WAITING FOR PAINT TO DRY ... SIGH

Wall treatments for above these two doors are in the works.

 

 

 

 

 This unfinished niche has a change coming.

 

This niche, on the other side, is in for a change, too.

 

 

 

 An old day lily design, new quilted backing, new place to go.

 

 

 

 To go over one of the doors, when finished.

 

 

 

 To go over the other door.

 

As soon as the paint is dry, and the poly sealer is dry, on everything, I can put it all together and see if I like it.

Doodling With Pastels While Waiting For Paint To Dry

Here's what I do while waiting for paint to dry.

 

Now I've got sealer on this one and am waiting for IT to dry.

 

Wall Project for New Kitchen In Red Checks



Plastic on the studio floor; old canvas drop cloth on top of the plastic, white paint, roller with extension handle, and paint tray.  

 

 

GOT THE BASE COAT ON!

 

THROW SQUARES ON AT RANDOM.

 

TRACE SQUARES; PAINT THEM RED.

 

GOT SOME OF THE SQUARES PAINTD.

 

TURN CANVAS AS NECESSARY.

 

GOT 'EM ALL PAINTED.

 

MITER CORNERS OF 1X2, PAINT RED.

GLUE TOP FRAME PIECE TO TOP OF HANGING.

WAIT FOR GLUE TO DRY.

AFFIX TO WALL WITH SCREWS.

USE LEVEL.

PLACE AND ATTACH OTHER FRAME PIECES TO WALL.

USE LEVEL.

 

 

DONE DEAL.



I can see where I'm going to want to add a few more little squares to this, but not very many.  Then I'll seal it up with poly spray, several coats at it's in the kitchen.

Getting Ready For The Fair

BLUE RIBBON

RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION (PINK ROSETTE)

 

This painting is the first I did of aspen.  I set up in one of the front rooms of our house in Cripple Creek, near the window where the light was good.  Later on I discovered that our neighbors were keeping track of my progress on the painting, glancing up as they walked by.  One of them wanted to buy it but I said no.  It now contentedly resides in one of my sisters' homes.

 

BLUE RIBBON

GRAND CHAMPION (PURPLE ROSETTE)

 

This is the most recent of my aspen paintings.  It's happy in the home of another of my sisters! 

 



Both of them (the paintings, not the sisters)will be hanging at the fair this year. 

The last thing I remember entering in the fair was a VERY long time ago, for 4-H. 

The past couple of days have been kind of busy and kind of fun; tomorrow will be more of the same, maybe more so. 

I've gotten some of my own photographs printed and prepared for exhibition, with a few final steps to do tomorrow before I haul the whole works to the Women's Building at the fairgrounds.

I was focusing on the photos because a friend from where I work did some computer work with one of my full circle sun dog photos, got one that wasn't all there into a FULL circle.  Then he took it a step further and made a series of six different colored sun dog circles - and THEN put them all together into one piece. 

Because there are things he can't do, I did them for him.  I got the seven pieces printed; the big one is an 8x10 and the singles are 4x6.  After trimming them up a little, I made foam core mounting pads for the small ones and used spray adhesive to affix them.  Since the only mat I had that I could use was some blue or other, and I wanted black, I painted it.  While that was drying I dug around and found a clear plastic sheet to put in front of the big print to protect it, then taped it in place on the (now black) mat and taped the print in place.  Once everything was ready I glued all the small prints around the outside of the big one on a black foam core board, the colors opposite from where they are in the big piece. 

He also had a photo he really liked, of an ice-coated willow tree with the sun shining through it.  As that photo didn't take well to getting blown up, it was with tremendous relief to find yet another use for those sun dog circles.  I printed the grey one onto a sheet of transparency film and used it in front of the tree.  It's an impressive effect, and the center sun matches up with the sun coming from behind his tree in the original photo so it looks darned good.  When I put the display together, I left the two prints in the protective sleeve I had put them together in to see what they looked like.  A dark green mat with black foam core board finish it up nicely. 

Since I am anxiously waiting for my poppies to bloom, they were on my mind and I dug up some old photos just to play with them. 

Holy Cow. 

As a test of how well a photo will adapt to enlargement, I use the zoom feature to find out far I can go without pixelating. 

I was totally amazed and thoroughly excited to find one of my best shots could take a zoom right into a very close-up view!  Needless to say I got a nice 8x10 out of it. 

RED RIBBON

While I was in the flower mood I went once again into my files for a stunning white rose.  I had a black velvet backdrop and from the upper left corner a shot of sunlight came in from a window I hadn't covered well enough - hit that white rose and when I looked at the photos it looks like the rose is glowing from the inside.  Pure serendipity, that.  I had already cropped the rose photo but just out of curiosity I checked the zoom - and took it in until the rose almost fills the field.  That one, the white rose with black background in a 5x7, I left with a white border and mounted it on black.

By the time I was done printing out all the photos I plan to use AND the ones that didn't make the cut, my color cartridges (two of them) were dead and gone.  But they got the job done. 

