our own canned pears

This past summer Bill canned the pears from our newly planted pear tree — 6 small jars in total! And we hadn’t expected any fruit the first year. I took a picture before he took 3 of them over to our daughter . . . then never got around to sketching them. Until today.

Only one more sketch and this journal will be filled (and only one more day of this unusual year). Maybe tomorrow I’ll choose a new sketchbook and draw it.

I found the quote on Instagram or Facebook last August and saved a screenshot of it. Another delayed bit that finally made it into my journal.

a confused tree

Trees around us are confused by the warmer-than-normal temperatures. Yesterday it reached 82° F. — a large magnolia tree nearby is covered with blooms! I drew a branch of an unknown tree in a drugstore parking lot with what I thought at first were flower buds but they turned out to be white berries. (the fountain pen had water-soluble ink, so I used watercolor pencils to add a bit of color — then forgot the colors would muddy if I touched it with a damp brush. 🥴)

earthy granulating pocket palette

Just in case anyone was curious as to what colors of watercolor I placed inside my latest Pocket Palette . . .

I left one of the large mixing pans in the palette (it came with 2 of these large mixing pans and 12 tiny mini-pans) and added 10 standard pans filled with my favorite granulating paints (filled from tubes). I bought this coppery gold palette because it was not silver or black like my others from Art Toolkit; I can easily tell at a glance which of my palettes is the granulating one.

Before posting this, I wanted to paint a simple landscape on the opposite page using this set of colors -- but I am so fed up with the paper in Stillman & Birn sketchbooks that I changed my mind. Not that the paper is bad -- it is wonderful paper for sketching in pencil and ink and a bit of watercolor for color. This is one of their Beta books which is heavier paper better suited for paint.

But I want to apply wet washes of watercolor and allow them to mingle on the page together -- paint just dries too quickly on this paper to do that. Also, the smooth finish does not show granulating pigments off to their best affect; for that, I need cold press or even rough watercolor paper.

Only a few pages left in this journal anyway; hopefully I will finish it by the end of the week, then start off the new year with a new sketchbook journal.

wee bits of Christmas

We had a very low-key type of Christmas, as Bill is under orders from his cardiologist to take it easy and not over-do. He’s been experiencing questionable symptoms; a new heart catheter showed the bypass grafts to be working great so it’s just a matter of finding the right combination of medications at this point. A work in progress . . .

Earlier, most of our kids and grandkids got together and had this crazy kind of gift exchange. Everyone took part, including all the grandkids. The gift theme was “big, fat, or hard to wrap” and each person may choose an unwrapped gift or steal one that’s already been opened by someone else. Hilarious fun! I ended up with this big bag of assorted gourmet popcorns and a stack of chocolates, a gift given by our youngest grandson.

The right side of this journal spread shows a few of my other toys. Our youngest son recommended the new computer mouse that Bill gave me — much easier with the tendinitis in my wrists. Technically the new iPhone is not a gift — my old one iPhone 7 needed a battery replaced and AT&T had a bunch of these iPhone 12 Minis that they wanted to get rid of . . . 

With gift money from my mother, I bought a replacement squirrel mop brush (my old one had the quill & wire wrapped ferrule and bristles were shedding) and the new “Drawn to High Places” Pocket Palette from Art Toolkit. I just got the case without the paints, to put a set of earthy granulating paints in it. Now it’s easy to see at a glance whether it’s my regular set or the earthy one.

time for a good read

A bit wonky on the angles, but this is another reason I haven’t been sketching much. The 9th main book in the Outlander series is out _after a 7-year wait_ and I have been reading. Actually I have it on my Kindle app so I had to look online for a photo of the actual book.

This one is not as good, in my opinion, as some of the others. My favorite has been the 8th book, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, but I enjoyed it still.

While I love the depth and “realness” of these books (in spite of the time-travel), I have come to absolutely detest the TV series. They began well enough . . . then kept making changes from the books that were unnecessary, unrealistic, and at times even silly.

borrowing other artists’ ideas

Sometimes I scribble ideas in my journal that I find online, usually ideas from other artists of their chosen palettes or sketching setups. I found this very portable setup on Art Toolkit’s 23 November Instagram post, highlighting artist JC Little (@theanimatedwoman). It looks so doable, I jotted it down — and am posting it here in my blog to remember in case I forget which journal it was in.

It uses a small acrylic support with a 2” square ZigZag sketchbook held in place with a Cross Band (available from arttoolkit.com) and magnet clips around the edge holding a Demi Palette, extra mixing pan, and water. The water container is a regular prescription bottle with a quarter attached to the bottom to be held by the magnet. Overall BRILLIANT idea!

Yesterday I received a postcard from Art Toolkit featuring their new Drawn to High Places Pocket Palette, a collaboration with artist Nikki Frumkin. Many of the pigments are not in my stash so I played around with similar ones I do have. It seems strange to not have any earthy neutrals, but I may play around with these colors sometime. I keep a Demi Palette and ZigZag sketchbook in my purse — but with Covid-19, we just don’t go anywhere so it never seems to come out to play!

unknown colorful mushroom

I walked the south pasture recently to see what the donkeys were eating (it turned out to be some Spanish moss they pulled off an old oak tree). On the way back, I found this bright bit of red — but is it a Stalked Scarlet Cap or the poisonous Emetic Russula?

Either way, the goats and donkeys were leaving it alone.

Annie the musical

From last week: our granddaughter Jayna was in a stage production of Annie and it was fabulous! Too dark to sketch on site and photos were not allowed due to copyright — but these bunk beds were on the stage before the musical began so they were fair game, right?

During one of the songs, champagne bottles were uncorked shooting confetti and tiny $100 bills everywhere; this is one of many our grandsons Josiah and Judah gathered.

Bradley wants to go!

When our granddaughter Mikala was packing up to head back to college following Thanksgiving break, Bradley jumped into her car . . . and stubbornly refused to get out. He loves car rides, and he loves all “his people” to stay in one place so he can guard them and keep them safe.

Lately I get ideas of memories to sketch in my journal but I may take a week (or even two) before actually getting them finished.