Oct31Art

Happy Halloween, took on my scary brush caddy... turned out ok. I'm glad I cleaned it out... and made room for my new brushes. I got the 20 mm flat DaVinci brush that Brenda Swenson recommended at the workshop. Need to give it a work out soon.

Oct30Art

Good to be home, I spent the afternoon playing with colors and deciding on colors to add to my new palette. Sometimes I think I like playing with the colors as much as I like painting.

Loaded up with new colors... starting on the left Cad. Yellow, Hansa Yellow, New Gamboge, Perm. Orange, Trans. Orange, Quin Burnt Orange, Anth. Red, Opera Pink, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, Cer. Blue, Cobalt Teal, Prussian Blue, Leaf Green, Sap Green, Raw Sienna, Quin Gold, Trans. Brown.

Oct29Art

These odd looking pod things were stuck in the center pieces along with roses... I've never seen anything like them before. It was a long day full of meetings... Senator Lindsey Graham, Congressman Jeff Duncan and Congressman Trey Goudy were some of the speakers today.

Oct28Art

Drew my car radio... since it is my companion on long drives... I love satellite radio, so I'm not seeking new channels as I move across the state, my favorites stay with me all the way.... for those who might care I listen to 3 channels (I'm old and set in my ways what can I say)... Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett), Classic Vinyl  and Fox News Channel... music or news... Last half hour was difficult with just enough rain to be a pain.  

Oct27Art

Well the format frame proved an issue with this one... my eyes and hand couldn't see a straight line tonight... BIG TIME! Anyway, this if my new little pocket camera, I'm headed to Greenville SC tomorrow after the kids and I are done with our art projects..... so I may not be able to post anything until very late tomorrow.

Oct26Art

My week supply of drugs... better living thru pharmaceuticals I'm lucky to be alive, in days past I'd have expired due to my diabetes, or high blood pressure, and if those didn't get me the cancer would have... thanks to God and modern medicine I'm here drawing my pill case and enjoying life and pursuing happiness.  

Oct25Art

Time got away from me tonight as I worked on lessons for the kids on Friday... so I grabbed a brush and drew it.  When I have a bigger hunk of time I need to draw my brush caddy full of brushes... I did purge thru it and put a bunch of them away in a zip case, I did not need 30 brushes on my desk when I usually only use 2 to paint with.

Oct24Art

Sea Island Republican Women's club meeting tonight, state Rep Chip LImehouse talked to us about the i-526 completion project and other local issues. Including info on the folks running for city council and for mayor of Charleston.

Oct23Art

Well it's ink and continuous contour line... and horrid... oh well... gotta accept the good and the bad and the down right ugly too :-)

Tape resist

The Happy Painter did a tape resist painting today... I decided to give it a try myself... with more than one color... all in the same family though... all oranges and yellows... see her art work here  www.flickr.com/photos/the_happy_learner/6273051670/in/poo...

Oct22Art

On the drive to Moncks Corner today for the Sub Vets BBQ, saw lots of black eyed Susans along the sides of the road...  so I had to give drawing them a shot.  We had fun at the picnic, ate WAY too much, and the guys enjoyed swapping tall tales with each other while the ladies enjoyed chatting with each other.

Oct21Art

The little ones did finger paint and mixed colors... lots of fun, very messy. The first graders drew lines... and then colored with crayons the abstract pictures they drew. Some one them were very studious and careful with the drawing and coloring, others loosey goosey drawing and coloring.. and off they went to play outside. Next week they want me to have something for the 2nd graders to do... Should be interesting.

Oct20Art

Tried drawing one of my shells... didn't quite get it... I'll be trying this again... I love these shells. 
Today Quaddafi was beaten and killed by the mobs that took over the country of Libya. While I'm glad the world has one less evil dictator oppressing people, I fear the people of Libya are not on a path to freedom, but headed for worse than they can imagine.

Oct19Art

The leaves I pressed into the back of my sketchbook are flat now, but still have stunning color... so I had to do this contour drawing. 
Went by the school tonight and dropped off paper and supplies and got to see the class room... tiny tables and chairs... hopefully they'll find me a grownup chair.

Oct18Art

I tried really hard to do this with a continuous line... but didn't make it... got lost and had to pick up the pen. I think it counts for day two's ink only contour drawing though.

Oct17Art

Day 1 of Brenda Swenson's 75 day ink only challenge. I did a continuous line contour drawing of my Rhino eraser... I love my Rhino.... forgot my format box... so winged adding it.

Oct16Art

Spent the day doing laundry and shopping for and planting flowers, lovely sunny Fall day today. While I was away my lantana decided to bloom and the butterflies have come back because of it. I didn't get my sketchbook out until after dark so my salt grinder decided to model for me tonight. Tomorrow I start Brenda Swenson's 75 day ink only pen challenge. Based on this drawing I NEED it.

Oct 14-15 Art

It is good to be home and sleep in my own bed.  My little dogs made me feel welcome, Gracie was especially pleased to see me... and Beau was thrilled for a good brushing from his Mom... even Rico the macaw seemed glad to see me.  More hockey games today, along with unpacking and laundry to do.

