My Word of the Year

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a lovely weekend.

A few weeks back I finally picked my word for 2023. I always wait for the right word to find me, and this year it took a while for that to happen.

 

I knew all along the general theme I wanted, but the right word hadn't come to me. Then, when I was in Florida back at the end of January, the word just appeared in my brain, practically screaming itself at me, clear as day. (Funny how that can happen.) This year my word is Venture.

Here's the dictionary definition of Venture:

to start a new activity, start thinking in a new way, or start doing an activity in a new place:

And here's another dictionary definition I found:

dare to do something or go somewhere that may be dangerous or unpleasant.

 

This type of venture (or adventure) is NOT for me.

I picked my word because I am ready  to do some new things and be back out into the world after a few  years with all the covid restrictions. I'm not sure how risky or dangerous anything I might do will be because I am not going sky diving or anything like that.  (Of course some days in our present world just going to the grocery store can be a risky or dangerous undertaking.) 

This is more my style!

It's time to broaden my horizons and step out of my comfort zone.  I am definitely someone who can get into a happy and comfortable rut (for lack of a better word because I don't think  I am in any form of a rut), and because I enjoy doing all my usual home things most of the time, I could just continue on as things are. Sometimes I even get a bit anxious about doing new things, and it was easy during covid to give in to those anxieties. 

Since last year when I started getting back into the swing of the pre-covid world, I did a few  "risky" things (like going to the movies-who would have thought going to movies might be risky?) without coming down with some horrible illness.  

I need to stop saying "I'll wait another year or until another time." 

A scary face?

 Sometimes when one thinks of the word venture it implies something that might be risky or unpleasant. Let's face it,  risk or unpleasantness is really a matter based on our own views of the world. I know when I was teaching one day the therapy dog (who visited school every week or two) came to my room. This big  lab pup was a sucker who loved the kids fawning over him, but I had one student who wouldn't get up and visit him. Ever. Then  on this particular dog visit, he finally stood up, inched his way forward and slowly reached out this hand to the dog. He explained to me he was bitten by a dog as a kid and had developed a great fear of dogs since then. It took a lot of courage on his part just to come close to the therapy dog, and that might seem crazy to some of the kids who were comfortable around dogs. 

This student had ventured out of his comfort zone. That's what I hope to do in 2023, even if it is in my own small way.

One of these things I want to do is to stretch my art wings.

The other day I pulled out my packet of oil pastels and a canvas panel. I don't know why I decided to play on this canvas panel and not play in my journal. I spent about an hour sketching and coloring this piece below. I also used a bit of acrylic paints and some water soluble pencils. I don't (and didn't) want it to be perfect and exact because I am also trying to be less fussy about my use of details.

 

After a couple of days  of looking at it, I went back and did a bit of finishing using oil pastels, more acrylic paint and also my water soluble pencils.

The perspective might be off (oh well), but I particularly like the tree and the boat in the water. and even more important, I had a lot of fun making this piece. Perhaps it's the fun I had that  I see when I look at this piece.

It was also time for some color to brighten up the late winter gloom, so I went and picked up a relatively inexpensive frame (because finding a cheap frame I like seems almost impossible) and put my art up on the mantel. I've never framed one of my own pieces before, maybe because once I frame  it, it means it is actually finished.

I like how it looks in the frame. And doing this actually made me think about framing some other of my pieces. Don't ask me why (because I'm not sure I know exactly why), but framing this piece makes me feel a little more like a real artist. 

Not that  I didn't feel like an artist before, but  one reason I retired was to have more time to make and to follow whatever artistic whim hit me. And framing my piece is one flap of those artistic wings. 

I am guessing  I can link this piece up to Valerie's Anything Goes challenge at Art Journal Journey. If making this on a canvas panel means it's not really art journaling, I'm sure one of my admin teammates will inform me. 

Have a super  rest of your weekend, and thank you for visiting my blog.

T Stands for the March Wrap Up

 Hi everyone. It's once again time for T. 

I thought since we are just about at the end of the month I would share a few assorted things that may not go together, but all happened this month.

I finished painting my living room this past weekend. Going up on the ladder was scary, but I did it. I don't really like heights so I must admit I was sweating bullets (as the saying goes) while up high on the ladder. 

Now that the snow in my back yard is gone (hurrah for what feels like a small miracle), I noticed the first of the crocuses popping up. 

