random end of year

 

Today I’ve been catching up on some reading __ then jotted down some quotes in the front of my journal.

Later, I started a random sketch of a face mask hanging on our daughter’s key rack — a face mask seems to be a good commentary for this, the last day of a very strange year.

At first I drew with a conte lead but it bled when I added watercolor. So I finished with a regular graphite lead. Bill’s cousin Mike made me this lead holder out of a piece of “purple heart” wood.

Here’s hoping 2021 is a better year for us all!

bits and pieces

 

Just a few sketchy bits of Christmas . . . I found this galvanized washtub table to give to Bill for an outside patio table that could also store his birdseed. He decided that it works better as an indoor coffee table, storing remotes, earphones, and binoculars (he often spots falcons, woodpeckers, and bluebirds through the front windows).

Bill found this Texas Longhorn photo printed on barn wood to give me. We had been wanting some kind of longhorn art to put on this wall . . . The barn wood makes it perfect for living in a barn!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Yesterday the kids dropped by for a tamale lunch and I was busy cooking, but I found a few moments now and then to work in my sketchbook. The tamales were sold as a band fundraiser by granddaughter, Jayna, in Needville, TX. Made by a local band booster and they were delicious!

While still living in our log cabin, we found this distressed copper nativity that fit a very narrow space we had. It seems even more at home here in the barn. We bought a dwarf Alberta Spruce to decorate — that’s it, sitting in Bill’s grandmother’s old milk pail. Later, it will be in a pot on the front porch.

The 25mm Herend flat brush is a Christmas gift from my mom. I saw one used by Maria Coryell-Martin in one of her demos and had been looking for one. Turns out that Amazon now has them, though they come directly from Korea. It’s handmade with chipmunk hair and lays down a smooth wash beautifully. Can’t wait to really play with it.

getting to know you . . .

Mikala’s young cow, Sierra, now lives here on the farm along with 7 goats, 2 donkeys, a very large dog, and 6 cats between our daughter’s house and ours.

Sierra is a very sociable heifer who loves making new friends. She has her own private fenced yard attached to the new cow barn, but would love to roam with the rest of the beasties from one pasture to another.

Here, Tater and Tot seem to be sharing stories with Sierra — son-in-law Michael caught them on camera and I drew this from his photo.

This second photo was taken by Bill. Granddaughter Mikala was giving Sierra a bath after getting home from her part time job at a vet’s office. The scene reminded us of Bethlehem’s stable (though it was probably more of a cave). Our very own Christmas manger!

a brief return to Brenham

 

This past week we returned to Brenham for a doctor’s check-up. When we lived in our log cabin 12 miles north of town, I had always meant to spend more time in their old downtown sketching — but never got around to it. 

Then I happened upon a photo in our rural electric coop magazine showing one of the downtown Brenham murals. The town is full of interesting murals that I should have been sketching! 

I’m not sure the significance of a grizzly bear with a woman though. The local high school mascot is a cub, not a full-grown grizzly.

a bit of this and that

 

This morning I had a Christmas card and a bill to put out in our mailbox for pick-up (yeah, we are still old-fashioned enough to pay our bills by snail-mail, much to our kids’ chagrin). On the way back up our long driveway, I picked up this bit of ball moss sharing its twig space with a bit of lichen. Yesterday we had incredibly strong stormy winds that blew leaves and small branches all over the ground. It was almost like being back in Kansas.

the past 2 days

 

With this larger sketchbook, I may combine multiple day’s sketches on one page, like these. 

As part of our simplifying / downsizing, we wanted to trade in our 2 vehicles for one multi-purpose truck. Turns out that we had enough left over from selling our log cabin, buying a bit of land, and converting a small barn into our home that we could afford this Chevrolet Colorado. On our way to pick it up now.

And the fruit? A grapefruit and 2 oranges from our daughter’s newly planted trees. They are small this year but very sweet!

taking a break . . .

 

Not much sketching going on here, but I managed to draw the knitting basket on my footstool yesterday, giving my hands a break. Holding a fountain pen (or brush pen for that bit of cotton) is easier on my old hands than knitting needles and crochet hooks.

color chart . . . or stained glass?

Back in July of 2013 I posted a sketchbook entry and color chart based on an article I had found in an old issue of Artist’s Sketchbook magazine. The article mentioned the limited palette used by New Zealand artist David Barker in his sketchbook. He first used ultramarine blue and burnt umber to establish values and color temperatures and only added a bit of color as needed. I thought at the time that I would attempt to do something similar but color was too much of a lure to stick with it.

For anyone interested in David Barker’s palette, I had made a small color chart of his choices that I recently found in my stash. Some of the colors must have been student quality because the colors sure don’t look like my current colors of the same name. He used alizarin crimson, aureolin, phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, and raw umber.

