This is the time to PAINT

What am I working on?  Well I am painting on a large oil painting.  A few years back I painted a watercolor of a lady dancing which I really loved. I don't have this painting right now. It was given to a friend in Mexico.  I wish I had the original but I do have a photo of it. I love the bright colors.



So from this photo I decided to paint this again but larger and in oils.  Oil on canvas 36" X 36"

CLOSE UP

ON THE EASEL


I'm also painting an abstract.  This is fun to paint. I can paint for an hour and then leave the work for a month and still be able to come back to it. The size is 14" X 10.5" This is in progress......


Above the whole painting, below a close up of the picky work I love to do.


Speaking of picky work. Below is a drawing in pencil and ink that I have been working on for a couple years. I love doing the small detail drawing. I'm the same with my knitting, cross stitch and even as a dental technician. I like picky work. 

This drawing is 14" X 11"

So that is what I am currently working on.
Today I begin some new watercolor painting. I will share this soon.
Happy Painting!!!

Another Painting

Well I finished the 4th painting for the online class: Imaginary Visit to the Garden.
This week we were doing Garden Tools.  I took a couple old tools from my garage and set up a pose.  I found an old shovel with rust which I use all the time. And I found an old rusty scythe. I think this one is more of a grass and weed cutter. I floated the rose in the water bowl. The rose is from my David Austin English rose bush named Belle Story.
Here is my photo:


Here is my sketch after 30 minutes:



And here is my finished painting:



In the class blog everyone was very nice and gave good compliments.  But there was something that I kept reading.  They said this is not a journal entry kind of painting.
I guess I am confused because the class is a Visit to the Garden class like when I took a Visit to the Beach. There are classes called Journal classes. This one wasn't a journal class.  I do know that in most of the lessons it is common to write on the painting a note about our visit to the garden and what we saw, how the weather was, a poem, etc.

So when I am inspired to do a painting and not write a journal entry, well I guess I am a rebel and I just do it.  Call me Rebel Carol.  I think I have always had some of that in my blood.

Happy painting and let that rebel out of you!!!

HAPPY MAY 1ST !!!!!!!

Happy first day of May.  It is windy and sunny here.  I'm happy that the sun is shining and my life is happy.
I read this and I like it:
A good walk cures most problems. Want to lose weight and get fit? Walk. Want to enjoy life but spend less? Walk. Want to cure stress and clear your head? Walk. Want to meditate and live in the moment? Walk. Having trouble with a life or work problem? Walk, and your head gets clear.


I would add that walking my dog is fun.  He is so cute.  More on Bob later.


I wanted to share my 2nd lesson painting from my online class. The subject was Boxed Gardens.  The photos I saw of flower boxes were not getting my mojo moving so I set out with camera in hand.  I drove all over Redlands and I walked the sidewalks for a good photo. 
It is legal to take photos if 1) you took the photo (or I)  2) if you can see it from a right of way or public domain.


Here is my painting:


This is the photo:



I had a little problem with the border. I tried to tape around the painting and then paint a dark border to frame my painting.  The problem is that the blue paint bled under the tape.  


Since I didn't find a good flower box I chose to paint this tree with a grate and the Nasturtiums.  I love Nasturtiums.  


About Bob.  He is so funny.  I was working in my garage and he wanted to be near me.  I left the garage side door open and put a childs gate across. He jumped over it. So I raised it up to make it higher. 
See here how it looks:



I did put a hand dolly in front of it and that stopped the jumping over. Eventually I brought him in the garage and he is on a chain. I live close to the street where  people speed. I'm always scared that if he gets in the street he will be hit.  So I use the long chain in the garage.

Bob is looking older here I think.  He is 8 months old now.


So the project in my garage is this. I wanted to organize and clean up the clutter. I installed these racks with my handy dandy power drill.

They look so puny on the wall.  But the internet says that the toggle bolts will hold a lot of weight. I'm just so use to having a handy husband who would weld up a rack when my heart desired it.  Now that I am a widow I have to go to Home Depot to buy their puny racks.  I really need to buy another for the brooms.  
Oh and YES, I do put art work on my garage walls.  You can see the ballerina by Degas.  I bought it at the Norton Simon Museum.  I love Degas' work.
I also have hung many of my own paintings on the walls of my garage.


RACK  with tools



It looks a little crowded but I'm happy with it.  I have the tools out of the large trash can, so floor space is empty, clean and roomy.  I will keep on working on the garage.   
I'm not sure that I posted what I did to my work table. I put a sheet of metal on the table to have a nice heat resistant cleanable surface. 



Here is a wide shot.  I have an air compressor under my table. I love my tool drawers (by Kennedy) on the left. It still seems cluttered so I might put in some shelves for supplies. Art uses a lot of misc. supplies.