I made 3 loafs of bread this past month.

Below is some sourdough challah that had a slightly too long second rising. My fault, I went for a ride with the hubby and we ended up being out longer than planned. But it still tasted like challah is supposed to taste, and you can see where I braided it, so I'd call it a success.

On St. Patrick's Day I made soda bread. Being inspired by an old episode of the British Baking Show, I added browned onions. black pepper and Swiss cheese. It was a tasty combo.

And I made my favorite old time New England bread, anadama. This loaf is non-sourdough but with added cornmeal and molasses.

Within the last week the local ice cream stand opened up, and I had ice cream for dinner on Saturday.

And I took a few beach walks (one of the few places not muddy now). My daughter also came home for a short overnight visit too.

We also had take out a couple of times. I had been craving Mexican food, so one Saturday in March the hubby and I called in for salads and brought them home to eat.

I took this photo before I added my guacamole. And this is also my T day drink photo. We had a bottle of strawberry margarita mix so Dave and I each had a glass with our salads.

Don't forget to stop by  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog  where we share our drink related posts on Tuesdays.

And the best info of all, is that March is ending in a more spring like manner.  You just never know with March is it will be winter or spring. 

That's all for me. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a great T day.

 

T Stands for Home Improvement

 Hi everyone. Happy T day. It is always amazing how fast the weeks go by, and we are back to Tuesday again.

Today has been an exciting day for me. Sign ups for the covid vaccine began this morning for my group  in New Hampshire. I went on, battled the system that didn't work 100%, went back an hour later and managed (somehow) to get an appointment today for my vaccine. Shot one is done.

The other news for me this week is I am almost done painting my living room, stair well and upstairs landing. It has been a long process. The actual painting took a few days over several weeks (as I didn't paint everyday), but choosing a color was a project in itself.  I started back in January. My original color chosen was coffee.

Coffee colors vary as those of you who drink the beverage know. There is black coffee, weaker brown coffee, milky coffee, and all the colors that milky coffee can be, depending on your ratio of coffee to milk, cream, half and half, or other creamer you add. Here's what Wikipedia says about the color coffee:

Coffee is a brownish color that is a representation of the color of a roasted coffee bean. Different types of coffee beans have different colors when roasted—the color coffee represents an average. The first recorded use of coffee as a color name in English was in 1695.

I went to Home Depot and bought a few paint samples in the coffee range, came home, and painted patches of them on a wall.

I actually liked the Oxford Street color at the top, but since my house is a post and beam, and I have wood ceilings as well as wood posts through the area, I thought there would just be too much brown. 

I also liked the canyon dusk, the bottom sample color, but when I painted a big section of the wall and looked at it for a couple of days, it just was too blah in my particular space. I have a lot of natural colors in my living room, and I wanted something a little brighter.

After the coffee shades,  I tried some light oranges, some adobe-orange-tans and even a light rust color.

Nope.

Then I went onto greens.

Good thing you can buy paint samples for 98 cents at Home Depot as I have a whole collection of colors now.

I love the color green. The original color of my room was a sage green, which has worked great, but after 20 years it was time for a change.  I actually like all the sample green colors on my wall, but I wanted something  that matched the style of my house and  items  I already had in it. 

The new color is behind the TV on the left. It is called Bay Water. The old color is behind the fish on the right. Since  it's been so long from when I painted that color, and I don't know it's  name, I'll call it sage green.

I looked up the color Bay Water on the internet. The Home Depot paint is a green tint, but other paint companies have a Bay Water color and it is more blue. I think its fun that the paint designers get to name their paint colors. I think the name Bay Water sounds more blue than green, unless the bay where the water is is in a swamp. I like this green though, whatever color you want to call it.

My new color  is not drastically different from the old color, especially in less light,  but it is different enough. It certainly freshens up the area and is a little brighter. Painting also gave me a chance to wash curtains, clean out radiators, sort through the pile of dog toys...another words, I've done some spring cleaning too.

It might be a stretch, but my drink reference this week is in my paint colors. There's coffee and (bay) water. If that doesn't work, here's a some green tea (which you can't see in this photo) in a mug that has some Bay Water as well as my old paint color sage green color on it.  

I am linking up to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog where we meet each Tuesday with our drink related posts. 

