Let the singing commence

Now it feels like summer. This evening is the first time the cicadas are serenading my garden.  I have been waiting and listening every evening. 

At the same time there are fireworks in the neighborhood. I saw a stand selling them this morning. As it nears the 4th of July,  the night noises pick up. Lulu (on the left) is hiding in the closet.  Nikki is ignoring them.  When it gets too hard on Lulu, a neighbor suggested putting cotton in her ears.    It helps a lot.   She has bat ears. So hyper sensitive it is hard  on her.   Heaven help us if there is a fly in the house.  Off to her hiding spot in the closet, or glued to my side. 

The cicadas dont bother her as she seems to sense they are a natural phenomena...and they stay outside.   Sometimes we sit out in the dark and just breathe the cool fresh air and enjoy the concert.

This picture was taken when they were younger, but they look much the same now, almost a decade later.  Still the best dogs in the world. 

Funeral for phone.

Have you ever had your trusty cell phone die?  Im in mourning for my electronic brain.  I loved it. Took it everywhere.  Depended on it for so many things.    Like everyone does.

Good gosh, I hope not.  It happens to my friends periodically, but it was something I was not prepared for. 

My contact list and address book. Gone. 
My calendar. Gone.
My photographs. Gone.
My music.  Gone.
Downloaded files. Gone.
Shopping list. Gone.
Saved messages. Gone.
Attached photos. Gone.
My history was there.  In bits and pieces.  Long story short.  Provider and techies could not get into it to save these things. We had to do a factory reset in order to make the phone usable. 

What I have learned the hard way.  Back everything up.  Dont depend on cell phone for everything.  Write things down. 

I predict that eventually the internet will fail.  Crash. Or be sabotaged.  We are all so dependent on it, I cant imagine how we can function without it.  The younger generations dont even know how to write and mail a letter.  Or write without spell check.  And forget math. Why learn it if you have a calculator in your pocket?    Read a map?  We used to get where we wanted to go without gps.   Write checks.   With a pen.  Then hand it to someone who checked your id before accepting it.   

 I will spare you further rambling grousing... just dont become so dependent on electronics that you cant function without it.       

Sunflowers day2

Heres what it looks like after a few hours with glue stick and paper scraps.  Later will cover with gel medium.  More collage first.

Watercolor study, sunflowers

I was thinking about doing a psinting collage of sunflowers.  I sketched this and decided a trial run with watercolor could be fun.   

Those dyed pages at top left were done with distress inks.  Im thinking of using parts of them in the collage. 

An oldie

This a piece I did following directions from an online tutorial or group.  Its been a really long time, I dont remember the details.   We started with a piece of newspaper and a bunch of fabric scraps.   Object was to stitch them all down with one long line of stitches, catching up all edges.   Sewing over newspaper helped them move smoothly and it was fun.   

After that we were to paint over the fabric side.

 I came across it the other day and thought I would share it again.   It does have an interesting texture with the stitching, but thats all.   Maybe I will paint over it again. 

Shirley Valentine Sunset

Bored housewife Shirley Valentine (have you seen the movie?) took a trip to Greek Islands, where her dream was to sit and sip a glass of wine at sunset by the sea.    I did a quick little vignette of the chairs I painted earlier, but this time gave it Shirleys sunset.

Magnolia

As a volunteer driver to the senior center, I pick up some friends who cannot drive for various reasons relating to health, age, and eyesight.   It gives us a good chance to visit and maybe even shop a little on the way home. 

Wednesday when I pulled up in front of Lillians house she was holding this stunning magnolia.  She lives in a neighborhood where magnolias are the street trees.    All blooming right now. 

 Everyone knows I draw something fresh from nature... and she thought I would like to draw it.
Here it is.

 2 days later, floating in a bowl on dining room table, this is how it looks.  Still beautiful.

New art rubbercstamps

Im working on a new piece using an oak seedling I pulled out of a pot in the garden.  A friendly blue jay planted it and up sprang a little black oak.  I left it for a long time so when I started to tug, the root just kept coming.  Longer and longer.   It had coiled around inside the small pot. I love that it stayed intact.  I dried it and pressed it in a big atlas.

I found it again, years later and decided it needed to come out of the book so I could marvel over it and admire it in remembrance of my old garden.

My hand carved oak tree stamps could be used and now I carved some acorn stamps.   You will soon see how I used them

Floral surprise

At senior art one of my friends gave me an ink jet print of a photo she took to use as a reference.  The next day I saw it sitting on my art table and thought Id play around with it.

I started by tearing it up and using two pieces as part of a collage, covering the entire old canvas with other collage papers.

  Then I put a red iron oxide glaze over the entire piece and quickly scrubbed most of it off.   This changed the color of the flowers.  My intention was to do a wild Bob Burridge exercise and end up with a colorful lively floral with lots of collage papers showing through.  It didnt happen!

But you know sometimes art override comes into play.  It painted itself.  Using a 3 color combination I have never explored before.  Jenkins green,  Paynes grey, and red iron oxide and white.   Old Golden transparent paints.    And a bit of charcoal.

Picture shows another of Carol Lynnes inket prints.

Collage fun.

Here's " This may not contain a unicorn".   Bob Burridge says to title your piece before you start.    A scrap I put on the base of collage papers contained this quote, and since I had nothing in my mind...I mean NOTHING!!!  I thought it might give me a direction.

  I started by painting over everything haphazardly then stood back and gave it a look.   I could sense a figure on lower right holding an infant.  Madonna and child?

 As painting developed i didnt like the infant so changed to older child.      Colors and textures and more collage and this is how it looks now.  I dont love it but love the pallette.  I finally tucked in a little unicorn.

More pink

I showed this a few posts back.  That pink collage paper onnthecleft didnt seem relevant, but i loved it.  So I added a little more pink and scracthed up the main image.  Liking it better now.