Beads

Sculpey was an old past time of mine that periodically I amuse myself with when doing designs for sports teams or pals. A friend recently discovered this & I have had great fun pulling out all the old clay teaching her some patterns & challenging myself with designs I haven't tried before.

Plein Air Round 2

One of my previous living locations was a hot bed of plein air painters. Artists could be seen along the riverbank all year round, paint brushes in hand or in the fields buckets swinging from their transportable easels. Despite having many practicing artists around I had never stopped to learn the secrets of the trade. One evening my friend and I went out to her old family property, peacocks waddling around us and we sat down with our acrylic paints and had a lovely time painting the wheat and soybeans. However, I opted for a teal sky and brilliant orange exaggerated tones, tones completely different from the immediate view in front of me, yet interesting all the same. So with that history, I attempted my first realistic color landscape while on my silent retreat. What a learning experience. I'm not completely convinced this genre is the one for me, but it was a good thinking exercise.

Late night portraits

My mother has on continuation frowned upon my public display of my artist outfit. With irritating strands of stray hairs wrapped in sashes, tucked in Christmas colored winter hats or perhaps pinned with countless objects be it paperclips or bobby pins, I must agree I do look slightly shocking--never mind my paint stained overalls and checkered shirt. However, be as it may, (generally I remove my checkered shirt and hair apparatuses, this prevents the distractions from concern over paint on my clothes or hair in my way. Here is a late night drawing where I picked up the old charcoal sticks, reminiscing over days in head drawing class, and wrapping my hair in my checkered shirt opted to do a little self portraiture.