7-31-16 ~ Happiness is....

TAKE A WORD PROMPT ~ HAPPINESS

This is my first watercolor on a wee piece of watercolor paper. I guess it would qualify as a ATC though it might not be the exact measurements.. I did google the internet stock photos for some references Never, did I think I would be able to do a sketch so small. It was such fun to do.

7-31-16 ~ It's Sunday and Barn Day at Tom's Barn Cooperative

Two weeks ago I posted pictures of my dear friend, Tracy's, old unused barn. I loved your comments where you could see that is was quickly going downhill. Well, you were right, and now I will tell you my secret. Those photos were taken probably 4-5 years ago...and what I had in my bonnet was to drive by now, take updated pictures, and post them for you. As I told you, she does not use that barn and it has continued to go downhill. Fortunately, as it was falling down, she found someone who wanted to buy some of the old boards to use with another barn. So.....these shots are what you see today...what is left. It was REALLY raining as I was taking the pictures so bear with me.

 Surprise-Surprise!

This is how the barn looked when I posted the older photo two weeks ago.

You all were right to be concerned about its future.

It was POURING cats and dogs as I drove up.

The funny squiggly thingies you see through the downpour is the barn today.

Needless to say...this was taken from inside the car :-)

And Here's What's Left

Look in the center of this shot. 

It looks to my to be a ghost of the barn rising from the ruins.

The remaining barn is being consumed by the trees and shrubs on the lot. I do not know if the gentleman is going to come and take away anymore of the wood, but I do know one day Tracy would like to sell her big old home across the road and build on this parcel. That would be wonderful for her. She and I taught school together from the time she graduated from college until retirement. She is the age of my daughter so you see...age doesn't make any difference between good friends.We have had some awfully good times together through the years.

7-30-16 ~ A Good Week ~ Poison Ivy Better

 This is a drawing I made from John's at Sinbad and I on the Loose @blogspot.com 

 trying to learn the stippling technique. The picture was taken with a 50mm lens on my Canon because of John's suggestion. It was not cropped. The background does not look white because I was using  a Swarthmore journal with wonderful tan pages that are amazingly sturdy. 

 My idea of some abstract flowers with stippling.
I love doing pieces like this while the TV is on.

 This is a watercolor of a Grecian Windflower from the "Seeing Flowers" book.

 A watercolor of Buddy's first redish sunflower in the garden.

 Do you remember the song Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim and his ukulele?
Watercolors-Pen and Ink
I promise you...there is NO poison ivy in this tulip bed :-)

My Etegami for the Week

The Dam over the Maury River at Jordan Point, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA
This is where I go to walk when I am in town.
 It is a beautiful spot with a nice path and LOTS of shade.

This post is linked with:
Take a Word
Digital Whisper

Paint Party Friday

Art Journal Journey

Shadow Shot Sunday 2
Sunday Sketches

7-30-16 ~ A Good Week ~ Poison Ivy Better

 This is a drawing I made from John's at Sinbad and I on the Loose @blogspot.com 

 trying to learn the stippling technique.
The picture was taken with my 50mm Canon lens and no flash..

 My idea of some abstract flowers with stippling.

 This is a watercolor of a Grecian Windflower from the "Seeing Flowers" book.

 A watercolor of Buddy's first redish sunflower in the garden.

 Do you remember the song Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim and his ukulele?
Watercolors-Pen and Ink

My Etegami for the Week

The Dam over the Maury River at Jordan Part, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA
This is where I go to walk when I have to go to town. There is a nice sandy path, lots of shade, and the beautiful Maury River right there to enjoy. It makes for happy walking in hot weather.

This post is linked with:
Digital Whisper

Paint Party Friday

Art Journal Journey

Weekend Reflections
Sunday Sketches

6-28-16 ~ Fences, Blue Skies and My Favorite Tree

My Favorite Tree in the Summer

It looks so happy now with all of its beautiful green leaves.

My Sons Ridge, Gene, and Eloise bedside New Fence in Richmond

I love taking pictures of my family from the back so they are not posing.

An Old Vintage Gate in Lexington, VA

This post is linked with:

Good Fences

Skywatch Friday

6-27-16 ~ Wild Bird Wednesday

It's Wild Bird Wednesday again!

 

6-22-16 ~ A Little Bit of Everything

This week my body has been consumed with Poison Ivy.  Monday will be 2 weeks of itching and places are still coming out. I took Prednisone for a week and am now depending upon Benadryl to do the trick. I have had to stay as still as possible in the house so turned on the AC in my living room and bedroom and spent most of my time in the old blue chair. I did a bit of everything trying to keep my mind off of the itching and worked daily on my Etegami. It was an art filled week, but I managed to turn a pile of lemons into some delicious lemonade.

Let me start with the culprit. Just looks like a week. In Florida a block from the Atlantic all I new were pretty flowers, cockroaches, scorpions, mosquitoes, sea gulls, sand pipers pelicans, and alligators......not Poison Ivey. Well, I know it now?

This is the culprit and it is right beside the front porch step in Buddy's

 herb garden.Fortunately the bug man who comes monthly to spray the house

is not allergic to it, so he pulled it all out and hid it.

http://bluechairdiary.blogspot.comhttp://bluechairdiary.blogspot.com

The Story of My Magical Garden
I am linking up with Art Journal Journal (In My Garden There Is) and Cheeky Challenge. (In the Garden), and Creative Tuesdays (Pond).

