Reading, Painting and Walter

Son Michael is back to work now after his vacation and I am filling my days best I can.
I am doing things I enjoy, like reading...
I am almost finished with "Incident At Big Sky", the true story about a young girl training for the biathelon in the Olympics. She is running the mountain trails in Montana when she is captured and held captive by a father and his son. She gets shot but survives. This happened in 1984. You may remember it... if you are old enough, that is! 

I am wandering about my son's house, finding things that intrigue me.

This is a piece of scrimshaw that was a gift to my husband several years ago. I don't know if it is true scrimshaw but it looks cool nevertheless. I would like to think that it is.

And, if you have ever seen Jeff Dunham, the ventriloquist, you know Walter.

I just love Walter.

This one talks if you push his button. Ha ha. 

I walk outside and enjoy my son's flowers. He knows how to grow things. This is a Rose of Sharon blossom.

Besides reading, I am writing another book, doing entries in my journal, trying to blog often, keeping up with my facebook friends, I have two instagram accounts. You really ought to check those out. One is accidently_aging and the other is willielatanebarton. I have fun doing those. And, I am still doing watercolors. 

This is yesterdays attempt at a swallowtail butterfly

Well, that's all for now, folks. The weekend is coming up. I am sure we will get into something or other while he's off work.

And, that means more things to enter in Tom's Willy Nilly Friday 

A Barn is a Barn

Tom, I ran out of barn photos. But, guess what, I have watercolor pictures I've painted of barns that I could share.

Sneaky, aren't I?

Check out the barns over at Tom's Barn Collective

This and That

What a busy week!! But, here I am ready to post on Willy Nilly Friday Five. Hope you all will check it out.

1. I have eaten out three days this week. Only had to pay for one lunch. Love it when people pick up the tab! 

2. I thought the apartment building was being power-washed this morning. The noise was awful. It was the wind. They say gusts could be up to 70 miles per hour today. I guess I will stay inside.

3. Be sure to go over to Palette and Paint and take a look at the two new paintings Marie and I posted for this week. We are enjoying our new art blog. Hope you will visit it often.

4.  It's been sad to see Rev. Billy Graham pass to his eternal home. But, I bet he's happy to be there. He was such a wonderful inspiration and spiritual leader to millions. 

5. I couldn't be happier to see it get a little warmer, temp-wise. I don't like the cold. While out and about the other day I noticed that there are flowering trees everywhere. Whoops, here comes the pollen! But, I just want you to take a look at this gorgeous Tulip Magnolia. Beautiful.

A Little Space For Me!

                                                      I do get immersered in my painting!

Over the past couple of years I have made it a top priority in my life, fulfilling a dream I once had, let go and now found again. 

My apartment is small, just over 900 square feet, big enough for me but not big enough to handle my desire to oil paint. Where would I put them to dry? Where would I store the finished product? 

So, I do watercolors. And, here is my workspace... a folding table in my office. It's perfect!

The green cup to the left is filled with water to wash my brushes. And, I've been known to have a cup of tea handy to sip on. One day I wasn't watching what I was doing and dipped my brush filled with paint into my cup of tea!! And, I then took a sip. Lordy, what will I do next!! he he.

Joining with Workdesk Wednesday

What Did The Groundhog See Today?

Today is Groundhog Day!! I don't care what the silly groundhog in Pa. predicts, I just want some warmer weather. Been cooped up in the apartment too much lately. 

                                                                              

Not being able to get out much keeping me busy at my art table. I finally had to clean it off so I could have some room to work. Daughter Marie and I have a blog where we display what we've been painting. I hope you'll go over to HERE and take a look.

On these cold mornings I have been enjoying a 'spot of tea', you might say. I just discovered Pomegrante Green Tea! Oh my. So good. I bought this little cup at an antique shop in Richmond, Virginia following my last chemo treatment (2002). Every time I look at it, I think to myself    
                                                                                                                "I Did It" 

4. For those of you who missed it.... I have started an art journal. I needed a project for the long, lonely hours on a Sunday afternoon. This is keeping me busy. And, it's fun. And, creative. 

                                                      

5. And, in my last post (see below) I put out a letter writing challenge. I so miss getting real mail and almost no one emails me anymore. I get TEXT and PMs on FB and they just seem so impersonal.  If you would like to join in just keep track of how many letters (cards will count if a note is written) you do for the month of February and on Feb. 28th we'll all share our activity on my post for that day!! 

Have a happy Ground hog Day and come on over to Five On Friday to see what all the participants have been up to. 

A Blue Bird of Happiness

I seem to be more interested in painting birds and flowers than anything else. I wonder if it is because I love those things in nature. And, I want them preserved with watercolor so I can see them all the time. Just a guess.

I recently ran across a blog that had a meme for art with a theme. Nope, not Michael McVean's Scribble Picnic but another one. I am going to try it this morning.. Check it out for yourself, it's Take A Word.

Since the theme is Shades of blue... and I just painted a bluebird. Hey, I think that will work.

Cookie for Everyone

I had fun with Scribble Picnic today. Some days my imagination just does not stretch as far as it needs to go to participate with Michael's theme for the week. And, so I play hookey. But, today was easy.

                                                      Here is my entry for 'cookies'. 

The story to go with the watercolor painting:

Sammy Snowman found a huge star-shaped cookie while he was walking along the road. So, he picked it up and started down the road toward his snowman village. He got tired on the way so he stopped to catch his breath, propping the cookie on the ground to lighten the load. Soon he would trudge on, carrying that big, icing covered cookie. When he arrived at the village, a huge cheer went up! Cookie for everyone.

