not sleeping

The past couple of years I have gone through a weird change in sleep habits. Most of my life I was a night owl, up late and sleeping in whenever I could. But my days and nights seem topsy-turvy now. Early to bed, reading only a chapter or two before conking out, then 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. finds me wide awake.

Butters the corgi wonders why I’m not in bed, asleep. She is NOT a morning person!

Unfortunately, I’m so tired during the days that I have not begun those two workshops that I recently won . . .

The background was sketched with the Lamy Safari and J. Herbin “Lie de The” ink. The double recliner was sketched with a Pentel Pocketbrush pen with brown ink.

camping, part 2

Stormy weather caught up with us on Tuesday afternoon, so we retreated inside the RV, where I sketched this. Butters, who does not like thunder, stayed under the table as I sat there sketching.

Next, I sketched the key fob — but I did not have turquoise or buff titanium in my palette. I did add 4 convenience colors to this limited palette; just not the ones needed for the camper charm. So I did some color mixing studies.

Trees sometimes take on very interesting forms during their lifespans. These two sketches captured two of them near our camp site.

preparing for the home stretch . . .

Thursday and Friday were busy days: bloodwork and medical scans followed by consultations with the main three doctors on my team. The above sketch is in one of the waiting rooms — I absolutely love the sliding door’s glass with real botanicals imbedded within!

Tests show that the tumor is pretty nearly destroyed. My next step is a colostomy reversal surgery sometime in early February. This journey is almost done!

waiting . . .

This time, I was waiting for Bill instead of him waiting for me. He had a dentist appointment in College Station; I went along so I could replace my debit card later at the bank. No one else in the waiting room.

chemo redone

Yesterday found us at M. D. Anderson at my new oncologist’s office (which was located in the Bluebonnet Suite — gotta love that!). My previous treatments were at Baylor, Scott, and White but after my bad reactions, we switch to MDA. 

Results from last week’s PET-scan showed that with only 2 chemo treatments the tumor has shrunk to half its former size. I received a new chemo treatment (same drugs but slower infusion and the second drug being given over 46 hours through a pump instead of orally). Very good news: no negative reactions!

another view

I’ve often sketched our living room while sitting in the antique red upholstered chair. This time, I decided to draw what I see from the reclining loveseat where I spend a lot of time lately. Minus some large windows on the far left.

relaxin'

After listening to a podcast (and jotting down notes), Bardie and I relaxed and listened to some music on my iPhone. Or, rather, Bardie slept and I listened.

For anyone interested, the podcast was an archived one from The God Journey, July 17, 2009 -- "Relaxing into His Love". You can find it HERE.

 

a touch of Covid and some ink

Apparently Covid-19 finally found me, probably at a standing-room-only memorial service for our Pastor last week. After all, I never go anywhere! 

So I’ve slept off and on since Wednesday, drinking lots of fluids and aspirin as needed. Not a very bad case; only two real fevers with chills.

Today I finally felt like pulling out my sketchbook but only with a couple of fountain pens. I drew the old Swedish rocker directly in ink but became bored with it near the end. And just now I realized the far supporting bars were left out. Oops!

Pastor Gary Faulkner

from where I sit

A year or so ago I drew this same view from the same overstuffed chair across the room, but at that time we had a full-sized couch instead. We have since replaced the couch with this double recliner loveseat -- and love it! Great to be able to put our feet up when we want to, and it fits the small space much better.

And yes, that electric socket on the far wall is higher than normal -- Bill decided when he deigned the barn conversion that it would be done with "getting old" in mind. Higher receptacles mean not needing to lean down to plug something in. He also installed a wheelchair-friendly shower but I'm not expecting to ever need it as such. 

I love that he took a rough diagonal slice of a cedar tree to form the floating wall shelf that holds our TV. But the TV's speakers are in back; instead of bouncing sound back into the room, the foam insulation in that wall absorbs sound. So we needed to add a sound bar under the cedar shelf.

That folded afghan on the back of the loveseat was a gift from daughter-in-law Misty years ago and has a huge Scottish Terrier on the center. When I use it, I think of Fiona, my first Scottie adopted in 1992.

I began this sketch with the Pentel Pocketbrush pen but I kept getting chunky lines where I did not want them (stupid tendinitis!) so I finished with a Kaweco Liliput fountain pen.

not exercising

My adorable reason to not exercise, Scottie. After all, I had already chased him from another chair earlier. And yes, he is so black that sunlight hits him as blue! (For the record, he later left this chair and I was able to exercise — while listening to a BBC radio mystery on my iPhone.)

My doctor recommended I use this “desk cycle” to strengthen my knee which had a partial dislocation several months ago. Thanks to Covid, our daughter now works from home (when not at job sites) so she gave us this one that used to sit beneath her office desk.

everything . . . including the kitchen sink

When we converted this barn into a home, Bill filled the north (kitchen) wall with windows to let in lots of light. This wall and the south doors and windows once formed the central alley of the old pole barn. I had planned on filling this window ledge with tiny succulents. 

But the roof over the back patio blocked too much light from the plants, so they were moved to an outside container. And in their place? Some pinch pots our kids made when they were in school! One turned pot holds some rocks painted by three of our grandkids, and there are also two rocks our daughter brought me from Scotland. Over to the left side are Bill’s grandmother’s child-sized cast iron skillet and sad iron. The largest pot holds scrubbing tools.

