in February. But, alas, we cannot. We can only enjoy them while they last.

Hope your days are all beautiful.  

The Seasons Are Changing

I usually walk for exercise just about every other day, weather permitting. My walks are often around town, which gives me a nice three mile, one hour jaunt up and down hills. Often I see things and settings that catch my attention on a particular day. Sometimes these things are sights that I pass all the time, but for whatever reason just grab my attention at that moment in time. This is one that did a month or so ago.  

This is the backyard of a beautiful house perched high on a bend in the road. The owners have taken their outdoor shed and turned it into a beautiful work of art by training a rosebush up the side facing the street. They found a lovely black iron clock that they nestled in the climbing rose. Nearby is an inviting shaded seating area with wicker furniture and a table with a pretty red umbrella. All of this is surrounded by a stone retaining wall with steps leading up to the higher level. The house is a gorgeoous two story white clapboard with a large front porch and black shutters. I love this place and it is such a pleasure to pass by on my walks.

The seasons are starting to change here where I live. The days are much shorter now and finally we are getting some relief from the blistering heat and intensive drought from last summer. The rains are more frequent and as I started my walk one day this week the sun was trying to burn off an early morning fog. The earth was sparkling with dew and the scent of leaves and pine was heavy in the air. This is the time of year that I love. It makes suffering through the summer worth every moment. My morning glories are just beginning to bloom now. Very late this year, but I love them so.

I have finished my work in the Butterfly House at the nature park now. It closed to the public the last weekend in August. Soon we will be removing the mesh screen that surrounds the house frame and the remaining butterflies will be set free to migrate. Lately we have been harvesting vegetables from the garden and the produce is taken to the local shared harvest center to help those in need. There is still work to be done in the herb and flower gardens. Lots of deadheading, dividing, and removing of plants and general cleaning up is going on. Before we know it we will be planting seedlings in the greenhouse and the cycle will start again.

Lost And Found

 

Not long ago I enjoyed dinner with friends at a busy restaurant. At some point during the meal I pulled out my iPhone to use the Internet to look up something that we had been discussing. The meal progressed, conversation flowed, good times were had and finally we said our goodbyes. Upon reaching home I opened my pocketbook to retrieve my phone so that I could plug it in to recharge overnight.

It wasn't there!!

I panicked.

 

The restaurant was a thirty minute drive away. No matter. I jumped back into the car and flew across town. I ran into the restaurant and found our waitress, asking her if anyone had turned in an iPhone from our table. She said no, that no one had been seated there since we had left. Well, that was a relief. I searched the table, top to bottom, all the chairs and the floor underneath. Nothing.

Confused and with sinking heart I reluctantly left the restaurant. Walking across the parking lot I tried to think what in the world could have happened to my phone. I was mentally replaying the events of the night. Reflexively, I touched the hip pocket of my jeans where sometimes I tuck my phone away.

To my enormous relief, there it was.  

 

 

 

I decided then and there that I should somehow make the cover of my phone stand out in a crowd, and to put a tag on it identifying it as my own. I know, of course, if someone wanted to steal it they would only have to pull the cover off and there they'd be. But if an honest person found it and turned it in I would have my return address right up there in the corner, kind of like a luggage tag. Also, in the Contacts section I have listed my land line phone number to call if found.

I am so relieved that I didn't lose my phone and I'm really happy with my new collaged cover.



Dizzy Lizzy Makes Her Debut

You all have seen my "Dizzy Lizzy" paper doll before but my senior citizens had not so I decided I should introduce her to them. She is a 12" paper doll, of sorts, made out of corrugated cardboard and popsicle sticks. I pre-cut the cardboard body and head and the fabric strips for covering her legs and arms but the gals did all the rest.  

They had to trace and cut out her dress from scrapbook paper using her body as a template. Then they had to glue the fabric around her popsicle stick legs and paper arms. I helped them with her frizzy hair as it needed to be attached with a hot glue gun. (Even I got burned on the darn thing!)

Next we folded some paper to make little pocketbooks for the gals to carry.  

They had a lot of fun choosing the colors for the outfits and the pink/orange and blue/green hair. They kept asking me, "What kind of doll is this?" I said maybe it was Phyllis Diller, or possibly a Las Vegas showgirl. I said one thing is certain, she had no fashion sense and wears too much makeup! One lady thought maybe Minnie Pearl, but I can't remember Minnie ever looking this wild. I had made up some little pipe cleaner Yorkshire Terrier dogs for the dolls to carry in their other arm.

I even had a visitor sit in on my class today. This woman said she was from another nursing home and had heard about me and the fun projects that I do and she was interested in seeing if these were some thing she could offer to her seniors. Maybe I'll get to be famous one day! 

 

I think everyone was happy with their finished dolls. When we were done they made them dance around the table and giggled. I told them that now they had a new best friend. 

A Little Painting Goes A Long Way

I haven't done a lot of art lately but I still work with my seniors at the nursing home on Wednesdays and I try to come up with simple art projects that I feel they can do and may find enjoyable. This was one that prooved to be good. I found some 5" x 7" brass photo frames at a really discounted price and decided that I could teach the gals how to paint their own work of art to put into the frames.

This is the sample I used for them to follow.

We started with a blank piece of watercolor paper cut to size. Next I had them paint a thin coat of acrylic green and blue on the paper. Once that had dried they used a combination of rubber stamps to create this picture, or something close to it. When the ink dried as best it could (some were a little heavy handed with the ink :-) ) we used colored pencils to fill in the picture.

