Latest experiments

So I was into limes this week...(see post from July 17th titled Too Many Limes & you'll see where these limes originated!) and decided to paint a few smaller (5x7) pastels, using the pva size & working on a primed board again. When I finished, I then sprayed them with a UV resistant glossy acrylic coating. Here are the finished pieces! I'm quite happy with the results (tho I need to shoot some better photos---this one has a bit of glare showing in the middle & last painting). I'm just bursting with motivation now that I've discovered a way to eliminate framing---one of my least favorite things to do!! Time to go to work on a new painting!

Red

Just uploading photos and other programs onto my new hard drive. This one stood out today! Love the different textures & values of grey plus the sparks of red... Wishing you some sparks today!

Glassless pastel attempt #2.

Well, not sure if I mentioned this, but I managed to ruin my first attempt at glassless pastel...(see previous post about success before I ruined it...http://phinearts.blogspot.com/2007/07/my-new-obsession.html). I became impatient with the slow blow drying process and while trying to hurry up it up I used the high setting on the blow dryer which I think caused the pva size to make tiny bubbles on the surface of the pastel. I initially just flattened them down with the back of my thumbnail, but then they began to pop which left open blisters on the surface. I thought I could just gently peel them off, but that just started everything to go downhill---one peel led to more, & soon the surface looked like a bad sunburn... I ended up taking out sand paper & completely sanding away the almost finished painting!! *sigh...live and learn...

So, this past week I thought I'd try again on another prepared board and created my 2nd pastel using diluted pva size as a sealer between layers, drying slooowwwly on low with the blow dryer, holding it about 2 feet away, being overly cautious of course---but I managed to not ruin this one! Yay! So it now hangs at the gallery in the "Dog Days" show, and I'm excited to start another---first a smaller one that I can try finishing off with an acrylic UV resistant spray. I wanted to on this one but was smartly told to experiment with something smaller & less precious. After that I want to go BIG! Can't wait!!

Here's the finished painting---"Black and White":

Studio Friday

It's been a while since I've participated, but thought this weeks theme was right down my alley!

"Let us have a look at one page from your sketchbook or notebook...just curious. It's up to you which one you would like to reveal. Should you want to you can show us more than just one, too. "

Well of course I can't just pick one page---or even two! So here are several pages from 3 different sketchbooks. It was fun to go through them and find my favorites---especially fun to see the drawings of my kids when they were younger! Click on the photo to enlarge it if you'd like to see the little notes that went with each drawing.

Frustration!!

My Mac Mini died on Friday----*poof*----just like that! I popped in my daughter's camera card into the printer to then pull off the photos she had on it from a great camping trip we took to Waldo Lake---for some reason it didn't show up on my computer desktop, so I thought---ok, I'll reboot. That was it! I tried to reboot & my Mac Mini just got stuck and soon was making this odd clicking/ticking/grinding noise. Dang! I rebooted over & over, turning it on & off, trying all the tricks the manual suggested, finally calling the local Apple store. They gave me one more thing to try---no luck, so I packed it up & popped down to see what their tech person had to say. She plugged it in & immediately said "oh, your hard drive is broken!" No Way?! The little arm that looks like a turntable arm supposedly had broken (so she assumed since she didn't pop open the hard drive to look). Ugh...that means if I want anything on it I need to pay oodles of $$ to retrieve it at some speciality recovery biz... I also need to buy a new hard drive and start all over! My Mac Mini is only 1 1/2 years old! I'm so frustrated!! Of course I didn't buy the Apple extended warranty... My oldest daughter bought an ipod (spendy one) and just after she'd had it for a year, it totally died too... What is with these Apple products? I thought the company was so reliable---it's why we decided to give their computers a try for a change---as the tech lady said tho---the hard drive isn't an apple product... ARGH! I'm now on my youngest daughter's Apple Macbook... brand new... I'm guessing she better invest in their Apple Care program (scam, scam, scam...) so she's not left high and dry in a year... Think I need to send this note to Apple... So, to wrap up----BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER TODAY!!! *sigh...