I went a different direction in color choices, with an earthy primary triad and a brighter primary triad (and one green) to go with the ultramarine blue and burnt umber. For the color chart, I blocked off the squares with a very narrow masking tape I found on Amazon. This paper must be made totally with paper fibers and no cotton rag; even with care, the paper tore as I pulled the tape up.

I could probably do fine with only the bright primary triad but I love playing with color.

new journal beginning

 

I just began a new journal, a much larger one (8.75 x 11.25’) than I have previously worked in. I don’t know what brand it is; the paper seems to be 140 lb. hot-press and the cover is plain black. It was given to me by a friend who had had it in her stash a long time and she couldn’t remember where it came from. All I know is that this paper is really good!

I’ve switched out my pocket palette to a simple triad plus neutrals. At first I only had one triad (quin. red, quin. gold, ultramarine). The color chart on the card showed me what basic mixes I could get from these plus burnt umber. I thought I would try using mostly grays mixed from the blue and brown, then add a bit of color for accent.

Then I went ahead and added an earthier triad (piemontite, monte amiata natural sienna, and cerulean blue chromium) plus perylene green because the pocket palette looked a bit empty. The demi palette I keep in my purse has just the first four colors in it.

Bill brought me the unknown plant clipping yesterday morning with frost all over it. I tried to capture the frostiness using a white grease pencil before painting. The plant is growing wild in one of our planting beds that have not been cleaned out yet.

comparing 2 earth reds

 With only one page left in this Hahnemuhle watercolor book, I decided to use it to compare 2 very similar earth reds, both from Daniel Smith. I’ve been using Lunar Red Rock for a while now — it’s the same PR101 pigment as Jane Blundell’s favored Indian Red but this one is a bit more transparent than the very opaque Indian Red.

On one of Maria Coryell-Martin’s recent Live Demos, Piemontite genuine was mentioned and I finally got a sample to play with. It’s one of the Primatek watercolors made from natural minerals but looks very similar to Lunar Red Rock. I painted blends of each of them with 2 earth yellows, 2 blues I use most often, Buff Titanium, and Green Apatite, another Primatek that I prefer over Sap Green.

I really can’t see much difference. Though I love working with natural minerals, the Lunar pigments cost much less so I think I’ll stick with Lunar Red Rock.

Sierra’s new home

Ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions and erratic enforcement of safety measures at our granddaughter’s school’s F.F.A. barn in Houston continue to make it difficult for the kids to take care of their animals. Mikala has decided to move her cow, Sierra, out to the farm as soon as we can get a new enclosure built for her. (She is quick to point out that this would not be necessary had we not taken over the existing barn for our home! 😂)

The framing is mostly done and we are waiting for the carpenter to bring in the siding. The goats and donkeys enjoy checking out his work. (My sketch is from a different angle that showed three tall Loblolly pines to the east — not seen in the photo below.)

Thanksgiving 2020

Half of our kids and their families joined us out on the barn’s large patio for visiting, feasting, and game-playing yesterday. I tried making a new pull-apart garlic herb bread, using some fresh rosemary that was found growing near the swimming pool.

broken but still pretty

 

When I go out in the early morning to take care of the donkeys and goats, I sometimes still see a few pretty leaves. Once in a while, even some red ones from a small tree of unknown variety growing next to the food storage shed.

But they have been nibbled on, muddied and trampled by the goats stampeding for the hay I set out for them — it’s rare to see an unbroken one these days. There can also be insect holes and fungus spots.

Yet like us when life has “broken” us a bit — there is still beauty to be found.

time for a cup of cocoa

 

I mix my own instant cocoa mix from powdered milk and dry cocoa powder — that way, I can choose my own level of “sweet”. The mixes you can buy at the store are way too sweet! I can also choose stevia or other sweeteners instead of processed sugar. Last night I mixed a cup in my bone china Scottie mug . . . then added marshmallows, negating the “healthier” aspect.

I messed up when drawing the end table so I left it unpainted. Bill designed it for me years ago with a drawer to hold sketching tools and an inlaid checkerboard in darker wood on the top to play games with grandkids. I drew a few of the intersecting lines before realizing I had more than 8 squares width-wise. Oops!

The lamp base shown is to an antique lamp that came from Bill’s Swedish grandmother’s farmhouse. Maybe I should draw the whole thing some day.

a random vine as I wait

 

Another day waiting for Bill as he does his post-surgery physical therapy. Parked facing west instead of the usual east, I see this random vine growing up a small tree instead of the usual plain brick wall. Color added later at home.

Only 2 more days of PT followed by a phone conference with the surgeon’s PA. Hopefully he will then be cleared medically.

a random morning sketch

 

Nothing much going on today . . . Just a random sketch of my morning cup of tea. A bit wonky, drawn in continuous contour line directly in ink.