Last day - Brenda Swenson Workshop

Last day of the Brenda Swenson Workshop, Brenda showed us how she does negative painting. This isn't finished, but I think I finally understand negative painting. I'm glad she made us do it with shades of gray only instead of confusing the issue with color.

Oct13Art

Today we worked on collage, so I did this in my daily journal, Brenda Swenson, lettered her name on my page for me. I spent a lot of time on this page, doing this sort of page is a real stretch for me... and for some others in the class too. The class is winding down, and tomorrow we only have the morning together then everyone is off to return to their normal lives.
PS I spent 30 minutes practicing writing different W's then spelled workshop wrong... rats.

Oct12Art

Another full day of drawing and painting.. it's wearing me out.. I'm learning a lot and enjoying it immensely. Brenda is a very informative teacher and keeps everyone of all levels engaged and learning new techniques.

Day 3 - Brenda Swenson Workshop.

This is a vignette (I think that's how it is spelled)...no paint in the corners, and it must touch top, bottom and sides... yikes... too many rules for me to keep up with.

I really botched the pine cone drawing, I got so lost it was beyond fixing, but I painted it anyway... it looks like a pine cone if you get far enough away from it. I like how the leaves turned out. I picked them from the trees in Cheap Joe's yard here at the Studio.

Oct11Art

Moved to the bathroom counter and got a bit better picture of my page today. I still have problems with glasses and perspective... guess I need to do Brenda's 75 drawings a day challenge.

Tuesday - Brenda Swenson Workshop

Painting outside the box, I used watercolor paper for this one. The TomBow pen that didn't move at all on my mixed media paper ran like crazy on this paper. The more I messed with this the worse it got, I thought, but it got a pretty nice critique from Brenda... so it's growing on me.

Oct10Art

Sorry this looks so 'yellow' those pesky twisty light bulbs the gubmint is forcing us to use cast a horrid yellow light on everything. I am exhausted from a day of drawing and seeing and learning... this is a great class and I'm really enjoying it.

The staff at Cheap Joe's were SO NICE, helping everyone lug their 'stuff' in and just being helpful all day today... it helped make this a workshop experience unlike any other I've attended.  I will definitely be taking a workshop with Cheap Joe in the future... someone said they were treating us like royalty... and that's exactly what they did.

Brenda Swenson laughing and chatting during a break today. She did a great job, in spite of suffering from jet lag on her trip from California to North Carolina.

Oct09Art

Took me about five hours to drive to Boone, nice trip, great weather and good roads. Debo still hasn't arrived yet... hopefully, she'll be here soon.
Not as much color here yet, more here in Boone than I saw on the way here... the mountains are beautiful, unfortunately no pull off points where I could stop to take pictures.

Michael's Birthday Card

Did this marsh painting for a friend's birthday card. It finally arrived so now I can post it online, I didn't want to publish it before my friend got it. It's on a 4x6 piece of watercolor paper 300 lbs.

Oct08Art

Beau taking a nap, and me taking a break from packing and doing laundry.  All the art supplies (except this journal) are loaded in the car, my suitcase and dopp kit will get loaded up tomorrow morning.  I'm planning to head north after breakfast.  Tonight hockey, exhibition game, season starts next Friday.  I don't know if I'll be able to post every day next week, but I try to.  I'm looking forward to the trip and to spending a week doing art all day long.

Oct07Art

We went to staples tonight and got Ron a web camera, then we downloaded skype and tested a video chat, so that we can chat with each other while I'm in NC next week... I know we're late to the party on this... but it is really cool and I'm looking forward to using this instead of a plain phone call.
Got a rolling cart to make it easier to lug all my art supplies around.

Oct06Art

We have these gorgeous hibiscus planted on the walkways at my office, they are all different colors, but I like the yellow ones the best... maybe because yellow is my favorite color.

Oct05Art

Very sad to hear about Steve Jobs tonight.... it will be interesting to see if Apple can continue to be an innovative powerhouse now that their founder is gone. 
My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

Oct04Art

Packing up at work, while I'm in NC next week, they will be moving me to a new location. Same floor, just down the hall from where I am now. So I'm packing all my stuff into boxes, and labeling everything so hopefully it'll all be there for me when I get back. I'm also packing up all my painting gear for my trip... I need a pack horse for all this 'stuff'... and that doesn't even include my clothes, computer, iPad, and camera bag and extra lenses.

Oct03Art

We don't actually have any leaves like this in Charleston... but I'm hoping to see some in NC next week.

Oct02Art

Football season... we had football weather this weekend, nice warm days and cool nights. Fall is one of my favorite times of year. We don't have much color in the trees yet, but I'm definitely enjoying the cool weather... we even turned the A/C on low LOL.

Oct01Art

My nails are very thin, once they reach a certain length they are doomed. When I was a little girl I used to clip my grandmother's nails and toe nails for her. Her nails were very thick, I thought when I got old like her mine would be like hers.... hasn't happened so I guess it never will.