Snow Day

The reports last night said it MIGHT snow here in the valley. The 6 year old in me prayed for LOTS of snow.



I woke up this morning with SNOW DAY in my mind, but the county school district did not agree. Our little co-op follows the county schedule, so...no snow day...

or so we thought.

J was supposed to have a field trip today, but that WAS cancelled on account of the weather, so he had no school. So, rather than taking him home and going back later to get D, we called our own snow day. Isn't homeschooling fun?



We had to spend some time outside exploring in the (miniscule amount of) snow. Much fun can be had with ANY amount of snow when you are a boy under the age of 9.



Tiny little snowballs still pack a wallop...



We're snow starved here in the south.



The most dedicated boy can even get a snow angel out of it...



Hope your day is filled with the magic of snow days...

And the hope that Spring is really on the way...

An Apple a Day

Well, I'd like to say it keeps the doctor a way, but this flu season, at least...not so much. We've actually not been overwhelmed with it, but little J is still battling his mystery virus...6 days and counting of fever and a cough. He'll be missing his last basketball game of the season, poor little guy. His fever-induced sleep-talking events have been fun, though. Nothing like a little hallucination to keep it real.

So. I've painted another apple. I don't know why. I actually started this one about 2 weeks ago, and just finally managed to finish it yesterday. It is one of those paintings that, had I finished it when I started it, it probably would have turned out much better, but it just lost its freshness, somehow. I also think that having used the 300lb hot press on the last painting made using the 140lb cold press seem cheap and tawdry. Okay, maybe not tawdry. But that hot press is like buttah.

Or velvet.

Or buttah'd velvet.

All I know is...I like it. I'm going to have to get me some more. Soon. Like tomorrow.

Still loving the gouache. I can't make myself paint in acrylics. I've tried...it's just not working.

And I think that's okay. Why fight it?

Aw, Shucks

I got an email from Sharon at Flat Sound of Wooden Clogs, yesterday, telling me she had passed on this award to me. What a surprise and an honor! Thanks so much, Sharon!

Now, it's my turn to pass it along to some bloggers that I just love...

Of course, it almost goes without saying that Linda would top my list! Not only is she an amazing artist, fantastic writer and humorist extraordinaire, but she's a wonderful friend and constant source of inspiration and encouragement.

Helen is a friend from WetCanvas that has been blogging of late - she does wonderful watercolor pours, but also does just about everything else, including dolls, assemblages and whatever else strikes her fancy. Now get over there and say hi and encourage her to post them frequently (I am not patient...)

Stefani at Blue Yonder is also a source of inspiration. Her lovely photographs and the tales of her adventures in homeschooling boys are always delightful.

Whenever my bloglines shows an entry of Drawing the Motmot, I give a little squeal of anticipation. Debby is an extraordinary artist, let me tell you. The inspiration on that blog alone is worth large chunks of time spent perusing it. Lovely stuff...

And last, but certainly not least, Rob at Car-a-Day...he combines the two passions of my household in one wonderful blog. If you like cars and you like art...you'll love Rob!

Are there blogs out there that you love? Play along...

1. If you get tagged, write a post with links to your favorite blogs.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the creator of the award, Emila.

Forgiven?

Forgive me, blogland, for I have sinned. It has been 2 weeks since my last blog-fession. I mean, really - 2 weeks. To the day. Phew. We've been wrapped up in flu-season and mystery viruses and lots of activity on top of that and I've not seen the inside of my studio since exactly 2 weeks ago today. That is just so very wrong.

So, today, even while still in the middle of mystery virus-land (not me, but little J, unfortunately), D and I came up and cleared off a space to play. If you have children and have any desire to teach them anything about art, you HAVE to go to Artsonia. Teachers upload lesson plans with all the concepts and materials that you need and all you have to do is register for FREE to have access to all of it. We decided to work on a color wheel - learning the primaries and secondaries, while making something beautiful with 6 way radial symmetry. I wish I could think these things up, but I can't, so therefore...I Artsonia.

Now - a word about color wheels and the profoundly color vision deficient boy. Yikes. As an artist, nothing makes me sadder than the fact that my darling eldest boy has a color vision deficiency. I can't imagine not seeing the colors that I do, the way that I do. The sadness is sharpened by the knowledge that as the mother, I had to have been the carrier of this particular affliction - it does run in my family. So, while D can tell a primary red from a pure green, all the shades in between are lost to him. Sometimes he even loses primary red and pure green if they are right next to each other with no other point of reference. Purple and blue look the same. Orange and red look the same. He's learned to read the crayon before he starts coloring. Tragic.

All that being said - he did a fabulous color wheel with 6 way radial symmetry...

And of course, I had to play along...

Maybe J will feel like doing it tomorrow - you know he's feeling bad when he won't even do ART!

Poor baby.

On another note, Sharon of Flat Sound of Wooden Clogs gave me a really nice award and mention in her blog. I'll post on it a little later this evening, I hope. Thanks Sharon!

On the Horizon

9 2/3 x 4 1/4 gouache on 300lb hot press

Things are brewing in this head of mine. I've got projects and paintings and collaborations on the brain, so it's making everything else difficult. The boys each wrote a book, which I published and bound as gifts for the grandparents. I still need to make copies for our own library, but haven't managed it yet. They were really amazing, but very time and energy and thought consuming. Now that they are done, I can move on to my own artwork. I do have to share a couple of their illustrations, though...

From 6-year old J's book, "Nanny and Pop Pop's Sports Adventure,"




And from 8-year old D's book, "Nanny and Pop Pop: Detectives,"





The books were in honor of Nanny and Pop Pop's 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Anyway - keep your eyes peeled - I'm looking forward to reclaiming my studio time for painting rather than editing and publishing. Linda and I met last night to go over our goals to see where we are a month into the year. Let's just say...well...January was, ummm...interesting.

I may need a do-over.

Bovine Blind Contours

I don't know why. Really. They just kept happening.









I think there will be more. But I really don't know.

Don't they have the best faces?