Sleepy cat

 

I took this snapshot of the cat dozing on the rickety old deck/porch in Walnut Grove back in the 80s.    I decided to scan it today and consider it for a painting subject.


When I blew it up on the screen, I knew I'd have to paint it quick.    I grabbed my Pigma sepia tone brush pen and watercolor pad, and set to work.  Very quickly.    Then three colors of paints very loosely applied.     I have captured the essence of it.    Will do it again when I'm down in the studio.   Actually what I'm going  for is the look of a looser oil painting/sketch only with acrylics.  i would have preferred using a heavier bodied paint and a palette knife.   Maybe later.

I thought the Pigma pen was water soluble and was expecting the ink to bleed into the paint.     I see that it is a permanent ink so can't count on the blending of the lines with the paints.      Maybe I'll use a different pen and see how it works next time.    .   

Today it's 100 degrees outside so didn't want to be out there cooped up with the ac blasting, when I wanted to keep the house cool too.    This was a fun project, altogether I think it took less than and hour.     painting loosely is something I've been wanting to do.    Here's   the photo, the painting and then the painting with some photoshop diddling.   I got some of the lines back and better contrast.      I like it better this way, but that isn't what I set out to do.    LOL

Looking for love

Every year I stumble across natural hearts in nature.     I take them as signs of love.    Here is a new one I found this morning at the senior center.    I'm doing a little sketch of it in my journal.    John had been demonstrating gold leafing and one of the gals saw my leaf and wanted to gold leaf it, but I thought it was too glorious, as is.  


Keep your eyes and hearts open for natural signs of love.     I never look for them, they just appear from time to time.      And if I'm lucky I have my camera handy.

One I missed years ago was my friend Pauline's sons' koi, a white one with a red heart on its side.   Pauline believed in  signs.   I miss her.

This is the leaf I found on a geranium growing in a small pot on my deck - a week or so ago.    Much like the following one which I found a previous year.    

I'm not sure what is eating these little holes.    I appreciate them. 

Another image I took at the senior center one year was this potato that someone brought in to share with a bunch of other veggies.



You may remember I photoshopped it and changed it to the next photo.

The Mixed Media group is going to make a collaborative Valentine booklet.   I have the pattern made and the papers folded, now just to cut them and pack up things to add to the pages that I do, one in each book.  We will be passing them around the big tables, each one decorating their own page.    I'll be showing mine here when it's done.     

What's new?

I spent three days in a row volunteering at the take in for the photography show that opens on Feb 1st.   It's so much fun to meet the photographers and be the first ones to see the work coming in.    Beautiful photographs, some very traditional, some right on the cutting edge of digital technology, with overlays and manipulations.       Some black and white, lots of color, glorious color.      There were only four categories, 1.  Natural (includes landscapes, animals)  2.  Man made (includes architectural, and photos of anything man made)   3.  Portraits (includes animals, people, faces)    3.   Digitally Created.        These are the ones where the images have been treated as collages, or overlaid, or manipulated in interesting ways.     Judging Day is Saturday, and I'll be there to help.

Tuesday I met with some of my oldest and best friends in Folsom, where we laughed and chatted away while making valentines.   I asked our hostess Char, who had laid out a bunch of wonderful supplies and art matierials to use, if she had any old text pages in her stash - knowing full well, she would have.    She brought some in and I tore up a page, then Pat reached for one and read it.   It was some steamy novel!   Perfect to tear up and use for her husband's card.  They are parents of 7 grown men.     She was sure her hubby would get a kick out of an x rated card.     LOL    It was hilarious reading excerpts to each other while we worked.    

Mixed media meeting today, show and tell.   Last week we did some felting, and more people tried it today.     Lisa created some beautiful cards to sell in the gallery with felted hearts on them.    Sending a hearty welcome to Mary, a new member, and Bobbi a returning member, and Judi who is a very recent member but already seems like one of us.  

I've been working on two mixed media pieces, and using a product for finishing them, a gloss self leveling gel.     It's high gloss and resembles a resin finish but has no odor.      I'll post some pics later.

Today on the way home from dropping Bobbi off in Acampo, Phyllis and I passed a field of short cut grasses.    I don't know what it is, but it is really colorful, even on a foggy overcast day.  Here ares some pics.

I'm anxious to go back and take more pics when the sun is out.  It must be spectacular. 

I'm going to try to capture this in a gelli print.     Or some other medium.     Maybe it would be best with Portfolio oil pastels, or Aquasticks.   Hmmmm....     I'd like to try a plein air work - if it weren't so cold out.   Maybe Saturday will be a better day, think I'll pack my things along and if the sun's out, I'll drive the extra few miles to this site again.    These photos have had no photoshop tricks, or color enhancements.   The striations of color are the way it grows.     I'd like to take more pics from the West end and shoot the stripes lengthwise.      

Out and About

My friends and I finally got away for a few days at the beach.    It was a long time in planning, then colds and life got in the way.     For the first time in months, we had rain.   Just what you want when you get away for the weekend.     LOL     We did more inside things than we normally would.   Here is a peek inside the Santa Cruz Modern Art Museum.     The first group of photos is from the rooftop sculpture garden.   It was one of my favorite places.     

 The next two photos are from the metal sculpture exhibit. They had a station set up for people to try embossing metal sheets.    We had to try it too.

  Next we visited the local history section, which was very nicely and professionally presented.       This old guy was there to greet us.  LOL
At one point there was one of those warping mirrors where I snapped a self portrait.