I was very impressed with the results and so were they. They couldn't believe they had actually painted a picture of their very own, and they really liked that their art was framed and ready to stand up in their rooms. Of course I had them sign their work, saying that artists always sign their work!

Some days I don't feel like my efforts are improving their lives at all and other days I feel like I've really accomplished something good. This one of those good days. There was a fourth painting but the lady had packed hers up and left by the time I got out my camera.

P.S. The painting on the left was made by a woman who never speaks. She always comes to class and usually does pretty well at following directions. Today I was quite taken with her painting and I told her so. I was rewarded with a big smile. 

Butterfly Madness

While we're on the subject of butterflies, while working in the Butterfly House yesterday I got to witness the hatching of a Monarch! I had noticed this chrysalis with the butterfly showing through. I learned that chrysalis cases are always clear but we usually see them as green because what we are seeing is still the caterpillar inside. I have never noticed one so close to hatching before.

(Sorry it is a little blurred. I only had my phone with me yesterday.) 

Suddenly the case split open a little and I saw some legs emerge. Within seconds the wings appeared. They were kind of all wadded up and ruffly but soon they grew right before my eyes!  

It clung to the case for about an hour before attempting to fly. Yesterday was a cloudy, overcast day with temperatures in the upper 70's so the emerging butterflies were having difficulty warming up and drying out.

The house was just chock full of Monarchs with scores more caterpillars happily munching away! We had only one Black Swallowtail yesterday and several Pearl Crescents and some Wild Indigo Duskywings. This has become such a fun and interesting adventure. Every day there is something new to see and learn.

I couldn't resist painting a picture! 

I'm going to squeeze this in at the last minute for Animal Wednesday.

I caught this Black Swallowtail slurping nectar from my butterfly bush.

They are so pretty. 

A friend and I have been taking off and going kayaking on weekends to various parks, lakes and rivers in our region. Yesterday we visited Caesar Creek State Park. The morning was overcast and somewhat pleasant and as we paddled toward the middle of the lake we spotted this dead tree chock full of cormorants. Caesar Creek is a man made lake created by building a dam in the late 60's and flooding a low lying area so there are lots of little islands and stands of dead trees throughout. I know that bass like to be near the bases of these trees so there must have been lunch down below. We paddled out for two hours before turning back. On the return trip the clouds parted a bit and the sun came out. There went the breeze we'd had earlier and up went the temperatures. It was a broiling 94 degrees by the time we got back to the dock and loaded up the kayaks. Ugh!

Will this heat never end?? 

This page from my journal is a little ripply because I used watercolor pencil and ink on plain notebook paper. Not the best combination but there you have it.

My Getaway Weekend

 Hi everyone.

I've been taking a little break from blogging. To tell the truth, I've had mostly nothing to blog about. I haven't been doing any art and I've been feeling a little becalmed and in the doldrums from this miserable summer we've been having. The temperatures came down to the mid 80s last weekend, so a friend and I decided to get out of Dodge and head up to Lake Erie. On Saturday we went to Kelly's Island off the coast of Sandusky, Ohio.

 We hiked the North Shore Alvar State Nature Preserve where you can walk on the limestone shoals. An alvar is a limestone plain with thin or no vegetation, sometimes offering fossils. The tide was especially low this year so we could see many species of lichen and native plants and birds. Lake Erie is a freshwater lake and although it is the smallest of the Great Lakes it still makes me feel like I'm at the ocean. :-) 

 I stopped for a photo shoot.

The day was warm so after our hike we stopped by the public beach for a wade in the water. We took off our shoes, rolled up our pantlegs and walked in up to our knees. The sand was velvet soft and the breeze felt delicious. Then we joined the crowd at the VFW post for a huge roasted chicken dinner. Half a chicken, pasta salad, cole slaw, rolls with butter and a cupcake for dessert for only ten bucks! What a deal!

As evening approached, we walked to the marina for a refreshing drink at the dockside bar and waited for a spectacular fireworks show before taking the ferry back to the mainland. 

 

By the way, this was just one of the guest houses on Kelly's Island. There are many rental as well as privately owned summer cottages scattered around the island. Everything was booked that weekend so we ended up staying in a regular motel on the mainland. I'll be sure to book ahead next time.

On Sunday we visited the charming Chautauqua of Lakeside Village, Ohio. A Chautauqua is a turn of the century community of summer cottages that "welcomes all people to gather and participate in lifelong learning opportunities through four pillars: religion, education, cultural arts and recreation". We started our visit by enjoying Sunday brunch at the beautiful historic Victorian style Lakeside Inn right on the marina. 

This was my view through the window from our table. They were having an antique wooden boat show along the marina and I even saw a very fancy remote controlled wooden sailboat puttering around in the bay.

After brunch we strolled along the coast where artists were painting en plein air. There was a live band called "Wally And The Beav" filling the air with music, and I could easily picture ladies in their long pastel dresses with matching hats and parasols gliding among the trees while men in white pants and shirts played shuffleboard on the court in the shady park.

The village is just full of so many unique summer and private cottages that we decided to rent a golf cart for an hour and take a tour. I loved the colorful garden of this house and the design on the chimney is made of stained glass mosaic!

I thought this house was cute because it was shaped like a birdhouse!

 Everywhere I looked I saw another marvelous cottage and garden. We ended our day midafternoon and drove the three hours back home. This is a special and magical place and I'm sure I'll be back.  

So that's it for now. I'll see you again the next time I have something blogworthy to say.

May we always remain free.