Fall Foliage/A Little Space/ Watercolour

October 18, 2016

What a gorgeous fall. As you can see, the leaves are extremely vivid. No colour enhancement required. Unfortunately, I only have one cell phone picture of the beautiful red leaves, although I do love the orange/red too. I'd like to take a few more pics before the rain and wind casts all the beauty away. How beautiful is it? So beautiful that even I am quiet as we drive along. 

When I look around, I can't help but feel gratitude for such a beautiful, peaceful season.

A favourite fall quote coming up. I post it every year. Apparently I can't help it.

  "Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from an autumn tree."

~ Emily Bronte

A Little Space

If you've been reading along, you may have noticed that I've been painting at the end of my dining room table.  Functional but not always convenient; after a lot of looking, I finally picked out a desk. Although small, it's a surprisingly spacious. Abigail is the given name of my secretary. (Given by the store that is.)  Unfortunately, it suffered a few bumps on the way here, so it looks a little shabby. But each day the look grows on me a little, although I was initially disappointed.  However, the company offered a discount or new parts. I am leaning towards the discount. Since it arrived, I've been drawing, painting and staring off into space  and musing here whenever I can. I love my little space!

I found the fresh water clam shells on the river bank this summer.  I think a bird must have munched it for lunch.  Such pretty, delicate shells and they are endangered, so what a lucky find.

Along with my own watercolours, I've been slowly collecting a few prints from artists whose work  I admire. I have a few more to hang. Perhaps the large one to the left?

A Resplendent Quetzal ~ Watercolour on Arches Paper


If all goes well, I hope to have Giclee prints made from the above painting, The Pretty Pair, and The Maestro. At the moment, I am looking for a great Giclee print shop. If you happen to know of one in Canada or the U.S., chime in.  Hopefully, the prints will be available in my Tictail shoppe in time for Christmas.

Have a lovely week...

Knitting Projects ~ Tulip Tree Shawl

The tulip tree shawl has been in my knitting basket with just three rows left to knit for a long time, so hurray to a finish.  I had hoped to make it larger, but I didn't have enough yarn. Raverly page here.

Enjoyable, meditative, and patience enhancing are just a few of the things/qualities that knitting brings to me and probably a whole host of other knitters, although I can't speak for them. I wish I could do more of it, but about three years ago arthritis struck suddenly and with it came tendonitis, so I was forced to put my needles aside. On the bright side, I've still managed to finish a few projects, including my Rosetta Mitts pattern in 2015. And I've nearly finished knitting another pair of those mitts in yellow, but I've put them away for now.  

Drawing and painting are so much easier on the hands. It's a reinvention of sorts, but one that I really love, too.

For those who may not know, lace knitting looks rather like a jumble of uncooked noodles (forgot to take a pic) and then it morphs into a fine tuned garment once soaked and then blocked.

An old yoga mat that's been cleaned to use as a blocking mat.

After blocking, I noticed the bottom points looked flat, so I re-wet and re-pined those points to sharpen them.

The yarn has a golden hue, but the camera had other ideas.

You will find the free Rosetta Mitts pattern here.

A Maestro cutout from an earlier painting. I usually cut any trash bin paintings into strips and use the white side of the strips to test paint on. But even though he's not finished, I couldn't cut through this birdie. The cutout might work in a shadow box, or as a book mark, although it may be too delicate for that.

Warm weather arrived on Sunday. It was 19C or 66.2 F. The crowd that had been hibernating most of the winter were about and about...many in shorts and flip flops.  Although those temps are cool, the spring sun was warm...hot even. Liberation! 

As the woman in the woods,  and I saw one of the first harbingers of spring: a  Mourning Cloak Butterfly. I've never seen or heard about one before. What a surprise! Another first for my nature journal.

A huge thank you for all your kind comments and support for my wee new shoppe.

xo

Have a lovely week...