Ok, break time is over, back to it!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Latest obsession
I've been working with beads again, and seeing them all lined up in my studio and the sun streaming through my window inspired me to pull out the camera for a photo shoot!
Ok, break time is over, back to it!
Ok, break time is over, back to it!
Monday, March 09, 2009
Super macro
I finally read the instructions on our teeny new camera last week, which gave me a few new tips and tricks to try, but so far, my favorite setting is the super macro setting.
Amazing what smaller cameras are capable of. Sure I still love my Canon Digital SLR, but for a little, lightweight, go-everywhere camera, this one is quite stellar!
Amazing what smaller cameras are capable of. Sure I still love my Canon Digital SLR, but for a little, lightweight, go-everywhere camera, this one is quite stellar!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
All together now:
Awwwwwwwww......
and 3 weeks later:
Almost 3 weeks ago my parents adopted a mama & baby siamese! They'd been dumped on campus---the mama & her 4 babies---but rescued and now the last baby left & the mama are happily entertaining my folks! Lucky us---we get to go visit and watch them play. The mama is tiny, possibly just a year old herself, so still young and full of spunk. Such fun!
and 3 weeks later:
Almost 3 weeks ago my parents adopted a mama & baby siamese! They'd been dumped on campus---the mama & her 4 babies---but rescued and now the last baby left & the mama are happily entertaining my folks! Lucky us---we get to go visit and watch them play. The mama is tiny, possibly just a year old herself, so still young and full of spunk. Such fun!
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Different Perspective
So, I hinted at something different in the below post, and this is what I painted for a show at New Morning Bakery. One of my favorite things they serve is their chocolate cream cheese cupcakes. They threw out a call for artwork to help celebrate their being in business over 25 years, so one afternoon in January, I took a stroll downtown, purchased a cupcake to go, then seeing an open booth, sat for a few minutes organizing some gallery paperwork. While there, I stealthily pulled out my new little olympus camera and shot 2 photos of my cupcake, snug in its to go bag.
Back home, I pulled out a canvas that I'd painted a mediocre landscaped on, sprayed it with an air compressor to blow off any loose pastel, then gave it a quick wash with water. (nice test to see how tough pva spray is on pastel, on canvas!) Then I sketched on my painting. Below is that initial drawing, turned sideways so you can see the previous landscape as it's still portrayed on that washed canvas.
It's a bit hard to see the blue pastel drawing lines on the canvas, but if you right click on the photo you can enlarge it in another window or tab, and see them better.
This next photo shows the painting with the first layer of soft pastel---this time you can kind of see what I'm painting, but a lot of the background is still showing through.
After spraying with pva, I painted another layer with soft pastel, and again sprayed the surface with diluted pva size. Here's a shot of the 2nd layer.
After more layers, time studying it, more painting, more time staring at it, more fiddling, I finished! (It's often a major accomplishment to decide one is truly finished...fiddling with a painting can be an on-going process!)
Close-up of the cupcake.
I enjoyed working on this painting a lot---playing with the colors, trying to stay loose, and letting the pastels create the texture I was hoping for. All in all, I was pretty happy with this one! What do you think? Any suggestions?
Oh, it's painted on 1 1/2" thick 16x20" primed canvas with a black acrylic painted edge. It's for sale, and if you'd like more information, please leave a comment or email me!
Back home, I pulled out a canvas that I'd painted a mediocre landscaped on, sprayed it with an air compressor to blow off any loose pastel, then gave it a quick wash with water. (nice test to see how tough pva spray is on pastel, on canvas!) Then I sketched on my painting. Below is that initial drawing, turned sideways so you can see the previous landscape as it's still portrayed on that washed canvas.
It's a bit hard to see the blue pastel drawing lines on the canvas, but if you right click on the photo you can enlarge it in another window or tab, and see them better.
This next photo shows the painting with the first layer of soft pastel---this time you can kind of see what I'm painting, but a lot of the background is still showing through.
After spraying with pva, I painted another layer with soft pastel, and again sprayed the surface with diluted pva size. Here's a shot of the 2nd layer.
After more layers, time studying it, more painting, more time staring at it, more fiddling, I finished! (It's often a major accomplishment to decide one is truly finished...fiddling with a painting can be an on-going process!)
Close-up of the cupcake.
I enjoyed working on this painting a lot---playing with the colors, trying to stay loose, and letting the pastels create the texture I was hoping for. All in all, I was pretty happy with this one! What do you think? Any suggestions?
