Milk Paint Cupcake

I've been wanting to try casein paint for some time but just couldn't justify the expense when I have so many different paint media the way it is.  (Those of you who read this blog at all will know that I'm an art supply junkie!) 

Anyway, casein paint is made from milk and is an ancient art medium.  I'm told it behaves very much like gouache which is a favorite medium of mine and of which I have a full set.

Still, I like trying different media so when I saw some 'milk paint' at Hobby Lobby the other day, I had to pick up a bottle.  This paint is by Plaid and is for decorative purposes, not artist quality, so I only got the white color. 

I really enjoyed painting the cupcake above and now would really like some artist quality casein paints.

Yep, The Wrens Have Babies!

Well, the Carolina Wrens have been busy for the past few days feeding the latest babies in the birdhouse on the porch.  It's always such a joy for them to nest on the porch where we can watch the goings on and (hopefully) be there when the little ones fly.

I guess you can see the birdhouse that my husband made has been painted - well, that's the primer coat at least!  He got tired of me procrastinating about it and slapped on the primer while he was painting the various bluebird houses we have around this past winter.  I still need to give it the final finish coats but it looks as if it will be a while!  There will probably be one more nesting before fall so I won't disturb it until we're sure there won't be any more need for the house this year.

Those Whites!

I've not been painting a whole lot recently but an art forum I belong to posted a challenge on painting whites. 

Most non-artists think painting white is easy.  Most artists know how difficult it really is!  White contains a myriad of color in varying intensities and it is very, very difficult to get the right balance.  In painting, everything needs to be simplified also so an artist can't really show all the colors they see in a white object or it would look uber strange to the uninitiated.

 Anyway, I tried and don't think I did too badly considering these were done in a very short time period and in my not so favorite medium of watercolor.

Both paintings are about 5X7'' on watercolor paper

The Wrens Are Back In Town!

Most of you know that my favorite bird is the little Carolina Wren.  Over the past couple of years we've had them nest on our covered porch just a foot or so from the kitchen door.  More of my time has been wasted watching these perky little birds than just about anything else I've done. 

Well, we've noticed a pair of them building a nest in the bird house we put up a couple of years ago.  However, the wrens will often build nests that they never use - decoy nests if you will.  Since the building of the nest in our birdhouse, we haven't really seen either of the wrens.  That doesn't mean they aren't using the nest though.  Last year we thought they'd nested somewhere else and it wasn't until the pair started to feed the babies that we realized that they had actually occupied the nest.  Like I said, this was less than 2 feet from our kitchen door which has an all glass storm door and which we keep open to allow light into the kitchen most of the time.

I'm giddy with excitement and will keep you posted on whether we have babies this year or not!  In the mean time, here's a painting I did of one of our fledglings last year.

 Carolina Wren Fledgling

Watercolor