EDIM 29-A Faucet

I am using part of my summer vacation to catch up on some projects that got set aside during the last month of teaching weekly classes. So, although I sketched this today, (7/15/15) I am belatedly posting the sketch for Day 29, May.

Donkey farm faucet

I saw this particular type of faucet in New Mexico at our son's house, on a family trip to Aztec National Monument and at the  JF Miniature Donkey farm. See my sketches from a summer visit to the donkey farm here.

The blue one filled 350 water balloons for our grandson's graduation party this June.  The red one was outside the Aztec Ruins, NM. 

EDim 28-A Yard Ornament or Statuary

I am using part of my summer vacation to catch up on some projects that got set aside during the last month of teaching weekly classes. So, although I sketched this today, I am belatedly posting the sketch for Day 28, May.

Is July 15 too late for EDM?

I just can't get over what a fabulous summer we are having. We have taken advantage of outdoor living, a rare thing in the PNW. This hand blown glass fountain sits in its own little pool between the garage and the studio side of the house. I can hear the sound of the water right outside my studio window. Today, I wanted to sketch a fountain, and all I had to do was walk out my own back door!

EDiM 25 - An apron or something you wear as cover during messy activities

Gary's Garden Gloves

Although there are a few aprons hanging on the easel in a corner of my studio, I was inspired by my husband's garden gloves. He needed to run back to the store for more gardening supplies, so I pulled up the garbage can as my temporary easel and sketched this. Just as I found it. It's a messy activity.

Update: I've been Explored! This is the third painting of mine that has been invited by Flickr to be included in the Explore Group!   I am honored. Over 2,556 views and counting!

EDiM 24 - Some keys

When you think of the option of sketching keys, so many things come to mind:

• House keys and car keys, of course
• Piano keys, as in my sketch of Dale in Silverton
• On a map, the key to various points of interest, highways, etc.
• The Florida Keys 
• "The key to a man's heart........."

 But these are the keys that came to my mind as a result of a recent family announcement.

EDiM 23 - An Interesting Section of a Building

Just a very small portion of the old barn on HWY 20

I drive by this place almost every week, whether on my way to meet the Anacortes sketchers during the summer or on my way to teach a class during the rest of the year.

There are just so many parts of this barn that show the patches, paint and problems of wear and tear through the years. I can't imagine what it would take to restore the whole thing because it is gigantic, even for a barn.

EDiM 20 - Your Wallet/Billfold

After I started sketching in more urban areas, I decided to get a compact wallet. It's one that has a shield for cards that have RFID. It holds my credit cards, ORCA pass, and a few bills, but not so good for change.
I picked the one that looks like Vincent Van Gogh's painting of the Irises. Good choice for an artist, eh?

EDiM 19 - A Cupcake

What can I say? Strawberry whipped cream frosting on a chocolate cupcake with chocolate shavings and a fresh strawberry on top.

EDiM 18 - Lipstick/lip gloss

"Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together," - Elizabeth Taylor
I think Liz and the Red Queen would have either got along famously....or would have gone down in flames together.

EDiM 16 - Ingredients for a Favorite Recipe

My take on Mom's Waldorf Salad

Ingredients for a Favorite Recipe
About this time of year, my family would have a family picnic in the park near where my grandparents lived. Grandma would make potato salad with homemade mayonnaise and my mother would make her Waldorf Salad.

I made my own version of Mom's Waldorf salad today and reminisced.

EDiM 15-Something you could throw/give away

"Throw" pillows, literally!

These pillows are probably the softest, most comfortable ones in our family room. On each occasion of serious TV watching, however, the tassels have been coming apart, losing their threads a little at a time. A few more adjustments, plumping, and scrunching of these pillows, and the last two tassels will look as threadbare as the rest.  Time to get some new pillows. (Not to mention a change of decor being long overdue!)

EdiM 14 - Something You Use Every Day

I simply couldn't choose just one, so I sketched both my iPad and my sketch kit. I use them both every day to make and publish my artwork. Actually there are three things that I carry with me and use daily. My phone is the third in this trio of essentials.

Note: I have been so busy this past week and upcoming schedule is just as jammed; so even if I sketch each day, I may not be able to post until my calendar clears up a bit. At this very moment, I am prepping for a two day workshop I am teaching at Kirkland Arts Center this coming weekend.

