Painting gladioluses

I’m working on a commission that I’ve decided to do primarily with acrylics.  I’ve used acrylics for many purposes, and use them frequently, but I actually haven’t attempted many complete “works of art” with acrylics alone.

This is not a photo of the commission work, but rather a smaller painting that I’m working on alongside of it, only in acrylic.  A couple of years ago I did an acrylic landscape that I was not satisfied with; this will be only my second full acrylic painting (not counting murals) since, oh, probably 1987.

This is also my first flower painting since 1987. Ironically, the last floral I painted was also the first full painting I had ever done with oil paints.  I don’t normally go in much for flower paintings, but I love the glads that bloom in our yard each year and have sort of wanted to paint them.  Also, I hear they are popular, and I’d like to have another painting to display at the art fair later this month. (That’s another reason I chose acrylic: oils would never dry in time for the art fair.)

Seven-year-old's art

...She had this listed under "Invention's," but I think I  would file it under "What the hell?"

Feeding alpacas

 

 Thanks to my sister-in-law, Pam, we got to visit an alpaca farm for an alpaca party.  Don't you want a dozen for your back yard?

Fauna

I decided to go for a walk in the woods at lunch, and then encountered wildlife before I even left the building.

Foodstuffs

finally tossing out these old canned goods.

Old watercolor sketch

 Last night I was going through a box of stuff and found this little tree (about 6 x 9") that I did while playing with some watercolors.  I can't remember when I did it, but I think it was two or three years ago (Don't be misled by the date at the bottom, I put that on last night as an approximation.)  I had been searching for this, but couldn't find it and thought I must have given it away.  It's small and not sophisticated or great in any way, but it's one of the few things I've done with watercolors in decades and I liked the result.  I have been wanting to try watercolors lately, or use inks or acrylics for watercolor effects.

A striking example of storm damage to a tree

My family and I were out on Saturday, and as I pulled into a parking spot on one of our stops I noticed that the oak tree in front of me had an odd, tall gouge running up its side about eight feet or so. It looked like a single giant claw had run down it. I wondered if it was lightning damage--I couldn't think what else would cause it--so I walked over to take a look.

Moving around to the other side of the tree, about 90 degrees around, there was a similar gouge, but this one ran up as far as I could see into the canopy.  I thought it was very impressive!  The bark had exploded off; there was shreds of it scattered for dozens of yards all around. Some of the wood beneath it, the blond part, was blown out, too, in thinner strips about an inch deep in spots.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Sycamore & Butterfly Bush

 Both of these are walnut ink on paper.

Spiderwort, cilantro, bee balm, bachelor's button, mustard spinach

Lunch break sketch 6-18-13

I sat on a tree stump and drew for a bit. I think some little wasps had nests in the stump (that, or it was their hunting ground), but I remained unstung.

Fathers' Day

 

I had a great Fathers' Day.  First of all, I received a very nice gift from Mom and Dad: a seed sprouter for starting sprouts to add to sandwiches, soups, etc.  Besides a couple of different seeds for the sprouting tray, they also gave me a few different seed packets for my garden.  That's great stuff.

 

My daughters brought me breakfast in bed on Sunday, and unloaded the dishwasher for me.  That is quite a treat.

 

After that, I ran some errands, and then spent some time making ice cream.  We still had some frozen blackberries from last year, so I pureed and then strained them.  There wasn't enough for a full batch of blackberry ice cream, so I added flavors to make vanilla blackberry chocolate chip.  I am delighted to report than it came out great.

 

For dinner we grilled a couple of steaks in the rain, and at those with corn on the cob.  Then we me Mom and Dad at Willow Park to hear Blair Carmen and the Bellevue Boys, one of our favorite concert regulars there (the rain ended just in time for the concert to proceed, and the weather was perfect.)  And that was my Fathers' Day.

 

Lunch break sketching

Sort of hot, but I was in the shade and there was a little breeze. I ate some mulberries and swatted some flies.

School banner completed

Last weekend I had a moment to snap a photo of my completed painted banner hanging in place.

Plum Creek

 Another drawing with black walnut ink, my first landscape (not counting foliage seen in house portraits) since...I don't know, last year sometime.  This is 10 x 14 inches, done with a combination of brush work and dip pens.

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Angry Birds cake

I like cake, and I like art, and I like Angry Birds, and I like my friend's son Simon. So, how could I not share this photo of this great birthday cake made by my friend Helga?

New school greenhouse

The weekend before last, my family and I volunteered some labor at school helping put up the new greenhouse.  Thanks to a grant from State Farm and some generous donations from school families, the school got a nice greenhouse kit and was able to hire Daniel Skinner to design and build the greenhouse.

Much of my time was spent running a tiller, which I had never done before, plus shoveling and raking dirt.  I also worked with a few others to set up about half the support ribs, spread out the tremendous sheet of plastic and get it over the top, and do some anchoring.  It was a lot of dirty work over a hot weekend, but it was also sort of interesting, and the other people were great to work with (and very patient with me.)

