Aug31Art

Ron had to work today, so I finished loading up my old Conte Crayon box with paints and completed my color chart.  Then when I cut out my carefully measured chart I found out it was 1/8 inch too big, no way for me to cut it any closer... so I guess I make another or make do with this one that is too big for a while.

I really like this box, I've had it empty for years, finally repurposed it as a watercolor palette.

It holds 56 colors with room for a few travel brush, maybe a sponge.... and all those yummy colors.

Aug30Art

Went to the Riverdogs game tonight, and as luck would have it Ron's brother and his wife also went and ended up sitting right in front of us.  Had a lot of fun at the game which went well until the 6th inning when the wheels fell off the bus.
A few pics from the game made with my cell phone.

Aug29Art

College football started tonight, South Carolina vs North Carolina in Columbia SC. I like football, I think I enjoy watching college football more than the pros.  For a lot of fun, go watch some high school football... very exciting, you never know what will happen with the kids there.

Aug28Art

Fifty years ago on this date in 1963 Martin Luther King gave his 'I have a dream speech' on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, John F. Kennedy was President of the United States, I was 12 years old and going into the 7th grade of Elementary school.  There was no such thing as 'middle' school back then, just Elementary and High School, my brother was going to be a Junior at Northside High School in Atlanta.  The following year John F. Kennedy would be assassinated and we'd move to Tucker Georgia, to the house my mother lives in now, and my brother would be a Senior at Tucker High School where he played trumpet in the marching band, while I attended the same school in the 8th grade. There was no internet, no cell phones, no cable tv and no home computers... when we did stupid stuff only our close friends and family knew about it.  Taking pictures required film and a trip to the drug store to have them sent off to Kodak to be developed.  Just a few of my memories of the time of this historic speech in Washington DC.

Aug27Art

Inspired by a bear painting of my friend Chuck... his bear was very nice... mine is having a bad hair day.   I know lots of people love these Stillman & Birns sketchbooks, I'm about half way thru this one, it's the 'Alpha' series.  I also tried an 'Epsilon' series book last year.  I don't particularly like the paper, it appears to be coated with something that resists water and I can't get the effects I'm used to with other sketchbooks.

Aug26Art

Sunny day, so cool it feels like Fall... very unusual for Charleston, Fall usually arrives in late October, early November. My paint that was on back order arrived today, along with some skeins of yarn I had ordered to help with my quilt.  I've finish 3 pieces only 396 more needed, maybe it'll be a crib blanket for my first great grandchild LOL.

Aug25Art

Got one peach today, along with our other week's worth of groceries.  I remember when I was a child my mother shopped for a family of 4 with $50... today it takes 4 times that for Ron and I, and we eat out on the weekends, no wonder 49 million people are on Food stamps now.

Aug24Art

Left Charleston this morning as soon as the rain stopped, headed to Myrtle Beach cloudy and cool all the way to Georgetown, then it cleared up and was  sunny and still cool.  We met our friend Vaughn and Lydia at Fuddrucker's and caught up on everything they've been doing.  Got all the news about their son Nick who is the same age as my grand daughter Ashton.  Then a long ride back to Charleston, just beating the rain again.  My hands are cramped and my back is screaming at me, but it was a fun trip and I'm glad we went.

Aug23Art

Seagull flew over my head as I was grilling the steaks for dinner tonight, so with nothing else on my mind, I drew my seagull from memory. Ron and I planning a bike trip to Myrtle Beach tomorrow... should be fun.

Aug22Art

Splashing paint, trying out some brushes I don't use often.  Gracie is in season, and Beau is in lust and very vocal in his protestations... about being separated from her.  I wonder do dogs go do menopause?  Gracie is 10 years old, which is like a 70 year old woman... Beau is 16 which is like 112... so these two should NOT be doing this should they?

Aug21Art

As Ron and I were leaving joint base Charleston, an Ibis was splashing about in a puddle left by the afternoon thunderstorms.  I had to renew my DEERS card, which now expires when I turn 65 and will go on Medicare.  Spent the day in Doctor's offices and/or Military pharmacies... got a lot of knitting and reading done... and for all those hours warming a chair I maybe actually talked to the people I needed to for a grand total of 15 minutes.  Sigh...

Aug20Art

Day started off foggy and gray and then... it cleared up and we actually had a very nice day today weather wise. Felt like some color today... totally imaginary flower garden made me happy to do.

Aug19Art

Southern Loblolly pines... as common around here as the Palmetto trees and the live oaks.  The rain continues... every day this week.  Lots of wrecks on the road between Charleston and Columbia today, those wires that are supposed to work as guard rails, don't work, when there are multiple accidents on the same day in the same stretch of road.

Aug18Art

Weather today was 'supposed' to be rain, but the sky was blue, the clouds held their water and Ron and I got in a long afternoon riding our bikes.  Went over to Daniel Island after lunch to visit with Ron's brother and sister-in-law for a little while.  All in all a very nice way to spend a sunny afternoon in Charleston.

Aug17Art

The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, and a knitted afghan begins with the first of 400 or so little knitted puffy octagons.
More organizing in the studio this morning... still no paint on paper :-(  I'm quite good at procrastinating.

Aug16Art

More rain today, more rain tomorrow... can't believe how cool it was today.  More like October than August.
I got a package from Cheap Joe's today, some paints I was low on and some empty full size pans.  Didn't realize that his empty pans are larger than normal... but they work for my purposes.