I have one high section left to paint, over the sliding door. The hubby dug out the big ladder for me, and my plan is to paint that section one day this week. Hopefully, then we can move onto the stairs. The plan is to pull up the carpet, which is even older than my sage colored paint was, and put in some finished wood treads. That project is on the hubby's list, and he is planning on taking some vacation time once better weather is more guaranteed. 

That's about all for me. Wishing you a wonderful T day and nice week too.

Owls in the Dessert

Happy Friday everyone.  Another week is winding down and it is almost April.

I am ready.  :) This has been a tough March here in New England with a couple of accumulating snowstorms and lots of cold and grey days.

Speaking of snowstorms, we have one coming tonight into tomorrow. 5-10 inches are predicted, which is a big storm in February never mind on April 1.

Maybe we'll see bare ground by May 1.

Ha-ha!

But it was a fairly fast week for me. I'm not sure what I will do this weekend with the snow coming, but I am signed up for an art class tomorrow morning if the weather should cooperate and I still want to go see Beauty and the Beast at the movie theater. 

So today I went Southwest for my journal page. 

These large cacti are called saguaros and I think they are fascinating. They can grow really tall- like a 10 story building (or more) and when you have a lot of them they form a saguaro forest. They can live for over 100 years too.

How cool is that.

Here in the US they are found mostly in Southern Arizona, and several years ago I got to go see them.

 I had fun painting this page. I worked backwards because I made the cacti first and then I went and did the background. 

I had so much fun I decided to paint some saguaros on a canvas. I had started a painting I truly disliked, but the background had some great coloring, so I painted my cacti over that and then added some  molding paste stenciled stars.  I decided to leave the background colors just as they are.

I'm not done yet, because I want to add an owl like I added to my journal page.

Maybe some details on my spines too.

Owls do make nests in these huge cacti which I think is pretty amazing too.
One last link up to Yvonne's great theme over at Art Journal Journey.  Today is the last day to go Out and About.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Finished Painting

Happy Friday everyone! I don't know about you but I am ready for this weekend. It is going to be VERY cold here, they say the coldest weather of the winter, so I plan on spending my weekend inside, playing in the studio and reading next to the fire. Sounds like the perfect weekend to me.

So I finished one  of my painting that I  showed you a few weeks back. I call it rainy summer afternoon, because I want it to be summer and raining in the corner window  rather than winter and snowing. Or cold and snow covered. 

My mind is starting to think spring. 

My dog Maddie doesn't mind the snow though.  Rolling around in it is one of her favorite things! But then she likes water, mud, dry grass to roll around in also!

You can look back at an earlier view here Painting Again.

And since it is Friday, it is time for  Paint Party Friday. Thanks once again to Kristen and Eva for hosting. Stop by to check out all the assorted art.

OK, quirky fact for the day! So today is February 12- birthday of the 16th US president Abraham Lincoln- who freed the slaves, and also Charles Darwin, who came up with the theory of evolution. They were both born on this day in 1809. Interesting how 2 people came up with such world influencing ideas happen to be born on the same day in the same year. I wonder if there any other case(s) of 2 or more influential people being born on the same day in the same year?

So have a wonderful weekend. Hope you have a lot warmer weather than we have here!

And thanks for stopping by!

Painting Again

Today I have some paintings I started last winter and have finally got back to painting. None of them are finished, but some are more finished than others.

This first one got the walls repainted, and I did finish the plant and the side table. I am really happy with that part (even if that mug looks like it is going to topple off the table). Now I just need to focus on the window. Not sure if I want to add a birdcage, curtains, or make the outside more of a fantasy view. Still thinking about those ideas and waiting to see if anything else pops into my head.

This second one needs the most work of them all. The rug on the floor is some molding past that needs to be addressed. The table needs a bit of work, as does the window and the flowers. Seeing they have no stems or leaves...am still not certain what this work is telling me to do with it.

And finally the chair. My first order of business is putting this big cat on the chair. He is there right now, blobs of molding paste in a cat shape. I'm not certain I like the wall color either, but I am happy with the rest of the chair, the floor and the chair rail paneling (even if I usually like cleaner lines than I have here).

I paint totally by trial and error. I am envious of those of you who make gorgeous pieces and post them here.  They inspire me to try my hand painting.  Posting my paintings, even in this unfinished form, helps me see them from another point of view. As photos on the computer, they look different to me than they do in person. I can give them a stepped back critical eye. I will say I've learned even a few tricks about painting by posting them. 