Well that is about all. I will leave you with some pretty Roses from my garden for a HAPPY MAY FIRST to all.


Hybrid Tea Rose: Sheer Bliss



David Austin English rose: Belle Story

Exodus 4:11-12 – Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say Posted: 30 Apr 2011 09:01 PM PDT The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” – Exodus 4:11-12 (NIV)

Work Shop & Tools I Love

I wanted to make a post of what I am doing in my newly set up work-Art shop-studio. I need a name for it don't you think?
Here is a leaf that I cut out of tin then put some solder on it.  After that I put on some alcohol ink.  I punched holes in this leaf. I might use this leaf as a wall decoration or put it where a candle can shine through.
Do you see that ballpeen hammer?  It was my Richard's hammer. Richard is my one and only hubby who died of cancer. Here is another photo of this much used hammer.

I love that I can see where his hands held this tool. In the background you can see my handtool. It is similar to a dremel but this is what dental technicians use. I am a dental tech. So I like the feel of this in my hands. It is not too heavy. I can change burs, or mandrels at ease. You can see part of my collection of burs on that pink magnetic thingie.

Here is my Sweetie Richard's vise. It has been used a lot.  I brought it from my old house when  moved.  I have it right next to me on my work table. It's probably more heavy duty than I need but that was Richard. If a little was good then more was better.

See that box?  It has a reostat on it and an electrical cord coming out?  My sweetie Richard made that for me when I got into making stained glass windows.
I use it for my soldering iron. I can regulate the heat. I put a tiny night light on it so I can see that it is on.
Other accessories in the photo are a sketchbook which I covered in soft leather and put a shell button.
Also is a model of teeth.  It is a plaster model where I designed a set of teeth with gums in wax.  Each tooth is pinned and could be removed individually, that is if I cut the wax gums. But I didn't.  I like to practice my tooth carving on models.

So here is my work table from a distance.  I was lucky to find the lamp with a double light. It has both incandescent and florescent. It gives good light for detail work. This is the kind of lamp we use in the lab.
That tall think you see on the left, black with a cloth bag & draw string is my magnifying glass. It has a flexible goose neck. I take off it's hat and bend it over.  When I do dental work I am always looking through this.  It has so many scratches it's crazy but loved.

When I was working in my garage studio I took a walk outside to check the weather. Here are the looming snow clouds.

I am looking north towards Big Bear.
They were darker in person. But they were so big and cold looking.

Here I am looking east towards Yucaipa, my old stomping grounds. My family lives there now.

And here I am looking west towards Redlands. This is taken at 5 pm. We have the best sunsets.

Here is a close up of some of my tools. I have a love affair with paint brushes. These are watercolor brushes. My oil painting brushes are in a cabinet. Watercolor brushes are softer and finer.  I have some that you don't even want to know the price of.  I love them.

A couple favorite brushes are on this wall.  My wall is messy. I will work on it later.
That is a real genuine indian ax head made of stone on my wall.  My step-dad Walter made the handle and wrapped it in leather. He also made my arrows. I have 2 branding irons hanging there. And you can see half of a painting I did in 1973.

This was my first college oil painting. Richard had to take a class at the college so I tagged along and took painting.  It was fun.  This painting is ok. I love the deer. I hate the bushes. They look so arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.............  I have no word.

So there is a peek into my studio-work space. I need a name for my area.
To end this I will leave you with an image of Peanuts area. She had a little accident. Gotta love her creativity!!!

The Garage Studio

Woo Hoo!!!  I finally have my own garage Studio.  It seems odd because this is my house and I should have done this a long time ago.  I don't have a husband (bless his heart in heaven) to compete for with space.
I have had 2 son's dominate my garage for a long time with building a motorcycle from the frame up. The project is in Idaho now.  It took a long time to get all of their stuff out of my garage.  It also took a lot of motivation on my part to tackle this job.  Let me show you....


Peanut the little artist.  But look beyond her and all that clutter.

And clutter here....my garage is shaped like the letter "d" if it were squared off. Yes a small "d".  So this part in the photo is a storage area with my late husbands roll-top desk. Great place for Peanut to do her homework when I am crafting. Notice all the file cabinets.  They are the best for storing things and keeping dust out. Two are dedicated just to art supplies. One is for the garden and automotive. One is for camping and sport stuff like bowling balls, mitts & balls.  The last one has photo albums with photos all the way back to 1973 when I first got married. Also in that cabinet is a lot of sheets of glass for stain glass making.


I started by turning the workbench sideways.  I need to feel air and the breeze from the doors.  My son made this work table. He welded it and sprayed it silver, then put wood on top.  I really love it.

