Morning Flowers and Tuesdays

I do enjoy doing these quick flowers in the morning after doing my morning journal.  Sitting on the patio listening to the birds and our gurgling fountain is a great way to start my day. Here are a few

 

 

As you can see, quick doesn't always mean good.  It really doesn't matter to me because these aren't going anywhere.  I was sending aome of my quick ones to my cousin but we lost her recently so these will stay here unless I figure out something else to do with them.

The Tuesday Painters are still painting and this summer the group decided to do some churches.  This is the one we did this week.  It's always fun to see how each painting is.  Maybe next week I can take a photo of all of them so you can see how different we all are.

That's it for now.  I have clutter and paintings in process to deal with.

 

 

Thinking Halloween

 My Tuesday Painters group went to the Coffee Factory in Muskegon two weeks in a row.  It has a plethora of Halloween decorations which were fun to do.  This was done this week....

Last week I tried skeletons, they are harder than I thought they would be so I moved on to a real life person.  He was reading his phone so he sat still long enough for me to get a decent sketch.

And now it's time to think about Christmas.  I've been working on poinsettias and snow scenes.  I'll post a couple of those next week.

Reviving An Old Practice And More Poppies

 

With warmer weather and some flowers, I revived an old practice of doing a quick watercolor and ink sketch on top of my morning journaling. Here are a couple more.

Another sketch -- poppies.  My Tuesday Painters group went to Fennville to sketch the Poppy Field this week.  What a beautiful site and a loving tribute to the son of the people who own the field.  His grave is in the cemetery next to the field.  Here is my sketch and an image of the field.

Now I'm off to a gathering of Art Tribe members to talk about our upcoming exhibit at the Gallery Uptown in July.  More on that in another post.

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.

Tuesday At The Hackley Library

 What an amazing building!  There was so much to see and so little time to sit and sketch.  We're going back next week.  

There was so much carving on this fireplace and so little time I opted to just do a portion of it.  Next week I may do the entire fireplace -- or maybe the second fireplace in another room.

 

Or perhaps some of the wonderful old hardware.... these are just a few.

                     

I love old so this place was heaven for me.  The only thing better would have been an old boat yard but that would be outside and it's a bit nippy out.  

We have snow today, not enough yet but a start.  Winter is another love.  My husband says it's because I don't have to shovel it. That's true but I loved it even when I did have to do the shoveling.  The only problem I have with winter is the cold and my Renaud's Syndrome.  I use handwarmers.  My doctor suggested I put heated gloves on my Christmas list.  I didn't know there was such a thing but I put them on the list I gave my husband.  I may even help with the shoveling if he gets them for me.

If I don't get time to post next week I wish you a

  Very Merry Christmas 

and I'll be back before the start of 2023

Tuesday Painters and Starting A Review

 This week my Tuesday Group went to the Spring Lake Library.  Libraries are favorites in winter months,winter is starting and we have 3 libraries to choose from.  We also do coffee shops and that's on the docket for next week.  This is what I did this week along with my morning 5 minutes.

And here are a couple of my 5 minutes in the morning pieces.

I'll continue doing the 5 minutes, at least until the end of the year.  And my Tuesday Group will continue and maybe I'll get out even more since some of us have joined Urban Sketchers West Michigan.

Meanwhile, it's time to begin a review of my year.  I read a few blogs,  Nicole Warrington is one of them and she had a list of review your year questions on her blog a couple years ago.  I kept the questions but never used them for my year end review.  This year I'm going to, they're good questions.  Here are a few of them in them:

    What did I discover this year about my art or my creative process?

    When during the week/day did I feel most creative?

    Where did I find support or community for my creative soul and my creative practice?

    What elements of 2022 do I want to bring forward in 2023.

There were several other posts on Nicoles blog that got me thinking about some things I may add to my morning routine.

And I did another feather this morning...

Until next time....

Back to Lake Michigan and a New Gadget

 This week the Tuesday Group went back to our friend Marna's cottage on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.  It's our go-to spot when the weather turns chilly and the cottage is not yet closed up.

I think I spent more time visiting than sketching but that's part of the enjoyment.  That was Tuesday, I also got a new toy that day but didn't play with it until yesterday.  

A few days ago we had a visitor, she was actually in the yard next door but seemed quite content to stay where she was even while I took the time to put down my coffee cup and pulled my phone out of my pocket.  So what does that have to do with my new toy you ask -- my new toy is Sprocket, a pocket printer that prints 2x3" photos from a phone.  Had to try it.  

I've been doing 5 min something in this little sketchbook, 4x5".  This morning I used it for my 5 minute piece I added the photo.  Part of the fun of these little photos is there is a sticky back if one wants to use it so, of course, I had to try that too.

As long as I'm talking about the 5 minute pieces I'll share a couple of them.  This began as a challenge and I challenged myself to use an eco dyed handmade journal and the scraps that were in a pile on my desk.  It was a 15 day challenge but I had a lot more scraps and a couple more eco dyed handmade journals so I kept going.

I started this challenge in September.  Patting myself on the back for keeping it going.  

Tuesday Group Visited Lake Michigan Today

 It's nice to have friends who have cottages overlooking Lake Michigan.  Our group was blessed this very cold and windy day.  We were up above the lake in one of the wonderful cottages on Peterson's Ridge, thanks to a Peterson daughter.  This was my view --

We'll go back there next week.  There are many views to choose from but this one always seems to be the first one I do every year that we've gone out there.

Tuesday Group Went To The Poor Farm

The official name now is Eastmanville Farm County Park but it's still known as the Poor Farm.  Since we've been doing barns this summer it seemed like a logical place to go so we did.

It's now a Memorial Park in honor of the poor farm.  The home is no longer there but the farm, barn, out buildings and cemetery are there and in the process of being restored.  I didn't make it out to the cemetery part of the park, that's for another day.

Barns remind me of a story an instructor once told about painting barns.  She said her professor said: "...don't paint anything trite like a barn."  Then later said: "Paint what you know."  She said to us: "I'm from Ohio, what I know is barns."

I don't think barns are trite, I've seen some wonderful barn paintings.  My friend Carol Cousineau's barns are among the best I've seen, Here's a link if you'd like to see some of her work Carol Cousineau (galleryuptown.net)

Next week we're back to one of my favorite places to be -- the waterfront.  We'll be painting at a friend's who lives of the river.

More Tuesdays and November Dailies

Yesterday Tuesday Painters were at Hemlock Crossing... a favorite foul weather spot because there are great views from indoors and it is open all year.  This is what I did....

And I'm participating in an Art Everyday Month, November Challenge.  The only day I don't have to show is the 2nd; it was an anniversary card and I gave it away before I got it scanned.

The first day was a sketch bag that will live in my car.  The one I was using finally gave out.

 This one was some leftover paper from the anniversary card...

 And more paper from the anniversary card...

On my morning walk the leaves on the ground looked like angel wings so I picked one up and used it for this little one...

 And while sorting I came across this divider.  I had done a little daily on it in October and put it aside. The flower picture was in the same pile so I added it to the page.

And now I'm off to Virginia for a wedding.