February - the Love Month

Since February is the traditional month of love, I thought I'd post a small painting of some Valentine cookies.  Yes, I know I've missed the traditional day of love but hope the warm feelings are still present!

This is watercolor on paper done for a challenge in an art group I belong to.  It was something of a quickie but time has been limited lately.  It was really nice to get the old brushes wet though and I hope you enjoy a sweet treat today!

Not All Is Painted

I think I've mentioned a time or two about how I get bored with a medium and like to switch it up now and then.  Add that to being an art supply junkie and I'm often enticed to try anything.

A girlfriend wanted to me go to a wood carving group with her and I needed very little encouragement to do it - as a matter of fact, I bought some cheap wood carving tools quite some time ago and did my best to carve a little Santa Christmas tree ornament.

So after about 3 weeks (3 days of 3 hours each once a week), I've finally finished a little bird I started on day one.  One of the group gave me a chunk of wood and I drew my bird on it and started carving.  It's mostly a group where everyone does their own thing but everyone is friendly and helpful.

This was carved totally from scratch while most carvings start from the basic shape cut out with a band or scroll saw.  I stopped at this point because a crack appeared and the wood started chipping out.  I was pretty pleased with the result though.  I'll let you all judge if I should continue the group!

The above photo was from last week.

This is as far as I wanted to take it.  See the crack?  It caused large chunks to chip out while I was carving the wings.

Wood carving is very relaxing but not something you can comfortably do while watching tv.  It's best to watch what you're doing instead of the tv screen.  Plus, the mess is horrendous!

At Last -----

I guess the title of this blog post has sort of a double meaning.  I was actually thinking that spring is on the way but then realized how long it's been since I've posted!

First let me apologize for the lack of posts in the last few months!  Then let me share some photos on the advent of spring in our area!

Spring is my favorite season so I'm always glad to find even subtle signs of it.  There are so many today that I'm beyond thrilled.  Of course, I'm also thrilled with the 72.2 degree temperature outside that prompted me to go out and take the photographs!

 Above is a camellia from a bush on the north side of our front yard.  Usually the buds wouldn't be this large at this time of the year but I even saw a couple of burnt flowers that bloomed too soon and got nipped by frost.

Next are a few daffodils that are just on the verge of blooming.  Of course, the daffies are always early and even a moderate frost doesn't bother them too much.  These happen to be on the south side of the house and near the brick foundation so I imagine it's even warmer for them there.  However, the daffodils in the yard also have buds.

Below is a Lenten Rose just about to bloom!  I so enjoy these flowers as they seem to bloom in February no matter the weather and they keep their beautiful display for weeks and weeks!

And below is what the locals call 'Fresh Breath of Spring' but I think the correct name is 'Winter Honeysuckle'.  It's a delightful shrub whose flowers are not only welcome at this time of the year but are as fragrant as summer honeysuckle.

And last but certainly not least are the little violas that spring up EVERYWHERE about now.  To me, they're the definite harbinger of spring!

For any of you who have visited only to find the lights off and the blog cold and dark, I apologize but I'll tell you that I have been painting but nothing that's really worth sharing.  I've been playing with casein but I'm pretty sure it's not the medium for me.  It just doesn't fit my way of working like other mediums do no matter how I wish it did.  I greatly admire another artist who paints wonderful things in casein.  You should check out Mary's work HERE.

She suggested devoting a month or two or three to painting in casein exclusively before making up your mind about it and I have pretty much done that.  Unfortunately, the results are too embarrassing to show!  I do have a couple of paintings that I got frustrated with and put aside that I do want to finish though and will be showing those when completed.

In the meantime, hope it won't be so long between blog posts from now on.

Still Playing With Casein

It's garden season for us and between the cucumbers, green beans, corn and tomatoes, I managed another casein painting.  It was a quickie and it shows but some day soon I hope to fully explore caseins.  I think I'll like them.

Oh, speaking of corn in the garden - do you remember those darling little raccoon babies from last year?  Well, we haven't seen them since but several stalks of corn were uprooted and the corn was eaten so my DH pulled it all.  We still had over 200 ears and even though we gave a lot of it away, it was a marathon day to get it all in the freezer!

Caseins - Another New Medium

Well, I did it.  I finally broke bad and ordered some artist quality casein paints but have not had much of a chance to work with them yet.  I did paint this sunflower on a cradled hardboard but please don't judge too harshly as any painting in a new medium is not the best work that can be produced.

My granddaughter is really into sunflowers and wanted a painting that was looser and maybe a touch different than the way I usually paint but I really don't think this works that well.  She hasn't seen it yet so don't know if it was what she had in mind or not.

I really, really liked the craft casein I used on the cupcake in an earlier post.  It was creamy and easy to work with.  The Richardson/Shiva tube paints that I just got are much denser and very stiff and I have to learn how much water or emulsion should be added to get the consistency I need. 

Also, I've found that different supports make a huge difference in how the paint behaves.  The cradled hardboard used for the sunflower was gessoed and had some colors of the paint beading up on the surface.  It evidently wasn't absorbent enough.  I recently started another painting on 140# watercolor paper and the paint is sucked into the paper almost immediately - it's too absorbent!  It's been hard to spread the paint much at all.  Hopefully, there's a middle of the road support that's perfect.

Another issue that I need to work on is what type of brush to use with the casein paint.  I was told that a decent synthetic was best but I'm finding the ones I have to be difficult to work with, especially on the paper support.

I'm hoping to find both the best brushes and best support for the way I work but it will take some further experimenting.  I do like casein so far and think it may become a favorite medium once I learn to tame its quirks and exploit its good points!

Tufted Titmouse

I've been on something of a bird painting kick lately even though this little Titmouse is the only one I've actually painted!

I'm just enamored of all the cheeky little birds we have here and I want to paint them all. 

The Titmice come to our feeder all winter but I just can't seem to photograph them as they dart in, grab a seed and leave quickly!  A wonderful bird photographer, Bob Vuxinic, gave me permission to use some of his photos for reference and this painting came from one of his photos.  Thanks so much, Bob!

This is gouache on Arches watercolor paper and was mainly painted to get a feel for the 'structure' of the bird.  I hope to paint the Titmouse again soon along with several other bird varieties.

And They All Flew Away

Well the baby wrens flew the nest this morning.  I had just seen one of them during this nesting so I thought all the eggs didn't hatch or something this time but we ended up with four babies flying away shortly after 8 AM.  It was the first time I got to see them all leave the bird house so you can imagine how thrilled I was.

The last one seemed very reluctant to leave and stayed away from the entrance quite a while after it's other siblings had gone.  Finally, it got up the courage to leave but had a very hard landing on our wooden porch floor.  I thought it had broken something and maybe died as it floundered around for a few minutes then lay very still under the bar-b-que grill.  I left it alone as, truth be known, I didn't really want to know if it had died.  A few minutes later I heard the mama bird and looked out to see the little one running all over the porch!  Thank God!  I guess he was just a little stunned after his ordeal but recovered after a few minutes and finally left the porch where he presumably joined the rest of his family.

So, I guess I'll be more productive now that I won't be spending so much time watching the wrens!  Well, at least for a while as I'm sure we'll have new tenants once or twice more before fall!