My entries consist of the poppy, a sunset moonrise, a farmyard gossip set (horse seeming to whisper to another horse, second horse seeming to give a big haw haw, bunch of geese and other fowl running in the yard, and a quizzical goat), a series of my best tree shots, a nice landscape where the clouds and shape of a hill are synchronized, the rose, a pastel on fabric circle seashell, and one of my small rock wall paintings which is already framed. 

WHITE RIBBON

 

 

RED RIBBON

 

 

WHITE RIBBON

 

 

RED RIBBON

Yes, this was framed.  No, it didn't win.

 

I kind of want to see if I can borrow a couple of the paintings I gave away, just for these few days, but haven't asked anyone yet.  Tomorrow is entry day, so if I'm going to use any of those I have to get up early so I can go get them from wherever they are. 

Some of my paintings are at my sister's shop but I can't even remember which ones are where. 

The one I REALLY want to enter is out at my other sister's farm, the big landscape.  But I think I can probably snag the first aspen painting I did from my in town sister, and/or the snakes which are also pretty impressive in their own way. 

Like I don't already have enough to cart over to the fairgrounds, right? 

And like it's not three in the morning here, with a full and busy day ahead of me. 

All I can say is we shall see what we shall see.  I can always lug a few cedar shakes over, mount a collection of them onto one of the big foam core boards I have left ...

But for now - sleep I think.

UPDATE:  I did go get the paintings from my sister's houses - and they WON!  I also grabbed one of my cedar shakes with a painting on it, and it got a red ... the last minute things are the ones that did well; go figure. 

Experimental Portrait First Trial Run - AAAAAUGH !!!!

NOTE:  I'm using my own face for practice not out of ego but out of respect for everyone else - don't want them getting burnt up in my wood stove.

I'm not altogether sure I want to post the progression of what may well turn out to be a total FLOP, but I may as well. 

It's all a part of who I am and what I do, the experiments that make good and the ones that don't ...

I already know that this one is unsalvageable so I can tell  you ahead of time that it's NOT going to end up being something I want to keep. 

It is, however, part of the learning I have to do whenever I try new things. 

If I were already an expert, I wouldn't have to figure things out as I go along, you know. 

I have never in my life painted human faces, or drawn them except on a couple of VERY rare occasions when I was doodling.  I have done eyes, but not in the context of a real face.

Now that the introduction and excuses are out of the way, you want to see something that ought to make you vomit?  

Here you go:

Rough draft in every sense of the word.

 

Some changes, but not enough.

 

Getting closer but needs a MAJOR overhaul.

 

Erased some of the most glaringly needy areas.  Here's hoping I'm a good surgeon because this lady here needs a lot of reconstructive and cosmetic surgery!

 

 

This is as far as I've gotten...it's pastels over an acrylic sky scape and ROUGH going, literally, as the surface is rough with the paint.  If I can't get it right it goes into my wood stove!

 

AAAAUGH!!!!!!!!

 

That's the biggest yell of frustration I've hollered out in a long time.

 

THIS BETTER BE WORTH IT.

 

 

Still AAAUGH!!!

This is where I stopped. 

I'll give it another shot later on

but for now

I'm just stopping

so I can start over

afresh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

GEEZ ... HOW Many Ways Can I Mess It Up? Second Attempt

For starters, I went to working on plain fabric, sealed. 

It still balls up, sigh. 

Tried using a hard, sharp pencil. 

Holy Cow! 

Never Again. 

Went back to my dark one. 

Worked TOO well. 

Sigh.

Look.  Sigh.  Cry with me. 

Just kidding.  I'm not crying.  I'm laughing at myself, heartily.  Enthusiastically.  Maniacally.  I'm over-tired. 

Here you go:

Ghost Sketch One

Ghost Sketch Two

Frying Pan To Fire - YIKES!

Having My Doubts

Beginning Light Base

Beginning Shading

Deepening Shading

Lightening It Up With A Little Pink

Touches of Highlight

Stopping Here For The Night

 

 

This is what happens when I lose my patience and say to hell with the delicate touch and go after it hammer and tongs for a while because this one ain't never gonna be okay anyhow.  Venting is good for a person.  Maybe not so great for a pastel portrait, but surely good for expressing frustration as a result of having used a rough low thread-count fabric. 

 

LET IT BE A LESSON TO ME

Twisted Copper Wire Torque (Torc)

Just because I want to, I'm trying to make a torc out of copper wire.  Thin copper wire. 

I cut a bunch of it to equal lengths, twisted three strands together and then twisted THOSE together. 

 

Once my blister was mostly healed I figured I should shoot for a callous and made another of the above and twisted the two of them together.

 

I've got one more, just like the first two, to go and I'll call it good enough for a first try - once I get the final wrapping on and the ends finished. 

 

It's lighter than I thought it would be, flexible, and comfortable.  It's not a perfectly flat circle; the back gets bent down a little and so do the ends.

 

Right up until it turns my neck green I think I'm going to like it.