The Waiting Game

Here I am!  I'm still waiting for my first grandchild to be due; obviously "it" is overdue or past due (whatever suits your fancy).  I must endeavour to acquire the gift of patience; I see it as a character flaw that I need to continuously work on.  I know that we live in a culture of instant gratification and I have tried to ignore those yearnings but it is so very hard to do so.  It is almost as if we have never grown up and we are stuck in a childish rut.  It is as if we forgot to slough off some programming from when we were children.  In those days we always wanted for things and wanted it when we wanted it; meaning we wanted it, NOW!

This is a picture from a supper boat cruise that I went on at Toronto, Ontario harbour back in 2009.

Here is the results from last weeks art class.  I don't think that I chose the right picture for the medium that we were using last week - watercolour.  I got inspired by one of my classmates.  Several weeks ago during the acrylic class she brought a store-bought card of light reflection in water.  I knew that I had taken a snap several years ago with a similar subject matter.  I did find it and took it to class and here is my attempt. My photo included the cityscape buildings in the background so I cropped them out to make my picture similar to that of hers.

My reproduction of the picture is not as precise as I had hoped but that was due to the fact that the instructor flipped the picture upside down so that I would not concentrate so much on the photograph and spend more time on my art piece.  Having said that, I see that I would like to try this once again because I do indeed like the photograph and would like to reproduce it more closely because of the way it "flows"  I like the sporadic nature of the red "line" and I like how the yellow is only a "highlight" of the green.  I even would like to attempt re-creating the grey line as well.

Again I have to say that this is the reason I took this class; I got to play with different paint media that I might not have otherwise.

Persimmons

I can tell when I am tired and not necessarily hungry.... I pick up fruit and veggies at the grocery store to draw on my night shift.  I buy it thinking that I will have something interesting to draw on my days off.  However, it was desperately quiet last night which makes every minute feel like an hour and pure drudgery.  A new edict has put put out that we are not allowed "personal devices" and actually "on our person" while working.  Yup, that means no iPhone for me!  The thing is... it is also my calendar so if I take the procedure literally then I have to revert to paper copy.  I never thought that the day would come when I would have to revert to ancient technologies.  I mean, I finally got to present day technology, so far I am really enjoying my Macbook and iPhone and the Evernote app to reduce my paper consumption.  Strange.  I can understand it to a point but I think that not having it on your person so that it can be used not as a phone or as a vehicle to get on the internet is going just a bit too far.

I digress.  I bought a persimmon while I was picking up my salad for work; I bought it because it looked interesting.  The girls at work checked it out on the internet and it seems that my choice of fruit is not quite edible....yet.  The orange flesh of this fruit is quite hard and it should be soft to the touch.  I really chose it to draw and not to eat but I will not be consuming it myself anyway it seems.  Thankfully,  I have a hubby who likes tropical fruit so I hope he likes this.  From what they learned it is full of tannins so I think that I will stay clear in fear of getting a migraine.  I already eat too much other stuff that I shouldn't and I would be afraid that this would put me over the edge.  Maybe I can survive a  "taste".

I had forgotten my pencil case at home so I search all of the work stations to find a 2B pencil that still had an erasure on it.  It is just office supply quality but something is better than nothing.  I can see that my perspective is slight off and I think I should have made the background slightly darker to bring the fruit forward.  Now that I look at it again, my green centre is definitely not dark enough either.  Regardless is it a drawing to pass the time in a positive way.  It is okay after many months of not drawing anything since my fathers illness and death.  I love making a mark with my pencil; there is just something so very satisfying in its simplicity.

Art Class II

Here is a photo of my piece that I did in art class last week.  I was inspired by a photograph that I took last March and was created in water mixable oil paint.  This is my first painting ever in this medium and although it was enjoyable it has one draw back.....it is till not dry.  I know that all of the fine art painters would consider that to be a positive aspect, I on the other hand do not.  When I took my colour theory course in university (many years ago via long distance study), I received in mail a box of acrylic paints.  I have never tried anything else.  Of course that is the whole reason why I took this art class in the first place!

 Okay so this isn't the exact photograph but it is the only one that I have watermarked in iPhoto.  It certainly will suffice.  I took tons of photo's that frosty morning while the sun was rising.  My fingers were almost frozen by the time decided that I had had enough snaps.  I certainly was a sight to see and I was happy that I made the detour to the water's edge of Lake Simcoe to see it so early in the morning and following my night shift.

