Wintery, Arty

I have been knitting.  The kids and I are still going to Fiber Arts days every other Saturday with our local fiber guru.  Last year, she decided I needed to learn to knit.  I didn't want to knit (because knitting is boring, obviously), and I had a slow start, but now I feel I've got it and I am really enjoying it.  I knit while the boys practice their reading beside me each morning while the baby naps.

Last Saturday, I asked her to show me how to make a dishcloth with a particular method in which you increase to a triangle and then decrease the other triangle to make a square.  I finished this in three days.  It's about 10-11 inches on each side.  It's a rather large dishcloth, because I dislike tiny ones.  I have yet to use it to find out if this will fit my standards.  I have another knitting project started that I will share later.

We are currently plunged in super-cold arctic temperatures, so this morning I took these photos of the frost inside my bedroom windows.

And the super-moon setting in a purple dawn sky:

I also have one other creative endeavor.  I started a trial membership to Skillshare (TWO months free!  If you are interested, let me know and I'll send a recommendation so we both get free months).  I figured I can watch a lot of art class videos in two wintery months.  

The technique uses gesso to make textured mountain shapes, then paint in with watercolor.

This first on is pretty "blah".  I found that my gesso is too runny and didn't yeild much texture.   I did two more with a mixture of gesso and texure paste, which worked better.

Tried for a sunset effect on this...

I am not very happy with the paint on these.  It's a fun technique, but mine needs work (IF I decide to try again, or move on, not sure).  My one complaint with this class is that the reference photos which the artist occasionally flashes on the screen are not available for me to look at as I paint.  I would like to be able to see what I'm painting rather than just trying to copy the instructor.  As a result... these are "out of my head" and not very exciting.

And then, to increase my frustration, the class disappeared and I wasn't done!  I assume it's a technical glitch, so maybe it will appear and I can add finishing details.  I really would like more info about making clouds, but I am not sure if the instructor goes into that.

I'm going to try out more classes on Skillshare and I'll keep you updated.

From Katrina

A Gift For a Friend

Note the subtleties of lost and found edges.

Compliments, Katrina.

Happy Birthday, Sarah Y!!

Celebrating a special artist today with pizza and raspberry cheesecake!

Y’all come!

January Life Drawing

(For you who may know this table/desk, yes, I left out the brace piece across the bottom between the side supports; I wasn't feeling up to the challenge of the curves in the woodwork... *goofy grin*)

Watercolor 227

Waterfall

A number is missing in the sequence, because I am not going to post the one before this.

A Sort of Art

With Dinner

The warm fruity liqueur was served thus. Very artistic and very tasty. It might be a still life, with a couple of tweaks.

Gold Fish

Watercolor 225

Flowers, Watercolor 224

From the bouquet Inspiration

Inspiration

Spring Colours

I have these sitting on my table, and actually started a painting from them today, but life took precedence.
These are so cheery when it is freezing outside.

Another Chinese Brush Painting

Fishes

Yes, it needs a lot more practice.

Chinese Brush Painting

The Very Beginning

For Christmas I got this set, so eventually decided to try it.

It had a practice sheet that lets one use plain water to practice brush strokes, then dries again to be re-used – a handy thing.

One is supposed to grind ones own ink from this stick, not an easy procedure.

The included book gives step-by-step instructions for a handful of paintings, starting with this leaf piece...

....then a seahorse – with pattern included.

Then there was the lotus boom and dragonfly (I see now I never finished the vertical leaf)....

Then I tried this bird lesson.

Obviously my strokes are not very Chinese, but it was interesting to try. I like the look of Chinese painting and might incorporate some ideas into my work. I do not think I will devote the required time to mastering the strokes, but a class some day..... maybe.

Cellist and Ballerina

From Leah:

I finished this commission for a lady I know. This is her playing her cello. She loved the picture! I'm making her a couple more cello pieces.

From Sarah:

Last week, I tried out another drawing app on my phone, just exploring the brush options and layers and such, not paying attention to the proper forms of ballerinas or of humans in general...

...and then I threw together a mock-graphic-novel-page, using another app, just to see how easy it would be to make something like that on my phone, not paying attention to the best word choices or other details...

I was going to do my January "life drawing" yesterday, but I got one of my nasty headaches. I will get it done this week, and hope to post next Tuesday! :)

Watercolor 221

Tropical Tölt

Snowflake Time

In Winter Cold

Watercolor 220

Another of Water

Watercolors 218 and 219

These are telling me that I need to leave this phase and get back to some serious art. Not good and little progress.

Damaged paper doesn't help the other problems.

Watercolor 217

Snow Bunnies

A very small piece

"Pixel" Art

I was away visiting some family the past week, so all I managed to create were some "pixel art" doodles on my phone with an app I found:

Watercolor 216

Big on Little

Percheron Stallion, postcard-size painting

Winter Creativity- Flower Arrangments

I am visiting Katie and her family in Michigan and she asked me to help with a special project.

Many years ago I was given a large supply of silk flowers from a church in Hood River that had an over abundance (given to them when Walmart cleared out their inventory). I sent many of those flowers to Katie's church and she has been using them to create arrangements for the altar and to decorate at Christmas time.

As a busy pastor's wife with six children she desired to have some permanent arrangements that could be available to save her time when preparing for services. 

First we separated the flowers into color piles to better see what I had to work with.

Katie had found pairs of glass vases at thrift stores which she spray painted in white, gold and a bronze color that made the inexpensive glass vases look like pottery.

I used some floral foam to keep the stems of the flowers in place

I cut many of the flower clusters apart with a wire cutters in order to have more flexibility in arranging them.

I made a set of arrangements for each season, trying to make matching pairs. These are for autumn.

Winter

Spring

Summer

Red flowers for Pentecost and Reformation. These can be easily removed so that the gold vases can have white silk lilies for Easter.

 The winter arrangements for today's church service.

When I make any flowers arrangements, real or silk, what I always look for are variations in bloom sizes, petal types and "textures". I had an enjoyable time arranging these flowers because I had such an abundance of types and colors to work with. There were enough flowers to make many more arrangements!