Category: Every Day Matters

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Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Pilates Reformer – EDM 103 (again)

EDM 103 - Pilates

Ink & watercolor in Aquabee 6×9 Sketchbook

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is to draw your exercise equipment so yesterday and today that’s what I’ve done. I drew it directly with a pen which is why it’s not proportioned properly but I told myself to just be playful and draw for fun which I did.

This is my Pilates reformer plus various associated exercise gear in my exercise room. I have lots of exercise equipment and I used to use it faithfully for at least an hour every day until I started blogging. Since then my exercise time seems to have transformed itself into blogging time just as my muscles seem to be transforming into blogging blubber.

At least if I was doing an art/walking or art/bicycling blog like two of my very favorite art bloggers, Julie and Alison, I’d be doing art and getting fit at the same time. I think the only solution is to go to bed earlier so I can get up in time to do an hour of exercise again before work. So I’ll end this here and get to bed so tomorrow I can get up early and workout.

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages

LeMond RevMaster (EDM #103)

EDM 102 - LeMond-RevMaster

Lamy Safari pen and ink with crayon in Aquabee sketchbook

This week’s EDM challenge is to draw your exercise equipment so here’s my LeMond RevMaster spinning bike which I like very much. I probably would have been better off riding it than drawing it tonight…or just going to bed. I started the drawing four times, but kept running out of room on the page. I finally got most of it on the page and then made the mistake of coloring it with Caran D’Arche Neocolor wax crayons (yuck).

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Maidenform

Maidenform

Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

Well, I don’t know what could be more ordinary and every day than an undergarment or more odd than publishing my underwear on the internet… but I was so tired today after a really busy day yesterday that I couldn’t muster the energy to look further than my laundry basket for a subject to sketch. I asked Michael if he could tell what it was a picture of and he guessed “Um….Onions?” Oh well…I know it’s not great but it felt good to spend a little time at my drawing table and get something posted after a couple days away from the computer.

Alison’s wonderful sister is visiting San Francisco from Australia and I had the pleasure of spending the day with her yesterday. I picked her up at her hotel in North Beach (not a beach–it’s the “Old Italy” part of San Francisco, former home of the Beat poets), spent a few hours at the new DeYoung Art Museum in Golden Gate Park, then drove out to Ocean Beach where we took a stroll on the beach. The weather was lovely, much nicer than the last time I was there last summer when it was foggy, windy and cold. Then we headed back to North Beach where we spent an hour browsing in the City Lights Book Store. I bought two good books to bring with me to Mexico in two weeks. When we got hungry we walked to nearby Chinatown for a delicious dinner, then back to North Beach to say good-bye.

After all the driving yesterday, including getting quite lost a couple times thanks to really bad directions from MapQuest which I vow I will never use again, today was about staying home and taking it easy.

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Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

More Soap (EDM #101)

Dish Soap (More EDM #101)

Watercolor & Ink in Moleskine watercolor notebook 6×9″
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

I keep my dish soap in this squirt bottle originally meant to mix and apply hair dye. The glass plate is on loan from my sister. When I saw it at her house I begged to borrow it to paint it. I wanted to include it in yesterday’s soap picture.

I was supposed to be doing other stuff tonight but was getting really grumpy not being able to draw or paint so after helping my son with his resume, I abandoned the art business stuff I “should” have been doing. I drew this quickly with ink (hence the goofy edges and lines) and then added watercolor, thoroughly enjoying myself for the first time all day. Well, that’s not true. We did have some fun at work at lunch today, talking about our favorite “guilty pleasure” tv shows, but the rest of the day was just work, work, work.

To end this post on a happier note than the above whining, I’ll mention two things I’m grateful for.

1. I didn’t have a headache or a backache today and I noticed that several times during the day, making me feel grateful each time.

