Tag: Cats

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Drawing Flower Art Gardening Ink and watercolor wash Painting Rose

Can’t Resist Those Roses

Irresistable Roses, ink & watercolor
Irresistable Roses, ink & watercolor

On a day that felt like a marathon of busyness I couldn’t resist pausing this afternoon to sketch roses from my favorite bush which was putting on a glorious show of snazzy blooms.

I like that I can turn my journal sideways and paint across the centerfold to double the size of my “canvas,” but it’s a little sad and distracting having that strong fold line across the middle. I’d thought of painting on a sheet of watercolor paper instead of in my journal but I had the silly idea that there wasn’t time for that and anyway my journal was feeling a little neglected.

I’ve spent the past couple of days catching up on non-art stuff, like cleaning the house from top to bottom, finally dealing with a pile of paper that needed filing or doing, and using the FURminator (best invention ever!) on my two cats, filling an entire empty Kleenex box with fur that would have been shed otherwise. I saved the big ball o’ fur, thinking it might be fun to use in an art project but  haven’t figured out what yet.

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Animals Berkeley Life in general Places

A Walk on the Wacky Wild (life) Side in Berkeley

Deer sticking tongue out
Deer sticking tongue out

Berkeley, California is known as a nutty town, and this morning even the wildlife seemed wacky. I don’t usually post photos, but just couldn’t resist sharing these pictures from this morning’s after-breakfast walk in the hilly  neighborhood above Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto.”  This deer couple above were camped out in a secluded front yard. One had a strange floppy tongue, retracted only when she chewed an itch.

OCD Bird
OCD Bird

This bird was stuck in a loop of peering into the mirror of a parked car, attacking his image, jumping atop the mirror, and then coming back to see if the bird was still there, and attacking it again. I tried to shoo him away, but he started the loop again when I walked away. Do birds get OCD?

Chickens on a log
Chickens on a log

These chickens had a huge yard to themselves but gathered together in one tiny corner, all trying to all perch on the same chunk of log. Makes you wonder about how important “free range” really is to chickens.

Catwalk 1
Catwalk (see below)

And then there are the people. These neighbors  built a second story bridge between their two houses for their cats. (above and below)

Cat crossing between two houses
Cat crossing between two houses

And these humble homeowners hung this on their modest bungalow in a neighborhood where even a 3-room shack is worth half a million dollars.

Happy Hovel
Happy Hovel

And then there were the bird lovers…

For Birds
For Birds

…and goose lovers…

Window Goose
Window Goose (I hope it's plastic!)

and Monkey madness and…

Monkey ornament
Surprised Monkey garage ornament

and just plain madness…

Australia: One hour tmie limit
Australia: One hour time limit

That’s a dismantled parking meter below the Australia sign.  Their whole front yard was filled with similar flotsam and jetsam.

Welcome to Berkeley
Welcome to Berkeley

Of course I would have preferred to sketch these sights, but I was walking with a non-sketching friend whose patience was already tried by my taking photos, let alone stopping to sketch. And now I’m even further behind posting all the sketches and paintings I’ve been working on.

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Animals Drawing Food sketch Gouache Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Sweet Pears and a Buzz with Busby

Pears on a Blue Plate, ink and gouache
Pears on a Blue Plate, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and gouache, 7x5"

In the week and half since I gave up sugar and Splenda, pears have become my new treat. Not only are they crispy, sweet and delicious but they come in such pretty colors too. This sketch is a celebration of their gifts.

But meanwhile, giving up coffee didn’t go as well….

Busby and the Coffee Buzz
Busby and the Coffee Buzz

After five days of feeling wiped out, depressed, listless and witless I couldn’t take it anymore and finally had half a cup of coffee.  That’s all it took: within a few minutes I was back to my old inspired self again and the blues were gone. Yay!

Maybe I’ll try to quit caffeine when I’m retired in a few years, but for now, each day is too precious to spend feeling like a zombie.

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Art supplies Art theory Flower Art Published work Sketchbook Pages Still Life Studio Watercolor

Refusing to Fail or Quit: It was either me or the orchid…

 

Orchid in watercolor #2, 12x9"
Orchid in watercolor #2, 12x9"

 

On Wednesday night I completed the last page in a sketchbook with some writing about the frustrating process I’d been through with the orchid painting. And then, as I did one last sketch of the orchid in the book (below) I realized how I might be able to actually make the painting I’d originally envisioned. It would be one I could do simply and be able to write about as the six-step process the publishers needed.

