A Wagon full of Toys

Here is the watercolor class project for the week.

Be sure to visit all the artists' blogs on Paint Party Friday.

Mountains in the Mist

Watercolor class's project was misty mountains. I am posting

the two I did as my entry to Paint Party Friday.

Life is getting hectic as November closes. I have put up my wreaths

on my front windows and my Christmas tree in my living room.

I have packages ready to mail but I haven't done the cards yet.

I am trying to downsize and either move into a smaller place or

stay here with less clutter. That means I am clearing out all the

excess boxes of papers from past decades, leaving me very little

time to do art except during the classes I am taking.  I may have

trouble getting to everyone's blogs, but I will definitely

visit anyone who leaves a comment on my blog. I only miss

if someone visits a few days past Paint Party Friday since

I rarely come to my blog except on Thursday and Friday.

Class Project this Week

Enjoying a quiet Thanksgiving Day evening after

my son and his family left. They provided most

 of the food (yay!). It was great to see them all.

This is my entry for Paint Party Friday. 

Two Flowers

Things have been really stressful around here. To make matters

worse, I have now accidentally deleted my printer from the

list of printers. The list is blank. There is nothing to print with.

I have a wireless setup and have no idea what to do. My dh

set this up several years ago. With him gone, I can't imagine

what to do, even after reading stuff on the internet.

I may have to hire someone to come to the house to set it up.

Here are a couple of watercolor class projects:

These are my entries to Paint Party Friday.

A Mixed Bag!

Thanks again to Kristin and Eva for hosting Paint Party Friday.

This weekly event is a wealth of beautiful art. It is such

fun to see what my internet artist friends have been doing

in their art studios. Just click on each name on the PPF website.

First I'll start out with the finished cat painting.

Next is this week's watercolor project of Japanese maple leaves.

Then I did a few faces at home. One was so bad that I

decided to change it to sepia  with Photoshop Elements.

I did some digital art using Photoshop Elements.

This last one was made with digital brushes by
Annika von Holdt in her Good and Evil collection.
Her website is annikavonholdt.com where her images are.
They can be used for non-commercial purposes by
linking back to her webside.

Love this Autumn Weather!

The temperature and humidity have both dropped this week

and it really feels like October at last! Crisp and cool.

This rusty lock and chain is the watercolor project we did this week:

and here is a WIP from the class I missed:

If I don't mess up the cat, I will try to show the finished work

next week. Thank you, Eva and Kristin for hosting this

weekly art show called Paint Party Friday.

Watercolor and Monoprints

Monday's watercolor project is below:

The journal/mixed media class was fun. We did monoprints on

gallon sized plastic bags that we had taped to the table. It was a

revelation to discover that we didn't need the gel plates (although

I do own one of the small ones). My dil found this board book

at Goodwill and gave it to me. I used the monoprint technique to

cover the outside and some of the inside pages. This a WIP.

I also covered a few pieces of cardstock the same way.

Looking forward to seeing all the great art at

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY!

Autumn Leaves

My watercolor class project this week was a painting of

some birch trees, as shown below:

Last Saturday's mixed media/journaling class

consisted of making a house-shaped journal from

a children's board book using scraps of painted 

papers and copies of family photos.

This is a sketch I did and colorized with Photoshop Elements.

And lastly in this post for Paint Party Friday is a tiny watercolor
of a girl with big Texas-like hair! I didn't mean for it to get
so big. It just did. Anyway, I think she has a nice face.

Happy because my daughter is coming from Houston

to visit me (and to attend her high school reunion.)

I will probably not do much art while she's here.

Apples

We painted a bowl of apples in watercolor class this week.

Then I went home and played around with apple paintings.

Autumn is here at last. I hope that some of the

artists who took a summer break will be back soon

at Paint Party Friday.

Pencils and Paint

 Wow! I won Jennifer's Brad Taylor giveaway!
I am so excited to get these two books since next to
painting, reading is my favorite pastime.  Thanks
so much, Jennifer. Looking forward to digging into
these exciting books.

When I'm in a reading mood, the art muse disappears.

What I have to show for Paint Party Friday was an effort to get 

back to painting.  I made a watercolor painting of a red flower

then I tore it in two to make two greetings cards. I also made

a Prismacolor pencil "painting" of a red flower and tore it in

two to make two more greetings cards. Each card had dry embossing

in a corner of the painting after painting but
before making into a card.

Then I did a watercolor painting of a stream scene and

the same approximate scene in pencils. Both were

made into greetings cards. The colors of both below cards
are not quite what they are in real life. Even with PSE
I have trouble getting the screen to show the true colors.

So much water...

This is not new. I spent so much time watching the TV

that I really did zero art. Neither of my art classes met

so I can't even show class projects.