Aug15Art

Does anyone have skin the color of flesh toned bandaids?  My skin has a serious red tint to it, so much so that the black children in my art class asked me about it one day.  So we got to have a discussion about color, and how everyone is a unique color, no two people are exactly alike.
Sold my old scooter and Moped today... good to have them out of the drive way. The moped hadn't been cranked it over 2 years.  

Aug14Art

Raining all afternoon, still raining even now... supposed to rain every day this week.  Flooding in the streets in downtown Charleston... Mayor Joe Riley spent millions to 'fix' the drainage issues... doesn't appear to have worked at all.

Au13Art

We finally got a watermelon, not sure why I waited so long.  Usually get them in July, this one was small, but very sweet.. and well worth the wait.

Aug12Art

Another long day... Monday, Monday... can't trust that day... Bright spot was getting to meet a remarkable man Leon Winn who is thinking about running for Congress in my district next year.  

Aug11Art

Took a short break from palette label and color chart making to have lunch at Chili's, we have one less than a mile from our house.
Can't believe it took me all day, my hands actually started to cramp from peeling the back off the little labels... well actually the fact that I spent all day yesterday doing the same thing, putting labels on everything may have contributed to my left hand saying ENOUGH!  
Also washed all my purses, and changed to a new purse tonight... an old Vera Bradley that is orange... I'm tired of the pink one I've been carrying.

New Palette

Here's a peek at my new palette with the tubes of paint in the wells where they will go.  I used my brother label maker to label the colors... this is NOT the biggest palette these folks make.  Added bonus that you can't tell by these pictures, this palette is atop a lazy susan so it spins around making it way easy to find the color you want.

 Here's a close up of the paint and labels, the wells are large enough for a 1 1/2" flat brush, and you can order extra mixing trays for the center, in case you want to work on more than one painting at a time without throwing away your mixes.

 This is a shot of the fully loaded palette...  and below my color chart...

Oh it comes with a cover too, to keep your paints fresh.  Gotta have one...  you can order one here http://www.robax.com/palettes.html  Oh and mine arrived zippy quick,  now to paint :-)

Aug10Art

Spent the good part of the day organizing, sorting, labeling all my art supplies... wore this old lady out, had to take a nap this afternoon to recover.
I have a Georgia O'Keeffe calendar and this month the flower is a Sunflower ... hers is big and beautiful... but I like mine too :-)

Aug09Art

My Mother turned 87 yesterday, I gave her a call last night and had a nice long chat with her.  We don't talk on the phone much, in fact I think part of my dislike for talking on the phone I got from my mother... she has never really been someone who talks on the phone a lot... and I don't either.  Funny how when you are a teenager you desperately want to be different from your parents and then the older you get the more like them you become.

Ron has to work tomorrow, so I'm planning to tackle more studio organization time... bought some plastic drawers at Wal-Mart to sort and store stuff away instead of having it all piled on my table (so there's no room for a palette or paper)... I also have a new palette I'm itching to unpack of get loaded with colors.

Aug08Art

Color blending exercise... lots of paint and water, have the triangle touch and watch the action.  Some color just sit there (could I have used too little water)... others flood in an push the other color out of the way. Some just softly blend together.  I'd like to try this again on actual watercolor paper, not sure if the sizing on the Stillman & Birn Journal is part of the equation or not.  Playing with paint and water, one of my favorite pass times.

Aug07Art

Got five years worth of photos loaded to Ipernity... so now I'm feeling better.  I was concerned about losing all my photos... I mean I still have the sketch books, but the work to re-scan 5 years worth was not something I wanted to do.

Aug06Art

Got a box from Cheap Joe's today, totally unexpected.  I had forgotten I had something on backorder.  It's that automatic painting water thingy... very clever design. I think I'm going to like it, especially when I finally get my studio/painting area in the den squared away and I can paint again.  When I reorganize I make a total mess, unpacking repacking and labeling everything so that I can find my supplies without so much trouble.   So for now everything is piled on one table and I'm sorting, and of course rediscovering stuff I'd forgotten... and I have a new super dooper palette... it is on a built in lazy susan and holds 42 paints... I needed a new palette like a hole in the head.

Aug05Art

Yesterday's butterfly was the easily recognizable Monarch, today the Spicebush Swallowtail.. a beautiful brownish/black butterfly with gorgeous blue, orange and white markings on the wing tips.
Loading my sets to Ipernity, taking a bit of time, but since Flickr has proved they have no regard for their customers.. I want my stuff in a safe place.

Aug04Art

Another idea from the 'Art Journaling' magazine... blow up a picture of a butterfly wing, draw a circle on the picture, and a circle on your page, then transfer the lines from the picture to your page as best you can, then paint.  It was fun and relaxing to do...   I may try again with a different butterfly.

Aug03Art

Beautiful Saturday... Ron and I rode our bikes to breakfast this morning, then another road trip for BBQ at lunch... lots of bikes out and about today because of the gorgeous weather.
Facebook Watercolor Painting group, posted a tutorial... for color blending, starting with layering transparent circles... graduating to flowers... I chose to do the easier circles.

Aug02Art

I love Bernese Mountain Dogs, and had two of them years ago.  Big gentle dogs the only fault they have is that they don't live very long.
Today's quote has absolutely nothing to do with the dog... Animal Farm was/is one of my favorite books... thus the George Orwell quote.

Aug01Art

Another rainy day here in Charleston, I did manage to take my new scooter to the bank today, without getting wet. May take me a while to get used to it... but I think I'm going to really enjoy it.