There's been a lot of rain in August, to make up for the earlier summer dryness and that has curtailed may of my outdoor plans. However, I was pleased that the 2 pictures that got into the Juried Show at the library both won ribbons. The pen & ink copperhead in autumn leaves won Second Place and the Indigo Bunting received Honorable Mention, ribbons and certificates accompanied their pretty colored ribbons. The show was up for most of August, so a lot of people got to see them, as they were in the hall by the meeting rooms and they have many groups which meet there. When I attended my monthly book group, quite a few of the other members had noticed my work and had compliments. I felt like a celebrity.
At the end of July, I finally got to try my watercolor field kit, at a little park by a beach edging Lake Erie. I was able to have an entire picnic table to myself in the shade and there was a nice breeze coming off the water. I did 2 water scenes, and the experience was better than the paintings themselves. I forgot how hard it is to control watercolors and you can't paint over your mistakes as you can with acrylics, which is what I mostly use. The first picture with the trees ended up in the recycling bin, but I thought the second, just of the lake, was alright. The clouds were fun to do on that one.

Next time I'd like to focus on just a tree or flowers, to give me a focal point. I've been looking out for unusually shaped trees or really pretty ones & as the weather gets cooler, will make another attempt at painting outdoors. I'm determined to get better at it and produce something decent. When the fall foliage starts, that should make for more colorful subjects.
I've got several other pictures in progress at my drawing table. Plus, I'm trying to get prepared for my second go at "Inktober", where an artist does a certain amount of ink drawings during October. I am going to do the weekly installment like I did last year. Since I know about it ahead of time this year, I'd like to have them all transferred and backgrounds painted in, if necessary, before the month begins. I'm still finishing off some of the preliminary drawings for them & think I'll be ready to go when it starts. I've got my fist craft show of the year on Oct. 8th, so I'll have to work around that. I'm feeling good about what's going on artwise right now, with all of my plans and projects.

My sister and I went to a nearby outdoor antique show last Sunday(the 17th). It's usually our favorite, but we were somewhat disappointed this year, as there was less on offer this year and some of the items were more of a flea market variety than antiques. The organizers had mixed a number of crafters in with the other vendors and that filled out the field much better than usual, but there just wasn't as much stuff to tempt us. My sister didn't buy anything at all, which was really unusual, but I bought a few little things as you can see in the photo above. The collie is a ceramic planter and the insulator on the right is a Whitall, a rare kind from one of the first glass makers in the U.S. The postcard is signed "Waterloo, 1907" and I liked the horses on it. There was a book about tropical fish called "Life and Love in the Aquarium" that I thought about getting, it was from 1934 and in perfect condition, but the font was small and I worried I wouldn't be able to read it.
The weather, though hot, was not as humid as it often is on the day of the show and there was a nice breeze to keep it cooler. After we left the show, we walked across the street to a park, where we sat on benches by the duck pond and watched the dragonflies buzz over the water. The ducks must have been on shore in the shade, because we didn't see any, though we saw a couple of Canada geese on the opposite bank before we left for home.It was a calming end to a pleasant afternoon.

One of the few good things of having to stay in due to health issues, was that I got a lot done on my art projects. I finished 3 pictures in June, two were started previously, but I put the finishing touches on them last month.
I had put the marsh picture aside in May, because even though I knew it lacked something, I couldn't figure out what, so I didn't look at it for weeks and when I returned to it with fresh eyes, I saw how to fix it. Since I was imagining the scene in certain Southern states, I named it "Carolina Marsh".

The Italian wall lizard took steady work and lots of shading, but I was pleased with how it came out. This idea was one I'd had for years, so it had plenty of time to simmer. This is one of the few pictures I've done that has man made objects. An early Genesis song provided the title, "The Conqueror".

The last picture to be completed was an indigo bunting on branches of flowering dogwood. I had a lot of trouble with the dogwood flowers, even though those were one of the first flowers I learned to draw. They eventually worked out though. The bird looks a bit darker in the photo than it does in real life, and was a species I'd never painted before. This one is called "Blue Note".

The two bird pictures have been entered into a local juried exhibit, along with a drawing from last year.Hopefully, the judges will allow at least one into the show. The lizard will be going to the Cold-Blooded Creations Show in Florida with a wood frog that I did this past winter. Both exhibits are in August.

Happy Independence Day!

My sister has to work and my elderly mother doesn't really like holidays, so we won't be celebrating as a family. I did get some potato salad at the grocery store and there are turkey hot dogs in the freezer, so I'm planning to have a festive supper myself.
I'm starting to feel somewhat better, so I'm hoping this marks the start of summer activities for me and maybe doing some fun stuff. This coming week, I'll be sending my entries to a local juried art show in hopes of at least one picture being accepted. I'm also making repairs to one of the pictures for the Cold-Blooded Creations Show for next month and deciding on what project to do next.
Hope everyone who is celebrating our national holiday has a safe and happy day.

