Animal Wednesday on Thursday

I was on my way to my mailbox this morning and look what I saw!

I'm not good at bird identification, especially when it comes to raptors. I'm thinking maybe a Red Tailed Hawk, as they are prevalent in our area. If anyone (Lisa) knows what this is, let's hear it!

These were the best shots I could get as my zoom lens was zoomed as much as it can. I didn't want to get much closer because I didn't want to interrupt his lunch. He seemed to be enjoying it so much and was not really too bothered by me.
What an exciting Animal Thursday!

P.S. I forgot to mention that he is about the size of a cat!

Finally

Finally! Finally the sun came out today and finally I felt like painting something. I've been stuck in a slump for a while and haven't been inspired to do much of anything. Our weather has been cold and rainy for weeks and I haven't been hiking or getting outdoors much at all. Mostly I've been hovering close to the fireplace with some good books.

That's about to change. On Sunday I'm joining 26 other people for a hike and chili cook off at a nearby Boy Scout Camp. Everyone brings something to eat, we set up the crock pots and tables, hike for a couple of hours and come back and warm up to some good food and conversation. I hope it's not supposed to rain on that day!

Somewhere inspiration came to me to paint this little bit of folk art. I worked it up on a piece of scrap paper that already had this nice wash on it. I think it worked out well. Sorry for the wavy paper. I didn't take time to flatten it before scanning.

Norman Rockwell Exhibit

Yesterday morning a friend and I went to the Dayton Art Institute to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit. They wouldn't allow any photos, even without flash, so I don't have much to show you, but I can tell you this; if it comes to your town, make plans to see it.

I was admiring the amazing texture on one of the paintings and without thinking I reached out and touched it, showing V what I was talking about. I thought these were all under glass, but no! Well, the art police swooped in and I thought they were going to throw me out. He kept repeating excitedly and very sternly, "Do not touch the art! Do not touch the art! The oil from you hands can damage the art! Do NOT touch the art!" Of course I knew this and I was instantly mortified by my action. I apologized profusely but after that I felt I was being closely watched from room to room.

The art itself was totally amazing. In his paintings of home life there was texture on the plaster walls of homes and in the carpets. Interior doors showed planes and gave the illusion of carved and real wood. His portraits of John Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon showed much detail in their faces. Tiny ridges and wrinkles lined their faces and the corners of their eyes and you could see the small hairs on the backs of their necks near their collars. This man noticed every intricate detail of life and missed nothing in his paintings.

In his 28 years with the Saturday Evening Post he painted 323 covers. He spoke of the difficulty of creating art on demand and trying to meet deadlines. His ability to see bits and scraps of everyday life and to paint a picture that tells a story was pure genious.

His career began early in his teens and twenties painting for Boy's Life, the magazine for Boy Scouts of America, then he found work with the Staturday Evening Post. In 1963 he began working for Look magazine and this is where he began his paintings depicting the Civil Rights Movement.

At the end of the exhibit was a gift shop of tokens and books of the life and career of this amazing man. I could have stayed all day completely immersed and absorbed in studying his work. 

Animal Wednesday

World's largest cat spotted in Ohio

Weighing in at 23 pounds, the world's largest cat was recently spotted in a small town near Dayton, Ohio. This Maine Coon Cat , who goes by the name Rascal, apparently spends most of his time eating, sleeping and bird/squirrel watching at his perch by the back door, and has broken records for the fattest domestic cat known to man. "There's just not much to do around here in winter," says his owner, Kate. "His playmate, Stella, is even less active, although she has been able to keep her weight under control a little better. I think she does not snack between meals and watches her portions better. I try to get this one to run with me on the treadmill but so far that hasn't worked out too well." Who knows how much farther this can go? Maybe Jenny Craig has a program for overweight pets.

"Hello, Jenny?"



Wait A Minute!

Our weather has been all over the map this year! The first week we had rain, rain, rain, then we had snow and wind and Arctic temperatures. Then we had ice on top of the snow last week. Yesterday it warmed up enough to start the ice melting and we had fog so thick you could barely see the car in front of you, - some people didn't, I saw on the news, and today it's sunny. It's already up to 54 degrees today and it feels like March outside! I'm not complaining. I hate being housebound. My yard is sopping wet so we must have had hard rains again last night. I remember hearing possible threats of tornadoes on the weather forecast so we should be on alert this week.

Like the saying goes, "If you don't like the weather in Ohio, wait a minute."

I'm not normally a person who likes the "country" look when decorating, but while out shopping yesterday I fell for this cute metal watering can and these artificial sunflowers. Still inspired by the porch in the previous post, I thought these might look good this spring on a table there.

I always have the most difficult time with backgrounds in my still lifes. They never come out the way I wish they would. I love the excitement elicited in the backgrounds of Lin's paintings and I need to keep working on mine more. Lin, I hope you don't mind if I study under you.

