An old crockery pot lay against a crooked stone wall. Dusty and hot in the sun. Chipped just a tiny piece in the back. I nudged it with my toe, and while I knocked loose part of the stone behind it, nothing crawled out, so I considered it safe to pick up. I blew off some of the dust, wiped a bit of the grime away, and thought I might have found a treasure. How old? Who was to say, and what difference did it make? What I saw was beautiful… and I had a use for it. It was brand new to me. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: age, coffee, crockery, dreams, old, pot, treasure
With brush and pen I paint… er, make that brush and pencil. Liquid pencils that come in a jar.
On a quick trip to Bunny’s Artwork a couple weeks ago I found what looked like an ink and wash painting, which reminded me of Angus Stewart’s watercolors. I commented to Bunny, and she wrote back that she’d used Liquid Pencils, not inks.
Ahhh… I’d never heard of liquid pencils, but I was in discovery mode Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: angus stewart, art medium, brush, coffee, drawing, ink, Liquid Pencils, pen, rocking horse, Watercolor
My interest in all things art-related goes back to my little girl days of Crayola crayons, kid-safe scissors and paste, and all the scrap paper I could find. I remember loving the splashes of color in my grandmother’s English-style gardens, and how pretty everything looked when the sun was low in the sky and made patterns on houses and tree trunks. When someone asked me my favorite color, I said yes. My mom used to tell people my favorite was red. She didn’t seem to understand my answer – I loved them all!
Sadly, art was not a consideration when I headed to college. It was thought of as play by my parents, who were paying for my education.
So my dream, like many others’ childhood dreams, got stuffed into the treasure box of my mind Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: art, childhood, color, crayons, dreams, Painter X, paste, scissors
When we were little, my sister Nita and I took piano lessons together. I labored and plunked until I became passably good at playing a few pieces. I usually managed to get through the annual recital smoothly, without embarrassing myself. (Family and friends’ parents were always gracious anyway.) 
My sister, though, didn’t just play the piano — she became one with the music and simply played what she felt. What she heard in her head came through her fingers as a gift to the rest of us. Even as a child, whenever she played, I sat to listen. Her music was magical, not just perfectly played, but with its own life. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: doodle, music, Painter Magazine, Painter X, people, pets, photos, piano lessons, pigments
Life is not without it’s surprises and seeming failures. Almost daily. Even when the day is planned to the hour, in some cases the minute. And just like the famous Biblical quote in Romans, paraphrased here by me, God weaves all our daily entanglements and urgencies and oopsies together for good if we love and trust… Okay, so I’ve taken that verse loosely. But I live by it. Because if he can do this for the biggies in my life, surely I can take some of my small blunders and play them into something good.
For instance, one sunny morning I laid out a large sheet of Arches 300# paper, white acrylic gesso, acrylic paints, inks, and several doo-dads for creating visual as well as dimensional textures. My goal was to throw it all together somehow and create a masterful abstract while Read the rest of this entry »
