I'm leaving on a jet plane

I can't even say those words without singing them - I guess that shows my age.  We leave tomorrow morning to visit our oldest daughter and family in San Francisco.  I can't wait to see them all.  We have plans to train into the city each day after we see the kids off to school.  I also have plans to go to Dick Blick with our daughter.  I've never been to one and am excited to go.  I'll probably buy a few new watercolor colors and some paper.  Probably won't buy any pastels just because they can be a pain to get through security - they always wasn't to loo at them and I'm always afraid they will dump them.  I plan to do some sketching, journaling and watercolor sketching while we're there.  Well see how successful I am since I know we'll be busy with the kids.

It's Friday so I had my watercolor class today.  As always it was great fun.  Each class is getting more complicated.  This week we started a larger still life set up that we are supposed to finish next week, but since I won't be here, I will have to work on it by myself from the picture I took of the setup when we get back.  I started with flower blossoms in the setup and I think I immediately overworked it.  I do know from experience however that all is not lost and I will continue to work on it and hope to like it when it is done.  Above is a closeup of the blossoms - they are not done yet - obviously.
Below is last week's exercise.  Glass.

Goal check

I know I've mentioned at some point that I am the treasurer for the Boulder Art Association.  I love doing this.  It is such a wonderful organization.  It's filled with creative people who are  fun, interesting and very knowledgeable about all aspects of art creation and sales.  Lot's of opportunity to grow and learn.   I will be working on managing the member shows at our art center next to the Meadows Library in Boulder each month for 1st Friday and perhaps the entire 1st weekend.  I'm very excited about it.  This will give me and all our members a great opportunity to showcase our work and get it out into the public.  This will also be a good incentive for me to make sure I continue to create each day - which is my number one goal for this year.

How are you doing on your goals this year?  I'm doing fairly well.  Here's a summary of a few goals and how I'm doing.
Create each day - which I'm doing.
Blog at least once a week, which I'm not perfect at, but getting better, definitely.
Take part in at least one juried art show this year and I am already accepted into one show - the St Julian High Tea show on March 28th at the St Julian hotel (think I mentioned that already - sorry to repeat).  I'm going to revise this one to 3 shows!
Take at least 2 art classes - Already took part in 2 classes and taking more and also signed up for a workshop later in the year.
Improve my art - well that's subjective - but I think I can't help but accomplish this with all the other goals accomplished.
Spend more time with family.  I can't do that directly as I live so far from all my family members, but I wanted to make more regular and quality contact.  I admit - this is the area I have not made good progress on.  I will work on it.
Continue to be healthy and in great shape - I've maintained my weight and continue to work out regularly.  I no longer have pain - almost never - WOW - and can keep up with everyone else in any workout class I attend at the gym.  This is really big for me and I am very pleased with myself over this one.
Walk each day with my husband - we have walked almost every day - weather sometimes does get in the way but we don't let it very often.

Today's work - journal pages

I had some paint time today,  Yahoo!  But didn't finish anything or make enough progress on the items I'm showing WIPs to bother to take a picture.  Oh that sounded so negative.....no not so at all - I'm not feeling negative.  I'm happy.  Really happy!  I'm accomplishing so much.  Growing each day and loving my life!!  I've done a couple journal pages.  I love to art journal.  It is so relaxing and so freeing.  No rules, just do whatever.  I love it.  I don't have to care what anyone else thinks cause for the most part, no one will ever see them.  Well, maybe here - but who's counting?  Of course, I don't create my art for others either, but I do have to be more aware of composition and values etc... than with my art journals - cause with art journals - who cares if it's good as long as it's fun.  The first two below are just fun ways to use my excess paint.  Loves these!

The next one is a sketch of a woman in Salida that I took a picture of - she was hanging out a window on the second floor.

This next one is a new acrylic WIP.  Still has a ways to go - but I like the way it's starting out.

Just a journal page on my work table.

WIP progress

Here is the WIP of the old cottonwood from yesterday's sketch.  As you can see, there is a lot left to do.  I didn't get much painting time today.  Was working on getting myself set up for sales tax collection and payment in prep for the St. Julian show and all the future shows to come (I hope).  I'm not at all feeling good about that sky after seeing it on the computer.  I'll have to work more on that.

