WOYWW and Salvation Army Finds

And so another Wednesday is at hand and I still haven't appreciably cleaned up my art space. I do want to participate in WOYWW, so I just got the camera and took a photo without tidying first.

As you can see, the fan that probably won't be needed until late April is still there and the space is still not ready for my next watercolor attempt. Perhaps later today I will get to it.

Yesterday my daughter and I went to the Salvation Army store in Howell to shop. On the way we stopped at Aunt Jan's for coffee. It was a very nice visit, but Jan had an art class in the early afternoon, so we didn't stay long. I didn't get photos of the things my daughter found - a couple of shirts and a handbag - but I did take photos of my finds. I was lucky enough to find a pair of snowpants for each of the smallest grandgirls and you should know that these items might be the most important things for Nana to have on hand in the winter in southern Michigan. The girls love to go outside in the snow and these are a must. Children's items were 20% off.

Snowpants - they should fit Miss Z and Miss M.

I also found a pair of shoes for myself. They still have the tag on them and they fit perfectly.

They were tagged $22, but I got them for $5.99.

This morning I've been playing with still life arrangements and must admit I am not at all sure which, if any, I will attempt to first sketch and then paint. How about throwing in your two cents - which of these do you think is the best candidate, or is there some arrangement of these things that would be more eye catching? Then I am looking at the first photo in this post and seeing the pitcher with the brushes in it - see it on the left back of the table? Maybe that would be a good addition/replacement in one of these.

I have my personal training class this afternoon and am looking forward to it. Other than that I don't have a plan, except the hubster just said it was supposed to get to 70º today, so I am thinking something out of doors. What about you? What do you have planned for the day? Does it involve artistic pursuits? Are you willing to share? Do you have a blog that you'd like to give me a link to so I can see what you are up to? 

xoxo

Practice and Pears

I am participating in a 4" x 6" swap with the WatercolourPencilBuddies Yahoo! group for the month of April and have been playing with ideas. One of them was to use dark paper and my Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils to sketch a couple of tulip tree blossoms, but now I am leaning toward pears, or maybe tulips, or maybe a robin..... I believe the theme is Spring and as you can see, I am having a really hard time narrowing down my choices.


Here is a little, quick attempt at tulip tree blossoms that I put together this morning. This is a 4 x 5 piece of dark card stock.

And here is the same piece with just a bit of blending with a tissue.

I'm not sure which one I like better, but I am pretty pleased with this 15 minute try.

I am still enamored with pears since taking the Pear-ology class with Martha Lever, and as a matter of fact I have a still life class with the Jackson Civic Art Association on Wednesday. We are encouraged to bring some pieces to arrange with a clip-on lamp for illumination and shadows. I've been playing with the arrangement of some pears I purchased yesterday.

I love how the texture shows up in this one.

I used a watercolor filter in Photoshop on this one.

I used the posterize adjustment layer in Photoshop on this one.

I used a flash on this one.

I've already done my treadmill workout this morning but haven't eaten yet. The entire time I was arranging these pears, my stomach was growling like crazy. I am thinking I might be wise to go to Michael's later today and get some artificial fruit to use in my still life class and eat these. Yum!

I am hoping to find lots of time to play in my art room today and am wishing you that same opportunity.

xoxo