Painting Again

It's been a long time since I've done any art. I couldn't resist trying to put my new salt and pepper shakers on this background I had done previously. I don't think I made the colors pop enough but I am pleased with my wonky shakers and more pleased that I got something done!

I am really going red in my new house. I am only partly moved but had to share my new red sofa. My husband is.balking at the purple rug I ordered to go with it though 😊!

New House

I have been waiting to do this for a really long time. My husband will probably not be as happy as he has been on this 40 acres of desert but I've had a longing to get back to California. Hemet is 1 hour from my son's house, 2 hours from my daughter's and 1.5 from a sister and some other family down in the Santee area which means I'll be close enough for family get-togethers but far enough away that I won't bug everyone to go out for lunch or dinner every week!

  I couldn't believe it when my husband told me to actually go looking for houses when I was in California last time and I really couldn't believe it when he asked me if I found one and if so, to put a bid on it! He was going to go look at a couple I liked but got a really bad case of sciatica and hasn't been able to go anywhere for over 10 days now. Because of that, I just got to pick the one I wanted most and we've now got the news our offer was accepted. Geez, I am so excited.

  We'll take our time, maybe up to 1 1/2 years to move (although once my husband gets started on something he usually just goes full tilt on it) completely. Maybe the market will start improving where we currently live so we can sell the house we are in okay.

I went out to California for my glaucoma appointment and had laser surgery as the pressure is just not coming down with the drops they have me on. I hope it works and will find out at Christmas time. If not, I'll try giving up coffee and see what happens. The doctor says it doesn't matter about my coffee but my son read about a study showing coffee does affect one type of glaucoma (and I am not sure what type I have) especially among Scandinavian peoples. I come from Norwegian stock and some Irish too (we know how the Norse travelled that area) so who knows, it might affect me. I don't want to give it up yet as I like it and I want to see if the surgery worked. One step at a time! I was also told I have a cloudy build-up on my lenses that replaced my real eye lenses. The doctor was surprised I can see as well as I do so I think some more laser surgery is in my future.

  Not much art at all in this post but life is in flux for me as you can see. I could feel my depression lift when I realized my husband was serious about moving. I didn't think I was letting it bother me so much but guess it was.

  The page I made here was started as part of a lesson months ago and I didn't know where to go with it after playing with the watercolor and gluing on the butterfly stamping scrap. I wanted to make a page about the new house (which was built in 1976 and so isn't really new at all) and this seemed made for it. So don't ever throw away a page you start but don't finish. You may find a use for it later too!

Am I Back Yet? I Hope So.

Finally, I've gotten out a pencil and did a sketch.  I think it's been over 3 months since I've drawn anything.  I was sick and tired of not doing any drawing at all.  Not a fancy page for my journal but a bit of life.  It feels good to have laid pencil to paper again.
The only other thing I've been doing lately is knitting on a scrap afghan.  I was sick and tired of doing nothing at all so I started one.  Sometimes I get a bit down in the dumps.  I hope it's going away and I will even want to start putting color on a page!

California Driving

My daughter was driving her son and four of his friends to a water park by Magic Mountain. It's about 35 miles away and took us an hour to get to because of the traffic. It was a Friday and I guess lots of people were heading north for the weekend. Just a few miles from our exit off of I-5 in Santa Clarita the police shut down the freeway for about 15 minutes because a car had broken down in the fast lane. I don't know why they shut the whole thing down and I sure don't know why they finally opened only one out of four lanes once they reopened it but that's the way this kind of thing happens. At any rate, I was prepared. I had coffee, cookies and my journal! I only got the pencil sketch done before we were moving again but it helped to pass the time. I painted the picture this morning at home.

By the way, I got to go pick up the kids because my daughter had another place to be in the evening. I stopped at Starbuck's to get my granddaughter who was my co-pilot and I a nice cold drink and figured on 70 minutes driving time. It took 76! One way, for the 35 miles! No time for another drawing though as this time it was me who was driving and I might be from California but contrary to public opinion we are not crazy!

I took the liberty of making a purple car versus another gray one! Hope you are getting where you need to this weekend without traffic jams or other problems. Still, if I had my way, I'd be living here and not in Arizona where I don't have any traffic problems since I don't live in the Phoenix area.

Drawing with My Granddaughters

As you all know, I am having an extended stay in California. I'm taking advantage of it by trying to do art with my granddaughters. I need to catch up on the classes I am taking and hopefully this week I will be able to do that.