And I know I have a million more things to learn in this process, but that's what is really fun about it. Playing with shapes and color...OK, I want to get back in the studio and paint right now.
And since it is Friday (hurray-hurrah!)

I am linking this post to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Kristen and Eva for being gracious hostesses every week.

Thanks for visiting!

The Not So Yellow Chair

Hi everyone. This has been another fast week for me. I think as soon as the weather gets nice time speeds up, but maybe its because I feel more ambitious and end up being so much busier than when the weather is cold and wintery. Its been way too buggy to work out in the garden this week- those black flies are out en mass and will eat you alive, so I have been doing a few smaller projects inside the house in the evening. These are the things I had hoped to do last weekend but since all I did was play last weekend, none of them ever got done.

Feels good to get them done!
But it felt even better to play last weekend.

 So a few weeks back I showed you this painting I had started. The yellow chair.
I've done a lot to it in the past couple of weeks, including covering things over and redoing things, and now I think I am about done.
The colors in this upper photo are taken under a light. They are kind of off.
Here it is now taken in some natural light so the colors are true to form.

 I'm not sure I really like it. The chair started out yellow, and then got painted orange before its present color. I also covered the chair in some molding paste and carved in these words. I like the texture you get up close but it makes it harder to paint because it isn't very smooth.

I added the flowers and the roots because it needed something and I didn't want to add something to regular.  Plus I figured home is where you have your roots and if home is a good place (which I certainly hope it is for all of you) you tend to bloom there. Home should bring out your best self.

And a chair is such an integral part of a home, isn't it?

When I look at this photo I think maybe I should expand the blossoms and leaves. Maybe I should also add a cat or dog.  Cats (in particular) always work well in homey paintings. They make it feel more loved and lived in and a bigger part of the whole universe.

Or at least they do to me.

So any big plans this weekend? I should be getting my screen porch opened up which is really exciting.  We close it in with plastic over the winter to hold in heat on that end of the house. Plus it makes a good winter storage place for those yard chairs and the picnic table. Anyhow, my screen porch is my warm weather retreat and I love to spend lots of time out there. Keeps me away from all those bugs. I can't wait to get out and use it again.

Linking this post to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristen for hosting.

Have a great weekend!

Time is Flying

Happy May Day
! I can't believe April is over! I can't believe my vacation week has flown by so quickly!

Well, yes I can believe it because time always seems to fly by, especially when the weather is improving and the days are getting so much noticeably longer.
Its been a good but busy week, not as much Rand R as I thought there would be, but that is also a true fact about vacations. You always think you are going to have more time to do more things than there you actually do.And more downtime too.

So this week I have some vacation art to show you.

 These are intaglio Gelli prints. I made them by using some foam board, a pencil and a ruler. I carved lines in the foam board. Then I rolled black acrylic paint over the foam board and pulled a print directly off the foam board to take off the black surface paint. But that still left black paint in my pencil carvings, so when I then laid the foam board paint side down on the Gelli plate and rolled it again, the paint in the creases left an intaglio style print which I could them print onto my paper. 

Here's my foam board.

 I used my Silks paints to color in the sections, and then I used black pens, white pens and a bit of black Sharpie to make the Zentangle designs.

I used a little Copic coloring too.

And on this one I stamped a bunch of images along with the Zentangle doodling and coloring.
And I think the orange house is finished. The colors are off, but it was pretty cloudy yesterday afternoon so I snapped these on my work table (right after I finished up). I'll get a better shot on some sunny day for you. (Also the markers on the bottom edges don't help.)

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by, While you're at it head over to Paint Party Friday and check out what some great artistic people have been up to.
(And as always, thanks to Eva and Kristen for hosting.)

Yahoo! It is Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! This Friday is especially a good one for me since I start my week long vacation after work is finished today. No big plans but some little jaunts in the planning. I've been holding off scheduling anything since I love the feeling of having  whole open week. Guess it is time to actually decide what I might do before the week is over, but truthfully the idea of being low key is really appealing. A little yard work, some reading, some art time, finishing a few little cleaning projects....sounds decadent and fantastic to me.