I find trying to capture the essence of my photograph is more difficult than I had first thought.  Isn't it always the way.....we always attribute simplicity in others work.... but... when we try it ourselves we finally realize that there is nothing simple about applying paint to canvas or in this case to canvas board/panel.

I have to say that I really do like the "look" of oil.  I has it's own look and feel that is quite wonderful.   Again, my photography skills do not do the colours in this painting justice.  I think I need to add highlights in the icy snow to show the reflection from the rising sun.  Not sure how I will accomplish that but I am thinking maybe oil pastels might be the answer.  I'll have to think about it before I actually apply the pastel.

Belize

Oh well....days off can't hang around forever!! I will have to force myself once again to get up at 04:30 hrs.  What is it with me?  There is nothing worse than getting up in the dark and coming home in the dark.

My hubby has returned safe and sound from inspecting our lot in Belize.  He bought it sight unseen and I am happy to report that it is high and dry!! I look forward to going down south myself but I will wait until my grand-child is born before I venture far afield.

Here is the only photo that we have of my hubby's trip.  It is taken by a fellow tourist because my hubby forgot to pack the camera.  Thankfully the resort is sending it to him via snail mail.  Check the resort out at www.matarocks.com

The day before his return it snowed and thankfully it has melted away.  I have to say that it was pretty but I was a tad tired on my way home from my night shift so I really didn't appreciate it that much.  I did get some snap while I walked in from the yard.

I think I would love to try for some late harvest or ice wine although there is not enough of this wild fruit to make any....even if I knew how to do it.

I haven't worked on finishing my painting and won't have the time today since I have to get all my stuff ready for work. 

Sunrise Painting

My hubby has been away checking out the plot of land that he bought in Ambergrise Caye, San Pedro, Belize.  I used my alone time to paint.  It has been some time since I have even felt like painting anything. I am almost happy with it but I can see two things that I want to change before I declare that I am finished.  Oh yes, I need to finish the frame as well.

Here is a photograph of my inspiration...I took it this past October and thought it might be interesting in a painting.  I use acrylics and it enjoyed the layering process to achieve the colour that I wanted.

Now this is not the exact photo that I used but it was taken the same morning (this is the only one that was already watermarked).  I don't live on the water but only about a mile away.  I just took a detour down to the public access on Lake Simcoe to grab a few snaps using my point and shoot Panasonic Lumix.   I usually carry this camera around  in my car with me for just such occasions- moments of spontaneity.  I could see the sky on my drive home and I was sure that this would be a great photo taking opportunity. 

However, what I don't like is the water.  I know that it is the lens of the camera that reads the water as dark when in fact it really isn't.  So, I will use some of artistic licence by changing the colour so that it does not read as "black".  There is no reason to be a slave to the actual photograph.

Now my photographic skills need to be improved, I think that I should have re-positioned the easel  away from the window a bit more.  I think that would have eliminated the glare on the right hand side.  Overall, I need to do a bit of tweaking of the water and the sky above the sun a bit and it should be considered done.  My hubby is a good creative critic and even he agrees with my intended modifications.

Home Alone

I have the house to myself for the next week!  I can watch all the television I want and pick my channel.  I can eat what I want, when I want.  I can do exactly what I want to do and when I want to do it.  Wow!  The choice!

So I have been busy trying to paint a picture that I took.  I have made some design changes that I think suit a painting although it will deviate from the original picture that I took last March.  It is actually a sunrise photograph and I love sunrises and sunsets.  I am having some difficulties because I don't really know my brush strokes well enough.  I don't know how to make the water resemble water.  I have done what I can and it looks kinda sorta like water but I'm not always the best judge.

Here are some pictures that I painted in class this week.  They are colour studies, one blue and one burnt sienna.

I ran the study in blue through my iPhone 100 Camera's program and it came out looking like an antique and in many ways greatly enhanced the original picture.

The burnt sienna picture did not fair well through the same program and looks a bit over exposed.  These are just studies so I should not be too hard on myself.

I'm not sure that I like water soluble oil paint as these were still wet and they were painted last Wednesday.  Okay so I know that oil painters (read fine art oil painters) love that very fact.  Me...not so much!   The more that I look at this photograph the more I think that I might have to revert this image to it's original.

I was busy try to reclaim a laminated board and frame as my next project (I firmly believe in recycling - regardless if it is art or not) so I only had a minute to sketch this 2" x 2" thumbnail.  I saw it on the web and I think it is a photograph taken in Scotland.   It is a quick sketch and I can see now that I have not clearly expressed the river bank from the river.