The first two pictures were done because my daughter says the girls should do something while they watch TV. They watch the same shows over and over or at least that's how it seems to me, so it's easy to do something besides just watching it again. I suggested to one (while the other did a puzzle) that she divide a page in fourths and pick four objects in the room to draw. Her sister suggested she draw some items on the fireplace mantel so this is what she did. I gave her a gray Tombow (non-waterproof) pen and she drew straight in ink so she couldn't fiddle around. Afterwards I showed her how to wet it to shade the drawings a bit with the ink that blurs out when wet. I think she did great with her first straight ink drawings. The second picture is from the littler sister who gave it a try the next day and wanted to draw her dog and it's belongings. I am very happy they gave leadfree drawings a try and that they didn't worry about picking "easy" things to draw!

  The next two photos are collage pages I helped the girls with while they were at the allergists. After they get their 3 shots each (glad I never had to do that) they have to sit and wait twenty minutes to see if they react badly and its a boring time for them. I grabbed my art kit and they grabbed their journals and I showed them how to make a page to remember a holiday by. It just took some giftwrap leftover from the day and a copy of a photo. A few words and they had a nice addition to their books.

The last picture is a page I made from the sketches (1 min. max each) I did of some handy objects to show them how to draw with the pen and how to shade with the waterbrush.  One of the girls used their mother's cricut machine to cut out the daisies for me.  I played with watercolor on the page and tried throwing some for blotches.  I don't recommend using the water brush for this anymore for two reasons.  One, it gets the paint too light colored and two, the force of swinging the brush pulled part of it apart.  I was able to put it back together but won't use it again unless that's all I have handy.  I adhered the items on backwards from planned.  I would normally put something like a shoe on the inside edge of a page so it has some space to "walk off" the page.  I'll add a bit of writing when I figure out what to say.... and then I will get to looking at my art lessons.... just as soon as we get back from driving to Oxnard to drop off the ballerina for her dress rehearsal and get lunch and go grocery shopping and....

Hope you are having a productive and fun day!

Loving California

This is a journal I keep in my purse at all times for the odd moment when I can fit in a sketch. 
The pencil drawing was done while at the beach.  My son was moving all over the place as he played volleyball.  I tried to just catch his pose rather than an exact likeness which I knew would be impossible right from the start.  I would wait till he got back in this stance to draw a bit more and would have kept improving on it but the game ended and it was the last game of the weekend.


The second picture was done yesterday.  I tagged along when my daughter took the kids to Tilly's where my grandson was looking to buy a couple of shirts.  We left with a couple of shirts, a pair of pants, a top for one of the girls and sun glasses for another of the girls and myself!  Oh, AND this sketch of one of the display tables.  It took me about 10-15 minutes as I really hurried to get done before the family was ready to leave.  One of the sales clerks was super nice and asked if I was a professional artist!  She was definitely more impressed than my family was.  When I got home I added one more layer of color to everything but the hats to help them stand out better and then I took the photo.  You can do this too and if you think you can't then perhaps you should take some journaling classes with Laure Ferlita of Imaginarytrips.com  as she will teach you how to do it well and fast!


Today I hope to get some class art work done but it looks like we might be very busy again!

Mission Beach in San Diego Plus One

I am here in Oceanside, California at my son's house.  Yesterday we went down to San Diego's Mission Beach where he plays volleyball on Saturdays.  It was gray, breezy and cool but I had a sweatshirt to keep me warm.

 I took plenty of photos of my son playing as he likes to look at them to see what he is doing right or wrong but I still took time for myself.  I went for a long walk to find some coffee and started with a caramel mocha which was the worst coffee I've ever had so I tossed it out and got a plain cup of coffee at another vendor.  Then I walked back down to the volleyball area and sat down with my sketchbook.  It didn't take me long to put a few pencil lines down and add some paint especially after seeing my online watercolor teacher Laure Ferlita do a similar picture in class! 

This picture was done two days ago as I sat at my son't dining table using my computer and looking out the living room window.  I liked seeing the green bushes and the mailbox so did a quick sketch.  It's good to leave home sometimes and get a different perspective!  This was done with some of the lessons and thoughts behind them that I've gained from Jennifer Edwards on her blog.  I didn't draw the houses on the other side of the street as she recommends to draw just what drew you to the scene.  Laure says to simplify down to what gives you the essence of the place you are sketching so between the two I've had some good advice to follow.