I bought a really nice Kennedy 7 drawer roller Cabinet .  I am putting on the wheels in this photo.  It was so hot in the garage but I wanted to get the work done.

Peanut got a smile out of me. How could you not smile at that little girl?  Can you see the boxes behind me?  They have to go.

So the boxes and stuff is moved and the old old oak table is moved there.  Also I did some decorating by putting my old horse collar on the wall. Also a branding iron and some other cowboy stuff and indian stuff.  I put a clock there so I will not be late to pick up Peanut from school....mercy me.

See my tool chest?  I LOVEEEEEEEE it.  Today I put in it a lot of my tools for stain glass, dental tech tools and some painting materials. On the corner of the table is bolted down a heavy duty vise and near the wall is my grinder.  You never know when you will need it. Yeah?  Do you see under the table I have my compressor and my shop-vac.  I want to do all kinds of crafts and jewelry.
Your get a better look at my homemade work table too.

If you look at the very top of this photo you can see a very old saw that I got from Walter, my step dad. He also made the arrowheads and put them on the arrows with feathers. He was very crafty too. He built fireplaces for a living. On the wall is an oil painting of a deer  getting a drink in a stream after dark.  It was my very first college painting class painting.
And do you see my hay hooks hanging from my garage door opening thing on the ceiling?

Here is the view I will get when I am sitting at my table. If it wasn't so bright you would see the neighbors houses across the street. Ugh. I wish it were the mountains.  Anyway, see the side door?  Well when you open that you get a very nice cross breeze.  Now the question to be asked is, why didn't the builders put one, at least one window on that side of my house?  I would not have to use the AC on warm days.  But builders don't care about where breezes come from do they? I was wishing I had a window on that wall too. Well the circuit box is on the other side so maybe it can't happen?

Remember this side?  It was where Peanut was painting.  I tried to elimate most of the boxes but I just don't have a place to put them.  I did put a lot of boxes in the area where the roll-top desk is, up on top of the file cabinets.  I made it look neat.
My thinking is,  I will not ever, never get a storage unit.  I think that if I need one then I just have too much junk.  It's time to purge and give to someone who needs it. I don't need that much junk.  Now if you are moving and don't have your new place yet, I understand having to use a storage facility.  But I am in my house and what I did was take about 11 boxes of dishes, books, toys, shoes, clothing and junk to charity.  It felt good because I know that there was some good junk in those boxes.  There were shoes I had never used, there was a whole set of Wilton cake decorating tips and bags. There were never used candle holders.  So it felt good.

One last look of my work space.  I want to get a nice chair that is high since my table is high. The stool gets tiresome.
I went to Jo-Anne's and got a nice desk light that lets you see the colors true to life. Also a package arrived today...my steamer.  I love using a steamer. We had one in the dental Lab and I use to clean my jewelry or anything that was gunked up.  The steamer in the lab was like a $1,500 one and my budget now I could only afford a $40 one but it is cool. I can use it to clean windows too.
I was also able to unpack my handheld grinder. It is a handpiece like the drill that the dentist uses but somewhat bigger. It's for technicians.  I bought it about 2 years ago but didn't have a place to use it.  You have to be outside or have a vaccume suction to take away the dust from it.  Always wear a mask when you grind.  I do. And I have my bi-focal safety glasses that I wear too.
I am going to practice my dental lab techniques and then go ask my friend who has a lab if he has cases for me to do at my home.  In the past he has needed me to wax up and carve teeth for patients who want a new grill. Then after I carve the teeth I take the plaster model with wax teeth back to my friend's lab and he casts it in porcelain.  I could work from home and be here for Peanut.  We will see if I can get up to speed.  Right now I want to make some jewelry and paint in watercolors.  Oh who am I kidding?  I want to do it all.


While I was outside Peanut asked if she could photograph the kitties.  Sure I said.  So here  is what she took. (edited down to 4 because she took 13).
This is Coraline. She is having a good nap. Look at those curled up paws. Ahhhh how sweet.

Look at that little face.  (everyone together) Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Shhhhhh Peanut, don't wake her. She is tired.

OLIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't a girl get a catnap around here?

I'll update ya'll when I get more of my garage studio finished.

Happy Knitting, painting and cuddling your kitties!!!!

P.S. Oliver's boo boo is still red. It is not oozing like before but he won't stop licking. I covered the neck area so he started to lick like an inch below that where there was no problem. Now he is making the hair come out there. My son was telling me not to use the neosporin because it has triple anti bacteria stuff in it and can cause a rash. So I am using something milder.  I think it is getting better. Maybe I need a lampshade around his waist? He feels good enough to bug Coraline. Yeah?