Sketching

Do you keep a sketchbook? I am addicted to the thin, softcover ones from Moleskine. They come in packs of two and are perfect for keeping in my purse. I like that they have fewer pages than the other sketchbooks because it is so satisfying to finish one up and then start on the next one! I haven't decided what my favorite pens are. I tend to use whatever is available!

Summer Days

Where do the days go? I can't believe it has been so long since I have updated my blog. Life has been busy, but now we are getting in to the swing of summer. For Father's Day we took our special fella to do what he loves best: go to the mountains! We have a friend who owns a 70,000 acre ranch in the mountains. We started by fishing for trout in the pond by the barn.

Then we thought we would go to a different portion of the ranch where we could do some nice hiking. But when we went to move the car, it was sunk in deep sand with a rock stuck underneath! We were completely bogged down and afraid that the rock would rip out the bottom of the chassis. So John and the ranch manager had to dig the rock out from under the car, then everyone had to push with all their might to get us free. John is showing his dominance over the rock by Tebowing next to it.

Once we finally hit the trail, we hiked back to where there were the remains of some old cabins. I wonder what they looked like while they were still intact. It was fun to explore.

We took our new dog Mollie with us. Even though she is 7 years old, I don't think her previous owner had ever taken her out into nature before. She was excited, but a little afraid of some of the new sights and smells. She was certainly a tired pup by the end of the day!

There is lots of wildlife out there and we found some deer antlers, which is always fun. John is modeling them. Finally we walked along the top of a ridge, from whence we could see Pikes Peak and a view for miles.We love living in Colorado!

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Join me in welcoming my new little studio buddy!

Spring Colors

"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world."-Virgil Kraft

Oh, it is so wonderful to live in a world of color again! I like winter and think snow is very beautiful, but I am always ready to see flowers again. My paintings seem to have more and brighter flowers in them than ever before. Soon it will be time to start painting Christmas images again. I usually need to start doing that in mid-summer. It will be hard to get in the mood! Until then, I will revel in all the vivid colors of the burgeoning garden. Welcome Spring!

On another note, don't forget to check out my Etsy store. I have started adding prints as well as originals. The prints are in a collage style. Click the link to the right. See you there!

Etsy

Just added two new paintings to my Etsy shop, as the first two have sold. I thought I'd try kittens and froggies this time and see how people liked them compared to my usual birds.

Comparing Papers

I am still playing with different art materials, trying to come up with the best possible combination. For this most recent painting, I tried Fabriano Artistico extra white hot press paper. I really liked how bright the colors look on the extra white surface. And unlike the hot press Strathmore Mixed Media paper, I was able to do some lifting of highlights, although not as much as I could with cold press watercolor paper. The hot press surface allowed me to get very tight details too.

However, when removing masking fluid, I noticed that the surface of the paper "pilled" a little bit, which meant that some of the washes didn't go down quite as smoothly as I would have liked. Has anyone else noticed that? I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that my masking fluid was a bit old and congealed!

Thanks to Jacoba for her advice on working with Blogger in my post from a week ago. Seems like Blogger has changed their format and I think that probably had something to do with the problems I was having. And now, back to the drawing board, yay!

Etsy at Last

Well, I have decided to take the plunge and start selling my original art on Etsy. I have only listed two paintings so far, and will add more once I have the whole thing figured out. I'm not the most computer savvy girl in the world, but if people selling collages made from their toenail clippings can figure it out, so can I! Check out my shop:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/98166723/beautiful-watercolor-painting-of-birds

Now, does anyone know how to add an etsy button to my blog? Blogger has changed everything around!
Hope to see you there!