Oh, it's painted on 1 1/2" thick 16x20" primed canvas with a black acrylic painted edge. It's for sale, and if you'd like more information, please leave a comment or email me!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A new painting
This pastel painting was painted as a donation to our local Arts Center fundraiser February 28th. This event is called the Chocolate Fantasy---a dreamy evening full of chocolates, art, and music. My only complaint?! I'm just not a chocolate fan!! I know, I must be some kind of weird feminine aberration... but I just don't really like chocolate much! If I have to have chocolate I want it in the form of brownies, chocolate milk, chocolate cream cheese cupcakes* (see below!) and the occasional mocha, but that's about it for the chocolate fantasies of mine. Ok, chocolate rum cake is pretty tasty too, but a chocolate kiss? hershey bar? chocolate covered almonds? Nah, no thanks... Now if it was a popcorn fantasy? Chips & dip? I'd be all over that!! Luckily for me, since I do get 2 tickets to the event for my contribution, there is at least one table that has non-sweet treats available... What I'm really looking forward to, is seeing all the other donated artwork!
This first photo shows my preliminary drawing with pastel pencil on the prepared canvas:
Not much to it, is there? That's the joy of pastels---you build as you go!
Next we have the first layer of soft pastel, pretty much covering the drawing and the whole surface of the canvas.
I've sprayed it thoroughly with diluted pva size, and continued on with another layer of pastel.
And, here is the painting, all finished!
I'm calling it "Showers Likely"
It's on 12x12" canvas with a finished gallery edge.
Coming up---my 2nd painting, finished this month! Stay Tuned for something completely * different!
This first photo shows my preliminary drawing with pastel pencil on the prepared canvas:
Not much to it, is there? That's the joy of pastels---you build as you go!
Next we have the first layer of soft pastel, pretty much covering the drawing and the whole surface of the canvas.
I've sprayed it thoroughly with diluted pva size, and continued on with another layer of pastel.
And, here is the painting, all finished!
I'm calling it "Showers Likely"
It's on 12x12" canvas with a finished gallery edge.
Coming up---my 2nd painting, finished this month! Stay Tuned for something completely * different!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Happy New Year!
Ah, an amazing December---first off, some Kauai highlights with more photos to follow.
It was a fabulous vacation on Kauai with Brad and the girls - though we arrived during one of the wettest 3 days of Kauai's history (considering the rainfall on that island is one of the highest on the planet---it was truly a wet 3 days!!). Here's a photo of Opaekka Falls from a website and then below, a photo we took---what it looked like our third day on the island!
While we were admiring the falls, (in the rain!) locals were there too, checking out the abundant cascading water---they said more was falling that day than after a few years ago when it'd rained over 40 days in a row! We laughed at our luck---but being Oregonians and rather used to rain, it didn't slow us down too much!
To show we didn't have to endure only rain, here's what we enjoyed our fourth day on the island:
This was our view off our lanai at the time-share we stayed at in Poi'pu on the southern point of Kauai. The place was luxurious and quite comfortable with amazing park-like grounds.
Our first couple of days we stayed in Kapa'a, north of the largest city - Lihue, where we were serenaded each morning by some of the abundant "wild life" on Kauai. The island is over-run with chickens---rumor has it they escaped during the 1992 hurricane Iniki, others say the chickens have been roaming free for years prior, brought to the island by the sugar cane industry to help control pests. Since Kauai doesn't have the mongoose population that was introduced to other islands to control rats (& consequently destroyed a lot of native bird populations...) the chickens have multiplied vigorously! They're hanging out in parks, beaches, alongside the highways, wandering through hotel grounds, picking their way through parking lots... truly everywhere! We heard them crowing at 7 am outside our first hotel, but once we moved south to the time-share we didn't hear or see anymore on their property---our theory is the gardeners caught them for supper! Of course we have lots of photos of chickens... They were quite pretty!
We loved snorkeling, and saw a lot of colorful fish, just 5 minutes away from where we were staying at Poi'pu Beach park. Because of the storms and rain the ocean was a lot less clear, and quite rough at times, even in the protected areas. It was Mariah & Eliza's first time snorkeling and they loved it as much as we did! It's so magical to be floating leisurely, kicking gently with your fippered feet, in just 3-4 feet of water and experience your own personal wild aquarium! One morning, when the water was particularly murky Eliza came upon what she initially thought was a big rock, then it moved & she thought---whoa, big fish! Then she realized an instant later it was a sea turtle, feeding just off the beach on some underwater rocks! She squealed through her snorkel for us to come see and we swam over---I was shocked how big the turtle was! Probably about the size of our kitchen table---3-4 feet across it's shell! We watched it bob in the surf, rise for air, and just marveled at our luck! We'd been seeing them off the rocky point where we were staying, coming up for air, then diving back down to feed, but this was truly a wonderful experience to be hanging out, inches from one of these gentle giants! Here's a photo of Brad and the girlies snorkeling at Poi'pu beach.
