A Nudnik Bird

Today’s weird bird is rather dull…

It is a Nudnik bird!

Nudnik (nood-nik) – a persistently dull, boring pest.

Sometimes I feel like my weird birds are a little boring or maybe I just need a break from creating them for awhile.

So I have decided to take a blogging break and enjoy the lake for the summer.

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

July Square-A-Day Project

Perhaps you remember my post regarding my inspiration for my first ten days of my July Square-A-Day Project? If not you can find it here: 10 Watercolor Squares

I created in watercolor for July but also some gouache for each day on a 1.75 x 1.75 inch square:

Nature was my inspiration for most of my squares. Yet, I did include a couple of abstracts and a little whimsy!

Painting outside at the lake was something I truly enjoyed! I encourage you to paint outdoors.

Cheers! 🙂

Sweet Summer Time…

Summers in the Pacific Northwest where I live, seem sooo short!

I can’t believe we are already in the middle of July…

The lake water is FINALLY getting warm with SUN at last!

I have decided to take a short blogging break and enjoy –

Sweet Summer Time!

And paint! I look forward to sharing more discoveries in my watercolor nature journal with you:

Happy Summer!

Cheers! 🙂

Planting Patterns

I have declared the month of June to be doodle month for my Square-A-Day project.  I look forward to showing you all my squares at the end of this month… but here is a sneak preview:

Drawing doodles or patterns is something I find calming and relaxing.  I did this one in my art journal with color pencils recently:

It looks like I am planting patterns like rows of flowers or vegetables in a garden!

Patterns and inspiration are everywhere… 

Like this photo I took recently at the lake.  The moon was almost full!

There are patterns in the water, the trees and the sky!

I hope you will be inspired by the patterns in your world!

Cheers! 🙂

 

A Perfect Day

I interrupt this weekly weird bird post to share a perfect day with you!

We had to make a quick trip to the lake yesterday to have our RV fixed by “Bob,” the mobile RV doctor! 😉

It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 80’s so I thought you might want to tag along with me for some lake time in Northern Idaho…

Priest Lake does look rather inviting with its pristine water but it is still a chilly 60 degrees.

I’d rather sit in a beach chair and enjoy the view, how about you?

The wild roses are in bloom and so Pretty In Pink

I even discovered a bumble bee enjoying them!

The Cottonwood trees were shedding their cottony seeds and it looked a little like snow falling from this brilliant blue sky.

My friend, Marsha showed me her amazing needlepoint she is creating of BIRDS! I can’t wait until she completes all the unique stitches and adds their beaded hats!

I hope you enjoyed this perfect day at the lake with me!

As the sign in our kitchen at home says… “A day at the lake is worth a month in town!”

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. I did see a “gang” of turkeys cross the road on the car ride home… perhaps they will show up in next week’s weird bird Wednesday! 

Red, White and Blue

Today is Memorial Day in the United States when we proudly wave our American flag to thank ALL who have served our country so we can live in freedom!

Hoorah for the red, white and blue!!

On a side note, it has been a windy, rainy and cool weekend at the lake.  We have spent much of it indoors; reading, napping and eating! 😉

What have you been doing over the weekend to relax?

Cheers! 🙂

Inspired by Place

I started a mixed media class last week with Lendon Noe, hosted by Carla Sonheim.  The online class is called, “Inspired by Place.”

I find it an intriguing subject.

Is place a home, perhaps a memory such as a childhood home?  Is place a feeling, a sense of calm from being with nature?  Or is place from your imagination?  There are many other possibilities!

I was inspired to create this collaged landscape of a place I hold dear to my heart in my art journal:

It is a view of Chimney Rock at Priest Lake, Idaho.

I love this place!  It holds a special memory where I have been spending my summers since childhood.  It brings me a feeling of peace when I see it in person and from photographs such as this one:

And it is a place that I sometimes go in my imagination when I need to relax.

What place inspires you?  I hope you share it with me!

Cheers! 🙂

“When you leave a beautiful place, you carry it with you wherever you go.” – Alexandra Stoddard

Landscape Vignettes

Perhaps you recall the online landscape art class I told you about from Anita Lehmann?  If not, you can learn more about it here:  Exploring Landscape

I enjoyed painting these 1.5 x 1.5 inch landscape vignettes in watercolor; the first 2 rows were from my imagination and the last 3 rows were free photo images of lake and wheat field images from unsplash.com

I discovered a limited color palette and subject matter made the exercise more cohesive and less busy in my last 3 rows:

New materials I used for this project were removable tape – 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch in diameter that I purchased locally at Michaels and Art Graf watercolor graphite that I purchased online from Dick Blick:

I encourage you to give this exercise a try…

I learned to see landscape shapes and elements of design instead of focusing on small details.  It also helped me to work quickly and get a feel of the landscape instead of focusing on minute details.

Cheers! 🙂

Exploring Landscape

I recently completed an online class from Anita Lehmann called, “Translating Landscapes.” The class was hosted by Carla Sonheim.  

I am still learning so much from this class!! Anita is a wonderful teacher.  She is also a licensed architect in Washington State.

Exploring the elements of design in landscape has helped me to SEE my subject in a different way.  I am learning to see more abstractly as “shapes.”

We warmed up with a favorite subject of mine, PEARS!  I enjoyed experimenting with a variety of art materials using the design elements on a 6 x 6 inch paper:

Next, I applied the design elements to my photo from the lake:

Here are my favorites from this exploration:

“Motive” combines several design elements into one design.

If you’d like to learn more about Anita H Lehmann and view her art, please check out:  Anitahlehmannartist.com or ahldraws on Instagram.

Cheers! 🙂

Sense It

The lake once calm and smooth like glass,

Feels the wind upon its surface,

It hears the rumbling of the clouds,

And its waves turn into white caps…

It tastes the raindrops from above,

And smells a fresh clean scent…

Then it sees the sun peak through the clouds,

And knows that it can rest.

I wrote this poem about the lake when I was 13-years-old.  Sometimes the lake seems sense it before the weather changes.

Cheers! 🙂