Artful Journey

 Fi and I have been taking a watercolor class on Monday nights.  Watercolor painting is fun and addictive. I am at the beginning stages of trying to master color mixing and glazes. Patience is required as you are layering the colors. Beach scene in winter from a photograph This was completed over a few weeks of class. Overall I felt happy with it when I finished although there was a lot of head scratching during the process. I have a few more that I am working on so I will post them on Watercolor Wednesday.  They were easier in some ways - no snow, ice or crashing waves, but there were a few different challenges. It’s certainly a learning process! This is a pretty straightforward book that I ordered. It will be interesting to see what I come up with it using 3 colors and 3 brushes. Happy painting.

Last week was a beautiful week of unseasonably warm weather, so we headed off to do some apple picking. Our favorite orchard was having a sale - buy a bag, get a second bag for free. Hard to resist since we love strolling through the orchard and picking the very best apples. Plus we had just finished the apples from our first trip. Wide open spaces Good advice, eat more apples… Drink more cider Apples in abundance. They told us this was a great year for apples and there were still a lot on the trees.  The weather hadn’t been as good for veggie growing, and they said pumpkins and gourds were scarce.  There were pumpkins in our future though. Fi and I are taking a watercolor class and the last assignment was negative painting with pumpkins as the subject. . In negative painting, you paint the background first and fill in the shapes, not trying to paint the subject but it emerges as the painting goes on. Very challenging. Orange and ghost pumpkins This was a fun exercise and is s...

Hello, watercolor.  It's been a while since I pulled out my watercolors. I forgot how much fun it is. Watercolor hi Bittersweet  vines remind me of fall, and so does this tiny little leaf I found on my walk this morning. Some of the mail I have received include 2 great ones from Jean. black and white fun lettering This was black and white when I received it, which I loved. I had it sitting on my desk for a while, and decided I would color it in. I think it looks great both ways, and plan on using her design on an envelope in the future. What is the formula here? Not sure, but an awesome idea. I loved how unique this envelope is. Jean always has some fabulous ideas; this one will take some time and effort to copy...so, it will be a while before I am up for the challenge. Hands down, these are the best stamps I ever received on an envelope! If it is possible to absolutely love postage stamps, then I absolutely love these.    Letters mingle souls is the...