Our first night at the Point at Poi'pu:
While we were gone, Oregon experienced some of the snowiest weather ever. On our way home, they had to divert our flight to San Francisco, since PDX was closed! We spent an extra vacation day waiting in amazingly long lines, but then receiving vouchers to spend the night at the Westin Hotel near the airport. Our initial flight home left Honolulu after midnight, so we arrived around 9:00 am in San Fran---meaning some of us had very little sleep. I had been looking forward to sleeping at home, and none of us were prepared to spend any time outside in the cold! We had brought minimal warm clothes, planning to go from airport to warm car, to home. Since we ended up with a bonus day in San Fran, we couldn't just sleep away this opportunity, so after a fabulous meal at the Elephant Bar (about a mile walk away from the hotel) we took off on the airport shuttle, catching BART to explore San Francisco. This turned out to be a cold, wet, freezing adventure. Our light shell rain jackets weren't enough for the 40º temps, and after some wet wandering along the wharf, we tried to catch a trolley bus back to where we'd disembarked from BART. This for some reason took forever, and we ended up getting even more soaked & cold!! Once the trolley did arrive we were so happy to climb aboard with the heater blasting! Sadly though it only went a few blocks before it stopped and said it was the end of the line for this particular one, we had to get out and catch the next one!! Dang-it! That one of course was drafty, the front windows open to help defrost the driver's window, and by the time it arrived at our stop it was so clogged with people we were barely able to squeeze our way off! It was such a relief to dive down under the streets to the BART station, where we waited in an underground gust of wind for the next train.
The following morning we awoke to our alarms at 3:45 am to catch the shuttle back to the airport for our 6:00 flight. The hotel had contracted 2 shuttles to bring us there, but only one showed up, so the hotel paid for 3 more taxis to bring the rest of us to the airport where we were shocked to see an amazingly long line again to the NW ticket desk!! The day before it took over 2 hours before we were out of that line, so you can imagine our dismay as we headed to the far end of the line! It went quick though, and soon we were hustling to the gate where they bustled us on the plane, minutes before 6:00! It was the same crew, plane and passengers we'd traveled from Honolulu with. Lots of familiar faces, and smiles as we took off over San Francisco for Portland. We were sitting on the left of the plane, and I watched the sun rise through the windows on our right as we proceeded north. Then at one point I suddenly noticed the sun was on my side of the plane... what the?!?! and sure enough a few minutes later the pilot came on to tell us PDX was still closed, and we were on our way back to San Francisco!! AUGH! NW airlines told us our boarding passes would be good for up to $10 worth of food at a nearby vendor once we landed, so that was some good news considering probably very few passengers had eaten much yet that morning! All of the passengers disembarked once more, bringing all our carry-ons and soon we were sprawled everywhere around this particular gate at the airport. People slept, played cards, ate, read, little kids ran around & all their parents began to gather together, forming mini-play-groups, and amazingly everyone seemed in fine spirits! The departing time kept getting pushed forward, as the hours passed, so once they did say we could board again we all cheered! The biggest cheers & applause occurred when we actually came to a complete stop at PDX---after over 36 hours from when we first left Honolulu!!
Lastly, a couple of photos of our car at Brad's folk's house---they kindly offered to drop us off and pick us up from the airport in Portland---even in a snow-storm!
Here's Eliza helping to remove the snow so we could drive home - this was actually fun, since we hadn't had any chance to play in the snow yet! Unfortunately about 1/2 way home, the snow disappeared and we had no snow except one or two tiny hand sized patches here and there at our house!!
Yes, we miss Kauai, and we all could have stayed another week or more, but after our adventures coming home, we sure were glad to walk in our door!!
It was a fabulous vacation on Kauai with Brad and the girls - though we arrived during one of the wettest 3 days of Kauai's history (considering the rainfall on that island is one of the highest on the planet---it was truly a wet 3 days!!). Here's a photo of Opaekka Falls from a website and then below, a photo we took---what it looked like our third day on the island!
While we were admiring the falls, (in the rain!) locals were there too, checking out the abundant cascading water---they said more was falling that day than after a few years ago when it'd rained over 40 days in a row! We laughed at our luck---but being Oregonians and rather used to rain, it didn't slow us down too much!