It's been a disappointing month so far. I have a lot of health problems, which I've collected over my life like baseball cards, and lately several of them have been acting up and preventing me from doing much. So I still haven't tried out my field painting kit or done much else to write about. But I did finish 2 paintings here at home within the last month, though I haven't yet photographed either. I am working on finishing a third in time for a local juried show whose deadline is early in July, but have selected a painting from last year as back up in case I don't.
This coming Wednesday is my book discussion group and the library has a nice garden attached, with flowers and wrought iron tables. I am planning on taking my paint kit and maybe testing it in such pleasant surroundings after the meeting, if the weather is fine.
I am hoping that I will still be able to do some of the outings I anticipated for the summer, such as shopping at one of several farmer's markets open on Saturday mornings and perusing a little bookstore I recently learned about in a nearby suburb. I've missed a couple art festivals that I wanted to visit, but the outdoor antique show that my sister & I so enjoy is next month and we are looking forward to it.
As an adult, summer seems to zoom by and I'm more aware than ever of making the most of a limited time. With increased family responsibilities, it's necessary to recharge my batteries, so I really need to do some fun stuff this summer.

Things haven't been going too well lately and I'm getting more stressed out, but I didn't want to complain, so I've waited for somethings more interesting to write about. Recently, I got the idea to try painting on site, a little scene or more likely, a tree. Though my main focus is wildlife painting, a few years ago, I gave myself permission to try painting landscapes and skies in a small format, such as 5x7 inches. I've done a few from my window or imagination, but a few weeks ago I was at a little park by Lake Erie and really wanted to paint the water. With that in mind, I spent a week or so putting together a compact watercolor field kit so that I can take a few supplies with me and hopefully finish a scene while I'm actually looking at it. I've sketched a lot from life and have taken projects started inside outside to work on, just for a change, but I've never tried doing any 'plein air' painting. Usually, people do this in art school or early in their career, but as usual, I'm backwards. I'm hoping that the results are decent, at least part of the time, but I'm mainly doing this for the experience.
However, the weather has other ideas. It actually snowed yesterday morning, covered the ground and roofs. It was so weird seeing the white stuff surrounding the sprouting hostas in the flower bed by the back door. Evidently, my western suburb wasn't the only one affected, as the local paper showed photos from the east side of Cleveland coated in white, too.
Here's the link: snow in May
I don't ever recall snow this late in the season before.Last year it snowed at the end of April, and I was astonished, but it had been a cold, snowy winter, so was understandable.Very different from the mild one this year. Now that I've got my field painting kit ready to go, I'm quite eager to try it out, but it definitely needs to be a lot warmer before I do.

Remember the antique show my sister & I visited in mid-February? Well, here are my purchases; a magazine from 1929, some old postcards and a new kind of glass insulator, this one with a split top. That pine cone is over 13 inches long! I'm going to try to find out what kind of pine tree it's from, I've never seen one that big.
I have a bunch of other photos from the show, of things that I couldn't afford or items that were intriguing, but I haven't edited those pics yet. Hopefully I'll do that soon and when I do, I'll post some here.

Yesterday was Rollo's birthday, he is now one year old. We celebrated with a giant salad and this picture was taken when he first got sight of it, doesn't he look surprised? The salad had 2 kinds of lettuce, carrot tops, tomato and chopped baby carrots. He nudged the other stuff aside to get to the pieces of tomato first, as that's his favorite. It took him a half hour to finish the whole thing, but he was popcorning with happiness afterwards. I think he enjoyed his Big Day.

My sister, a nurse, has to work the entire weekend, so we won't be doing anything special to mark the holiday. I did get my mom & her a lot of candy eggs and bunnies. I bought ham salad at the grocery store which I'll be having for supper; soup and sandwiches. I'm glad Lent is over, now I can get some Zone bars, which I missed. They are labeled as a nutrition bar, but I'm not sure how healthy they really are, so I ration them, though in a pinch, I will eat one or two for breakfast. Rollo will get extra carrots, in honor of the Easter Bunny.
Hope the weather is pleasant for people doing things outside. It's sunny today, but quite chilly, you need a heavy jacket and gloves. Maybe it will be warmer tomorrow? In any case, I hope everyone who is celebrating has a lovely day.

This is Rollo last week, trying to hide from me in his tunnel to avoid taking his medicine. Needless to say, I found him.We finished his antibiotics on Tuesday, as instructed, though he was feeling better the weekend before. He's eating & drinking his usual amounts and he's back to being a busy little boy. In fact, the last 2 days he's been quite bouncy, so I believe he's completely recovered from the bladder infection. Yay! I'm thankful for everyone who sent prayers, healing thoughts & good vibes, we both really appreciate it.