I first painted the kitchen sink with the burnt sienna and raw sienna in my granulating palette. But it looked too dull, so I added a wash of transparent red oxide with a touch of Daniel Smith’s original quinacridone gold that’s no longer made. These two colors made a huge difference!

view from home

We have had an unbelievably long stretch of 100°-plus temperatures in our part of Texas. Only a scant bit of rain on two separate days, enough to slightly green up the pastures but leaving the dirt dry. Enough wind on one afternoon to damage our back patio and shop roof, but still hot and dry.

Obviously, too hot to sketch outdoors — this is the view looking out the front doors of our wee barndominium from the comfort of a double recliner.

waiting . . .

This morning I waited in a very empty waiting room at the periodontist’s office, drawing what was in front of me. (color added later)

The hygienist and I shared memories of Fiddler on the Roof productions we had seen — I once saw Chaim Topol play at Swope Park in Kansas City. She is expecting her third daughter and says her husband says, like Tevye, he will have 5 daughters. Goes around singing “If I were a rich man”!

Last pages in my ZigZag sketchbook.

what’s in front of me

This is what I see sitting in Bill’s Grandma’s old overstuffed chair in our wee barn-house. A bit messy (and I didn’t even include the tracked-in grass and pet hair on the floor!) but such a comfortable space to live.

Sometimes Bill’s chronic nerve pain keeps him up at night, though it has improved in recent months with an adjustment in medication. He’ll come out here to watch TV, using those earphones on the table to avoid waking me (he hasn’t learned that just his being gone from the bedroom wakes me up). The quilt folded on the back of the couch and pillows end up all over the place.

Inside the hinged cover of that table is a pair of binoculars to go with the bird field guide laying on top. We enjoy watching and identifying the birds outside the French doors and windows. Even in the midst of winter we have quite a variety, including the brightest bluebirds I’ve ever seen.

I shouldn’t have . . .

 I loved how the sketch in yesterday’s post turned out, with minimal watercolor added to the ink sketch. But I decided to add full color to this sketch of our travel trailer’s interior — and then wished I’d left it as an ink-only sketch. 🙁

Still, this page will remind me (hopefully) in the future that sometimes a drawing is better without watercolor.

(My perspective was certainly Wonky as I drew this sitting on the bed in the camper!)

an airbnb and my parents’ high school

 

While visiting in Kansas, we stayed at a very economical Airbnb — a transformed trailer house in a small RV park. Simple, quiet, and comfortable with everything we needed; so much better than a hotel or motel!

I was able to my dad a couple of times at the nursing home he lives at, in spite of their overly strict COVID rules.

On the drive there, we passed what has to be the most beautiful high school in the country, Wichita North. My parents went to this Art Deco / American Native styled building, and I have sketched it before. It’s located near the Riverside neighborhood where I first met with others as we learned about watercolor and sketched together.

The nearby Minisa Bridge matches the motifs on the school building — something else I have sketched in past years. I love that bison!

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!

Scottie Dubh on watch

I don’t know what held Scottie’s attention so intently — he stayed in this pose a good 5 to 7 minutes, perched on a soft overstuffed footstool in front of the chair where I was sitting. Probably a wee flying gnat or piece of fluff drifting in the wake of an overhead fan. Scottish folds often hold such silly poses.

And so ends my Strathmore Watercolor Travel Journal, filled in 6 weeks (I don’t sketch every day). The book contains only 20 pages but the paper is a heavy 140 lb. cold press, great for really wet watercolor. And, not counting a bright red bandanna, I stuck to this same extreme neutrals + muted primary + turquoise palette through the whole book, though I changed the configuration of the metal pans a couple of times. Pocket Palettes are fun to play around with — even switching from a Demi Palette to the regular size to fit in 3 mixing areas.

temporary studio

Looking around for a subject to sketch — it’s either very hot and humid outside or pouring down heavy rain — and my art space is in front of me. This is my maternal grandfather’s old table that came from his barber shop. An old antique cash register sat on this table which was painted red at the time. There’s a back raised edge that Grandpa drilled holes in to hold his pencils.

The two drawers are stuffed with art tools and travel palettes. When we used the table as a work station in the center of our last kitchen in Kansas, it had an added butcher block fitted to the top. That’s when I added those hooks on the side, to hold our kitchen towels.

The Winsor chair is also a family piece, having come from Bill’s grandmother, the same one who gave me her sad irons. In both our families, we tended to be the ones interested in holding on to these old pieces. They are full of memory!

on the kitchen counter

When we renovated a 1920 apartment building in Kansas, the kitchen Bill designed for us was huge! Big enough for a work station in the center of the room. He took an old wooden table of mine that once held an antique cash register in my grandfather’s barber shop, and built a butcher block top that just slid into place on top of it. Two small drawers held knives and towels hung on the side.

Our kitchen in the log cabin was tiny so the work table was designated to the loft. Until it dawned on us that the butcher block could be slid off of the old table and cut down into a really nice cutting board! So that’s what Bill did and I love this big cutting board!

And Grandpa’s old table? Now it’s the table where I paint in Michael’s office. When we move over to the barndominium, I’ll have a small studio and the table will still be where I paint.