Falling in love with fall

What's not to love about fall?  It smells fresh and clean and leafy.  Yes, leafy.  If you don't know what I mean you either haven't spent much time outside during the fall season or you live somewhere where you don't get a fall season.  The colors of everything are amazing...the purples, reds, golds, oranges, greens, yellows, etc., etc., all seem to blaze in the differently-angled sunlight.  It is all so vivid and bright and muted and lovely and leafy.  Yes, leafy!

It sounds great, too.  The crunch of the leaves, the more muted sounds of the birds in the trees...it is as though the world is close to throwing on its winter blanket, but isn't quite there yet.  It feels crisp out, the oppressive heat of the summer just a memory.  You can see your breath; you get to wear snugly sweaters and scarves and walk hand in hand with your super-special sweetie without getting all sweaty.  To sum it all up, fall rocks.

Because I love fall so much, I am compelled to share some of my favorite pictures from this fall.

Just before 7:00 am on campus (I work on a college campus in the Rocky Mountain West...I told you before, I'm a lucky girl!):

It looks like the angels were dancing on the top of my car (it's actually the frost that formed overnight on my car):

The fall full moon at 6:45 am in the Rockies:

A leaf in my yard...I love how it is a mix of yellow and red:

Another early morning shot on campus:

I love the mix of green and red here:

Red is one of my favorites:

Yep, we had snow on campus, too (however, it didn't last...it's still too warm in the fall for it to accumulate):

Another tree on campus:

Golden leaves (very leafy :-) ):

Now, step away from the computer, run outside, and experience your own fall leafiness.  While it is an awesome season, it isn't here for long!

Happy days to you all!

More paint - drop by drop

Welcome back!

So, start to finish took another step in the finished direction over this last week.  Because I wanted to experiment with some toss-away eye-droppers I got months ago, I thought I'd try them with paint.

So, I squeezed some white acrylic paint and some of the Bahama Blue (also acrylic) into separate containers and mixed each with some water to thin the paint a bit (so it would be easier to get it into the dropper and so it would have a better "splash" on the canvas).  When I used the droppers, I held them about two feet above the canvas and dropped one drop at a time.  Here's how that went:

Paint with water added:

Canvas with white paint newly "dropped":

Once the "dropped" paint dried a bit, I took a paper towel (I like to use Viva because they stand up to a lot of use and abuse), wadded it up, and then gently pressed it down on top of the paint and lifted it straight up:

Here's the newly "dropped" blue paint (the white paint was dry before I "dropped" the blue paint):

I did the paper towel trick with the blue paint, too:

Here's the final, dried product:

 A close-up of the final, dried product:

While this looks awesome, I don't think I'm done with paint just yet.  I think some toothpick dots are in order now.  I'll noodle over that and let you know what I do.

Unfortunately, I still haven't done any research on my photo taking, but I have hopes that it will happen soon.  The good thing is that I think most of the above photos don't look too bad (do you disagree?).  I have to leave you with one more photo...my kitty, Lilly, decided to "help" with some of the photo taking by exploring my photo tent (yes, that IS the technical term :-) ):

Unfortunately, she moved her head while I was taking the picture and then jumped out the tent before I could get another.  My, kitty assistants are fickle, aren't they?!

Happy Days to you all!

The camera never lies...

...and yet, it doesn't always tell the whole truth either.

I'm having trouble with the close-up pictures of my in-progress artwork.  I looked at the pictures in my last post and while not bad, the final picture of the dried piece doesn't look like I want it to.  So, I took a couple of pictures of it again today, this time against a dark background:

I'm not sure these are much better.  Ugh!!!

The thing that bugs me is that you can't see the texture that was created when I swirled the paint around and then lifted it up by just pulling up on the paint brush (put the brush tip down on the wet paint, then lift...repeat as wanted/needed).  Also, you can't really see the detail of the paints mixed together.

Sooooo...that means I need to do some research to discover the best settings on my camera to make the detail I have come alive.  That should be fun, but first I need to find the time to do the research.  Again...ugh!!!

Holy cow...would I like some cheese with that whine?!  :-)  This is just another challenge that needs to be faced with an inquiring mind and positive attitude.  I WILL find the time, somewhere, somehow, because it is important to me.  Plus, I love to learn new stuff!

So, step away from the TV, away from the football games, away from the hockey games (darn you, Center Ice package from Direct TV :-) ), and away from Long Island Medium (yes, I confess...Long Island Medium is a guilty pleasure of mine).  Focus on what is real and what is really fun (not just the mindless fun of the TV).  Oh, so easy to say and so hard to do!

Hopefully next time (or the time after that or the time after that), I'll have some good news to report with regard to the camera settings.  Until then, it's back to having fun in the studio!

Happy days, everyone...may you all find time for the things that are important to you!

Step One: Paint!

Mello greetings, friends!

Coming to you live from Linda's art studio, it's Linda's first step with the "start to finish" project!!!  [Wild applause from the audience ensues]

In an earlier post, I promised to show you a project I was working on from start to finish.  Well, I finally started, so I'm excited to share some pictures.

My first step in this case was to paint the canvas.  I took two colors (Ceramcoat's "Drizzle Grey" and Americana's "Bahama Blue"), blopped (yes, that is the technical term) them on the canvas, and proceeded to swirl them together with my brush:

 

(Yep, the black and white paints in the this picture will be used, but in the next painting step.)

The paint in this next picture has been "blopped."

The next picture is in "mid-swirl" with my paint brush.

Wet paint...do not touch.

And here is the paint all dried:

I like how this turned out...the grey and blue mixed well to create a softer blue, but then you still see pops of the bright blue and grey as well.  It has some good movement.  

So, for now this will sit until the next step.  I have an idea of what I want to do (it involves eye droppers), but I need to noodle a bit about how I want to make that happen.

That's all for today's program.  I hope you will join me for the next installment of "Start to Finish"!

Happy everything!

Work/art balance

1) Hi, my name is Linda and I'm an artaholic/craftaholic.

2) Hi, my name is Linda and I'm a perfectionist.

3) Hi, my name is Linda, and I am work-until-it-is-done-no-matter-what-the-cost workaholic.

4) Hi, my name is Linda, and I believe (why, I don't know) that I must finish ALL of my chores before I can do something for myself (including my art).

Unfortunately, statements three and four above (mixed in with heavy doses of statement number two) take up most of my time and energy, leaving little time for statement number one.  I'm saddened by this.  

I know I need to work a "real" job to pay the bills and support statement number one, and I'm okay with that.  But somehow I need to figure out how to allow statement number one to be a bigger part of my life.  It is statement number one that really lights my fire and makes the other statements in my life worthwhile.  I can manage three and four (with two mixed in) if I have statement one.

So, here's to statement one.  Here's to getting more rest so I can do statements three and four when needed and have enough left over for statement one.  Here's to saying, "the chores can wait for now while I go paint this canvas."  After all, no one on their deathbed ever wished that they had cleaned more.  :-)