At the entrance to this section the flooring was etched tile with the map of the monterey bay vicinity.

 Walking back to the car we were amused with the antics of blackbirds eating a piece of bread on the wet sidewalk.      

 This window display caught our eyes.    It is so typically Santa Cruz.   

 Wouldn't this make you want a beret?

Back at the house we enjoyed the kids artwork on the window between family room and kitchen.     The beach house is really set up well for kids activities, and the loving grandparents allow them to express their creativity and help make it their own special place to visit.

 On the way home we went to Sunset beach where we saw our native plant and California state flower, the California Poppy.     It's really early so there were not many out yet.  Hopefully a little more rain and the banks will be covered with them.      

 Along the road to Sunset Beach we spotted this cute little shed that we'll probably be sketching.    

We had planned to go home via Watsonville and Gilroy to stop at the Bosc outlet, but at the last minute we decided to go north up the coast, and stop at Davenport and Pescadero.    The church shown here is in Davenport.    

I had a little camera problem at this point so have no more pics of the trip to share.   It's all okay now though, and I'm ready to roll on again.
We didn't do any sketching or artwork at all. But we cooked and laughed and watched Downton Abbey and some Brit videos of Rosemary and Thyme and Jeeves and Wooster.    It was a fun trip.  The Dogs rode well and enjoyed all the attention.       Now, back to normal life again.    I'm already looking forward to the next trip.   

Oh Boy! Another challenge

This one is very doable.      Posted by my friend Diane on her blog, she is taking the challenge posted on this other blog.      

Those of us who are answering the challenge are supposed to photograph and post pics of anything Red in the month of January.  Each month the color will change.   I like red in the winter in particular.  Its warm.       I'll post  more pics later, right now I'm cooking dinner.      LOL

Inspiration in a spider web

A few of us got together to work on altering flatware at Phyllis's house.   Out front as I was headed towards the car, I noticed this great feat of architecture done by a master spider.         

Is'nt it neat?  It reminds me of macrame.     Wish I had a really good camera for this one.     This is a Canon point and shoot digital.     

Photo op

A couple days ago I found myself face to face with an old friend, the broken down but picturesque bus at Moss Landing. It was placed in a different location on the property, and now is the first thing you see when you pull into the parking area. There were a lot of other changes there. Landscaping was updated and maintained well. More boats had been placed there. It looked like everything was thriving. More restaurants to lure in the tourists who love Moss Landing. One of the things I always like to do there, is to photograph the various textures of rust and wire and rope and old crab traps, fences, sides of boats, etc. Here are some pics. I tweaked the traps with Photoshop Elements.

When is a potato more than a potato?

At Senior Art this a.m. one of the gals brought in some fresh veggies to share. Much to my surprise, inside one bag was a heart shaped potato. Someone else wanted to take it home, but first I got a picture of it. And when I got home I PhotoShopped it! Now this modest little potato is a piece of art. does this make you want to eat veggies???

Spring photos

Today is near the end of February. We had a few very spring like days and now have a series of storms on the way. In the Valley the trees are blossoming like mad. Fruit orchards in all shades of pinks and whites. When a breeze comes along it's like a snowstorm, loosening the blossoms and setting petals to the wind. Soon these will be buffeted by the incoming storms and the peak period to photograph them will pass. These are pics I took this a.m. Blossoms on the pavements, walkways, drains near the Sr. Center where we made art. One is enhanced digitally just to remind you how much fun it is to punch up the colors in Photoshop. The pink blossoming trees are in my neighborhood. One is enhanced as well. These make good backgrounds and inspiration for paintings. Don't you love Spring?

A little help from a friend

One of my highschool classmates is working with me on our 55th reunion. He's a whiz with computer and has vast numbers of photos in his files. He's uploaded to our group site the year book, and lots of other pics of the times we were in school. It makes our group site really interesting and it's there for everyone in our class to share. Some of us had lost our yearbooks over the decades, so this was one of the best things that came from making a Yahoo group for sharing. He let it leak out that he restores photos. I saw samples of his work and could not resist sending him my fav self portrait taken facing a dirty mirror. It had so much wrong with it! Spots, scratches, bad lighting, etc. My hair on the right side of pic was all but hidden behind a reflected light. I looked more blonde than silver. But, he said he'd try and this is what he came back with, after we talked about changing backgrounds. I thought I'd prefer the sky to my bathroom wall. I did not ask him to iron out my wrinkles. LOL

This is the same photo I used for my self portrait. Refer back to earlier post.

Here it is, and by the way, his name is Roy Deeds, email (with his permission) is r.deeds@comcast.net.

Picture albums on Picture Trail

I found that my Picture Trail photos would not come up - well, by accident I had not renewed it when I should have. It is up and running again, so those of you who tried to see it but could not - you should be able to go there now from the link here, or over on the left column. Happy viewing. Janene

Skydivers an image

This is the image I created to illustrate the poem "sky divers" which I wrote to celebrate the season. After painting on the body and gluing on the head, I took a photo and then layered it over a photo I took in my back yard. I talk more about it on my other blog if you care to read more. I will probably use it some way in a new very short altered book.

SkyDivers
Who dressed you in your bright colors?
Who taught you to float in the air?
Who chose a crisp autumn morn
tapped you on the shoulder and said "jump"
to launch you out into space?

Who showed you the way to drift?
and pointed you to my back yard,
so I can enjoy your beauty
before I blow you into piles
and bundle you off to the dumpster?
Copyright Janene Ford 2009