Rainier Cherries

I so LOVE the blushing red and golden yellow, sweet cherries that are considered a premium type of cherry in the Pacific Northwest!  Yesterday, we received a box of them from a friend.

According to Wikipedia.com, Rainier Cherries are a cross between “bing” and “van” cultivars.  This sweet cherry was developed in 1952 at Washington State University by Harold Fogle… I did not know this! 😉

This cherry is named after Mount Rainier.  This mountain is the highest mountain in my state, located 59 miles south to south-east of Seattle.  It has a summit elevation of 14,411 feet.  Mount Rainier is of the Cascade range on the western side of Washington state… I live on the eastern side (close to the Idaho border).

I found these cherries to be a good subject to paint in watercolor for the letter, “C”:

I enjoyed creating this colorful page… the quote is one of my favorites!

Cheers! 🙂

A Nature Study

Last Friday, I had a little time to create one of Carla Sonheim’s assignments from the year long online class I’m taking from her.

We were to collect some items from nature and arrange them in a pleasing manner:

I collected the above items from my yard.  🙂

Next, I drew them quickly with pencil:

I added oil pastels to my pencil sketch by starting with a light color and layering a darker color on top.  I added details by scratching into the oil pastels with a wooden pencil.

I wasn’t totally liking the oil pastels so I scraped white acrylic paint over it:

I like the muted look better… I’d like to try my nature study in watercolor too!

Happy Monday!  I hope your day is blossoming into a good week…

Cheers! 🙂

May And June Square Projects

Perhaps you remember my watercolor circles I created in April:  My April Square Project…

After my black and white doodle, I was ready for some color!  So I decided to use my black and white doodle for April:  Finding Balance

And I moved on to May and June!

I recently did this playful watercolor from my imagination:

After cutting it up, I mixed it with my colorful circles:

And got not just one… but TWO month’s projects:

And of course I had to see how they looked next to each other:

So fun to play… wishing you a creative day!

Cheers! 🙂

A Lazy Daisy Day

Yesterday, I had a lazy daisy kind of day…

I was at the lake and the weather was very nice!

What a difference a week makes!  The photo below on the left was taken last weekend and the photo on the right shows how the beach chairs would NOW be under water!

The sunshine feels wonderful but we don’t need the snow in the mountains to melt too quickly!  Flood warnings are now in place…

Oh, the balance of nature… glad I’m not in charge! 😉

Hope you had a lazy daisy day too!  What did you do?

Cheers! 🙂

Welcome…

I was looking for a Welcome sign for my front doorstep the other day… And I discovered this sign at Hobby Lobby.

I didn’t like the colors of the wood birds so I unscrewed them and darkened them with acrylic paints.

Hubby helped me hang it on the siding of our home… it looks more inviting now…

How do you welcome people to your home?!  Do you decorate your doorstep?

Cheers! 🙂

My April Square Project…

My April Square Project is running into May…

Yet, I’m OK with it – don’t sweat the small stuff, right?! 😉

I finally got my watercolor painting completed that I showed you the other day; you can find its beginnings here:  Art As Meditation

Last night I cut it up!  Don’t worry, it was intentional:

This time I cut larger squares and circles to add variety to my monthly project.  (See A Square Project under my categories on the right of this screen).

Next week, I hope to show you my completed collaged piece.

Until then, I’m going to have fun taking photos of these shapes… they are like a puzzle!

And if they don’t all make it into a collage, perhaps they will become part of something else?!

What would YOU do with them?

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂

A May Day Basket

I remember as a young child making paper baskets and filling them with a simple bouquet of flowers from our yard.

Next, I would hang them on an unexpecting neighbor’s door handle, ring the doorbell and run!  It was so fun to give a gift of kindness…

My watercolor reminded me of those simple times as I worked on it yesterday:

Perhaps the swirls of color could be ribbons on a May Pole?

Happy May Day!

Cheers! 🙂

Switching Gears

Lately, I haven’t had much time for creative play…

And when I do, I seem to have difficulty switching gears in my brain from work to art!

I really liked this quote from Audrey Hepburn; when life feels overwhelming or impossible, I need to switch gears in my thinking…

How about you, how do you get past the impossible to the I’m possible?

Cheers!  🙂

A First Layer

I was able to get a first layer of collage images glued to my canvas on Saturday for the online art class I’m taking from Anne Marie Grgich, that I shared with you in my last post.

The canvas is 18 x 24 inches:

This is the first of MANY layers glued with liquid matte gel medium.

I used an old credit card to smooth my papers down but still got several air bubbles…

So I decided to try a second collage on cradled wood board, this one is 11 x 14 inches:

The air bubbles still showed up but drying overnight helped many of them to disappear.  The rest of the bubbles I will need to pop with an exacto knife and add more glue and smooth with my fingers.  

I learned that the first layer of glue needs to be completely dry BEFORE adding the gel medium on top of my papers.

I did like working on the surface of the cradled wood board better than the canvas as  the surface was more even.

Someone in the class recommended “Yes” glue as it has less water in it than the gel medium.  I think I will try this in the future.

I will show you my collages as they progress…

Hope your Monday has very few wrinkles or crinkles (as in crinkly foreheads…)

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. Thank you all for your concern about my right eye.  It has almost completely healed, yay! 👀

 

 

A Poke In The Eye

Somehow I irritated my right eye…

I don’t know if I got something in it or if I scratched my eyeball.  I’m going to an eye doctor this morning to find out.

It just reminds me how wonderful it is to SEE colors and EVERYTHING!  I am so blessed.

I’m very excited about this new online class I just started, hosted by Carla Sonheim – go to CarlaSonheim.com to learn more about the online art classes she offers.

The name of this class is The College Techniques of Anne Marie Grgich.

Check out Anne Marie’s art on Pinterest  if you’d like to see her AMAZING detailed collages!

I found a few more books at a different thrift store yesterday to add to my collection and I got the Senior Discount!  Yes, there is a plus to being 55 years old and older! Lol! 🤣

I figure what images I don’t use in collage, I could use as references to paint! ☺️

Sorry to report, I did not see any Nancy Drew mystery books at this store but I did find a great book on container gardening for only $1.00 – YAY!

Anne Marie Grgich’s collages are very detailed with MANY layers of images.  One of the things that inspired me to take this class was to learn how to create more transparent layers in my own collages.  Plus, what a bonus to watch videos of another artist’s process!  I’m learning so much and the class has just started!

So back to the process of cutting and sorting images by color for this class…

It is much more fun than a poke in the eye!

Cheers! 🙂