Hot tomatoes! Too hot to handle!

I forgot to post this one.

Trying to do more art!

Every Day in August #22-Still Life. What I have been doing for weeks!! This one was a challenge for me, I am never comfortable about the placement of my subject matter. This is what I did today creatively and literally for weeks now.  Okay... so the rusty shears were just a prop in place of the new pruning shears I have been using!!! Faber-Castell pen and watercolour in a new Moley sketchbook. It isn't a watercolour one because I prefer the portrait orientation but it does seem to take the watercolour better than before.....but that might be in my imagination! 

I love gadgets even when they aren't mine!

I don't know if I am alone in this or not but my hubby and I have separate tool boxes.  I keep mine on the main floor for easy access. Today was the first time that I have ever seen this gizmo in action, he brought out because he saw me struggling. Like my purse his toolbox is his personal domain and that is fine with me. I certainly appreciated the assistance of this gadget though. So am I the only one here who didn't know what this handy dandy tool was for?!??!

A Childhood Memory with the help of an image from the Internet

I'm trying to do as much of Everyday in August drawing as I possibly can! #17-Childhood memory.  Wow! This was a hard one! I am an Air Force brat (Canada) and my Dad was station overseas in France so we visited around Europe. I have more stories from Ireland than anywhere because my Dad wanted to find his grand-fathers grave. We visited many, many (I thought at the time too many) grave yards. That means my Dad would visit the priest to check their records and would be in there for what felt like hours. Who was he to say no to a wee glass of Irish whiskey!! We never did find it for sure! I was going to draw Blarney Castle but finally settled on this drawing. I'm a Maloney and my family is from County Clare abc had been indentured to the O'Briens so of course we visited O'Brien's Castle on the Cliffs of Moher! It was built by Cornelius O'Brien in 1835. The view is stunning. As I recall, the "castle" not so much! I had to check google for images and one the left is a close up of a very cleaned up tourist attraction. When we were there it was more like the movie The Highlander and it included cow patties or meadow muffins in the field surrounding it. On the right is a quick sketch of another view from a distance. It is still clear in my mind how breath-taking it all was! Thanks for reminding me these precious moments in time and I hope to see it again in the very near future.

I love Sketchbook Art

I love that I can take my sketchbook wherever I go. When I have it and a pen I can keep from being bored or lonely. 

I did this while eating at a Montana's Restaurant in Oakville. Thank goodness I had this to do as the table I was offered was the worst one in the whole restaurant. 

Playing around with Betsy the Birdie

Meet Betsy my mixed media bird for the Beauty and the Beak! Betsy was created using torn and distressed magazine page, cut-out eyes from another magazine in recycle bin, dress making tissue, acrylic paint, Inktense block colours, pen, and watercolour paint. Betsy is looking a bit dishevelled because she toppled out of the nest before her wings were quite ready to fly but she is "Hanging On" (found text - that was a good magazine). Hanging on to enjoy the wonderful life she has been given. Can't wait for my grand-daughter to ask to see my book when I see her tomorrow. I think we will end up giggling together!

After the storm!

We are still cleaning up from the major storm that blew through our place on Sunday August the 2nd. Four loads of brush to the dump already.

Took some time out to go to town and saw this 1969 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow for sale along the road. These are rare in these parts so I pulled over. The man who lives there came out to see what I was up to and had no problem with letting me park my car in his lane way for this drawing. Only bummer was the car is white; I'm not a fan of white! My hubby wanted to know the asking price and had to tell him, I just wanted to draw it not buy it!!