Also, I see now that I should have made the sunflowers a little taller and bigger and painted more of them. I tried to go back in and add a few more but I don't think it looks so good. Lesson learned about creating a good painting instead of painting what you see. These sunflowers were quickly stuck into the pitcher and not arranged well. Think ahead!

Cold here today. We were supposed to get a lot of ice and freezing rain, up to maybe 1/4" to 1/2". Luckily, here at my house we only got a dusting of snow that froze over, nothing sticking to the trees, thank you.

Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are!

Garden Dreaming

Garden Dreaming

 While the snow flies and the wind blows I stay indoors dreamily planning a new summer garden. I love thumbing through old issues of Country Garden and Garden Gate magazines and the seed catalogs that are beginning to arrive. This house came with lots of greenery; shrubs, hostas, boxwoods, trees, etc. but not many blooming flowers. This winter I'm thinking about things I want to move around and new things I want to add, making new gardens where none were before.

I came across this photo of an old farm house and it remimded me of mine. I can so see my front porch dressed up with some cheery colors and lots of blooming flowers. I already have boxwoods growing along the front. I think I'll tuck in some yellow daylilies and a few bright red geraniums. Maybe even some blue myosotis here and there. I already know that at the far end of the porch, along the privacy fence, I want to plant a jasmine vine. I lived in a house once where jasmine grew wild in the wooded area to the back. The fragrance carried on the breezes was so sweet and wonderful that I simply have to have one here. How fun it is to have a blank slate on which to plan whatever my heart desires, and to have these winter months to dream it.



Something New

It's a gray, overcast day today with snow predicted for tonight and I was feeling bore this afternoon. I have hardly any experince working with colored pencils so thought I'd give them a try. I'm not sure how I liked them. I used a photograph from an old calendar for my subject and loosely worked from that.

Watercolor seems so much easier and more effortless. In any case, here is my finished picture. Thinking about spring. Thinking about flowers. Thinking about sunlight.

Storm Damage

In case you are not able to enlarge and read the text above, I lost a limb from my biggest, oldest tree on New Year's Eve. We had had strong winds the evening before and this is what I saw upon awakening. Because it was a holiday weekend I decided to put off trying to have it taken care of until later in the week. 

Out of the blue that afternoon some fellows showed up and offered to cut that limb and another that was hanging over the drive into firewood size for a very reasonable price! My neighbor heats her house with wood in winter so I gave her all this.

A few days later the temperature reached the lower sisties and I decided it was a perfect day for cleaning up the debris. The aftermath left me with lots of twigs and bark chips which I raked into a pile, set up my camp chair with my lunch and my bucket of water, and enjoyed a mini bonfire!

Thanks to all of you who tried to help me with my Blogger problem. I still haven't worked out the kinks but I can still post and maintain my blog. Eventually I will figure out how to fix the problem but for now I'm not worrying with it.

Help Wanted

Does anyone know how to delete albums in Picassa? It seems I have used up my "available storage space" in Picassa and I don't want to purchase more space ($).  I only want to create more space by deleting old folders. There doesn't seem to be a simple way to do this, as they say that deleting photos takes them out of the hard drive permanently. I won't mind. If anyone knows how to do this, please help me out.
Thanks, Kate

Artist Gathering

Last night I attended my first gathering of the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors. This orgainzation was founded in 1938. The group meets in this beautiful, historic home in downtown Dayton. I wasn't sure what to expect so I went without art supplies. I guess I thought this evening was to be more like an open studio event, where you meet the artists and discuss their art. 

There are four rooms on the main floor (plus a tiny kitchen) that are used as gallery space for Society members to exhibit their art. There are four large bedrooms upstairs which are used as studio space for working artists. No one was in residence that evening but it was exciting to see some of the finished works. I got there early and was given the full tour.

Around 6PM the member artists and model arrived and the drawing began. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there would be actual drawing happening and I was pleased that I could remain and observe. Since I have never done portrait art I found it so interesting to see how the different artists interpreted what they saw from their perspective.

I haven't decided whether I want to join or not but I had a wonderful time and learned a lot.

Thank you, Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors, for sharing your talents with me.





I've sort of been circling in a holding pattern since the holidays. Resting, I suppose. That's what winter is about; resting, rejuvinating, hibernating. I feel like I've been busy. My days are full, just with things other than artmaking. I'm still working with the seniors on Wednesdays and hiking when the weather permits. Tomorrow I am attending my first meeting with the Dayton Society of Painters, a group of artists I've joined who meet every other Thursday for a brown bag lunch and monthly on Fridays to share our work, ideas and friendship. I'll let you know how that goes next week.

