Even the woodpecker is at home with the art here

As you may remember we built and painted bird houses last year and as you can see here, The woodpecker has come to do some remodeling this season.

I hate to see all our hard work damaged but it was interesting to watch our feathered friend working so hard and we found it a bit funny that it chose our little house when it's just a few feet away from some really large, old and amazing trees.

Doug took this shot from the living room and it was interesting to see the differences in the light and color between this and the photos I took out in the yard. I managed to get within 4 feet of it before it flew up the tree. We're certified Wildlife Habitat here so most of the birds and animals are used  to having my around and that should allow us to share even better photos with you in the future. I may even base a few paintings on them this winter.

Petunias in Watercolor and Photos

I took that photo of the petunia in my yard earlier this season and thought it was about time to try painting them.

I always start with a small painting in the corner of the envelope and then move on to a more complicated design for the card.

I haven't quite decided whether to leave this card at this point or to continue to work in more details. What do you think?

It's simple but bound to make the letter carrier and the recipient smile.

Finished Floral in Purple and Gold

I always attach in progress photos to the backs of my paintings as well as writing notes on them as to the date completed and the type of paint used. I'm hoping that this information proves useful or interesting in the future and people seem to like the idea so far.

Here of course is the finished painting which will be sent on it's way in just a few minutes. Yes, it's a gift for a friend. I may scan it first and check out the design possibilities so that we can all enjoy it. What do you think?

Wildlife Habitat and Gardening in the City

The chipmunk was cuter than this squirrel but it moved too fast for me or my camera. The squirrel even jumped back out of the birdbath before I finished shooting my photo.

I love the way the flowers at the corner of my yard look against my neighbors arbor. It's proof that you don't need to live out in the country to find a little beauty to brighten your day.

Well, the backyard is still a mess but even it has a few bright spots like the black eyed Susan's that popped up in  our campfire area. They really surprised me because there's an 18 foot gravel circle out here and I wasn't expecting anything to take root in it.
There's a large, old martin house a few feet away from here that's been full of all sorts of other birds all summer-maybe THEY planted them...

Hosta End of Season Clean Up

It's looking pretty rough now but as you check the older posts you'll see that the hosta looked great this summer. The season went awfully fast and instead of waiting for it all to die back I prefer to clip the flower stems and pull out the dead or dying leaves to keep it looking as nice as possible.

The wheelbarrow is on the street side of things because I always start there so that things look nice from the road whether I actually finish the job or not. A lot of seniors have mobility issues and we just like people to know we're doing the best we can. Nobody wants a messy yard but no one wants a stroke either so sometimes you have to compromise. There must be a program that pairs people that live in apartments and miss gardening with folks that have gardens and can't keep them up, have any of you heard of one here in Minnesota?

I got started cleaning things up and shot this photo while taking a break and trying to get a picture of a chipmunk passing through.

Believe it or not there is a lovely gravel circle under this mess that really makes the plants look great early in the season. There's a lot of work left to do.

Latest Lily Painting

As you can see there are still a lot of other projects going on so I may not finish that painting this weekend but here are the photos of where I've left off to tend to a few of the others.

As you may have noticed lighting makes quite a difference. The painting appears much brighter when placed in the scanner than it does outdoors in natural light or just laying in the dining room table. It's an important factor to take into consideration as you work so choose the intensity of your colors carefully.

First Things First, New Floral Paintings in progress

So Many Projects, So Little Time

I'm still working on that painting and Christmas card design but as you can see behind it a friend brought flowers yesterday and I need to get to drawing and painting them while they last so I'll have to take a brief break from Christmas.

Perhaps walking away from this right now is a good thing because I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with just the right background as well as a technique for painting the crochet and knit items both in and on the stocking.

Here's a long shot of the mess I've got going on in here today where I'm also embroidering some flowers over the stains on a pair of pants for another friend.

A neighbor dropped these off  this morning for me to paint so I guess I'd better get set up and started on these. I haven't really done anything this morning besides this blog and already my day feels busy.

A few more steps

5. Feel free to turn your work to avoid touching areas of wet paint and to make it easier to paint in small details.

6. Keep inspiration handy so that you can see how well you've captured the item that you've decided to paint. As you can see here I've decided to use a black background and a small bristle brush (the coarser the better) to tap in Alizarin Crimson and Cad Red Medium to get the look of the old red wool stocking.

7. As long as you've got the reds laid out on your palette you might as well get out a small bit of white and add small dabs of the resulting pinks to the background that you're building. (With the price of good paints being what they are we don't want any of it to go to waste)

8. I've added the black to the are where the Granny Squares are going to be (I'm much more accustomed to crocheting them than painting them so this should be interesting). As there was a small amount of black left on the palette this was a good time to add the stitching details to the stocking as well.

Step by Step with Paints for Christmas

1. Start by laying out the items you want to use and sketching the basic shapes in pencil on a canvas panel.

2.  Lay in a muted background with the acrylic paints of your choice. A one inch hardware store paintbrush is inexpensive and works well for this pat and tap technique.

3. When you're ready to take a break from the background you can start laying in your other areas of color to get a feel for where the design is going. In this case I found it helpful to keep the garland on my easel so I could see how the beads should look when the light hits them.

4. Remember to take a break whenever you need to. Here's where I left the project today.

Pencil Designs for Christmas Cards

The best place to start is with the things you have so I grabbed this Christmas stocking I made from a lot of scrap items that were given to me (and which hasn't sold on eBay or etsy) and then I started pulling other items out of boxes of old Christmas decorations and arranging them in different ways to get the creative process going. All you really need is a good idea so just jump in and try something. 

The next decision of course is which media and surface you're going to work on. I selected some 140 pound watercolor greeting cards with lighter weight envelopes and colored pencils. What you see here is the design for the corner of the envelope. The beauty of working this way is that even if I don't get a design that will work for publication or production, there's always someone special that will love a hand drawn card and envelope. Most of the people that I write to say they have great conversations with their mail carriers over my work and that adds even more fun to the experience.

Here's a close up of the envelope.

...and here's the start of my design for the card.

What I really like about this design idea is that it works in either a vertical or horizontal format and leaves lots of room for text boxes, calligraphy or any other way that I'd want to add a greeting to it.

Today's Watercolors

Yes, they're on cards and envelopes. I just LOVE mail, don't you?

1960's Raggedy Andy

I came across this today while sorting through things and as you can see by looking at it I've always been interested in arts and crafts. Believe it or not this little doll combines a lot of them. It started with a store bought doll, I replaced the hair with a latch hook and yarn. I sewed the little jeans and embroidered the suspenders and trim on the sleeves. It was the 1960's so I couldn't resist sewing some little patches on them as well. Silly, maybe but it was a great way to learn and improve on skills which is probably why I've kept it all these years. You never know where a project idea will lead you.

Today's Garden Photos



I'm never quite sure what color to make the background on a pencil drawing. As you can see here I tried just about everything before finally blacking it out.

Having done the background I realized that I wasn't quite sure which end I wanted to be the top of this image. With the design work I'm doing these days I may try turning it a number of different directions depending on the shape of the item I'll be putting it on.