What I did this summer.

I went to bed way to early last night so now it's 4 am and I am awake and sitting in front of my computer wondering if there is anything interesting in here.  After catching up on a few of the blogs I follow I got feeling guilty for not writing in my own blog very much this summer.   I have thought about sitting down to write many times but other things just got in the way like building a house I suppose.  Well here goes, a little up date on what my summer has been like.




We went from a hole in the hill in May to a house built in September.

 It will still be a while until we are living in it but at this point we are pretty much done what we wanted to do for this year. 

 

The house is sealed up for the winter, windows, doors, roof, siding.  That is where we had planned to be by fall as we will go south to Texas for the winter. We did manage to get a few extra things done.  We added on 3 decks and we used trees from our yard to make the log railings and posts around the high deck and the logs to hold the deck up.

 Bernie also built a fantastic entry way and is now building us a green house so we can start growing as soon as we get back to Saskatchewan.


Meanwhile we are living in the little shack cabin and I have to tell you that it is COLD in here!!  I have a heater going, am wrapped up in a blanket and the temperature right now is about 14c.  Usually we have a fire going and if I didn't have to go outside to get the wood, it's 0c out there, I would build one.   We usually have wood inside, but I guess Bernie was chilly last night after I went to bed because it's all gone. 

This blog is supposed to be about my art and even though I have not been writing about it I have still been creating art.  Maybe nothing really interesting to show you but I have kept my creative juices flowing by making ATC's (Art Trading Cards) and trading with other, usually Zentangle, artists.  I will quite a big stack of ATC's, will count them and show you some of the really amazing ones real soon.


I took a Cob oven building class this summer.  Cob is an old English word for Lump!  And a cob oven is made from sand, clay and straw all mixed together - with your feet!  Then the cob lumps are built into a round igloo shaped dome that makes the most amazing pizza or bread oven.  One day I hope to build one of my own but not until I have figured out where I want to put it in the yard. 

That is me in the purple shirt and overalls!

I also have my first teaching job here in our new town!  Just a Saturday afternoon drawing class but I am really excited to meet some other local artists and creative people.  The class is next weekend and I'm so excited that I have had the lesson planned and everything prepared of over a week now. 

It's been a really busy summer, just flew by.  We had lots of company, all the kids came a couple of times each, our closest neighbor was around quite a bit building his cabin and we have made some great new Nipawin friends. 

My Grandson and his dog, Molly.

Life is Good! 

Tangled Tropical Garden Card

I should be better at writing these blogs.  I have been doing it long enough now to know that it's not that hard for me to find something to write about.  I have been creative these past weeks, in a whole lot of ways actually. 

I have a great little space set up in the cabin with all my favorite art supplies within easy reach and my pens and some paper by my favorite chair just in case there isn't anything interesting on TV in the evenings.  I have been drawing, doing a little painting and even taking some pictures of my work.  It seems that the only thing Im not doing is writing about it. 

I think I get distracted by all the wonderful flora and fauna around me.  It's so beautiful here at our little piece of paradise.   And there is that other little thing that gets in the way, building a house!

 

Since I have been taking pictures and don't have much time to write, how about if I just show you the last big project I finished.

 It is a card I made for my mom for Mothers Day.  I got the idea from the e-book Tropical Tangled Garden by Cheryl Moote.  I took 1 sheet of 12 by 18 watercolor paper and cut it in half the long way giving me 2 sheets 6 x 18.  I stitched those pieces together again the long way, 6 x 36 inches and accordion folded that into a cover sheet to make the card.  Then I got busy and drew lots of plants, flowers and leaves on both sides.  In total that makes 6 feet of drawing.  When I was happy with all the plants I painted the whole thing. 

I used Koi water colors, Peerless watercolors, Intense pencils, Blick watercolors and my Tombow brush pens. 

So here are a whole bunch of pictures of the card. 

Enjoy!

 

Wow, You made it all the way to the bottom!  Thanks for looking and I hope these pictures inspire you to make a few Tangled Tropical Gardens of your own. 

 

Leave a comment if you want, I love to get feed back, good and bad, but mostly good I hope! 

 

Lori

Creative Juices

I have really settled into my lovely crafting and painting space and finally have something I think is worthy of showing you.

 I try to do some painting every morning and right now that morning time is stretching into afternoon and evening as well. 

Hey, when the mood hits I need to go with it cause it won't last for ever and I want to allow that creative juice to flow through my body and out of my paint brush just as long as it wants to. 

 I started out with a graphite sketch of some mushrooms and some lines that later became the grasses and ferns.  Then I added a wash of watercolor and in this case used my Dick Blick liquid water colors and a water brush.

 
 
 Next came come pen lines.  I gave the ferns and leaves some substance and myself some kind of idea where things were going to go.  I used Copic Multiliner SP because it is water proof so won't care if I paint over it.

If you look close you can see I put down a little masking fluid.  I am not careful enough to leave the highlights on my watercolors so it comes in handy.

 Now I have started to add some color to the mushrooms.  I used Tombow watercolor markers and a water brush to set down the basic color then went  over them again and again adding layers of color with all kinds of other mediums.  I used more liquid watercolor, some Inktense pencils, Dylusions sprays, an old set of Prang, even some Sakura pens, basically pulled out my stash and had at it.

 

The final step was to add all the tangle patterns, doodles and swirls, lots of dots too. 

I worked on four paintings at the same time.  That allows me to let one dry enough before going over it again and not drag my arm through the paint, smearing it and making a mess.  It also gives me a series of paintings that are all similar in color and style.



                                       So here is a little show of the paintings I just finished.