Below is the seagull picture I told you I was working on.  Once again, I'm not happy with the background, but not sure what to do with it.  I'd welcome ideas.

One at a time - Not me

I can't seem to work on one painting at a time.  Here is another sketch on Wallis pastel paper that I also started.  I will hopefully remember to take a couple of WIP pictures to attach here. 

I am working on a Seagull picture as well, but had to stop to make dinner.  I forgot to take a picture of it before I started painting so I won't be doing WIPs for that - just the finished product when it is completed.  My intent is to make it a very simple painting that doesn't take too long, is not too fuzzy.  Perhaps I can post it later tonight or tomorrow.  It is also on Wallis paper.

The Wallis paper I am using on these paintings is the old Wallis paper that everyone seems to be missing greatly.  I am happy to find that I have a lot of the old Wallis paper in my stash.  I promise to myself not to horde it.  When it is gone, I will switch to UArt paper.  I have used a piece that a friend gave me and find it very nice to work on.

Good Book

I started a new pastel painting.  This one will take a while.  I'm going to show the WIP pictures as I go.  Below is the initial sketch on Wallis pastel paper. 

 Here is the initial block-in of color.  So far so good.  Of course, it's only the beginning.

This was a picture taken in Georgetown, Colorado on the way home from one of our Jeep trips.  This older gentlemen was enjoying the afternoon sun with his book in front of a cafe on the main street.  Stay tuned for the additional WIPs and the final product at some point.

small changes

I made some small changes to the foggy picture I painted yesterday from a trip on Imogene pass in Telluride.  I think it works a bit better.  I removed a line from the small waterfall in the creek and dulled down the bushes just a bit. See what you think.

 

Oh how I love Pastel!

 I had the most wonderful pastel class yesterday.  I did the painting below.  It's not a great painting, but it was great fun.  The entire thing is done with pastel strokes - no blending.  This is quite different for me as typically I blend everything on my pastels except perhaps the last final highlights.  I also started with complimentary colors - the opposite color on the color wheel - which is what gives it the feeling of vibrancy that it has.  For instance, you can see in the sky which is violet that beneath it are the remains of the color I started with - bright yellow.  The trees started out red.  It was great fun experimenting and watching it evolve.

This next picture I did today.  It is from a photograph I took on a jeeping trip on Imogene Pass which goes between Telluride and Ouray Colorado.  It is an amazing trip anytime we do it, but this particular day it was very foggy which made it a bit dangerous.  This picture was taken near the bottom where we finally felt we could relax.  The trip was great fun and so was painting this picture.

Craft day

I had a craft date with my friend Julie today, but didn't do any crafts.  It was great fun anyway.  We went to an indoor flea market and wondered around.  I bought two little metal baskets.  I have no idea what I will do with them, but they were only $1.25 and I loved them, so there you go - added to my pile of stuff.  Then we went for coffee and chatted for a long time.  Sat in a window with the sun shining on us, so delightful after the snowy day yesterday.  Next we went to a fiber arts show at the Boulder Art Association center.  That was great fun.  The art was wonderful to see up and personal.  Then off to Michael's, right around the corner.  I found the bargain of the day.  Two beautiful custom frames that apparently didn't work out for them for only $8 a piece.  They are beautiful and will look great with some of my original art in them - at some point.  They are rather large, so I will have to make something special for them.  I will look forward to that.

Didn't actually create any art today, but got a drawing transferred to start on tomorrow, flattened a piece of recycled Wallis paper for future use, completed a journal page, framed my "Tattoo" picture for the St Julian show and got my watercolor of the cowboy hat and boot framed and hung in the dance hall (aka dining room).  Well, that's pretty good.
Here's the drawing - very basic - perhaps I'll post WIP pictures - could be fun.

At the flea market, the parking lot was as bit flooded from the snow we got.  They had made the best of it by floating some rubber ducks in there.  Sorry I didn't get a picture - too cute!

Back to Winter

After some wonderful spring like weather, we now have 6 inches or so of snow and it's still coming down.  I'm not complaining.  It's not 7 feet like New England got.  I feel sorry for all my family and friends in NH and MA that have to dig out of that mess.  I am more than ready for spring to come and stay however.
Yesterday I did a pastel painting of a seagull from a picture taken on one of our summer trips to New Hampshire.  I may do another today.  They do remind me of summer and wonderful family times.