So this week I've had a lot going on; I caught a little virus which put me to bed with a bad headache, and I also went with my husband to his  kidney transplant orientation down in Boston.  I did manage to squish in a little art the other evening, including some work on some paintings. The orange house piece is almost finished, and I will show you that next week, but I did start another piece.

The yellow chair!

The chair is a bit out of proportion but I have plans for that. Plus, I kind of like its small seat and the  too tall  back quirkiness.

I have been using up the extra left over paint on my palette to make some backgrounds.

These are nothing special, but these backgrounds have turned into some journal pages.

Next week I really want to spend a morning or afternoon with my gelli plate and do some printing. My painted  paper stash is very  low right now so it is time to replenish, plus I want to make some spring/summery colored pages. I really should get a small plate that they now have. I have a big plate, but I tend to pull it out only when I go into mass printing mode. Not that that is a bad thing, but I think maybe I would use a smaller plate on a more regular basis.

Maybe use- that's the key phrase there.

So update on my husband's kidney situation:  it looks like we'll be able to do a transplant in the fall. Smile. (But it is still kind of scary!) Right now we have 3 active people who are willing to donate a kidney to him, myself included. We have 3 other people who have mentioned they would, but we have to see if they actively want to get involved.  It is way too big of an issue to ask people, but the hope is we can do it in October or November and then be able to move forward with this bump in road in our lives.

I still can't get over where life can put you-unexpectly.

I'm sure many or most or even all of you know that, but it never fails to surprise me.

Linking this week's work to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristen for doing this every week. If you haven't been or haven't been by recently, be sure to stop by and check out all the clever and cool pieces people post.

Hope everyone has some fun weekend plans and thanks for stopping by my blog!

In Progress

Wow-it is Friday already! This week has flown. Its been an interesting week for me. Lots of little mini-adventures in day to day life.

So last Saturday when I met my visiting friend for lunch, I discovered this cool orange house.

It inspired me to start my next piece.

I don't know why, but I find this house really interesting.

My painting is a slightly different view from the photo.

Still have a lot of ideas for the rest of this piece. I am going to take some artistic license to finish it off. I've got a few little things to fix  (the cream colored border on the right side of the house-its too fat  now) on this piece before I start adding the other details.
In my art life, I really focused on this painting all week. I've spent a lot of time working on it. I'm not only having fun with it but I am learning a lot too.
But there were some other fun little adventures too.

 I had this cute little visitor to one of my classes at school.

We learned about goat and other ruminant digestion. This little guy named Rocco was a huge hit.
And he was awfully cute too.

And I went with my kids in Asian Culture club  for a Japanese lunch.

We had a lot of fun. It was the first time I'd been to a restaurant where they cook your food right in front of you. 

I also got my car fixed (ugh the price tag),  and I went to the dentist for a teeth cleaning.
Busy week.

And I told you earlier this week I had started this book, and it has only gotten better as I read more of it. If you have any interest in birds, you might really enjoy this. Its all about training a hawk the way you train a falcon. But it is also about loss and life too.

Linking this post to Paint Party Friday. Stop by and check out all the creative and talented people's latest art.

And thanks for stopping by my post too.

Have a great weekend.

Tag Inspired

Last week I showed you this tag I made. It inspired me enough that I started this painting.

Yes,  it is not done yet. I am pretty slow to finish paintings.  I need to add a bit of shadow and depth  because the table looks kind of flat to me. But the light in the photo is very helpful to see where the shadows will be going. And then I will finish it off. But you will have to wait to maybe next week before you get to see that.
So this week we've been having a lot of snow melt (yahoo!), but since I live in the woods there is still a ways to go.  But today is suppose to finally be in the 60's (Fahrenheit) so I suspect a lot will disappear. Or at least I hope!!!
I am being optimistic though and put away all my heavy sweaters, wool pants and winter boots last night.  packed them up and put them in the attic!
Oh that feels so nice!
And I took out a bag with a few cotton sweaters in it. I am going to wash those today so they will be ready to wear for work next week.
Oh that feels so nice!
Busy weekend ahead too. I get to see a friend of mine who's coming north for the weekend. Plus  its Easter, although mine is going to be a little non-traditional, which I am looking forward to.
Have a great weekend, and if you celebrate Easter, Happy Easter to you.

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Kristen and Eva for hosting. Stop by to see the work of some talented people.