To show we didn't have to endure only rain, here's what we enjoyed our fourth day on the island:
This was our view off our lanai at the time-share we stayed at in Poi'pu on the southern point of Kauai. The place was luxurious and quite comfortable with amazing park-like grounds.
Our first couple of days we stayed in Kapa'a, north of the largest city - Lihue, where we were serenaded each morning by some of the abundant "wild life" on Kauai. The island is over-run with chickens---rumor has it they escaped during the 1992 hurricane Iniki, others say the chickens have been roaming free for years prior, brought to the island by the sugar cane industry to help control pests. Since Kauai doesn't have the mongoose population that was introduced to other islands to control rats (& consequently destroyed a lot of native bird populations...) the chickens have multiplied vigorously! They're hanging out in parks, beaches, alongside the highways, wandering through hotel grounds, picking their way through parking lots... truly everywhere! We heard them crowing at 7 am outside our first hotel, but once we moved south to the time-share we didn't hear or see anymore on their property---our theory is the gardeners caught them for supper! Of course we have lots of photos of chickens... They were quite pretty!
We loved snorkeling, and saw a lot of colorful fish, just 5 minutes away from where we were staying at Poi'pu Beach park. Because of the storms and rain the ocean was a lot less clear, and quite rough at times, even in the protected areas. It was Mariah & Eliza's first time snorkeling and they loved it as much as we did! It's so magical to be floating leisurely, kicking gently with your fippered feet, in just 3-4 feet of water and experience your own personal wild aquarium! One morning, when the water was particularly murky Eliza came upon what she initially thought was a big rock, then it moved & she thought---whoa, big fish! Then she realized an instant later it was a sea turtle, feeding just off the beach on some underwater rocks! She squealed through her snorkel for us to come see and we swam over---I was shocked how big the turtle was! Probably about the size of our kitchen table---3-4 feet across it's shell! We watched it bob in the surf, rise for air, and just marveled at our luck! We'd been seeing them off the rocky point where we were staying, coming up for air, then diving back down to feed, but this was truly a wonderful experience to be hanging out, inches from one of these gentle giants! Here's a photo of Brad and the girlies snorkeling at Poi'pu beach.
Our first night at the Point at Poi'pu:
While we were gone, Oregon experienced some of the snowiest weather ever. On our way home, they had to divert our flight to San Francisco, since PDX was closed! We spent an extra vacation day waiting in amazingly long lines, but then receiving vouchers to spend the night at the Westin Hotel near the airport. Our initial flight home left Honolulu after midnight, so we arrived around 9:00 am in San Fran---meaning some of us had very little sleep. I had been looking forward to sleeping at home, and none of us were prepared to spend any time outside in the cold! We had brought minimal warm clothes, planning to go from airport to warm car, to home. Since we ended up with a bonus day in San Fran, we couldn't just sleep away this opportunity, so after a fabulous meal at the Elephant Bar (about a mile walk away from the hotel) we took off on the airport shuttle, catching BART to explore San Francisco. This turned out to be a cold, wet, freezing adventure. Our light shell rain jackets weren't enough for the 40º temps, and after some wet wandering along the wharf, we tried to catch a trolley bus back to where we'd disembarked from BART. This for some reason took forever, and we ended up getting even more soaked & cold!! Once the trolley did arrive we were so happy to climb aboard with the heater blasting! Sadly though it only went a few blocks before it stopped and said it was the end of the line for this particular one, we had to get out and catch the next one!! Dang-it! That one of course was drafty, the front windows open to help defrost the driver's window, and by the time it arrived at our stop it was so clogged with people we were barely able to squeeze our way off! It was such a relief to dive down under the streets to the BART station, where we waited in an underground gust of wind for the next train.
The following morning we awoke to our alarms at 3:45 am to catch the shuttle back to the airport for our 6:00 flight. The hotel had contracted 2 shuttles to bring us there, but only one showed up, so the hotel paid for 3 more taxis to bring the rest of us to the airport where we were shocked to see an amazingly long line again to the NW ticket desk!! The day before it took over 2 hours before we were out of that line, so you can imagine our dismay as we headed to the far end of the line! It went quick though, and soon we were hustling to the gate where they bustled us on the plane, minutes before 6:00! It was the same crew, plane and passengers we'd traveled from Honolulu with. Lots of familiar faces, and smiles as we took off over San Francisco for Portland. We were sitting on the left of the plane, and I watched the sun rise through the windows on our right as we proceeded north. Then at one point I suddenly noticed the sun was on my side of the plane... what the?!?! and sure enough a few minutes later the pilot came on to tell us PDX was still closed, and we were on our way back to San Francisco!! AUGH! NW airlines told us our boarding passes would be good for up to $10 worth of food at a nearby vendor once we landed, so that was some good news considering probably very few passengers had eaten much yet that morning! All of the passengers disembarked once more, bringing all our carry-ons and soon we were sprawled everywhere around this particular gate at the airport. People slept, played cards, ate, read, little kids ran around & all their parents began to gather together, forming mini-play-groups, and amazingly everyone seemed in fine spirits! The departing time kept getting pushed forward, as the hours passed, so once they did say we could board again we all cheered! The biggest cheers & applause occurred when we actually came to a complete stop at PDX---after over 36 hours from when we first left Honolulu!!