In the meantime I'm still working in my visual journal. Here is my first page using that wonderful tissue paper I found and Christmas. Not very creative yet, but I'm woking on that.

The passage in the lower left corner reads, "When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge."

by Tuli Kupferberg.

I'm listening for voices to tell me which direction to follow this new year.

Winter Has Arrived

After that gorgeous sunset last night it turned cold and wintery here today. The temperature dropped to 21 degrees with a wind chill of 5. Snow swirled around everywhere but no accumulation is expected. Black ice caused many backups on I-75 going to and from Cincinnati and Kentucky, some lasting for hours. I'm glad I'm snug in my home, watching it all from the windows.

There is a hike posted for tomorrow, but not for me, thank you very much!

They say it will get to 53 by Friday? Go figure. 

Sky Painting

I don't often post twice in one day but I just couldn't wait to share this lovely sunset we had this evening. It had been dark and cloudy all day until around five o'clock when the sun burst out and painted the sky with fire.

Lovely end to the very first day of the brand new year.

A Brand New Year

This is my wish for the new year. I know lots of people everywhere wish for this and maybe, just maybe one day we will get it right and learn to live together. Maybe this will be the year.



Have a Great New Year's Eve

But don't get carried away!

I'm planning a nice quiet New Year's Eve. I'm actually going out tonight to celebrate, thus staying off the roads on the Big Night. I mentioned to someone a few days ago that I cannot remember when I last stayed up late enough to see the ball drop! I'm getting old.

In fact, I'm planning on spending the weekend painting my kitchen ceiling.

Now, that's really getting old.

Good Things Come In Really Small Packages!

After hesitantly venturing out my front door in hopes that the Christmas Crunch had settled down some I decided it might be safe to see if the retailers had anything good left. I was in desperate need of stocking up on some new books for the cold months ahead and a trip to my local Barnes and Noble Booksellers produced something much more exciting. I couldn't believe my eyes when I discovered this outstanding tissue paper in the mark-down bin! I immediately pounced right on it. There were only two packages left and I felt certain that Santa had meant for me to have one, he just overlooked it.

I wish there was a way for me to somehow use a whole page in an art project but I will most likely tear it into sections and use it in some smaller works. At least I have five sheets of it. Won't this make wonderful background print for my new 2012 journal pages? You can expect to see this yummy paper to turn up in lots of future projects in the new year.

Thank you, Santa! 

SILENT NIGHT

Here's wishing you a safe and peaceful holiday however you choose to celebrate.



The Art of Giving

Christmas trees come in all shapes and sizes just like people.

I stopped putting up a tree indoors eight years ago when the two cats arrived from Santa. I don't miss it because I have a small one outside on my porch with white lights on it.

What I really enjoy are cards. I love to send them and I love to get them. I usually tuck a note inside, just a little something personal catching the recepient up on events of the past year. Often the senders will slip a current photo of their kids inside. I save my favorites from year to year and I like to spread them out on my mantle along with the new ones and enjoy them again. They are like getting a little present from the people who are dear to me. I know a lot of people don't send cards anymore and I wonder why? I know that Ecards are becoming popular now, and they are cute and funny, but somehow not the same. Have our lives become so rushed that we can't find time to jot a quick note and stick a stamp on an envelope?

There's just something special about receiving a handmade card or and old fashioned one with sparkles and glitter that makes the holiday special.

Do I sound like Andy Rooney?     

Christmas Fun

Now that we've had our annual Christmas dinner and have exchanged our gifts I can show you what I got my dearest friend "M" this year. I have had one of these pots for many years and M has always admired it. I decided this year she should have her own. The artist is Toni Macri-Reiner and she makes all sorts of fountains and Turban Ladies. So fun!

This is mine and she holds my kitchen spoons. (It appears she may even have a cooking smudge on her face.) For a long time I had a small potted asparagus fern in her turban so it looked like hair sprouting out everywhere. I love her and although she is an "older model" and a bit smaller she still has a special place in my heart.

I love giving gifts! 

Art Wednesday

 Yesterday at the senior center we made Origami Christmas Trees that they could keep in their rooms. This is a photo of the sample one I made.

 I try to select projects that I think are simple to make yet sophisticated enough for grown-ups to do. Mostly they follow my instructions very well but this may have been a little over the top for them. Sometimes Origami instructions are confusing no matter how you explain them. I did a lot of circling the table, mostly folding all eight trees myself, but they do try. After we finished folding came the fun part. Using tubes of glitter glue we all decorated our trees with "holiday lights". This is where the imagination sparks and some went so far as to add streamers and garlands! I love it! Everyone was pleased to have a little tree of their own making to put in their rooms.



