Saturday, February 29, 2020

A Few Confessions ~

After about a year of skipping from one book to the next, frustratingly unable to find a read that I could enjoy, finally I found one. I'm a little embarrassed ... but here it is:
The last time I read a Mary Stewart novel was high school. I'll defend her by noting that her style is more high-brow than I remembered. She's not sappy. She's not simple. Her style is elegant and descriptive, her vocabulary broad. This novel is packed with literary allusions, mostly to Shakepeare's The Tempest. It's just a good, adventurous story. 

A good friend purchased a painting from me, and as I promised her, I went to town (this morning) and spent some leisurely time in the painting aisles at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Here's what I bought:
all of the loot, above


A kneaded eraser was recommended. Those are two colors I lacked.
The Bee Paper was on clearance!

I've needed a good sketching pencil, and a decent eraser.
The masking fluid -- I'm eager to try that!

I spent a lot of time in the pen section. Pen is a good accompaniment to watercolor work.

After watching that Alisa Laporte video I realized I was trying to get by with scruffy art supplies. She had excellent recommendations, so I coughed up some change and bought some small but useful items. I plan to paint more, even if it means throwing out bad paintings and often wasting good paper. The practice must be done. Speaking of which, here are the various iterations of Beau:
The photo

First attempt: he looks a little like a ferret

Second attempt: he looks a lot like a porcupine.
His chin is way too pointy.

Third attempt: not finished yet, but improved the muzzle.
Lots of shading yet to be done.

The last one is about half-finished. I'm using wet-on-dry now, and it's easier to control, but I prefer the depth of shade and color in the first one.


On the way home Adam and I stopped at our favorite local lunch dive, Aggie's.

Oh! Before I forget! I bought baby Isaac some bibs at the New Bern farmer's market. Aren't these cute? Anna says she always needs new bibs. These have terry cloth on the back:

Need another shot of some food? Adam made mile-high pancakes (they're so fluffy) for supper last night, with strawberry syrup on top:
That's it, friends! I hope you have a relaxing, no-stress weekend! Much love sent your way!

7 comments:

Sue said...

You are very Talented, your art work is beautiful, I have always wanted to paint/ draw, but was not gifted with this talent!.
We enjoy pancakes for supper too! I am having a very relaxing weekend, trying to catchup on my blogging.
Blessings,
Sue

magsmcc said...

I never knew that rough magic was a quote from the Tempest until this summer. We were huddled under raincoats watching the Tempest at an outdoor theatre event in a park nearby, which was all very appropriate for this play! The reason why the words jumped out is because our favourite theatre group, based in Dublin, goes by the name of Rough Magic, and their annual outdoor Shakespeare performances at Kilkenny's Arts Festival are the best Shakespeare I have ever seen. (And I've seen really quite a lot over the years!)

Still bombarded by storms here, so still loving all your delicious food pictures!

Granny Marigold said...

I remember reading This Rough Magic years ago and enjoying it.
Love all your "loot". I imagine good tools are as important in painting as in any other creation. I think you'll have fun.
The bibs are adorable. And the pancakes make my mouth water!!

Lisa Richards said...

So much fun at the art stores! Enjoy playing with your new supplies! I have a Phyllis Whitney novel on my shelves and many others. It's just fun and relaxing to read that sort of thing now and then. Right now I'm still wading through Moshe Dayan's autobiography and just got The Business of Heaven by C.S. Lewis for short daily readings. And a George MacDonald novel. His novels are really vehicles for teaching spiritual truths, so a lightweight novel may be required soon, lol. Yummy looking food! :)

GretchenJoanna said...

Your book searching sounds like my own wanderings lately. In some seasons it is ridiculously hard to find the right one, that is not poorly written, not too light, not too heavy, etc etc. I feel silly about this in the last two weeks, especially in my house full of books.

annie said...

The bibs are precious! I love all those art supplied, you will do great with them. Those strawberries look so good on that pancake stack. Yummy!

Andrea Charles said...

He looks so adorable and your pictures breathe life into the artwork, beautiful. Do share the finished artwork! Bibs would come a lot in handy and your choice of design pattern and material is stupendous. Pan cakes, fluffy and strawberry syrup, three words that leave one drooling and all in the same sentence!