Tall Shadows

         

 Hi there,

              The snow melted and we are back to the most lovely weather. Today, I've thrown open all the windows as high and as wide as they will go. Perhaps we may have a mild winter after all. But even if we don't, these warm days are a nice bonus.

Did you hear? Hasn't everyone you say. Well, apparently the world has changed over night.  A vaccine-- 90% effective. Now wouldn't that be wonderful! We could all get back to the business of living and breathing a little easier. Living more fully--not that I live in the fast lane, but just being able to go to shopping without worrying about it would be wonderful thing.  However, I know we have been so lucky, and I am certainly not forgetting about those we have lost. I do feel so sorry for all of those people and for their families and friends. 

After this, I reckon, everyone will have a new appreciation for what we all took for granted before. I know I will. Let's hope the vaccine comes soon. 

  The sun has other places to light up these days, although before it sets early it highlights beautifully whatever it touches.

                                                              I love these colours.

The willows are really hanging onto their leaves. 

                                                                           Memories

From the easel...

Beginning, Pastel on pastelmat paper.  

 In progress.

First time working on Pastelmat paper-- trial runs review.  I noticed a lot of painters seldom blend on this paper.  I wanted to blend the sky in the top photo, but I am fresh out pipe insulation foam to use as a blending tool, and repeated passes with the pastels didn't work on the top pic at all. Must be a bit defective, or using harder pastels first might have been the way to go and then blend the first layer.  I will experiment with the paper again soon. I love how the colours pop on this paper. The grey shows though, and that is, of course, with pastels, perfectly acceptable, and often when using underpainting enhances the painting.  But I think I might like the maroon colour paper better.

Who knew working with different pastel papers would be so much fun. ( I usually use Uart paper.) Of the papers I've tried so far, I really enjoyed Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper and today’s choice: Pastelmat. Next up, Vic Bearcroft's Pastel Velour. Because the paper is flimsy, I will order self adhesive foam board to mount the paper on before I give it a try. And I am going to try making my own sanded paper too.

Thank you so much for reading along...

'Til next time

Cultivate Your Dreams

Linking to Link Parties via my link party page. Thank you, lovely ladies, for hosting!

Flowering Tea

Hi everyone, 

 Happy May!  We've been having a few lovely warm, sunny days. It's so liberating to be out and

about without winter clothing.  I've been traveling without my camera, so I don't have any pictures other than cell phone pics of the wild flowers. They are everywhere this year and in places where I haven't seen wildflowers before. A bumper crop. Lovely!

 Since I love tea and flowers, it will come as no surprise that I like blooming tea.  Normally, I brew two pots from one flower ball, but apparently you can brew three. I love the colour and if you like green tea it's tasty, too.

 Transcending Beauty ~ Green tea, jasmine and lily flowers.  It takes 45 minutes to tie a flowering tea ball.  Once you add hot water, a quarter sized ball quickly unfurls in the pot before your eyes.

                                                                  

For the drawing board, two fresh sprigs of reasonable priced Tiger Lilies from the florist.

                                                    

           

Art for art's sake...

                              Hawthorn berries The frost-bitten berries turn bright orange in the fall.

   Trying out Bockingford hot press 300g/140lb. watercolour paper.  I decided on a practice run before I start a Crab Apple painting. I've transferred the drawing to the Bockingford paper, but since I have one good Fabriano block left, I think I'll stick with the tried and true. In the meantime, I'll keep practicing on Bockingford. I'm trying to familiarize myself with it because the Fabriano company is still working out some issues. 

Bockingford is nice and sturdy. You can lift colour well too, but just at the right time. I found it's tricky to add more colour to a wet into wet wash that, because of a fraction of a smidgen of too much water, doesn't like to be disturbed.

 I've also tried Moulin du Roy hot press by Canson.  It's very smooth much like illustration board so it's easy for a wet into wet wash to dry out too quickly.  Windsor and Newton's Blending Medium slows the drying time. I haven't tried mine yet.  Recently, I heard that some people are having great success using the wrong side of the Moulin du Roy.  My O my, the intrigues of paper!

I am enjoying Season 4 of  When Calls the Heart. If you haven't seen it, it's a wonderful Hallmark production.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the week...

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...

Shoppe Launch Plus the Maestro

I opened a shop on Tictail. I heard about Tictail on Instagram, and I really liked their store front  designs, coupled with a straight forward setup. They have a wide range of stores--from upscale to individual craft stores. 
At this point, my little corner shoppe has a few prints on offer. (I'll add more prints as time goes on. Hopefully, a few more in blue, too.)  You can find the shoppe here.

The Maestro.
I had originally planned black tie but, being me, I couldn't resist painting his tails blue.

Work in progress. I call this point the breath holding stage ~  one slip of the brush and it could be all over but the crying. 

I used Fabriano Artistico 140 lb watercolour paper. I prefer painting on Fabriano paper because if I drop paint, I can usually lift it without damaging the paper. It's sturdy.

 For music buffs, yes that's a radical treble cleft.  Actually, it's a bird cleft for bird notes. :)

* * * 

There's still time to enter the giveaway for your choice of one of two prints that I am giving away to celebrate my shoppe opening. It's open to new/recent followers as well as those who have been reading along--some for almost three years now. xo  
Thanks to each one of you! 

To enter please leave a comment. Here's the link.

'Til next time. Have a lovely week!