And here is the finished nativity that we started painting last month. It sits on the counter in the kitchen between their dining room and resting area. I think it turned out really well and the nurses tell me that they are all so proud of it and stop by to admire it all the time. The table here in the kitchen is where we do our projects. It's cozy to work in the kitchen, don't you think? We can make a mess and then it's easy to clean up. Often we have the comforting humm of the diswasher running. This table only seats six comfortably and we are growing in numbers each week. We may need to add another soon.  

Animal Wednesday



While on my way to a hiking destination I spotted this strange animal made of wood.

Interesting.

Joyful Hiking

Yesterday I hiked at Winton Woods, a familiar old park in Cincinnati that I always love visiting. There is a large man made lake in the middle of the park which offers paddleboats for rent in summer and has a bait shop for fishing and has a pretty good snack bar that was closed yesterday. We've had some extensive flooding in our area which was evident as we hiked closer to the edge of the water; lots of tree branches down and mud and leaves were strewn along the banks. Several of the park benches surrounding the lake were submerged except for their backs barely sticking out of the water.

I stopped briefly for a photo op. I didn't take many photos on this hike. We moved at a pretty good clip and there is not so much to see now that everything has turned brown.

It was a beautiful day for hiking. The morning started out at 17 degrees but warmed up to 40 by the time we got here. We were all wanting to take our coats off by this point! Hiking can warm the soul. Here we had left the trail and had moved out to a narrow road that goes through the park. Each time a car came by we all had to jump the curb and hike in the grass. I'm not sure how many miles we hiked because we left the hiking trail here for a while but we walked for an hour and a half.

And here's a little Peppermint Joy for you!

Who's Ready For Christmas?

I AM!

Yep, I've done all my shopping and everything's wrapped up and ready. Are you ready?

I saw this in a little town I passed through while out driving this week.

Christmas In My Town

 Last weekend my town had its annual Christmas Walk. The weather was nice on Saturday and I decided to walk down and see what it was all about. All the stores were spilling their bounty out onto the sidewalks. Because my town consists mainly of antique stores many old time holiday items can be found. I saw lots of dollies of all sizes, wagons and train sets. I saw old fashioned glass ball tree ornaments still holding on to their glitter even after all these years. I even saw some of those old white and silver tinsel Christmas trees that sit behind an electric rainbow of color rotating on the floor. Remember when those were the rage? We always had live trees when I was growing up. My dad belonged to the Junior Chamber of Commerce then and each year they sold trees on a vacant corner lot in the town where I lived. I remember going with him to help sell the trees on Saturdays and at the end of one evening we would pick out our tree and hoist it up to the top of the car and haul it home. In all the years since I've been married I've had an artificial tree. They are okay, less messy, and easier to pack up at new year's, but I miss the smell of pine permeating the house.

 This fence was all gussied up for the season.

 Here's just one of the pretty little shops along the street.

 And here is another. Can't you just imagine how cute this town must have been when it was still just residences? Each and every house is different from the one next door.





 This is a view from the inside of one shop looking out. So many treasures. They all take me back to the Christmases of my youth. I so prefer to shop this way for the holidays. Sure, you won't find any iPhone 4's, or iPads, or Nooks, but we do have actual books and plenty of board games that the whole family can participate in. I guess I'm just old fashioned when it comes to Christmas. Save the electronics for some other time of the year.

I imagine that the residents of this house have gone South for the winter. Seems like a good idea as we are getting some flurries today.

There was a horse drawn trolley that you could ride from one end of the street to the other and I smelled Kettle Corn drifting from the kiosk not too far from me. In one area there was a local band playing Christmas carols and it appeared that we were all enjoying ourselves on this fine morning.

I put a cheery wreath on my own front door.

And later that afternoon I did a quick sketch of the shoppers I saw. I've been meaning to try this sketching on newspaper and thought this would make the perfect attempt. I had actually glued two pieces of newspaper together weeks ago for another project and since I had some left over I used it for this. The double thickness worked out very well.

As long as I stay away from the malls and the traffic I can enjoy the slower pace of Christmas right here in my own little town. 

Happy Holidays?

I must be getting in the holiday spirit. I'm trying, anyway. On Friday I went to the mall area looking for some hiking boots and OMG, the parking lots were full and the traffic was in gridlock already! It's only the beginning of December! Maybe people are trying to get an early start on their shopping or maybe the economy really is improving and we can look forward to 21 more days of this. All I know is that I found some suitable boots and I hightailed it out of there as fast as I could. I have my holiday shopping done now (I buy throughout the year) and I will try not to need anything more than groceries from now until New Year's. Do you like shopping in crowds and do you enjoy the bustle of the holidays, or are you like me and hide out until all this passes? Do you shop more online these days or are you old fashioned like me and try to shop in person but get it done early?

I like the holidays, I really do. But I can do without all the "1 Day Sales" and "Buy 3 And Get The Fourth One For Half Price".

I must be getting old.