When I woke up on at 6:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning I realized I had to give it another try. The image above is the happy result.

 

Oh Oh Orchid!
My sketchbook breakthrough

Tonight my watercolor group met for dinner and a chance to share what we’ve been painting this month. When I showed them the two versions of the painting they liked both but Susie said that in the first version they looked like evil man-eating orchids, which is certainly how they felt to me. In the sketch above I thought the orchid looked like it had packed his bags and was running away, suitcases in hand. (Good riddance!)

Here is one of the MANY pages of tests and samples I made in trying to find the right pigment combinations to make this painting work.

Orchid watercolor test page
Orchid watercolor test page

I decided the pigment that gave me the color I wanted was Winsor Newton’s Quinacridone Magenta but like most quinacridones,  it wasn’t very civilized, trying to spread everywhere.

Orchid Painting Steps
Orchid Painting Steps

What finally worked was painting the veins first on dry paper, wetting a petal, painting cobalt blue just inside the perimeter and then dropping in the Quinacridone Magenta in the center, letting it spread and then blotting up a bit of the paint as needed.

Busby relaxing amidst orchid chaos
Busby relaxing amidst orchid chaos

At least someone got to relax in the sun. When I left to make a cup of coffee Busby napped amidst the orchid chaos on my desk. You can see the original reference photo peeking out from under him, with a pile of false starts at the painting behind that.

 

Categories
Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Thanksgiving 2009, ink and watercolor
Leftover turkey leg, ink and watercolor, Sketchbook 2009 Vol. 6 Page 1

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving with so much to be grateful for. We had a delicious home-cooked dinner with a turkey barbecued and smoked with cherry wood. Per tradition, I brought a big salad and as usual it remained uneaten. After dinner Rob played piano with Marcy on accordion in her former dining room (now art and music room), Tim dozed in front of a football game while Sophie and I sat at the art table where I did this sketch to start off a new sketchbook.

Later, when Bob the cat began playing piano (he jumps on it with a crash then walks across it repeatedly and hisses at you threateningly if you try to remove him) it seemed a good time to depart. We were all tired, happy and full, and called it a great day. (Best not to mess with Bob — he’s sent at least one person to the emergency room!)

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Art supplies Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Thinking about….People Chow and Pens

People Chow & Pens
Thinking About People Chow & Pen Testing

I’ve been testing pens that I have on hand, trying to find one that is permanent or archival but also will bleed when water is brushed across it. I haven’t found it yet, so if you have any suggestions, send them my way. While I was testing I was hungry and annoyed that I was going to have to stop and go cook dinner, and then clean up after dinner.

I’d recently learned that cats don’t need variety in their food (assuming they’re being fed a high quality cat food) and that in fact, switching their food around gives them digestive problems. Cats only have about 500 taste buds compared to our 9,000 so they make their eating  decisions based on smell (and how hungry they are), not so much on flavor. When I stopped constantly changing their food, Busby’s chronic digestive problems disappeared and he became much nicer to have to around.

Since veterinary science has determined exactly what nutrients are required for cats, why hasn’t medical science discovered something similar for humans? I’m not saying I’d want to eat kibble 3 times a day (although my beloved Cheerios do look an awful lot like kibble and my cat Fiona has been known to rip open the Cheerios box and eat them) but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just take a meal replacement pill, beverage or bar and have all the nutrients needed to nourish the body and stave off hunger until the next mealtime? Take the poll at the bottom of the post and tell me if you agree.

I was also thinking about how much more I enjoy sketches and sketching when they’re about something other than making a copy of something, and when there are words included. Pretty pictures are nice, but when something is just about being a pretty picture it feels soul-less to me. I want some meat in my sketches, not just pretty (or at least some kibble, if not meat).

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Categories
Flower Art Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Agapantha Fireworks over Hydrangeas

Agapantha Fireworks over Hydrangeas, watercolor, 9x6"
Agapantha Fireworks over Hydrangeas, watercolor, 9×6″

In honor of Independence Day I spent the day quite independently, doing a little gardening, a little cooking, and then starting the first of a series of  autobiographical paintings in acrylic on canvas.

I skipped the picnics and fireworks (except for hearing them boom in the distance and having to comfort my stressed out cats, and again just now, after 11:00 p.m., they’re illegally exploding  somewhere in my neighborhood). So I thought I’d sketch these agapanthas that looked a bit like fireworks exploding over the hydrangeas.

I like the idea of celebrating independence day with flowers rather than the sound of “bombs bursting in air” anyway.