I also did an abstract.  I used sky blue pink.  That is the color that started my art career when I was very young.  Maybe 2 - I don't know.  When I did all my art with crayons, it is the color I created by mixing blue and pink directly on the paper and fell in love with color.  I added red and yellow here and think it's kind of fun.

Lazy Friday

After my blog yesterday you would think that a lazy Friday would not be where I was going.  I had coffee with my best friend, browsed the magazine and art book sections of the local bookstore, went for a walk with my husband, went for a bike ride with my husband, enjoyed a couple relaxing cups of coffee, took a short trip to Costco to buy a rotisserie chicken (nice easy dinner), enjoyed a glass of wine, played some computer games, read a magazine, ate some girl scout cookies...  In short, accomplished absolutely nothing and enjoyed every minute of it.  

What does this tell me?  It's all about how I look at it.  If I don't stress about what I want to get done and just enjoy what I'm actually doing - it's all good.  Well, it's a theory anyway.

Interesting encounter at the soccer field

     We went for our daily morning walk today.  When we got to the soccer field there was a flock of geese as is often the case.  I waved at them and talked a bit to them.  They all seemed to talk back.  Then they all took off at once flying right over our heads.  It was totally awesome and I only wish I had my camera with me, but of course did not.  In hind sight, I guess they weren't talking back to me but to each other in preparation for their flight.  Here's a goose picture I took a couple years ago - they are beautiful birds!  Perhaps I should do a goose portrait.  hmmmm.

      We walked on after they were out of sight.  We heard someone calling out, "Excuse me!".  We turned to see that it was the grounds maintenance person for the soccer field.  When we turned to him, he said "How'd you do that?"  He actually thought we had made the geese fly away.  I found that pretty funny.  He wanted to know my secret so he could do it and keep them from tearing up the field.  I had no idea that they actually make 6 inch holes in the field by tearing up roots and things.  Must make it difficult to maintain in perfect shape for soccer, I'm sure.  I do love to see the geese though.  Most, or at least many things seem to be mixed blessings, don't they?
     Retirement seems to be similar.  Not all perfect happiness.  Although I must say it's close.  I think I am not a person who does incredibly well without structure.  I found that the days go by without me getting much done sometimes and yet I feel like there is no time to get everything I want to do done.  A good friend told me today that I should try adding some structure to my days and see if that helps.  I decided I would give it a try for a month and see if it helps.  Wish me luck!

Don't forget the Pastels

I've been doing pastels while waiting for my watercolors and mixed media to dry.  I admit I'm not a patient person, so having multiple items going at once really keeps me sane.  You may know, perhaps I've said in a previous post, Pastel is my 1st true art love.  I just love the feel of the pigments on the paper and in my hands.  I have been trying to use my gloves and not get all that pigment on my skin.  It's not quite as much fun - less like making mud pies, but I still love it and it's healthier for me.     

 This one is a study in greens.  The perfect green can be so elusive.  I plan to work in green quite a bit for a while to try to get a better understanding of greens in the landscape.  I'll try to remember not to bore you with too many of my experiments.

This one is tiny.  Only 3" x 9".  Done on what was a piece of scrap paper.  Kind of like it though.  Scrap paper no more!

Red boot and hat

My watercolor teacher (Dottie Oatman), brought some boots, shoes, hats and gloves to our class this week.  Here is what I choose.  I wish the boots were mine!  I do have a hat somewhat like this one, but my boots are brown and black.  Perhaps my next purchase should be RED!  I'm really enjoying watercolor a great deal.  Not sure where it will lead me, but for no, I'm just enjoying.

Superbowl and Art

Sitting watching Superbowl 49.  I wish they'd drop the roman numeral thing - it's getting more difficult to figure it out.  The game has been great so far,  Two great teams playing against each other. The ads have been pretty good too, but not great.  Why do people think that sad ads like a kid not getting the puppy he wants makes a good ad - NOT!

Half time was pretty good.  I was fearful that Katie would fall off her flying star platform.  Thank goodness she did not.

I've been playing with mixed media since a class week before last and having a great time.  I  did this one earlier this week.

I spent several hours this afternoon working on some fun art.  Looking at an old picture of my mom and dad when they first met encouraged me to make a simple mixed media piece for my mom.  I think she'll love it.