Life, Art, & School

This week was crazy, getting Emily in first grade. So far, she likes it. And we discovered she car read, how much we don't know yet, we'll find out. I now enjoy most of my daytime hours free from Elmo & Dora, the quiet is sometimes weird. I've begun a quilt that will become my son's Christmas present. At least, I hope to have it done by then. I'm still doing colored pencil work & have discovered how to apply colored pencils to a quilt, sort of like fabric painting but the quilting is done prior to applying the color.

I bought Julia Child's book on french cooking, inspired by the movie which I haven't seen yet. I've made a couple of things from it & liked them. The problem I have is translating the arcane methods she calls for into use of modern equipment, For instance, I used my blender to puree the potato leek soup where she used a food mill. I got the same result with 1/10th the work. I'll plug on.

Speaking of cooking, with Emily back in school and holiday season approaching, I will be making stuff for school goodies. That's always fun, but the kids in the special ed class might have food allergies so I'll check with the teacher on it, if so, that means I'll have to modify the recipes to fit the need. That could be fun.

Anyway, here's the latest colored pencil painting I've done.(top of page) Its in Caran 'd Ashe Supracolor water soluble pencils. The photo doesn't do the actual painting justice, I think the light source was off. My photography skills are lacking somewhat.

More later on life, cooking, art, quilting, whatever . . .

Updates

I'm slowly getting back into quilting, I have 2 in the works, the early stages on both. I've been getting my autistic granddaughter ready to go back to school. She's in first grade this year which means a new school and going all day for the first time. Tonight we attended the open house which was a near nightmare. Everything was fine until she had to give up the cards (her current obsession) & go to another room. She quickly exploded into a tantrum, which ended a minute or 2 later, after everyone in the crowded hall starred at us. School begins Wednesday, so I'll have a whole day, almost, to myself. Understand that my daughter also lives with me & is primarily responsible for granddaughter's care, but most of the time it takes all 3 of us (hubby, me & daughter) to keep up with her. I'll be grateful for the break anyway. By the end of Sept. daughter will be going to school during the day & I'll have the whole house to myself. I won't know how to act with all the time, its been years since I had the house to myself during the day.

My guild is planning a fall show, the first Saturday in October, 10 am to 4 pm at the same church we hold the spring show. the minister was so impressed with the spring show that he's asked us to do one this fall. We took him up on it.

I took a recent art quilt class with local quilt artist, Sheril Drummond. We learned the stained glass technique. Her blog is "shedrum.blogspot.com" if you'd like to see her work. She's just beginning to win at national shows.

I've begun reading the Julia, Julie book (movie of the same name.) Its interesting with colorful language I didn't expect. I guess I'll wait till the movie is on dvd to see it. I can't seem to get to the movies any more.

Gotta Go, awaiting heavy storms- again, later tonight. Its been a very wet summer here, not too hot until yesterday. More later, stay tuned. . . .

More Colored Pencil works

The first two paintings are done in colored pencil on sketch paper. The third, "prey" (red dragon) is done in watercolor pencils on cold press watercolor paper. All 3 are for sale. If you're interested in a purchase, email me privately.

More Art Work

The first is a fantasy piece, done in colored pencil on Stonehenge paper, titled "Tending the Elderly" & depicts a fairy tending an elderly dragon at its cave home. The second , also done in colored pencil, if a portrait of my granddaughter.

New projects include a quilt which will be colored in colored pencil. I've come upon a method to do this & I'm doing a small quilt to test the method. If it works as its supposed to, I'll post it here once its finished.

July Colored Pencil Challenge

This is my rendering of the "wet Canvas" colored pencil site, July Challenge. Its 71/2"x11" in size, done in Prismacolor pencils on Stonehenge paper.

A Better Photo of the New Painting

Here is a better shot of the latest colored pencil work.

Inspired by July 4th

This colored pencil "painting" was inspired by July 4th celebrations. I was thinking about all those soldiers who are overseas at this time and this image popped into my head. So I decided to draw it. It's on regular drawing paper & is done with Prismacolor pencils. The size is 14 x 17, unmounted. It is for sale if anyone's interested, just email me.

I've done some family portraits of my kids & grandkids, and a couple of small challenges, but look for more CP work to come. I've decided that watercolor & colored pencil will be my mediums of choice for art work along with art quilts. I'm not abandoning them at all, just taking a break.