Mar31Art

Met with our friends Dave and Laura for dinner before the hockey game. They have the seats right next to ours all season. It was a great last game, and we squeaked into the playoffs.
The sea gull was standing in the parking lot with about 20 of his fellow sea gulls, I think they are beautiful. My husband is not a fan and calls them 'rats with wings'.

Mar30Art

Palmetto trees abound in Charleston... finding a way to draw/paint them is something I keep trying to do.  They have a deceptively simple outline, from a distance they look like lollipops. 

It's been a long week, looking forward to the weekend, and our last regular season hockey game.

A page out of my NOLA travel sketchbook... I need lots of work on 'urban' sketching... the full scene overwhelms me, and makes me feel totally inadequate for the job at hand. So I pick small chunks I think I can do.

Mar29Art

This bird is part of a photo I use as wallpaper on my computer... I love the  silhouette of the heron and the sunset colors... I didn't get them quite right here...  

Took Beau and Gracie for a little walk this evening.  I think they enjoyed it... I know I did. 

Mar28Art

Another picture perfect Spring day today... a little cooler but very nice. Still trying to sort thru boxes of stuff from the office and get it stowed away. I miss having someone to talk to, my husband has started a new job training program so he's not here during the day, so it' s just me and the dogs...the parrot talks to me, but his vocabulary is very limited LOL

Mar27Art

First firing up of the grill this year, boy was that chicken good. While I was drawing the grill a pair of house finches came to the bird bath, and frolicked in the water... they were very close to me but didn't seem to notice me at all...
I finished off cleaning out the weeds from the flower bed and planted seeds... Now I wait to see what comes up.

Mar26Art

Went to a fund raiser for Katrina Shealy after work today, she's running for the SC Senate, there are NO WOMEN in the SC Senate... about time the good old boys club be invaded.. so all us ladies are supporting Katrina, we think she has a really good chance to win.

Mar25Art

My friend Dollie Pilson made this bag, it was part of a silent auction at the party yesterday and I won it. My handbook watercolor journal and my sketch kit fit in it very nicely... so I have a new Summer sketch bag.
Got a little weeding done in my flower beds, and then needed to kill a huge fire ant mound that grew up in my flower beds... once they are gone I'll be ready to plant some seeds. Two impatiens volunteers found among the weeds... so they are the lone occupants of the flower bed now.

Mar24Art

Dion did this fabulous wave page the other day, www.flickr.com/photos/diondior/7004066461/in/photostream 

and I just had to give it a try... it was very relaxing to do.  Had training meetings this afternoon, then the Sea Island ladies had a party this evening... so I needed some zen today.

Mar23Art

I was going to draw a cardinal today, as we have a gorgeous male calling and calling... he's looking for a lady cardinal, I sure hope he finds one soon. I saw this peeking round the corner tree frog on a website I visited today, I thought it was so cute I had to include him on the page... to add to the hod-podge that is page one in this book, I added my palette colors... new book, new colors.... and a new sepia colored micron pen... that I think I like very much.

Book 16

What better for a title page, than my dogwood tree blooms.  The tree burst into bloom just this week... it won't last long, but it is just gorgeous now.

Mar22Art

Wisteria is in bloom now, lovely purple blooms dripping from tangled wines wound round trees and even a telephone pole in our neighborhood.
This is the last page in this journal... I must say I'm glad to be done with it... and ready for something new.

Mar21Art

Today I got my final boxes packed, and Bobby got my computer set up.  After two trips to Best Buy for various KVM switches and VGA adapters,  I'm set up to work from home now.  With my work computer and personal computer sharing a keyboard, mouse and video monitor... and a magic switch that makes it all possible.  

Birthday dinner at Wild Wings, been a long day, tomorrow more boxes from the office to sort thru and find a home for all the contents... this is going to force me to get my desk area organized.

Mar20Art

Check out World Sparrow Day 2012 at www.worldsparrowday.org/ the sparrows that built a nest in our kitchen window are back again this Spring.  After reading about how Sparrow populations are declining, I sure hope they have better luck this year than they did last year when they lost all three of their babies.  

Mar19Art

Slept late, but had to go to work, lots going on that had to be addressed. Skipped going to hospital for blood tests, I'll do that tomorrow... too pooped to do it this morning.

Mar18Art

Catching up on my RS52 sketches, a really quick sketch of the lamp in my room. Right before the nightmare of a trip home began... at 5am discovering that our rental van had been broken into (while in a gated locked parking garage) smashed the window to steal my GPS... disappointed thieves found nothing else to take. The hotel staff were horrified, and did their best to cover the window (to keep the glass from flying in)... the patch held for 18 hours, which is how long it took us to drive back to Charleston. I drove the whole way, was beyond exhausted. It is GOOD to be home at last.

Mar17Art

Walked around in downtown until my feet screamed NO MORE...

Mar16Art

Lots of meetings and workshops today. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal spoke to us at lunch, I can see why the folks here LOVE him. Attended a seminar on voter fraud, very interesting woman from 'True the Vote' time for the people to MAKE the politicians clean up the voter registration rolls.

