The 100 Day Project Meets Sketchbook Revival

I’ve been doing the 100 Day Project and recently joined Sketchbook Revival.  

I joined the Revival because three artists I follow do a short workshop.  Of the three, JeanneOliver was the first workshop and she did a flower.  It fit my 100 Day Project -- perfect.  I like her work and she fills her newsletter with interesting information about favorite artists, interesting books she’s reading and videos she thinks are worth watching.

The other two are Robyn McClendon and Karen Stamper.  Robyn does a lot of gelli printing collage paper videos. I love gelli printing.  Karen is a boat person, how can I not love her work.

And since I’m introducing artists I admire, let me introduce you to Sandy Meyer.

She’s one of my Art Tribe friends.  I met her when she joined the Gallery Uptown which I’m part of.  The Tribe will be having an exhibit at the Gallery in July and I hope to introduce you to all of them before that show.  It will give you a taste of what you will see in the exhibit – 7 artists, 7 different visions.  But back to Sandy.

It wasn’t until she brought a painting of her quilt to the gallery that I realized I’d met her years before.  I went home to check and sure enough, a page I tore out of The Artist’s Magazine had an image of the same quilt.  Not the same painting but definitely the same quilt and the article was about the artist – Sandy Meyer.

Sandy’s from Quincy Illinois, between Mark Twain country and Lincoln country – she says both had an influence on who she is.  As one of 10 kids her escape was to go to the woods, the river bank, the fields and gardens with her watercolors and her sketchbook.  It was her quiet time.

She tells me she always knew she was an artist – both her kindergartner teacher and the school principal tol her so when they saw the drawing of her family that she had done.

You can see her work is way different than mine but I love it.  you can see more of Sandy’s work on her facebook page, there is a link above.

Just Playing With Watercolor

 The last few florals done for #my100dayproject have been just putting paint down and seeing what happens.  

Some I like.  I don't start with a plan other than my color choices.

And sometimes even that changes.  The lilacs started out pink but morphed into this --

I do a rough sketch of a pot first but don't decide the color of it until I'm done with the flowers.

These are all 5x7" which makes it easier to watch paints mix.  These have been fun and I have a few more 5x7" pieces so may try a few more.

Another Sunflower

 And I do like this one better

Actually, when I started this I planned on doing Daylilys.  There was a photo of several on the weekend drawing event over on wetcanvas.com last weekend.  I finally decided I didn't like where the Daylilys drawing was going and I already had the paper covered with some yellows so -- why not try another Sunflower. I'm much happier with this one.

This week my Tuesday Painters group went to Herrick Library in Holland to see the quilts on exhibit.  This is national quilt month and all the libraries in our area are showcasing quilts made by women in the area.  The quilts were fun to see but I wasn't inspired to sketch a bunch of books on shelves or any of the quilts so I opted to do some pencil sketches of people, two sketchers and one librarian shelving books.  Then some playing with lettering.

That was fun, I may do more of that -- both the people sketching and the lettering.  Since the pandemic we no longer eat out much and that was when I did most of my people sketching.  I do want to get back to doing it.

And speaking of quilts, I've been talking with a friend who has painted a few quilts that she has made.  I love her work and want to introduce you to her.  I'll be working on that introduction for an upcoming blog post.

What else, more in my art journal and I've read a couple books.  My grandson has a fractured hip and can't walk here from school so I pick him up.  A book helps kill the time waiting in the parking lot.  It also means I need to keep reading at other times so I can try and figure out who done it.  

Spring is coming -- I think I'll paint some daffodils.

The Challenge Continues

 And some turned out quite nice.  This is one and here are a couple more...

And some, not so nice ...  Too many lilacs on such a small piece of paper.  This is about 2"x3". I should have limited the number of branches.

And this one is just way overworked.  I was not having fun and it shows.

These are watercolor.  I'm planning to do a couple more watercolor before moving on to acrylic -- or maybe collage.