Several years ago, my family won the lottery and in our large back yard lot I decided I wanted us to build a safe place for children to come and visit. It had to have a goldfish pond like my church had when I was a little girl and one with a marble seat all the way around it so the children could sit there, dangle their feet in the cool water, throw in their pennies for good luck, and watch the goldfish play. And, then you, Alexandra (Sunday Sketches), I thank you for all you taught me in your classes and loving to try to put a little bluebird named Alexia in all of my drawings. They add a very special touch. Every Sunday it was the happiest time of my day when we went to the Episcopal Church, Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. It was sort of like a home a block from our home. I also had to have LOTS of colorful flowers just like Bethesda, some seats where they could sit and rest, also like Bethesda and even a swing set for a bit of flying fun. As you can see, the children have come and look to be having a grand old time. Once again, we have my "inner child" coming to the surface. I am a child at heart. I do not want to leave my happy place...my garden and goldfish pond.Wouldn’t it be Wonderful if you could win the lottery and then create an area like this at your new home?

Here is my second watercolor from my gorgeous Seeing Flowers book I wrote about last week.
I did try use stippling on the pod of the cornflower.Alexia is here.
I want to thank my blogger friend, John of Sinbad and I on the Loose, for introducing me to stippling.His work with birds is out of this world.

This is the cover I created for my Doodle Journal.

Here is page 2. These are all words and phrases that

hold much meaning for me. Since all the paper is tan,

 I decided to add some color to the piece.

Page 3 ~ A collage of little doodles and some pictures....and lots of stippling practice. It is hard to do.  Last week I saw one Stephan Stark's  page where she shared with us some spectacular and colorful doodle patchwork. I fell in love. She even showed us the process she went through. I thought it was such a cool idea, and since I had already started a doodling journal, I decided to divide it into 8 rectangles and just go for it. I did not do a rough draft. like she did  I arbitrarily gel penned colors and in particular, the flag with the red, white, and blue stripes in that order. I looked on the internet to see if there was one, and there was... the flag of Paraguay. FYI...there are 37 flags with these colors.


This is a digital copy of a watercolor card I sent to a friendwho had lost her son.
I've decided I am not gong to buy any more cards but instead will paint them.

Last but not least are all of my studies this week painting following the art form of etegami. Thank you, Carol from Creative Harbor, for introducing me to this method of watercolor painting.These are all post cards I did this week, and they are in the order as I painted them. I was curious to see what my name would look like in katakana, so I have written it on the cards. Am trying to make me stamp with the symbols for "genie".The stamping is always in red.

 How the background turned out blue in the photo I do not know. 

The background was white.

In addition to Art Journal Journey, Creative Tuesday, and Cheeky Challenge, 
I am linking to:

Paint Party Friday

Sunday Sketches

6-20-16 ~ Looking for Flowers to Sketch

I stopped by the old Rexrode homeplace yesterday looking for flowers to sketch.  It is across the road from us. Mr. Rexrode built a one level home quite a while back because of his age and health so this beautiful old home is still empty and waiting for a buyer. The barn can no longer be seen from the road for the bushes that have grown up around it.

I passed this vintage sign at the old Sensabaugh homeplace and farm.

Drive up to the Rexrode Homeplace

The fields in front are no longer cut for the hay.

I found some wee flowers I could try to sketch.

The fence on this side is beginning to break and fall into disrepair.

Some more possibilities for sketching at the cattle guard.

It was in my own yard that I found one to sketch.

This is our front yard right after the grass had been cut.

This post is linked with:

Signs 2

Good Fences

Skywatch Friday

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

6-17-16 ~ It's Sunday Again

It is time once again for Alexandra's Sunday Sketches at Blue Chair Diary.

Congratulations to you, Denise, being chosen the winner of Alexandra's contest for a new Sunday Sketches logo with a British theme.  Your watercolor is just out of this world. I LOVE it! Kudos to you for creating such a precious painting.

I am also linking up with Paint Party Friday.

I need to tell myself this each morning when I get out of bed...."I Can and I Will".

I found a Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook (80lb paper-50sheets) at Michael's, and I just had to have it. This is what I did on the first page.

I used a Micron pen and a red gel pen.

Do any of you know what kind of a bird this is? The picture was on the front of an old nature magazine of Buddy's which he had finished reading. I tore off the picture and then threw out the magazine so could not look up what it is.  I asked Bud if mine looked like the one in the picture, and he said the beak was wrong and there were other things that needed work. Oh, well, I tried. At least he was willing to give me constructive criticism. I am going to try again this week to see if I can paint it better. 

As always, my best friend, Weezie, and I are the two girls having tea up on the roof deck.

I bought the book Seeing Flowers this week, and I painted this Beardstongue from one of the gorgeous photographs in that book. There is another book, Seeing Trees, that my granddaughter has, and it is every bit as beautiful. So, I went to Amazon to get the tree book, and it was there that I discovered this one on flowers. Here in the info on it and links to both books.

Seeing Flowers 

Discover the Hidden Life of Flowers

Photography by Robert Llewellyn

Written by Teri Dunn Chace

 https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Flowers-Discover-Hidden-Life/dp/160469422X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468778086&sr=8-1&keywords=Seeing+FLowers

The Amazon link to Seeing Trees is:
https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Trees-Discover-Extraordinary-Everyday/dp/1604692197/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1468778156&sr=8-4&keywords=Seeing+FLowers

Yes, we live way way out in the country so I LOVE barns.

The hat on the left belongs to the little girl and the one on the right to the little boy.

Since Alexandra is leaving for England, I was thinking about the old pictures I had of the precious British children in their traditional bonnets. I just couldn't resist trying to paint them.