Colorful Tale on Tuesday

I recently read a good little story about the color gray, and I never thought too much about this color besides making a gradient or watching the clouds turn gray...you know it's ready to storm soon. I enjoy mixing colors and try not to mix too many to make it turn gray or "mud" as some call it. I thought mud was supposed to be brown, but maybe they are referring to the color of gray clay, which is a lot like mud when you mix water with it, then it's called silt. I am getting off track again. This happens when I look at all the colors of my prismacolors and start sketching. Terra cotta, orchid, and sunflower are all names that come to mind while searching for the next color to mix. These are a couple of my sketches that I worked on this morning but I tend to get distracted sometimes. Thinking in colors is one of my simple joys of the day and getting distracted by my beautiful cat is another.

Fingerprints on Friday

More snow on the way...maybe these words are not what everyone wants to hear, but we all know that winter is here and plans to stay for a while. Snow is one of those fingerprints of God that we can see clearly, but to look at it from a different point of view can be fun and inspirational...the way God intended, I'm sure. Take a look at this burning bush, usually looking quite serious when it has its leaves that turn a beautiful color (looking like it's on fire) before it loses its leaves and looks bare for the winter. This view with the snow poking in the branches is not serious at all, and makes us giggle every time we walk passed. Then there are the many patterns God makes in the snow that is created with the wind, as the snow drifts. Sometimes we see a face, or a butterfly, or even a profile of a dog in the snow patterns, just as you can while looking at an abstract work of art, only the creator really knows what it's all about.

Proverbs 3:5

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him

And He shall direct your paths."

Thankful Thursday: Peaceful Moment

Today is cloudy with a few flurries...I will not soon forget this stinging wind on my face...until I see the sun again. This was a moment I remember, just a couple of days ago, for looking at the sky at the end of a beautiful day, with bright blue skies and the clouds only forming during this lovely sunset. I like to see the colors as they pass through the trees and the way these clouds were forming, looking like its own landscape...see the peaks? This was a peaceful moment, giving me clarity and remember to just breathe and appreciate this simple joy for the day, for this I am thankful.



We do not remember days; we remember moments. ~ Cesare Pavese

Wordless Wednesday: Bunny Tracks

Keeping Track on Tuesday: Happy 2011

Some of the Christmas time things that have kept me occupied these past couple of weeks...shopping, wrapping, baking lots of cookies, making soaps with Christmas scents (peppermint, snow angels, and tinsel) Christmas programs and concerts, Christmas (had 3 of them this time) getting older (had another birthday on New Year's Eve) and shoveling snow again, only to have tons of rain fall on my birthday and the snow mostly melted. The last 2 photos show the snow a few days after Christmas, and I'm pretty sure those tracks are squirrel tracks. I have a feeling we are not close to being done with the snow storms here yet, it's only the beginning of the year.

New year, new beginnings...I want to wish everyone a Happy 2011. There are so many simple joys to be discovered on a daily basis and new ways to be creative. These are my observations for my new beginnings this year and I'm ready to get started and learn more new things. I'm not making any new resolutions this year. I'm a procrastinator so the process itself has to keep my interest or nothing gets accomplished anyway. I have never used a scratchboard before but found this process to be very satisfying, reminding me of my intaglio work but I didn't have to think about the sharp edges of the metal plate that tended to slow my work down at times (note to self...not a good thing to put cut hands into an acid bath!) I have to say that Emily has many more whiskers than the cat I drew, but I have noticed her staring intently on an object such as this little fuzzy ball. Maybe the next subject will lend itself more to colors and I can try out using the inks too, but I like the look of this scratching, reminding me of a certain black and white cat I know and love.