Here are some of the little creatures I have been painting lately. Spent the last couple days with family and am now ready to get back into painting! Jesse and I are going to the Harry Potter exhibit and the Pacific Science Center this afternoon but until then I shall be painting and listening to music!
These creatures, and others, are available in my etsy shop.
Happy Thanksgiving!
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy
&
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder
here is another little painting. I am getting kind of enthused about koi. Well, it was birds for a while, so now it may be sea creatures for a bit. And pond creatures. And creatures of the forest and woodlands. I guess I will see where my brush takes me.
One of my favorites types of gardens is a Japanese garden and one of my favorite things about Japanese gardens are the koi ponds. I have been fortunately to see the gardens in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. And after listening to the audio book of The Tea House Fire by Ellis Avery recently, I am anxious to go to a proper tea ceremony. I can't think why I never have done that, given that I have visited those gardens several times, but I have not. I did have some very nice green tea at the SF gardens, but it was not part of a tea ceremony.
Well, it's the 1st snow of the year in the Northwest. As usual panic has ensued. However, in our defense 1) It does not show very often and therefore we do not have a lot of equipment to deal with it, nor a large budget for it. and 2) Seattle has many steep hills.
I walk to work so other than being unusually cold and asthmatic, I can get around fine. Though I think I may lay in some tinned milk. One can always live out of ones cupboards but if one is out of milk for tea one will suffer. It will probably only last a few days so I do not that worried, but if it last longer than that the grocery store will run out of things like milk. and 2 years ago - eggnog. It's a shame to run out of eggnog on Christmas Eve! I had to buy silknog. It was better than I thought it would be.
Yesterday I spent most of the day wrapped in blankets listening to an audio book and painting. I am really excited about some koi I started painting, but in the meantime here are some more paintings featuring Quinacridone and another painting inspired by peacock feathers.
i can not tell you how glad i am to have this last week behind me. it was one of the most stressful and in a long time.
i wanted to share with you this painting i made with my new daniel smith watercolors. Jesse got me the Quinacridone paint set from Daniel Smith for my birthday. This is one of the paintings I've done since then. It is 4 x 4". These are beautiful colors! Wikipedia says quinacridone is C20H12N2O2. I do not think I can remember that. I had to look it up. (I had a year of college chemistry, you know I think this is the 1st time I've pulled any of that information into the front of my brain in years. It's good to know I can still understand a molecular formula!
it's been a long week. i am glad it is friday. they say it may snow in the Northwest this weekend of Monday. I am not really convinced, personally. I do not know what I am doing this weekend but I hope not a whole lot. I do have a ticket for the symphony on Sunday night. I am sure I will enjoy it but 8 pm seems like a rather late time to start things. I guess I am old and crotchety now! I have consulted dictionary.com and it tells me this about the word crotchety:
crotchety: given to crotchets : subject to whims, crankiness, or ill temper
(under crotchets it says: a : a highly individual and usually eccentric opinion or preference derived from Middle English croket, from Anglo-French, crook, diminutive of croc hook, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse krōkr hook)
Synonyms for crotchety : choleric, crabby, cranky, cross, irritable, fiery, grouchy, grumpy, irascible, peevish, perverse, pettish, petulant, prickly, quick-tempered, raspy, ratty, short-tempered, snappish, snappy, snarky, snippety, snippy, stuffy, testy, waspish
i am not sure why the word for hook evolved into a word for crankiness but i bet my late pet hedgehog igle could tell me. he had hooks from hell to breakfast and an attitude to go with them.
this little painting, 5 x 5 inches, was inspired by an audio book I listened to recently: The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery. It was really good! Lots about the language and culture of Japan, the history, and the tea ceremony. I took a year of Japanese in college and loved it. I wish I remembered more and hope I get a chance to study again someday. (I did keep all my books and pull them out sometimes!)
The painting is on Etsy.
After a week off work I am back again! So less painting time. But I hear it is good to leave the house sometimes and interact with people and so forth. I get some time off next week though, so there will be more art time!
