§ Easter Sunday Sketch...

Drawing time about 20-30 minutes! This was a very simple sketch while I waited for our Easter meal to finish cooking [Baked Ham, sweet potatoes, steamed brussel sprouts and warm oven rolls]. For dessert I made from scratch Irish Ginger Apple Cake topped with frozen vanilla yogurt [I didn't make the yogurt tho :-)]. As you can see, my sketching pencil is becoming close to a 'stub' in this preview sketch!! We had several things to do on Monday, including an appointment for Bud, so we decided to go to Hobby Lobby for my pencils [I also found an egg separator on sale for 66% off 'cause it's Easter theme]. Then, we stopped at grocery store and book store! Making it a day away from home.

ps...Jean @ Cheerful Monk: I can't get your blog to open on desktop, laptop, OR phone! :-(

§ If Walls Could Talk, They'd Say...

Another famous Western artist is Charles Russell.  A long time ago, Bud used to collect Jim Beam bottles [thank goodness that craze lifted!].  Anyway, I liked one 'specially because it was female.  The title of the painting is The Indian Maiden The bottle, before it was thrown away, I took the liberty of trying my hand at sketching her.

An acrylic painting done in 1996 I titled Sonoran Sonata . I chose that title because sonata is defined as a composition for an instrumental soloist. The coyotes are definitely 'instrumental', and this happens to be a solo composition!!! It's depicting an area we lived in, in Tucson Arizona, with the jagged Tucson Mountains at sunset. Sonoran, by the way, is the name of the desert in Arizona and Old Mexico. For the both of us, if Arizona wasn't so expensive to live in, we'd still be there, happily...

The longest wall, with plenty of open space, instead of them being strewn around the room, I placed all four very large sketches in one spot. [Bud made the frames!]

Three of the four in Close-ups


Willie Nelson and Val Kilmer [as Doc Holliday]

Update: We are done with the rewiring, the painting, the curtain and curtain rod hanging, the wall decor, etc. All but the backing of the entertainment center...we have yet to get out and buy what we need for that. BUT!! We decided to take a few weeks off from our revamping the interior, and now I plan on some fresh air and birding!!! Yay. Seems I've been cooped up for way too long. In fact, I HAVE.

§ More Art...

Most of the art work is my sketches, framed. A few are purchased [the long horns for one, perched behind a set of real horns on the fireplace hearth -during Christmas this picture is stashed away to make room for holiday garb]. Some hanging on the wall are DIY by Bud!

Each year, for Easter, the City of Corpus Christi has a Sunrise service at a park downtown. One time, I read about it, and saved the clipping, only to use it as a model for a painting done in acrylics. I had intentions of shipping this to our daughter, but never did. So it graces our walls. [1-clipping, 2-painting]

Another, is a wood carving done by Bud. Our son asked him to carve a wooden crucifix [styled by Guns n Roses album cover]. He finished, boxed it up and sent it to him. But, not before I begged for a duplicate!! He carved a 2nd one for me.

Here is mine that he gifted me more than two decades ago. It is one of my most cherished posessions...

Lastly today, another project Bud made with an old west theme. A wreath. He made this out of barbed wire!

My next post will be the end of the 'art work' display case. Two walls covered with my framed sketches [and one acrylic painting].

§ The Pumpkin Eater...

Last week we had a cold front move in. Cold for South Coastal Texas that is. The day before it arrived, we had wind and rain. So, I stayed home for most of the day. By mid-afternoon, I became bored and brought out my sketch pad. Of course, I began drawing the outer borders of something a bit Halloween'ish. After done with it, I titled it "Pete the Pumpkin Eater" ---the digestion went right thru him. Poor Peter...

From outline sketch to the finished image:

§ At Last...

Okie Dokie...a new post begins. The photo to the left is my witch wreath on the entry door. It's soft sculpture and has a black kitty beside her. Made from grapevine. Last year I strung lights on it, but this year, I didn't take the time to do such. Lazy maybe? I dunno. But, at least I got it out of storage and got it hung. That is accomplishing something.

Now to show you close up and more details as a lot of you asked for in previous comments. These are random. Some witchy, some not so much...

What is a collection of ANY figurines without at least one of Jim Shore's work?! These are [left] mini witch, and [right] The Wicked Witch of the West from Wizard of Oz:

My smallest of witches: I can hold her in my hand!

One of two black cats with glowing eyes [sitting on the hearth]

Last today, a close up of my acrylic painting from many years ago. You can view the entire painting HERE...

§ ....Flower Foto Cont...