EDiM 13 - The last thing you bought

You know when you run out of something, so you go to the store to pick it up, and halfway home you realize that those two bags of groceries in the trunk contain everything BUT the thing you went to the store to get in the first place? Well, I stopped by 7-11 on the way home and I bought this.

 

Anybody see the problem here? Almost gone already. Now I have to go back for more. Hope I remember what I went for when I get there. Arrgh!

EDiM 12 - Some stairs or steps

Watercolor Landscape-Step by Step

 

 

 

 

Nearly every day of the week, I teach watercolor. Part of the lesson often entails a demonstration of how to paint the subject, step by step.

I am a contributing author in two books, "The Ultimate Guide to Painting from Photographs" and Gary Greene's "Artists' Photo Reference: Buildings and Barns",  both published by North Light Books. My portion of each book includes step by step watercolor instruction.

EDiM 11 - A hat, cap or other headgear

Quinn has a pink fluffy owl hat.

This winter, Quinn got all bundled up and went out for a walk with her family. It's one of the rare times that she didn't have her hat off in a matter of minutes.

When it comes to portraits of toddlers, I have to use a photo. Even if the hat stays on, the face is turning in every direction, coming and going, and changing into all manner of expressions. Wish I could capture it all!

EDIM 10 - Something you can turn on and off

I have been turning this knob on and off for approximately 35 years. My husband installed this wall heater in my studio when we converted the garage.

It's one of the few analog things we have left around here.

EDIM 9 - Something with an interesting label

I already sketched some interesting labels while making pancakes one Saturday morning. But, here we are on Day 9 of the Every Day in May sketching, drawing, painting challenge and I need to find an interesting label again.

This bottle has been in the back of my refrigerator for longer than I can remember. I just can't bring myself to open it, because the label is so unique.

EDiM 8 - something with a handle

Before Twitter, there was CB (Citizen's Band) Radio. Citizens band channels are shared by many users. Only one station may transmit at a time; other stations must listen and wait for the shared channel to be available. That's when you said, "Breaker, breaker!"

CB operators had handles before Twitter.

After the 1973 oil crisis the U.S. government imposed a nationwide 55 MPH speed limit, and fuel shortages and rationing were widespread. CB radio was used (especially by truckers) to locate service stations with better supplies of fuel, to notify other drivers of speed traps, and to organize blockades and convoys in a 1974 strike protesting the new speed limit and other trucking regulations. That's when people invented their own nicknames, or "handles". Betty Ford, the former First Lady of the United States, used the CB handle "First Mama"

Yes, children. And this # used to be called the lb. sign, as in 140# Cold Press Watercolor Paper.

EDiM 7 - An Envelope

You can subscribe to receive a monthly letter for 6 months or a year.

I have a packet of 6 "letters from Paris" by Carol Gillott of the fabulous blog "Paris Breakfasts". This one had a copy of her hand painted letter for May, with a scent paper from a lovely parfum enclosed and a beautiful business card from a Paris restaurant. All around the lower edge of the letter were lily of the valley watercolor florals .

When I first started following her blog, she was in love with macarons and made the most wonderful watercolors of them. Naturally, she had intense research to do. You really should paint what you know. Presently, she is having a whirl with caviar!

Class today

The Stanwood gang at Heritage Park 

What a lovely day! Our last class, outdoors, sunny weather, and a potluck picnic afterwards! We should do this again!

EDiM - 5 & 6

Day 5 - Something hot

My hairdryer, with the hot pink stripe, is so hot after I use it that it goes "tic, tic, tic" even after it's turned off.

Day 6 - Something with bristles

My boar bristle hair brush. Boaring, I know. Get it? Hehe. 

Seriously, though, I would have liked to draw the muzzle of a walrus with his bristles, but I have no access to walruses. 

I'm catching up after a very busy week. So I hope I get extra credit for posting two sketches for day five. :)

EDiM 5 - Something Hot

Paint or draw something hot.
Well, that subject is WIDE OPEN! However, I settled on sketching this today:

Painted on location at Heritage Park, Stanwood, WA. 5/7/15

Heard of cat on a hot tin roof? No cat, just the roof. Aaaaaand it's hot off the easel. :)

Late post. Catching up on EDIM while juggling artwork delivery for Mothers Day Tour on Camano Island, weekly classes and life in general. 