After 7 years of using an electric stove, we are finally back to gas. I had forgotten how hot the handle of my little tea pot can get on a gas range. I keep this little woven potholder handy, made by our granddaughter Mikala years ago.

our falcon returns

I first sketched our Aplomado Falcon last January (seen here) and he has often visited the farm since then. Last week I saw him sitting atop the purple martin house as I was driving down the long driveway to go to a dentist’s appointment, fairly dwarfing the structure. I slowly drove around to get a closer photo — and he flew away before I could get my phone up. So I drew what he sort of looked like from an online photo.

*UPDATE — Silly me, I wrote the quote in the lower right wrong. It should read:

Worship is not singing songs, it’s a life lived before the Father.

Church is not a building, it’s a diverse people worldwide.

Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship with the Son of God.

UPDATE 2 — I just heard another line to add:

Truth is not an abstract, Truth is a Person.

comparing grey mixes

 

My friend John Lokke introduced me to watercolor in 2005, teaching me with his personal palette of 12 favorites. They included burnt umber and raw umber (“milk chocolate and dark chocolate”) but he never used the siennas. I always wondered why he detested burnt sienna — after all, he had a gorgeous head of “burnt sienna” hair!

John’s favorite gray and black mixes combined ultramarine blue and burnt umber so that is what I started with, but in recent years I have used burnt sienna instead — so I thought I would compare the two. There really isn’t that big of difference, not surprising since both are the same PBr7 pigment. (I do see now that the blue-gray next to black on the lower row should have had more blue in it.)

While I was playing, I made a color chart on the back of the same card. Just for fun. John taught us to do these as well, to really get to know our paints.

ink only or added watercolor?

I’ve been playing around with using a pale gray ink in a Kuretake brush pen for adding shadows to an ink sketch by adding De Atramentis thinner to De Atramentis Document black ink. This would save time over mixing a bit of ink and water on a palette. Most attempts were still way too dark.

But by adding just a smidgen of the thinned ink to a sample vial, then filling the space left with thinner, I finally got it light enough! It can be brushed on as-is or, for larger spaces, brushed on a pre-wettened surface.

Now’s there’s  a new quandary when sketching: do I leave a drawing “ink only” or do I add a bit of watercolor wash on top?

leaves dancing in the breeze

These leaves were sketched yesterday after I went for a walk in the south pasture. It may be sumac — not really sure — that’s growing on the other side of our fence.

I added watercolor just now while sitting in the car in Navasota. Bill is inside at his bi-weekly physical therapy; visitors are banned to the parking lot. There is a plain brick wall in front of me and not much else of interest, hence my finishing yesterday’s sketch.

 

an old silk rose

 

This old silk boutonniere is another saved treasure that was rediscovered as I was clearing out old boxes. Bill wore it at our daughter’s wedding over 22 years ago. When I came across it, I laid it on my dresser next to an antique picture frame and oil lamp . . . . Our black cat, Scotty Dubh, promptly stole it, claiming it as his new toy. I rescued it and now he leaves it alone.

I drew this directly in ink with a fude nib pen, thinking I would keep it loose. But my normal tighter detail style still broke through — perhaps I should just accept that this is “me”. I added a bit of shading with a grey-blue watercolor pencil, kept dry in places and watercolor added over it in others. At least that was simplified . . .

Early this morning I couldn’t sleep. The farm was thickly covered with a blanket of fog, though that didn’t stop the donkeys from calling out their good mornings. I fixed a mug of Earl Grey tea and went out to drink it with them in the north pasture. Very peaceful morning.

books, books, and more books . . .

 

A few months ago, I found this great word and jotted it down to remember it. I am guilty of buying books that never seem to get read, though I had every intention of doing so when it was purchased.

This old oak bookshelf holds only a very few of our books. Many of these I have read (there’s a lot of Tolkien in there, plus some Cathy Johnson naturalist books) but many I have not. Most books are on the floor-to-wall shelves in my studio.

Bill built this shelf when he was in high school; his mother had it for many years and we latched on to it later on. He learned to love building with wood early in life from a grandfather and never lost it.

morning cup of tea

 

Just a quick sketch of my morning tea . . .

The backsplash tiles actually look like planks of barn wood but I didn’t bother to draw in the grain lines.

an almost red leaf

 

This morning while caring for the farm beasties, I thought I had found another red leaf — but it’s actually rather brown, isn’t it?

seasonal palettes?

After putting together a couple of versions of my favorite granulating pigments into an “autumn palette”, I’ve been thinking about color combinations for the other seasons. This is just a worksheet of sorts; I have not settled on any of the combinations yet.

Spring seems a good time for a basic CYM palette (cyan, yellow, magenta) plus a few convenience colors — I chose quinacridone magenta, hansa yellow light, and phthalo blue. Not sure about the other colors.