2. Yesterday I realized that even though I get frustrated with my lack of skill when painting with oils and acrylics and want to be good at it NOW, in a year, if I keep practicing and studying, I’ll probably feel pretty comfortable with them and maybe even competent. Or maybe I’ll realize I need another year of practice and I’ll take it. Same with drawing…if I keep at it, in a year, I’ll be a lot better at it than I am now.

Simple stuff, but it makes me happy.

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Acrylic Painting Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Soap: EDM #101

EDM 101

Acrylic in HandBook Journal 5.5 x 5.5″
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

The week’s Everyday Matters challenge is to draw a bar of soap. My original idea was to line up all the different soaps in my house, from dish soap to laundry soap to bath soap and make a grid and paint them all. But by the time I did all the errands I’d been putting off, time was short. Also, I wanted to play with the fluid acrylics I’d bought last weekend and hadn’t tried yet. So I settled on one soap, one bowl and tried painting with the acrylics as if they were watercolors.

It was fun and interesting. One thing I learned is that acrylic is basically a glue and if you get any kind of crud or cat hair on the paper it will become permanently glued in place. Also you can’t erase pencil after you’ve painted with acrylic. It’s ridiculous how fast the stuff dries. I guess you have to develop a second sense about spritzing the palette all the time.

I’m ready for some big, juicy, free painting next. After all the lettering and detail in the watercolor I finished and posted yesterday I’m tired of tiny, tight painting. It’s back to work tomorrow but hopefully this weekend I can go a bit wild with paint and loosen up.

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

A Gift: Everyday Matters #97

Everyday Matters - Gift

Micron Pigma ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)
This week’s EDM Challenge is to draw and write about a gift we’ve received.

On the last day of a watercolor class I was teaching, Donna brought this cute little Santa as a gift for me (along with some yummy pumpkin bread to share). In past years I was very grumpy during the holidays but this year I decided to try something different. Instead of ranting about rampant commercialism, I would try to be a source of good cheer. I discovered that if I stayed true to myself by opting out of shopping, exchanging gifts and partying, I could go through the holidays gracefully. This little Santa sits on my table as a cheery reminder of the fullness and joy the holidays can bring.

I love hearing about other people’s memories of wonderful family Christmas celebrations with snow and gingerbread and all. I never had those growing up in southern California in a non-religious Jewish family. It wasn’t until my parents divorced and my dad moved out that my mom decided we could celebrate Christmas. So she hung some decorations on a big piece of driftwood she’d found on the beach and stuck in a pot of dirt in the living room. Not the sort of holiday that sugar plum dreams are made of.

When I was married and my kids were little we made a big deal out of Christmas, and had some cozy family traditions. But as the kids got older and the marriage ended, I began to gradually back out of the holiday. Each year I got a smaller tree until one year I just hung up a little picture of a tree. Once the kids moved on to their own lives, I dropped the whole Christmas/Hanukah thing. I continued enjoying and celebrating Thanksgiving and New Years though, since those holidays, to me, are about reflecting and giving thanks and spending time with loved ones without the shopping.

Now I’m letting Christmas back in again, just a wee bit, with my little Santa sitting on my table, reminding me about the fullness and joy of the season. It seems to be working — I haven’t had a single rant and it’s already a week before Christmas. (Thanks Donna!)

(To slip just a bit in the rant department, I laughed at Willie’s Christmas tree here (notice what’s under the tree!).

Added in response to some comments: It’s hard to explain, but I really don’t feel sad at all. It’s kind of like I just don’t have that holiday gene so I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I think I feel more unhappy when I force myself to participate in things that don’t feel authentic to me. So instead I’m kind of vicariously enjoying the holidays by watching other people who do have the gene and seeing how they enjoy the season and appreciating it.

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Brown Sugar Jar (EDM 96 – Something Sweet)

Brown Sugar Jar (EDM #96)

Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is to paint something sweet. I’ve been trying to cut down on eating sweet things (to lose the few pounds I put on from spending lots of time at art and not enough at the gym). So…no candy, cookies or (my favorite) donuts around here to paint. But I do have a jar of brown sugar for my oatmeal and that’s what I’ve painted. I drew it loosely, applied a bit of masking with a toothpick and a little brush and then started painting. It went really quickly, only taking about an hour, and I’m happy to say that painting it was more fun than eating a plate of sweets!

