Watercolor Flowers

My adorable friend, Janet Takahashi, came over and showed me some watercolor tips. We sat side by side and passed a piece of watercolor hot press back and forth, painting violets.
Janet's blog

Look at the luscious color! She showed me how to mix the color to get nice blends. Also how to make leaves by using the flat of the brush and dig in dark bits of color with colored pencils to give your paints more depth.

Here's a link to her book.

Be creative! Marilyn.

 --
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun. ~ Pablo Picasso
 

A Hair Raising Tale....

The Boy abruptly announced that he needed a haircut. He was growing his hair long for the ComicCon but changed his mind. He looks totally different, don't you think?

He looks like his own evil twin. It seems like yesterday he was shorter than me. Now he's taller. How did that happen?

M

Butterflies...

I painted eight  pictures of butterflies today. They are okay, a little underwhelming. Must resist the temptation to chuck the paintbox in the bin. I want to learn how to paint with watercolor.

What's frustrating is that if I colored them up the way I usually do they would look one hundred times better. But to learn something new one must be willing to be mediocre for a while.

 

The color in the scans is much more vibrant then the actual artwork.

Ah, don't mind me. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

 Marilyn.

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment." ~ Claude Monet.

Watercolor Birds and Fish

I'm trying to learn how to paint with watercolor. It's uphill both ways. Cut paper is much easier to work with, at least for me. These are quick sketches, no bigger than a piece of typing paper. Tomorrow, I'll try again. MSW

 

 The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.

 ~ Chaucer

My Dad

My Dad passed away last weekend. He had a series of strokes five years ago but, thanks to the amazing care that my brother gave him, my dad went into extra innings.

We had a amazing funeral service, immediate family only. Our friend, Andy Scott, played the bagpipes. We ate Snickers Bars, my Dad's favorite, and sang "the Yellow Rose of Texas." Afterwards we all went to dinner and at the end my wonderhusband read this piece that he wrote about my dad. I thought it was pretty spiff and thought you might like to read it too. ~ Marilyn.

To:  Family
Subject:  the current order of business,

Jim Scott was a lot of things to a lot of people.  As Jim would say he had his meat hooks in a lot of pies.  He was involved involved in the lives of an uncountable number of people. To some he was an organizer, cheerleader, helper and to some, a force of nature.

Jim was larger than life.  He was an individual.  He did what he wanted and said what he thought.  If you think about it, what a great way to live.

Jim was not bound by social convention or by grammar. Phrases like "water seeks it's own level" and "take the shot" were not just said carelessly.  To Jim, these words held power and meaning.  We didn't know  it at the time, but they would found their way into our own vocabularies.  We would end up saying them to others, conveying in our own way that power and meaning.

Jim lived lived his life by his own code, and that the most important things in life are respect, giving to others, having a plan for your life or "knowing where you were going to land", and most important of all, family. 

Mostly, Jim was about family.  Watching a sporting event with family members or talking around a table like this.  Speeches would be made, and we would know in that way that we were loved and a part of something bigger than ourselves.

How many of us can say we lived our lives the way we want, that we know what we want and how to get it?  How many of us can say we know our place in the world, the universe or with our god with the certainty of Jim Scott? 

I'm sure that after a speech such as this Jim would want us to clink our glasses.

Paper Hearts

More cut paper.... sometimes being creative means seeing what you can do within a certain set of limits. What kind of poem can you write in four lines? What kind of story can you tell in less than 500 words and in 32 pages?

Pencils!

I splurged on a box of Palomino Blackwings and also a pencil sampler pack from www.pencils.com

I had a great time testdriving all the pencils. The Blackwings are lovely and give a soft, dark almost inky line. Of the sample pack, there isn't a forerunner, though the Golden Bears are pretty to look at.

Good stuff! Marilyn.