Heads Up

Today I chose 'Heads Up' for a theme for my entries for Paint Party Friday.  Two are done in pastels, one in graphic pencil and one in watercolor. Hope you enjoy.

Yellow Flower Art

Hi to my friends over at Paint Party Friday. I am enjoying my watercolor class but I have little to share just yet. I will soon, I promise. 

Today I want to share some that I did with yellow as the main color. There are five of them so I will also link to Willy Nilly Friday and Five on Friday.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Paint if you have the inclination, Relax if you have time, Be happy always. 

Chickadees

I started attending a watercolor class last Thursday. I thought my background was pretty good... then it was time to go home.

And, I once again, overworked my painting. When will I learn. I wanted the foliage around the bird to be sort of 'invisible'. Well, it really is NOT. But, I am learning. So, I am hanging in there. 

Here is another chickadee that I had done earlier, some weeks ago. 

Hope all of you are having a lovely Paint Party Friday. I am going out of town so probably won't connect this until later. Maybe Sat. or Sun. if it is still open then. 

Hummingbirds

Gee whiz, it's Friday already and I just about forgot Paint Party Friday. I am sure there are a lot of lovely art renderings on that site, so check them out. And, let me get busy and post mine before I forget. (hehe)

This one is one of the first ones I did in watercolor after not doing any art for many, many years. As you can see, I was pretty rusty. 

A few months later, I did another one. A good deal of improvement but still learning my craft. The hummingbirds have all flown south for the winter. I will be happy to see them again in the spring.

Bedtime for Bunny

Fall is here, soon winter will arrive and it will be time for blankets and warm beds. The theme this week on Michael's Scribble Picnic is blanket. I don't usually do illustrations but Michael's requests pushes me in new directions, so thank you for that, Michael. 

Here is blanket illustration. This was done in colored pencil on sketch paper. 

A Barn

Oh my gosh.... it was Friday today and I about missed Paint Party Friday but I have an excuse. I've been sick this week and I just lost all count of days. I am feeling a little better, thou, and ready to share with you this painting of mine. 

I did this watercolor for my son's birthday back on Sept 8th. He'd driven me out to see the barn which was near his work, and I just had to do this and have it framed for his big day. 

Listening To The Radio

Michael's Scribble Picnic has 'RADIO' as the theme this week. Immediately an image came to mind of two of my children (the two middle ones) leaning on the kitchen counter listening to a new record player their Dad had brought home. Don't you just love this picture? made in 1958.

And, here is my sketch ...
Radios in the 'olden days' were so huge! I remember the cabinet holding all the paraphanelia was so big. So, I made my radio large.

Art and a Visit

#1. Today is the first day of Fall. As I dragged out my 'fall' decorations for the house, I decided I needed to have something on the wall so I did a quick watercolor of a pumpkin.

#2. I just spent 5 days with my eldest daughter, whom I had not seen in a long, long time. It was wonderful to catch up.

#3. We did a lot of eating out while she was here and we got to view the quilt guild exhibit at the local art museum.

#4. We also went to an exhibit of bronze sculptures at the Cultural Art Center. That was amazing.

#5. We watched a bunch of old home movies, reliving all the fun times the children had when they were younger.... and a super movie (a tear-jerker) "Light Between Oceans". The cinematography was amazing in this movie and the storyline, well, it was something you should see! 

Linking with Paint Party Friday, Willy Nilly Friday and Five On Friday

A Black and White Hawk

            The theme for Michael's Scribble Picnic this week is 
                                      BLACK and WHITE. 

I have to confess that this sketch isn't new. I did it last year from a photograph I took of a hawk sitting in the top of a tree at the edge of my daughter's yard in New York. 

I really wanted to do something with a newspaper in it. You know, the old 'What is black and white and read all over?' thing. But, I've been on a trip and just did not have time when i returned. 

So... ta da... here it is.

Tied-up.

Michael has chosen 'tied up' as the theme this week at Scribble Picnic. All I could think of that was 'tied up' was a boat. Maybe it was because I was packing up for a trip to visit my son. He loves sailing, hence the boat idea. It definately was on my mind.

A Hibiscus

When I started back last year with doing art work again after many, many years I was pretty rusty. Some of my stuff was awful but the more I did, the better I got. 

A friend of mine wanted to know if she could buy some of my pieces and I thought she was rather 'touched in the head' if you know what I mean. But, she insisted and so I told her yes. She is a regular customer now!! As soon as I get a watercolor picture done, she wants it for her collection.

I laughed and told her she needed to let me have some for myself. But, how honored I am that she likes my art. 

Last night she came to my apartment and went home with this one....

I am linking with Paint Party Friday. There's lots of pretty pictures to look at... you ought to click on the link and see for yourself. 

I hope you will also checking out a fun blog that my daughter does. It features our day out together with lunch and fun. You will find it at Out To Lunch

Curly

When I was a youngster my Grandpa had pigs on his farm. When Michael's Scribble Picnic was due today and his theme was 'curly', I naturally thought of my Pa's pigs, except his were much dirtier. Maybe I should have made mine all muddy. It would have looked more natural.

and my attempt at a curly haired little girl. I never seem to get the proportions correct. Need more practice I guess. 

A Barn

Time to join up with my paint pals on Paint Party Friday. I hope everyone has been painting up a storm!! I am working on a watercolor that I can't show yet. It's a birthday present! But, you can see it later.

Right now, here is something I finished two or three weeks ago. It reminds me of my grandfather's barn. Did you ever play in a barn? It was fun.