The Day After

 

'Twas the day after Christmas and all through the town

gifts were being returned and prices marked down.

Not interested in shopping, I took a walk by the lake

and there I spied Santa--he was taking a short break.

He still wore his hat but had ditched that red suit.

I waved and he nodded, then off he did scoot.

After a sleepover in Clarksville, he's off to The Pole.

In a year he'll be back and gifts he will dole.

     (If you're good!)

  - - - -

It's been a rough year. First I had a problem with neuropathy--burning legs, elbow pain, numbness, even pain in the eyeballs. I'm not diabetic; I learned that it was caused by a prescription--statins--which I'd been taking for years. I stopped taking them and the burning/pain/cramping stopped; I felt great for a few weeks in July--so good that I moved the summer furniture from the workshop back porch to the deck. That's when the tick must have latched onto the back of my knee. In August I was diagnosed with Lyme's disease. I finished four months of antibiotics a few weeks ago and felt like myself again. Two weeks later our dog Willie began limping. He came home Monday after surgery on his OTHER knee and bladder surgery for stones. What a year--a lost year.

  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. And here's to a Happy 2015!

Sundays in Southern Virginia

After Church, created in "Paper" on iPad

This has been on my list of things to paint for about ten years.  I thought I'd try a simple sketch using pencils in this app; it's done from memory or imagination--and it took days to finish.  It was done, I thought; then I spotted Dad's Bible on my book shelf.  It wasn't black like I'd drawn but a deep red.  I had given it to him--that got changed; then the color of the chair cushion had to be changed.  The made-up chairs (the one on the left looks like the type we had in our store) are in the grass because I thought a baseboard, floor and rug under them would be too many horizontal lines.  Mom probably wouldn't like this because her shoes and pocketbook absolutely had to match.

Even before my dad studied for the ministry, Sundays were busy.  Mom fried the chicken (one of us kids stole the liver) and we went off to church for Sunday School and preaching.  We came home to "dinner" of fried chicken with gravy and biscuits, of course, lots of fresh vegetables and dessert.  Afternoons were spent napping, pitching horseshoes (I'm still a champ), or visiting relatives.  After a light "supper," we went back to Church.

Still Standing--oil painting



Still Standing, oil (alkyd) on linen, 12x12

Since it was cold and icy, I slid out to my studio for the last couple of days.  This tree is down by my dock; I always stare up at it for a while before walking back up to the house.  I don't know if it's still alive--it's surrounded by other trees and I can't tell if there's any green at the very top; there's none on the lower branches.  I thought it was a cedar; now I'm not sure--the trunk is rather hairy.  I painted this from memory; the photo is a bit different.  I like that this is stark naked against the cold sky.

Maybe I should title it reforestation.  

Sketches for Still Standing

During the past year, I've thought of the tree often.  I like the one on the left--Crayola crayons on card stock.  Top right is hydrus watercolor, and lower right is, I believe, oil (it was painted from the photo). 

Inktense Pencils and Hydrus Watercolors



Low Lake Level in the Cove, inktense pencils on clayboard, 5x7

Like everyone else, I hate finishing and framing.  Two of my paintings--The Blue Man and Caution--were finished some time ago and just sitting on my easels.  I've read that watercolors on Ampersand aquaboard can be varnished and framed without glass, but what about inktense pencils or hydrus watercolors on aquaboard?  I decided to test with this small drawing of maybe a willow tree behind my neighbor's house (sometimes it's in the water--sometimes not).  This is from a photo I took as Willie and I checked out the cove; I liked the colors--the orange and yellow parts are usually filled with blue water.

A Walk IN the Cove January 2013, photo

Two weeks ago we actually walked IN the cove behind my house (though I do have a fear of quicksand); it was 70 degrees that afternoon and not much water--my dock was on dirt.  I looked for arrowheads and found a couple of smooth round rocks.  I considered taking my metal detector down but it rained the following day--and for several more days.  The Lake's back--and it's a 50,000-acre one.  I can see the water from my upstairs window and I don't need to walk down; the weather has turned cold.

Hot Feet, hydrus watercolor on clayboard, 6x6

Just a sketch to test the varnish.  I suppose I could have just painted squares or lines but what fun would that have been? 

Okay, today I gave everything several coats of varnish.  I set up a varnishing station in the workshop bathroom--covered the toilet with large pieces of cardboard and turned on the exhaust fan--ran in and sprayed; ran to the porch door and breathed.  Nothing disappeared and it passed my Q tip test--dipped it into water, then rubbed the painting--no color came off and no lines were smeared.  I used Golden archival satin varnish.  

Small Town Drawing



Robert, Inktense pencils on hot press w/c paper, 12x9

I'm a Sunday evening regular at The Pizza Pub Restaurant/Bar here in town--so is Robert.  He's usually helping out or having a cup of coffee; and I see him outside always with his pipe.  I asked if I could take a few photos with my iPad--he obliged.  It's been a long time since I've tried portraits other than my own.  Robert liked this and, last Sunday, he walked with me through the restaurant as I showed it to the customers.

Most of you fellow bloggers live in cities where you can sketch strangers at coffee shops, but I have to brew Starbucks in my kitchen.  I live in a place where everyone knows our names (and The Pub knows my drink is unsweet iced tea) so Thank Goodness it does look like Robert.  This was not as much fun as my self portraits where I tear into myself and pounce on every wrinkle.  (Maybe I can do that with tourists or fishermen I don't know next summer.)

Hurricane Sandy looks ominous but I'm 150 miles inland from the coast; my area is not expecting much damage but we might lose our internet (that's what happened last year when Hurricane Irene hit the coast).  We think this latest hurricane is named for one of the bartenders at The Pub.

I'm now putting the Inktense pencils aside and will be trying Colorsoft pencils on different papers, then on to Polychromos pencils.  (Dick Blick had a sale so a big box was delivered to my front porch Wednesday--lots of new stuff with no instructions.)  I'll play with pencils for a while, then get back to my studio and paints.  Well.... that's my plan today.

iPad Screenshot

iPad Sunrise, in progress

Okay, I'm addicted to my iPad.  I looked at the inktense drawing I made last week (still unfinished) and painted this in SketchBookX, a free app I downloaded this morning.  This is what I worked on during Art at the Y today--I demo'd and said, "No clean up and no odor."  Neither this painting nor my inktense drawing looks like the actual photograph.  SketchBookX is a bit like the Corel Paint programs I've played with for years.  I didn't use layers here and I've never used them in Corel--not that I don't like them, I don't know what the heck they are.  LifeArtist has been working with the iPad for a while--she gives me tips.

This is my first ever screenshot--can't believe it worked.  It took many steps to get this painting posted.  I emailed the screenshot to my verizon account on our HP computer.  It was HUGE and a PNG; I opened it in Corel, made it smaller, converted it to a JPEG, and saved it to Picasa; from there I posted to my blog.  Whew!

I promise not to post every day!  These iPad works really save on storage and framing costs.