For summer, I put together a basic “warm and cool” primaries, greens, plus neutrals. I could eliminate one green and the sienna from this set, doubling the mixing pan size.

As mentioned, autumn is my favorite time for lots of earthy granulating color.

And winter? I was thinking of starting it with ultramarine blue and burnt sienna for lots of warm and cool grays, then add just a few colors for accents. Of those shown, I think I might ditch the indigo and sienna. Not sure.

Would I actually stick to a designated palette for each season? Definitely not; I love mixing it up too much! But it’s interesting to think about. What colors do you think of for each season?

seasonal coughing

 Is it just me? Or does everybody who coughs in public feel like they are going to be arrested? With all the worry over COVID-19, coughing is looked at with suspicion no matter what the cause.

I have seasonal allergies . . . to dust, pollen, ragweed, whatever. So I tend to cough a lot. It is not painful (except my head might hurt if I cough too much) and it is not contagious. I’ve had trouble finding something that will silence me but these lozenges seem to help the most currently.

I recently came across this bit of ancient Scottish verse. It reminds me of the words to “Wild Mountain Thyme” but is a bit different from what I know.

missing: one red leaf

 

Yesterday as I let the goats out of their enclosure, I found a gorgeous red leaf — something that is rare here in southeast Texas. I saved it, picking up a few others to sketch with it. After seeing to the goats, donkeys and outside cat, I put the leaves on my art desk for later while I fed the indoor cats and enjoyed a cup of tea Bill had brewed for me.

When I returned to the pile of leaves, I found them scattered on the floor — and the one red leaf missing. Our black Scottish Fold, Scottie Dubh, apparently thought they were his new toys . . . and he ate the red one. His guilt was proven when he later threw up.

Later I found out it was “national black cat day” so I guess that was his private celebration.

The quote caught my eye after planning our Thanksgiving get-together, COVID-19 style. Our family has wide-ranging thoughts on precautions, from “silly and not needed” to “sanitize everything and everyone”. As parents stuck in the middle, we are trying to find a way for everyone to feel comfortable. It is not about COVID-19; it’s about giving grace to anyone who believes differently than we do — accepting them with love regardless of whether we agree or not. I hope all families are able to find solutions that allow everyone to feel safe.

I just received my order of Rosemary & Co’s eradicator travel brush, seen in the photo next to their pointed round brush. Great for lifting the leaf veins! I used a bit too much water for the veins in the rounded-edged leaf so it’s a learning experience — I can see this being very useful for anywhere I want to lift some watercolor.

the long drive home

 This sketch shows only about half of our driveway, bordered by young live oak trees. When I walk down to get the mail, our outdoor cat Stubby will only go half-way. Then she sits and waits for me next to one of the trees. On the walk back, she plays “tree tag”, tapping each one as we pass.

sleepy days and paint play

 

Bill is recovering nicely from his recent spinal surgery, but neither of us are getting much sleep. Body aches, neck braces, and for me, coughing due to high dust / pollen. I have lots of ideas to sketch, just not much motivation or concentration.

But I can _always_ play with my colors! Recently I switched the colors in the Demi Palette I keep in my purse to autumn granulating colors. I tend to keep this larger Art Toolkit filled and easy to grab for “home sketching” away from my desk. So I painted out swatches of granulating paints to keep in it along with some possible additions. At first I had a square pan for mixing in this Demi but I ended up adding a couple more colors. Whenever I get around to sketching, I think I’ll just let the paints mix on the paper instead.

ERGH!!! More frustration!

 I just tried repeatedly to answer Susan Bronsak’s comments on yesterday’s blog post — even though I AM signed in (proven by the fact that I just posted the previous post), it says I am not signed in when I try to reply. I typed out a long reply and entered my name and info as anyone else would and hit “publish” — and the whole thing just disappeared!

Apparently I can no longer reply to comments on my own blog?!?

OK, it opened on the wrong setting . . .

 

It appears that Blogger isn’t broken after all — just completely messed up!

At first I thought I must have inadvertently changed a setting on my iPad Pro since it seemed to be in HTML mode. But how could I have accidentally switched the same setting on 3 devices?!? It was the same on my iPad Mini and my iPhone.

After some fiddling with the new design’s tools, I found the pencil with a drop down arrow — giving me the choice of HTML or Compose View (and why would I want HTML in the first place?). No clue why all 3 devices suddenly decided to switch . . .

Someone should shout loud and clear at the powers-that-be behind blog platforms: “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT!”

Meanwhile, this is the sketch I attempted to post yesterday — a pocket from my favorite pair of jeans in 1973. I was embroidering the heart on the back pocket when Bill grabbed it from me, picked up some new thread, and stitched our initials inside the heart! The jeans are long gone but I kept the pocket.