The temperature's so HOT!!!

This week has been a scorcher and today is over 100° F.  After a few

errands outside, I have now sequestered myself in my airconditioned

house, trying to get the muse awakened.
So far, all I want to do is read.

I broke down and bought a hand operated Big Kick
die cutting machine. Here is a card I made using it.
The cardstock is glossy so there is a glare.

You have to enlarge it to see the Happy Birthday.

Then on Monday I had watercolor class. Here is what I did.

And now here are a couple of spreads from my new journal

that I am working on in mixed media class.

These are my entries for Paint Party Friday. Thanks to all

who visited my blog last week, even those who didn't

leave a comment.

Paint Party Friday

This is the joint effort we did in the mixed media class. I finished it up.

This is how it looked before I finished it.

This was the watercolor class project this week.

Laura came to do painting with me. This is her watercolor background.

I painted the lilies while Laura was here.

These are my entries to the Paint Party Friday.

Mostly Acrylics this Week

The Saturday mixed media class taught by Jo is doing

joint acrylic paintings on wood panels. This has

been around the room a couple of times and has

arrived back to me. We will still be working on

these when we meet on Saturday.

I painted two small canvases which I thought would go

above my sofa flanking the large painting. However,

I like the little ones on my mantle so they may never

see the other wall.

The jardiniere was hand painted by an ancestor in 1898.

And lastly, a little sketch I did a while back.

Visit Paint Party Friday to see some really great art.

Watercolors for PPF

Valerie-Jael has given me permission to paint from her photos.

Here are two watercolors I did from her recent photos

to bring to Paint Party Friday, hosted each week

by Eva and Kristin.

Lily for PPF

This has been a relatively non-creative week. I did

do a watercolor painting of the lily that was in the

bunch of flowers I had bought for myself.

Below is the watercolor lily.

Then I tried to do the lily with oil pastels, a medium

I am completely baffled by.

This is a sketch with digital coloring via Photoshop Elements.

Next is a photo taken from my kitchen window.

 

Here is a photo to show how kids had fun in 1937.

I am the child on the far left. My sister is next to me.

My uncle Leslie and aunt Anne are on the right

And an old digital piece I made some time ago.

Lastly, I helped out in the children's Sunday School

with the craft activity last week. I took my embossing

folder and Texture Boutique embossing machine.

None of the children or other teachers had seen this

done before, so it was a really big hit. Here is the

results of our efforts.  I'm joining the artists at 

Paint Party Friday with this post.

Problem below resolved: By plugging in .fr instead of .com
I can see that Google has supplied the notification needed. 

PS:

NEED HELP! I got a notice about letting EU visitors know about cookies on my blog. I am not sure I even have cookies and certainly don't know how to post an announcement to that effect. I do not see other bloggers with such announcements but I don't want to do anything illegal. Please know that I do have Facebook which I understand uses cookies. If anyone knows what to do, let me know.

Paint Party Friday

More photos of the Legos exhibit and my granddaughter.
The wall "paintings" shown above and last week were more
impressive to me than the 3D figures.

 Doodle using colored pencils and mineral spirits

 First attempt at colored pencils and mineral spirits

 Intuitive painting in watercolors

 Lily using colored pencils and mineral spirits

Another ethereal watercolor
subject to your interpretation:

sky with mountains in fog?

sky and water?

sky and green foreground?

 And one last attempt at using the Prismacolor pencils.

Thanks to Eva and Kristin for so

generously devoting their time to

giving us Paint Party Friday to enjoy.


Since posting these,  I have found some tutorials
on using colored pencils and some blending techniques.
Next time I try, I think they will be much better.
Today's were all my own trial and error efforts.

Skimpy Art Week

My granddaughter and I did watercolors almost every

day she was visiting me . These 2 are mine.

 Here are some photos taken at 

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

and the Legos exhibit.

I'm late getting to Paint Party Friday because I have

been without electricity, water, and telephone for

about twelve hours. PTL, everything is back in service!

Bear Sighting

Last night around 10:30 I heard what sounded like 2 dogs

in distress, as if they had gotten caught in a trap. So I

got into my car and drove around the neighborhood.

Seeing nothing extraordinary, I came home and double

locked the doors. Today I got an email from a near

neighbor who had just seen a bear run through her

backyard. When I called my neighbor next door, he

said he also saw said bear as it ran across the road

and into the woods behind our house.

We live in a small, 34 house subdivision  in a rural area, 

and we have never had a bear visit us. Maybe a fox but

never a bear. We live about a mile as the crow

flies from the James River and bears do travel

along the river, they say. This has shaken my

sense of safety although I know the bear is

probably more afraid of people than the other

way around. If I could draw a bear to illustrate

this event I would do that. I can't draw animals.

So here is a watercolor to show mountains, which
we are about two hours away from and we know
"the bear went over the mountain" (I hope).

The bear went over the mountain.
The bear went over the mountain.
The bear went over the mountain
to see what he could see.
To see what he could see,
To see what he could see.
Oh, the bear went over the mountain
to see what he could see.