Mar15Art

New Orleans is MAGIC... ate dinner tonight at the Bourbon House on Bourbon Street... I got a rib eye that MELTED in my mouth. During dinner the police came thru followed by a parade of people and even a couple of Mardi Gras looking floats... lucky for us it was over before we had to try to catch a cab. Spent some Skype time with my husband... now off to bed.

Mar14Art

Long, very long day... arrived in NOLA after dark, March madness BBall games caused parking and traffic nightmares for us, since our hotel is across the street from the dome. I finally got settled in my room around 10:30 pm

Mar13Art

Bags are packed, still need to load them in the car. Leaving for New Orleans hopefully 6:30am tomorrow, so that we can arrive in New Orleans before dark. I may not be online much, I'll post as many pictures and drawing as I can.

Mar12Art

Andrea Joseph  www.etsy.com/shop/AndreaJoseph recomends these Bic 4 color pens, she does these incredible detailed drawings with them... mine must be defective... they do not produce drawings like Andrea's for me... sigh.
For my friends who missed a quote yesterday...here are two to make up... Enjoy.

Mar11Art

I'm taking Kate Johnson's Strathmore 'Sketching with Watercolor' along with almost 3,000 other students. Test driving our brushes was one of the assignments for this week's class. The DaVinci synthetic flat is one I bought based on Brenda Swenson's recommendation. I really like that little 1/2 inch flat, it's the perfect size for sketchbook washes... I love my Escoda brushes from Spain, I have travel brushes too, that are so easy to use.

Mar10Art

Trying to lighten my sketch kit for New Orleans.  Dug out an old plastic Cottman palette soaked it overnight last night and scrubbed it out this morning before leaving for breakfast.  Got it loaded with 12 colors that I think will work together I sure hope I manage to produce something worth sharing.  I'm so looking forward to this trip and getting a chance to do a little urban sketching.... I like the size and weight of this little palette.  It is larger than my bijou box, but lighter than the metal box.  

Mar09Art

Rainy Friday afternoon... the kids drew kites and then used markers to color them.  Some of them were quite elaborately colored.  It was a fun afternoon.  Hockey game tonight was exciting, big crowd, unfortunately we lost. 

Mar08Art

We got some more hibiscus plants today, a yellow one and a pink one to keep our orange one company. A riot of color coming to my yard soon. We had a bit of rain this morning, but cleared up this afternoon. If need to clean out my flower bed and throw out my impatiens seeds. Spring is coming fast now.

Mar07Art

Had a nice get together after work tonight... couldn't think of a thing to draw... these are the colors in my bijou box. I don't use the perm. orange, the raw sienna or the cad yellow much... so I may swap them out for something else, just don't know what else I might include instead.

Mar06Art

This little elephant is sitting on my desktop computer at work, his tummy is a chamois to clean the dust off my screen. We had a hockey game tonight and came home to watch the Super Tuesday election results. The only nail biter appears to be Ohio, Santorum is ahead right now, but it's very close so they aren't calling it yet.

Mar05Art

The battle with the blank page almost won today... couldn't think of a thing to draw... my card of new hair ties... finally called out and said... How about ME!... So here's my number one hair accessory... can't have a pony tail without one.

Mar04Art

Saw our friends Jerry and Deb at WildWings today, they were headed to see 'Act of Valor' ... after wings we went to the watch shop to get a new battery for my watch, then grocery shopping and home for laundry duty. Finally got around to watching the week 2 lecture on the Declaration of Independence... very interesting how the definition of words have changed.

Mar03Art

The blue is Manganese Blue Hue.. (PB15) that I got from Dick Blick today. The red is Permanent Rose that I had on my desk for a rose painting I'm working on... well I'm thinking about working on it, the rose is finished, but I can't decide whether to do a lavender, or grey, or green background for a red rose... and so the painting sits waiting for me to decide. I have a drawing of strawberries on my desk too... did I work on it today? No I did not... today, I packed and repacked my CheapJoe's workshopper tote, my new hand*book larger watercolor sketchbook fits in the back pocket, a few brushes in the slots provided, which ones to take, which to leave home... my plastic palette is included, along with certain other things I don't think I can sketch without. I have another bag full of paint tubes (to refill the palette if needed) other heavy stuff that I won't carry out, my heavy metal palette is in there along with my travel brushes and spare water container. So that's it two bags for art stuff. I'm still waffling on whether to carry some 11x14 300lbs paper and my artboard... or to leave that home and just throw a watercolor block in there. Then I think... I'm not taking a chair, so I won't really be able to do a big painting... so save the weight and just carry the sketchbook... since I'm going to be lugging this around walking to any place I might want to sketch... I'm over thinking this I know.. thoughts of an artist on a rainy Saturday evening.. Tomorrow I will finish the rose... FOR SURE.... and this is sort of my homework for the Kate Johnson class I'm taking.

Mar02Art

Cat fish for lunch today, followed by an afternoon with the kids, drawing on the wall... today was Dr Zeuss birthday, so they'd been reading Dr. Zeuss stories and the Lorax movie, so we drew trees, funny fuzzy trees and orange lorax too... and the little kids drew their one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish... and a couple of cat in the hat, hat... pretty much just had a blast... free for all kids having fun drawing on the wall.

Mar01Art

My heart goes out to his wife and his four young children, so very sad to lose such a vital young man. He was a force in the conservative movement, and will be missed mightily.