Getting Ready for the Garden

There are several things I'm doing to get ready for the garden this year. On the art side of it I'm preparing some canvases so they'll be ready to go when the flowers start blooming.

I'm staring out 2 canvases for landscapes and 3 for florals or still lifes with flowers .

Indoor I'm starting the following seeds:

lettuce

aspabroc hybrid broccoli

egg yolk yellow tomatoes(the tomatoes on these plants are the size and color of egg yolks)

micro tom red cherry tomatoes (standard size cherry tomaoes on 6 to 8 INCH plants that can be grown in flower pots for the patio)

striped serpent cucumbers( the packet claims these can grow up to 3 feet long and curl into snake like shapes)

mexican marigolds from my brothers garden

poppies also from my brothers garden

wildflowers sent out in fund raising materials. Several people save these for me.
my Thanks go out to all of them.

Recycling Greeting Cards, Step by Step

MATERIALS NEEDED:

old greeting cards

double stick tape

scissors

stickers,rubber stamps or stencils

colored pencils

1. The larger piece was salvaged from the inside of a get well card. The smaller
card was a Christmas card and I'll be using that one for a base.

2. Apply double stick tape to the front of the base card and stick it too the card stock that you want to cover it with.

3. Cut off the excess around the edges.

 4. Here you see the "new" card and the scrap piece.

5. Apply double stick tape to the scrap piece.

6. Cut scrap into strips and apply over previous writing and add a few more in random lengths to make a decorative pattern.

7. I thought the design needed something to pull it together so I added some old bird transfers that a pen pal had sent me.

8. When writing on the inside of the card , the strips were at the bottom of the page and made a nice finish around the signature and things.

9. Draw a similar pattern on the envelope.

Kicking ideas around

Over the last week or so I've done a lot of tulip drawing and watercolors but they've all been in the bodies of letters and on envelopes so I haven't stopped to photograph them along the way.

Rather than focusing on art projects lately I've been taking some time to catch up with friends and family and take care of my health issues.

When I start a new series of paintings I should be working with a fresh perspective and a burst of energy that I haven't had in quite a while.

I'm as anxious about where it will take me as you are.

Thanks for your interest, I'll keep you posted.

Mustang, something new for me

Someone I care about really likes mustangs so I'm attempting to learn to draw and paint them as a surprise.

I'm off to an awkward start, I'm not quite happy with the pose  but I based it on clip art we found on the internet. I tried several different pencils in both regular and watercolor. I wasn't quite happy with with the rough texture on the body so I washed it over with a light mix of watercolor paints.

Clearly it's a project that will take a while to learn. if nothing else I'm hoping the effort will be appreciated.

Either way it stretched me out of my comfort zone and that's always a good thing. 

Tulips in the Mail

I started on the envelope with watercolor and colored  pencil working from an old photo from my garden.

I decorated the card with the photo, a used postage stamp with one of my paintings on it, and a small drawing.

I did a lot more flowers around the inside but since I did them around the letter I'd written that I didn't take pictures of it.

People are amazed that I'll put so much into a letter but it gives me a lot of  time to really relax and explore my drawing and painting techniques without worrying about results.

In that way it's a gift to both of us.

Latest Photos From the Bird Cam

We never get a full photo of the cardinal because the bird feeder that has the built in camera is a small one.

We are considering either purchasing a larger commercial unit or building something ourselves but this will need to do in the meantime.

This is been one of the best pictures so far and one of the species that we've seen the least of this season.

You have to wonder what this guy is thinking. He certainly looks like he's got something to say. Don't you?