My daughter lives in Houston. Her house is in one of the

highest points in Houston, although anyone who has been

to Houston knows that there are no really high points except

freeway overpasses.  Still a mother worries. Especially after

 seeing what devastation came to that area. So my daughter is safe.

Her house is safe. Her cats are safe.  But so many were not

so fortunate. I cried several times when I saw some of those

scenes of people being evacuated with only a small bag of

clothing or whatever they chose to escape with. So sad.

Not entering Paint Party Friday this week but I will try to visit some 

of you. Please do what you can to help with Houston recovery.

I'm so tired!

Today a neighbor and I tried to locate the buried black 

corrugated drainage pipe along my gravel driveway. He was

able to uncover quite a bit of the pipe and  worked for 2 hours

on my project. I took up where he left off. There are 54' that have

to be replaced because of damage. The drainage is stopped up and

water runs down my driveway making furrows. After about 7 hours

of digging with several different tools, I found the rest of the

pipe, buried down about 6" deep.  So tonight I rest.

Tomorrow I go get replacement pipe.

Saturday I assist a young laborer I have hired to replace it.

I don't know what to do with the debris filled old pipe!

Now for the art I have to show for Paint Party Friday,

that wonderful gallery of all kinds of art. PPF is hosted

by Kristin and Eva. Thanks so much.

Watercolor project for the week:

Two cards I made this week:

A repeat showing of an acrylic painting I made

last year (I think) using Valerie's photo (with permission).

A really old pastel painting I made of one of the participants

of Berkeley Plantations' Thanksgiving ceremony.

And finally, a photo of the praying mantis I found on my flower pot.

If anyone would like to paint him, be my guest.  I don't

think I can do him justice in a painting.

PPF - 8/17/17

 😢

I live about an hour east of Charlottesville VA.

I and all Virginians I know were horrified by the violence that 

occurred in that lovely town. Who in the world granted 

permission for the hate groups to march through the streets 

yelling abominable, hate-filled slogans?

Someone knew there might be violence, though, because I myself

heard on TV a representative from Charlottesville (the Mayor???)

urging the citizens of Charlottesville to please stay at home and

not to go out to protest the protestors, in order to keep peace.

We see that they didn't stay home as requested but went to

the rally armed with baseball bats and sticks to confront the

marchers, who were also armed with sticks. 

Could it be that both groups were from outside the area?

Prejudice is wrong. Violence is also wrong.

MLK did not use violence and his civil rights movement

made a huge difference in the places I have lived. And

I have lived in 7 different states and several areas of some.

The deep-seated hatred we saw last weekend will not be

easily eradicated. I have lived many decades in the south. 

I know that prejudice still exists here and also in the north.

In my own experience, however, I see people of all races interacting

 as equals at work, in churches, and in the marketplace, something 

completely unheard of in my youth. Although we have a way to go,

looking back over my 80+ years, I can categorically say that

race relations in the middle class are night and day different

from that which I grew up surrounded by.  The KKK and others

do not represent the majority of people in the south and definitely

not the majority of people in central Virginia.

Now to art. Here is what we did in watercolor class...

And here are 2 sky scenes I made at home...

Thank you, Eva and Kristin, for being so generous

with your time and hosting Paint Party Friday.

EDIT: Since posting this I have been made aware that 

there were not 2 opposing groups in C'ville Saturday.

There were 4 or more: Those I will call the haters;

those who wanted statues pulled down; those who

were there to express loathing for the haters; and

those who were there to oppose those who wanted

the statues torn down. Some other groups included

people who wanted to keep the statues but get rid of

the haters, and other various combinations of reasons to be there.

Also, noted: there were protestors and counter-protestors

who were local (in spite of the warning to stay home) and

others who came from other localities and other states.

Party Time!

This was painted in Monday's watercolor class.

This painted paper was made Saturday in mixed media class.

Most of the week was spent attending to various house

repairs and trying to get repairmen lined up to do the repairs.

Thank you, Eva and Kristin, for hosting the community of artists

that contribute to Paint Party Friday.

Paint Party Friday

This week was a little more arty than last week. I made a card

at a shut-in's home and left it for her after my visit. Sorry I

don't have a photo of that one or the other 5 I sent this week.

But I do have the double page spread I finished in my mixed media

class on Saturday. I used several painted papers and tore off a

piece from a collaged paper I had made a few months ago.

And here is what we did in Monday's watercolor class:

Inspired by the class watercolor, I made one on my own:

This is an older painting I have shown before:

One of my friends said she didn't like the dark tree 

in the middle of my log cabin I showed last week, so I 

lifted some of the dark green paint. Here is the result.

It's not often someone will tell you they don't like

something in your painting, but I'm glad she let me know.

I know it looks better than last week's version.

Thanks to Eva and Kristin for providing 

Paint Party Friday each week.