Ironcially, Andrea posted in her comment yesterday on my blog post that she'd like to "see me draw this". Well, guess what? I was just beginning to sketch it. Bud and I mowed and edged our lawn in the front before it got too hot [nice morning breeze was keeping the temp tolerable]. Afterward, when I came back in to cool down and drink water, I grabbed my sketch pad and pencil, opened my blog to the photo and began drawing...

I finished it after lunch dishes...


I titled it Amarillo by Morning!

§ All About a Boy and a Girl and Teddy Bears...

It's 94°[F] at 1 PM as I type this up to preschedule publication. For a few minutes when I walked out to the mailbox for mail delivery, I watched the neighbors across the street building a new deck off their breezeway! Digging post holes in this heat [I imagine the heat index is above 100°!!] It might as well be 5000° for me! Crazy people. Anyway, I high-tailed it back to the cool interior. And, in this heat I have absolutely no gumption. I'm not walking as I should; just from the car to the grocery store and back to the car. I gotta get out tomorrow to take photos of some birds for my bird blog. It'll be a drive-by shooting from the open car window somewhere maybe. Or at least a well-shaded park. Maybe I'll just dig into my photo archive and find some there and call it good.

In the meantime, I've been sketching. As you know if you viewed my last post, the flower. After that was done, I went out on the 'net in search for still life. I decided to look for photos of teddy bears. I have three stuffed ones here at home, but they're of a polar bear and a panda. The other one is a Denver Bronco bear. Nah! Not good material for sketching. I found a really sweet one and uploaded it to my folder for future use. Then, as I scrolled more, I found the "perfect" one. Then...a 2nd perfect one!! The last two days I've worked on both...

Young boy and his teddy...gotta have a young girl, right?

If this heat keeps up, there will be a lot of sketching going on. Ya, I read books a lot, but that gets boring after a while - - no brain function. No thinking, no mental challenge.  LOL Oh, and the last few days, since I HAVEN'T been walking much, my sprained pelvis is feeling much better!!!!!! I hope, once I get back to walking the beaches again, it'll be feeling just as good. Don't wanna over-do, right?  Maybe this heat is a blessing in disguise.

Today, my youngest turns 50.  Holy cow.

§ I Titled It - Purple Passion....

I've been contemplating what to sketch. A flower, an animal, maybe still life of some sort? About the only thing I've been accomplishing the last several days is getting outdoors to keep the plants in the ground, AND the potted plants hydrated. Still no rain. Lawn is brown, extreme drought conditions here and there is now a 'no water use' that has gone into effect. Anyway, sitting at the dining room table looking out the window, I figured the only flower that is thriving in this inferno is the passion flower! Okay, I'll draw that. What started out as a pencil sketch only....

...it turned into more, by adding color pencil to the sketch!


All finished, and I then matted it and added a frame for my blog post!

§ A Day in the Life...

To begin the week, it was a chilly morning upon my wake-up hour. But the sky was clear; cloudless. I really had no special plans to do much of anything...I was playing lazy. I even went back to take a nap, only a couple hours after I got up for the day!! And I slept! Now, I tellya, that respite  really ruined my mojo. I couldn't get going afterward. Okay, so for the slow start, I had an old power line, ceramic, very large, insulator that I picked up, that had fallen from the pole, on a deserted county road when I was out looking for hawks, etc. several days ago.

§ A Musuem of Art...

A few weeks ago, as I mentioned previously, our South Texas Art Museum had a special exhibit of some of Rembrandt's works. Of all his art, one of my favorites is the Prodigal Son...it just moves me to a field of awe and inspiration. With his exhibit here, there were no photos allowed of course, but I did get a chance to see one of the preliminary sketches of the very same among dozens more plus some of his treasured implements and tools! I was thrilled. The museum is at the end of the cultural center downtown, along with other museums, theater, arenas, stages, etc. The photo I share of the museum was found thru google, but I cropped it some...

In other exhibit halls, photos were allowed of some of the permanent displays and exibits. I just took photos at random to share with y'all...

§ Nativity...

For some time now, I've been thinking of drawing the 'reason for the season'...a nativity. Thing is, I KNOW how much trouble I have with drawing hands. This one, I erased, and erased, and erased some more! In fact, the beginning sketches I show, are the 2nd attempt. I trashed the first one. The day was windy, high winds coming in from the north in front of a cold snap that will take us here on the coast to 40 degrees overnight. Of course that won't last long, it'll be back up near 80 again by the new week's end. Anyway...

After hours of trying to create something that would look a bit reasonable, I said "I'm done with this!" I was happy to say that. It will be a long time before I try something like this again.

I was thinking of drawing Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, I shoulda.