For starters, I was really looking forward to my "Art Date" with my girlfriends! With the weather getting a little warmer, & the opening of the Butterfly Exhibit at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, I was really looking forward to Tuesday. On the other hand, having the next seven days to myself, & $10,000 […]
What did he do next?
Well, the first thing John fixed was the irrigation system. It has always been a bit poopy, and he quickly discovered why! This is all technical, so I won’t get into it although I did understand after John explained it…..several times! The long and the short is this: it was never installed right in the first place! (Landscaping by a professional expert, having landscaped all over the Middle East!) After putting several hours into digging many holes, a trip to Lowe’s did the trick!
Oh those back-breaking holes!
The only one around here that knows how backbreaking digging holes in the yard can be is Daisy, our dog! She has most recently been on archology excursion to find the Lost City! I need to tell you, neither Les or myself taught her to do this. I’m sure she learned it from talking to the other dogs at the “dog park!” You know the ones, the dogs whose parents don’t teach them right from wrong! So now, we have to be the bad guys and give her a time out for attempting world travel, or trying to bury a chew stick. I hate being the bad guy!
Now the fun starts…
Tuesday night after John had prepared the yard for new dirt, and sod, and headed for home, Daisy went outside and…No she didn’t dig holes, but she spread her toys over the dirt. I think she was saying, “This is my yard, leave it alone!” All through this process she has been agitated, and I couldn’t even get her to leave the house for a walk in the afternoon. The yard being all torn up bothered her, and she would come in to get one of us, and take us out into the back to show us what John had done to her yard.
What’s next?
Wednesday the top soil went down, and from Wednesday until Thursday afternoon, Daisy had to stay out of the yard. I believe it is “Murphy’s Law,” to have the animals roll in freshly watered, manure, and top soil! We could just see her with the smelly dirt stuck to her fur, and needing a bath before we could let her back into the house!
Thursday morning John started putting down the sod, and then things changed. Keeping a dog off her grass is a challenge, and reasoning with her to not dig holes in the grass or she will have to sit on the “Naughty Rug” is the fun part!
Today is a new day, a new start, a new yard we can be proud of, and it looks great! After the yard was watered, pots will get drips on them, and things just look so much neater. I’m loving it!
Then what?
There isn’t much left to do. Maybe a few little things like putting a few more drip lines in, or re-wiring an antique iron lamp that was my Great-grandmother’s, but that is about it! You can be sure that pictures will follow one of these days! This was back-breaking work, that I could neither do, or help with. We are both so grateful for John, who tirelessly worked to make our home, and yard something we could all be proud of!
I think we all deserve a glass of vino, and maybe some cheese and crackers, and oh…..Chocolate!!! We must have chocolate!
Model for the day!
But the wine had to wait!
Cleaning up all our supplies, packing them into the car, and driving home was about all we were good for,but we did it!
It has been years since my life drawing classes and my only thought was, “Crap, how am I going to do this?” Kicking my ego to the curb, I dug in like I knew what I was doing, and had a great time! There were only including the instructor, so it was small enough to watch, ask questions, and paint without bumping into someone else. Since my easel is far too large to be stuffed into the car, borrowing one from the gallery seemed like a good idea.
Believe it or not,
I had to get help to set the easel up! All my portable easels were old watercolor easels, and would never work for all it needed to do! Once the gallery easel was up, I set about fixing the acrylic paint so it wouldn’t dry out. Retarder was the item of the day, and that was a Snap!…
This isn’t perfect, far from it, but it was my first try at painting a portrait on location without the help of a sketch to get started! There is much to be learned from painting this way, least of all – “ pay attention! “
Will I be doing this again?
You bet I will! I had so much fun, and I love the idea of doing a painting in a day! That’s why I loved abstract so much, get in, get out! And it’s done! However, once again it’s Practice, Practice, and more Practice!
The practice never ends!
When I was a child my nightmares were always the same. I was in bed, & a large light blue blanket was coming at me, trapping me in a corner, trying to suffocate me! I always awoke terrified, with this ongoing nightmare! Was I actually remembering something that was really happening to me? Now looking […]
And, I keep looking for the coins! I keep pretty close watch on my cushions on the chairs, & sofa. Go figure – they are clean – no crumbs, no Kleenex, no coins! The floors of the car, well that's another story. They are harder to keep clean, & never any coins! I always dream […]
I said there were many unfinished canvases in my studio, and I was planning on finishing them. The more they sat there, the more I started to think, “If they haven’t said anything so far, maybe even they don’t know where to go with themselves!” So I grabbed a second unfinished painting, and gessoed over it. Ha! I’ll show it! Gessoed over it very lightly, so the under layer of a mix of Quinacridone Burnt Orange, and Quinacridone Gold still showed through in places. Then the sky came to life with some light blue, and next but not last, I lightly brushed in some violet, orange, and yellow. That ‘s just the sky!
Now the trees!
The larger trees were already roughed in with tissue paper, so my decision to paint trees was already made. I just followed through, and added some more trees, but decided to emphasize the bigger trees since they were standing out in the first place. No big decisions there! At some point, my thoughts have gone to, “Enough time wasted on this, let’s get down to business!” While I love to keep playing with my trees, I also want to decide on what to do next, and start something else!
My ideas are all over the place, and usually I tend to jump in feet first, sink or swim……usually sink! It would be nice to do a little more planning for the next one. The funny thing is, I love the spontaneity of not knowing where I’m going, or how I’ll get there. I love letting the painting take the lead, with Happy Accidents at the finish of the painting! The very thing I love the most, is the very thing that trips me up the most! Is it the planning that is the problem, or is it the subject matter? Or, am I not listening?
How many of you have the same problem, or do you have answers that I hadn’t thought of? Let me know because I’ve been struggling here, and someone must have answers….
The trees are speaking……
After playing with lighting, and watching my trees, I pretty much decided to keep playing with them. My trees are not finished, but still need shadows, more lights, and darks!
While I’m finishing up my trees, I’m also getting ready for another class. This class will be all day at ArtBeat on Main Street. This is a fairly new gallery in the heart of Vista, Ca, that took me by surprise when I walked in. The ladies that own tArtBeat are down to earth, and easy to know. They seem to have put together a gallery rarely seen in this area! It really belongs further south in Del Mar, or La Jolla. It’s that classy! So when my friend, and artsy sister said she was taking this class, at her urging I checked it out, and was pleasantly surprised. The artist teaching will be Scott W. Prior, an artist well known in the art community.
We’ll talk…
Old as Dirt and Proud of it! 
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