I’m excited to see the finished project; I don’t know when the inside will be all put in, but it won’t be too long.  There has been work going on every day.  When completed, it will be state-of-the-art, with a water circulation system for heating and cooling, half-sunken rain barrels to double as classroom seats, a large fish tank, and both floor-level and raised beds and pots.

Hard at work in the morning

 My fearless wife high atop a ladder

The official ribbon cutting

Caperton Swamp

I had a few minutes to kill the other day waiting for the rest of my family, so I took a short walk on a trail at Caperton Swamp.  It's a pretty area, but I didn't get far into it.  Might make for a nice hike with the kids.

Watermelon carving

I did this as a centerpiece for a fruit table at an elementery school art show.

Black walnut ink house portrait

I finished this one a few nights ago. It is 11 x 15 inches.  Overall, I am satisfied with it, although frankly there are some elements of the house I'm not entirely happy with.  I'm happiest with the trees.  I enjoy working on trees and I'll try to do some more tree drawings soon.

Fat asparagus

This is a hefty vegetable. I chopped it down and dragged it into the house last night.

Pen and ink house portrait

 Here's another, finished late last night.  This one is 6 x 9 inches on cold press watercolor paper. This is a pretty house and it was pleasant to draw.

Asparagus

The last blog post is a photo of asparagus from my garden. I planted it the year before last, and this is the first year that I’ve felt like it is coming in well enough to harvest. I’ve sautéed a few bunches, and it has been quite good—flavorful and tender.  I have had quite a few gardening flops, but this isn’t one of them.

Kim doesn’t seem to react this way, nor does anyone else I know, but I find asparagus comical.  Every other thing in my garden starts as a seedling or a sprout that I have to wait on to develop, or I have to wait for it to grow fruit to pick, or to grow enough leaves to snip off.  But asparagus gives me the goofy impression that there is a tiny guy hiding under the soil with a bundle of full-grown asparagus spears under his arm, and he keeps reaching up and poking them through the soil for me to pick.

Creekside art

I had some time to kill in Taylorsville while the girls attended a birthday party. Luckily, Waterford Park was nearby.

Bedecked

Maybe a little gardening, 2013

My own personal 2013 gardening season is underway.  I don’t have any big, long-term plans.  Judy gave me some spare broccoli, arugula, and kale seedlings, which I planted on Sunday.  They look pretty happy where they are.

I also sowed some bachelor’s button and cilantro seeds, all mixed in the same spot.  Next to those, one of the two rosemary plants from last year appears to have survived the winter.  I hope it starts growing again.

I’m looking for signs of my asparagus, of which I have four of five plants.  I recall from last year that it was sort of late in the spring before I saw it pop out of the soil.  This will be the first year that I’ll try harvesting from it.

The Asiatic lilies and glads are popping out.  Last year, the lilies had just been divided, so they were looking a little scrawny.  This year they should look pretty good.

I have seeds for green onions (scallions) and peas, but I need to find a spot for them.  My windfall of arugula and kale took their space.  The girls have little garden boxes Judy made with them last year, and which are so far empty.  Those might be just the spot for them, or at least the peas, which the girls like growing, picking, and eating.

The hostas by our front porch looked bad last year.  They didn’t do well, for some reason, and so far I haven’t seen a sign that they’ll be back this spring.  I wonder if they actually have been “done in”? Over the weekend, Helga gave us some ground cover that she had dug up.  It gets little purple flowers on it, but she didn’t remember the name, and I’ll have to try to figure it out somehow.  Anyway, I put that at either end of the hosta bed, and I guess we’d better start looking for a replacement for the hostas. I still like the astilbe idea, but have not been able to sell Kim on it.

Tree mural...done?

 Well, yeah, I'm calling it done.  I can easily rattle off five things I'd like to change or work on some more, but I am done with this section of the mural. I think I got it to a state where it looks attractive and the family I am painting it for can be very satisfied with it; I will only work on it some more if they tell me otherwise.

Egg dying at the Gilbert's

NCAAW, U of L vs. Purdue

"Horse & Jockey 3" pen & ink

11 x 14" on cold press watercolor paper.

Mark's Madness! Brackets!

Horse & Jockey prints

I just had reproductions run. This is the first time I have done this via offset printing; I had them run digitally before. I am very pleased with the results. I feel that there is a good range of tone and subtlety in the prints.

Tree Mural, in progress

I'm not far from completing another section of the play room mural I started for someone last year. This is in the same room as the giant Crayola box.  They asked for a tree in this corner, and left the rest up to me.  I liked the idea of putting in something extra colorful, so I chose macaws. I had planned out a mountainous background, but the water was a spur-of-the-moment idea.

 This isn't actually the most up-to-date photo. Last night I put a lot of work into the tree trunk and limbs, giving them a little more color and dimension.  I must get a good photo of the trunk as it is now, because I think it's my favorite thing about the painting.

Next I will add tall grass to the area between the tree and the water, and then some touching up, then I'll be done!

Silver

In the refrigerator change box at work today, right on top: a well-worn 1956 Canadian quarter, .8000 fine silver. That makes the second silver quarter I've found in the past few months.