EDiM - 4 Bottle(s) of Herbs or Spices

Years ago, I met a chef who gave me his recipe for bouillabaisse. It included a crucial ingredient, he told me; saffron. Since it was so expensive, I tried planting my own Saffron crocus. Fail. The flowers come up every year but I never get any threads* from them.

Square bottle of Saffron, Bay Leaves, Cordon Bleu Mixed Herbs for Pasta, Italian Herbs, Rosemary, Garlic & Sea  Salt, Vial of Saffron

*Saffron crocus grows to 20–30 cm (8–12 in) and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are the distal end of a carpel. The styles and stigmas, called threads, are collected by hand and dried to be used mainly as a seasoning and coloring agent in food.

Camano Island Annual Mother's Day Studio Tour May 8, 9, 10

I am honored to announce that I have been invited to show at A Guilded Gallery in Stanwood during the Camano Island Annual Mother's Day Studio Tour. We are #32 on the interactive map.


So if you Sunday Painters have been wondering where I am, I am in the studio packing things up to deliver to the gallery today. I have been thinking of you, though. I think you should join me and a few others who are answering the challenge to paint, sketch or draw something every day in May.You don't even have to think up something to draw because there is a prompt for each day of the month. Today's prompt is draw or paint bottle(s) of herbs or spices.

It's not too late! You can catch up. More info here.

Then come to Camano Island May 8-10 for the fabulous Annual Studio Tour. Start at A Guilded Gallery, where a bit of my work is displayed along with other great artists. While you're there, pick up a studio map and tour to your heart's content!

EDiM 3 - Curtains

I'm doing the Every Day in May sketch challenge and the prompt for day 3 is curtains.

 
I was browsing online and my heart was caught by a photo of the naughty cat nestling in her window, shredded curtains and all. It brought back memories of my grandmothers.

I come from a long line of farmers in Kansas and Alberta, though I have never lived on a farm. My great grandmother said it wasn't a home unless there were lace curtains in the window. Same attitude about cats; not allowed inside!
I wrote to say how lovely Barbara's photos are and how much her words resonate.

Barbara has generously given me permission to use her photo as the source for my sketch today. Please see why I love reading her words and am inspired by her beautiful pictures.

Visit her blog at Farm Girl Studios

Curtains - Transparent watercolor and graphite, Pentalic Aqua Sketchbook

EDIM 2 - A Nearby Tree

Day 2 of the Every Day in May sketch challenge. How are you doing so far? Remember, it's meant to inspire and encourage, so don't worry, you can catch up or skip a day or two. Not too late to get started!



The prompt today is to sketch a nearby tree. The house is filled with the scent of lilacs, cut from my row of 9 in the back yard. But I am in love with the two white birches at the end of our front driveway next to the mailboxes. The light is illuminating them this morning as I stand across the street with my Pentalic Premier pen and Pentalic Aqua Sketchbook. I am tempted to get my little mini Altoids kit and dash in the shadows, but I resist. I am happy with the line work.....it says how connected everything is.


Once before, I made a proper watercolor painting of the sunlight and shadows on the bark.
You can zoom a high resolution image of the line drawing here on my Flickr photostream.

EDIM 1-Draw a Favorite Food

Started in 2006, by French Toast Girl, EDIM is a world wide sketch challenge to be creative every day. Follow the link here for more about this year's challenge.

I am looking forward to sketching along with everyone around the globe, using each day's prompts in our own way. Are you in?

Today's prompt is Draw a Favorite Food. I'll update this later today after dinner. :) Update: 10:00 pm

Spicy Herb Fish at Maephim Thai Restaurant---Pentalic Aqua Sketchbook, pen, watercolor

Whole rainbow trout pan fried to perfection, then topped with spicy lime juice, rice powder, cilantro, onion, cherry tomatoes, lemongrass, and mint leaves. This is my half...I sketched while my husband enjoyed his portion. They have many other recipes that we like, too.

Sketching and eating are mutually exclusive !

What was your sketch for the first day of the challenge?

Tomorrow: a nearby tree