Lastly, a couple of photos of our car at Brad's folk's house---they kindly offered to drop us off and pick us up from the airport in Portland---even in a snow-storm!
Here's Eliza helping to remove the snow so we could drive home - this was actually fun, since we hadn't had any chance to play in the snow yet! Unfortunately about 1/2 way home, the snow disappeared and we had no snow except one or two tiny hand sized patches here and there at our house!!
Yes, we miss Kauai, and we all could have stayed another week or more, but after our adventures coming home, we sure were glad to walk in our door!!
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Illustration Friday---similar
This weeks Illustrated Friday theme is Similar. Those small peppers were quite similar to one another, but also different in their own unique shape, color combination, size, and personality---just like all of us! Included in this still life I have an old salt shaker that used to be my Grandma's along with her table cloth. Lots of memories tied to this piece... Enjoy!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Random thoughts today
First off, here's a photo I took of the new labels I made for our spice jars. Too bad I didn't take a before---it would have demonstrated why we needed new labels! These jars are probably over 25 years old, and the masking tape labels on top were not only faded & difficult to read, but they never did look very "nice"! After treating myself to a 1 1/2" circle punch I realized it was the perfect size to make new labels for the jar lids. I made circles on my computer the same color as our kitchen walls, and from a list of the spices I had I added text to the computer circles before printing. Using the circle punch I cut them out. I liked how they looked, all lined up with cleaned lids, the labels and the floor below.
This next photo shows Brad holding some pods we found walking home the other day. They were scattered under a tree on the edge of campus. What are they?! Anyone know what kind of tree they're from?
This next photo shows Brad holding some pods we found walking home the other day. They were scattered under a tree on the edge of campus. What are they?! Anyone know what kind of tree they're from?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Gallery Day
I've been absent blog posting lately, just too many other things going on. Sadly they're not that exciting to everyone, so now you get this little post to just show I'm still rattling around blog-land.
Today I'm sitting the local gallery downtown, putting in my once-a-month shift. Usually it's an opportunity to catch up on things I've been putting off at home. Now though, I'm the official treasurer which means I get to figure out how to do the gallery bookkeeping! So far so good today, as far as I know I don't think I'm messing things up too badly ;)! It's later in the month when I make out all the checks to the other gallery members, that's when I'll either make it or break it!
Just for excitement, here are some photos of the gallery space! The first is a general photo of a wall in the gallery. The second shows my view from the desk, looking towards the front window & door. The last photo shows the back of the gallery, where the desk is.
Sent me an email if you'd like to know where this fabulous gallery is!
Today I'm sitting the local gallery downtown, putting in my once-a-month shift. Usually it's an opportunity to catch up on things I've been putting off at home. Now though, I'm the official treasurer which means I get to figure out how to do the gallery bookkeeping! So far so good today, as far as I know I don't think I'm messing things up too badly ;)! It's later in the month when I make out all the checks to the other gallery members, that's when I'll either make it or break it!
Just for excitement, here are some photos of the gallery space! The first is a general photo of a wall in the gallery. The second shows my view from the desk, looking towards the front window & door. The last photo shows the back of the gallery, where the desk is.
Sent me an email if you'd like to know where this fabulous gallery is!
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Rainy Walk treasures
Yesterday I walked downtown to a meeting, then to the bank, umbrella in hand, in the rain. The colors of the trees just glowed with the water coating each leaf---like beach rocks, always prettier wet than dry. On my way home I zig-zagged veering off my usual path depending on which tree caught my eye next. I began to collect some of these autumn jewels, and here are a few of my favorites:
Anyone have an idea of what kind of tree the leaf above & below are from?
Anyone have an idea of what kind of tree the leaf above & below are from?
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Happy November (whoa!) & Happy Halloween!
A little something made for halloween, and below, our halloween party costumes---can you guess what we were?
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