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Block Printing Every Day Matters Watercolor

Lantern again (EDM 95) on frustrating day

New Years Lantern

Block print, printing ink & watercolor, 5×4″
(To enlarge click image, select “All Sizes”)

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge was to make a holiday card image. I thought a lantern glowing in the dark would be a good image for my cards this year. I’d carved and printed a linoleum block a few weeks ago and the ink was finally dry enough to paint with watercolor so tonight I painted three of the prints, trying to find the right combination of colors. I think this is the one.

I actually send New Years cards, not Christmas cards, since I started opting out of the winter shopping holidays over 10 years ago and celebrating the new year is more meaningful to me. Though it sometimes feels a little odd to be so out of step with the rest of the known world, it works for me, and allows me to enjoy the season without the stress.

I had such high hopes for painting and making monoprints today, but even though I got up at 6:30 it just didn’t happen. The morning flew by and then I had to go out to get framing supplies. I needed the Blick store people to cut the giganto foam core board down to size. First there were math challenges figuring out how to cut the 10 pieces I needed from the various sizes of foamcore board, then there was problems with their cutter, a missing screwdriver to change the blade, various incompetencies, long lines, etc. Two hours later, with lots of extra free foamcore board that they cut wrong and had to redo but gave me anyway, I headed to the hardware store for glass. The glass was dirty and hard to clean but finally, the framing that had to be done today was finished. Then it was time for dinner and poof the day was gone.

At least I got to noodle around adding color to the lantern. I have the afternoon tomorrow to paint and I will!

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Spoons: EDM #94

Spoon - EDM 94

Watercolor, Noodlers Ink, and a dab of ProWhite in 9×12″ Aquabee Sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes“)

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is “Spoon.” The large pink-handled cooking spoon and the tablespoon with the dull black plastic handle are the last remaining implements from my mother’s early 1960s kitchen complete with built in pink electric oven and stove. When half the pink handle broke off the big spoon I was sad, but it actually created a handy edge for propping it in pots. I use the black-handled tablespoon for everything I eat with a spoon. I love the way the handle feels in my hand and the way it holds just the right amount of cereal and milk. The slotted spoon is a good sturdy tool that’s always handy for serving veges.

The big wirey spoon is great for draining and lifting out a whole potful of raviolis like I did tonight. I used to use a special plastic pasta tool, part spoon and part fork, for that purpose but it now serves a different purpose. I slip it horizontally between the two handles of kitchen cabinet doors to keep the cats out of the trash. I’d first tried to install baby safety locks on that cabinet, but the instructions were impossible and I’m hopeless when it comes to measuring. I always end up skipping the ruler and trying to eyeball things, which never works. I got the little plastic hooky thingy in the wrong place, and then stripped the screw when trying to remove it, so now it is a permanent feature of my cabinet door, hanging there limply to remind me of my failure.

Anyway, these are all good sturdy tools that may be homely but they do their jobs well!

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Animals Every Day Matters Watercolor

Seagull (Everyday Matters #90 – Things with wings)

Seagull with background

Watercolor on Arches watercolor paper, 7.5 x 11 inches
(To enlarge, please click image, select “All Sizes”)

This seagull sat on the post by the boat while we dined on Saturday evening. I thought it was curious that this guy would just sit there, only a few feet away, watching us. Then someone threw a bean from their salad off the boat and Mr. Seagull was on it in a second. I threw him a couple more beans for fun until Cody pointed out that now the poor bird would get gas so we stopped throwing him beans.

The picture above is the final painting. The one below is pre-painting in the background. I always seem to prefer a white background, but the sky was so blue in the photo I just had to paint it. Which do you prefer?

Seagull before background

Same painting before sky painted in.
(To enlarge, please click image, select “All Sizes”)