Pencil Shavings

Breaking The Rules

I shocked my oldest daughter today when I sat down and began to cut some pages out of my new sketch book.

"You're cutting up a book?"  This is, for obvious reasons, a rule in our house.  We don't destroy books.

I looked at her briefly before running the exacto knife along the page, severing it from the book.  "Yes"

"Why?"  she didn't even try to hide the shock and perhaps there was even a little disgust in her voice. The very idea that I would do something so disrespectful to a book.

OK.  I admit that this is novel thing for me to do.  I have taken books apart before that I found already coming apart at used book stores so I could use the pages for art projects, but to take a brand new book and slice a page (actually about 10 pages) out of it was interesting.

"Sometimes you have to take things apart to make something better out of it."  I explained to my daughter.  I told her how I wanted to make some collages in my new sketchbook, and if I didn't take some of the pages out the thicker pages from the collage would stress the seams and the book would, eventually, split it's binding.  Then nothing would work the way I wanted it to.

She nodded... stilly eyeing the stack of unused, and now unbound pages.  Then a slow smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"What are you going to do with those?" 

"I don't know."

"Can I have them?" the fire of a new project already burning in her, just like it does with me.  How could I say no?

Update, Product Review, Easter, Sun!

I just created a webpage (complete with product links) reviewing Daniel Smith's new product Water Color Ground.  You know I'm always impressed with the variety of products that Daniel Smith makes.  they seem to be a lot like me - they want to try EVERYthing. 

Here is my review and a step by step project you can try out with it.

Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground

Meanwhile, it's Easter Weekend and the sun is shining brightly.  So I'm going to take my gear out to the front yard and do a little sketching. Have a great day!

Watercolor Sticks, Daniel Smith Product Review Part 2

I picked up some new Watercolor Sticks from Daniel Smith recently.  I have reviewed the sticks before, and I love them for the kind of art that I do.  For all my paintings in my University classes this year I used the Watercolor Sticks because they were a lot easier to transport and had the same intense colour that the tube paints do.  They were great for the mixed media work because I could draw with them and leave a mark like a pastel, and paint with them and have all the colours match up perfectly.

I decided to get a few more colours to go in my kit.  From left to right they are: Sodalite Genuine, Pyrrol Red, Moonglow, and Phtalo Turquise. 

The sticks are smooth and pigment load is extremely high.  I love the moonglow in the tube and wanted to have it in stick form for my art kit. 

I know that many people are concerned about value for their money, especially now.  I can tell you that the original 6 sticks that I got two years ago, that I still use in nearly every painting that I make, are still 3 inches long, showing some wear and tear though (I'm not a neat artist) and I expect that I will get another 4 or 5 years of hard use out of them before I lose them in a freak travel accident.  Seriously they are so dense with pigment that I expect that I won't have to replace them until after I have finished my art degree in 5 or 6 years.  (also remember that the paintings I'm doing in art school average 22x30 inches)

I suggest these sticks to all my fellow students, and I'll reccomend them to you too.  You can tell them Kathleen sent you.  It won't get you a discount, but it will make me feel good!

 

Toys!

I got a couple of boxes delivered to the house yesterday.  One had my *ahem* birthday presents that I ordered from Daniel Smith in it.  The other had a sample of Daniel Smith's new product, Watercolor Ground, in it with a note requesting that I try it out and let you all know how it works for me.

So... you know what that means!  It's time to get messy and have a lot of fun.

So watch this space over the next few days and I'll be posting my product reviews as I get them done.

Now to find some paper and water....  where did I put that stuff?

Ah, Spring.

But clearly we aren't going to the Bird Sanctuary like we had planned.  It's no fun painting birds in the snow, besides my paint water might freeze.

Believe it or not, now that the term is over for me, I'm looking forward to cleaning the house and baking and getting everything in order again.  This last term left a lot of chaos in it's wake.  The family that was so helpful to me in the first term seem to have gone on strike in the second term.  There are piles of stuff on the piles of stuff that teeter on the piles of stuff.

I'm going to slowly work my way through the detritus over the next few days and we'll see what I can uncover.  Think of me as an archaeologist.

Since it's snowing I think it's going to be a great day to bake cheese buns for the family.  We haven't had those for a long time either.

Somewhere in there I have postcards to write and mail out too.  It's going to be a nice day.

 

Tap, Tap, Tap.... ahem... Is This Thing On?

I have some thoughts on the end of my first year back at University and on turning 45.

The term officialy ended for me today.  But I still need to turn in my portfolio for one class for marking.  It's not a big deal, and I really should start getting my gear out of the lockers anyway, and I need to have everything cleared out by the 29th.

The Art Department had an open house yesterday and I spent all day on my feet, either hanging pieces of art, being in a critique, or touring the open house.  When I finally sat down for dinner last night, sitting felt very strange.  I was so tired that I nearly nodded off in my salad.  Even a coffee after dinner couldn't prevent me from toddling off to bed at 8:30 and sleeping solidly through the night.

This first year of school was a lot harder than I dreamed it would be.  I knew I would have to work hard, I didn't realize how hard thought.  If I declare a studio concentration then I'll have to put in even more work (and hours at school), and I think that with the situation at home the way it looks like it will be in the fall, I may stick to a regular program for now, and wait a bit before deciding if I want to go for the studio designation or not.

I am going to miss a lot of my school friends. I hope that I'll see some of them in the fall when we go back.  Taking 3 courses a semester instead of 5 means that many of them will be off doing other things when I'm working through the required courses.  But the department is small and I'm sure I'll see them in the halls at least.

I gained five pounds this term, and probably most of it over the last month when there was a lot of pizza and chinese food on the menu.  But (hopefully) summer is on the way and more time walking and being outside will help a lot.

I turn 45 in a week and a half.  Coming back to University now was a great thing for me and my family.  I'm a lot happier, my kids are way more independant, and my husband is happy because I have something interesting to talk about at the end of the day.  Of course the housework took a big hit this year.  Lots of stuff fell behind as I made priorities.  But I would do it all again in a heartbeat... actually I will do it all again, in September.

The Coffee Sure Tastes Good This Morning

"The coffee sure tastes good this morning."

My mom says that all the time.  Today I think I know what she means. Usually in the morning I'm so busy, getting lunches, packing backpacks, getting breakfasts, locating homework that has wandered away (both mine and my kids') that I just pour the coffee into my cup and either let it go cold while I'm running around, or toss it down my throat on my way to do something else.

Today is a designated morning off for me.  I decided this last night while I was working on making postcards.  I haven't had enough time to do things that make me peaceful.  I've been really happy doing school work and being busy, but that isn't the same as being peaceful. 

My new project for school is about the noise of society and technology.  It's about how we lose our inner peace, how we lose the divine that is inside us while we are busy being busy in this noisy modern world.  (the project is due on Thursday and I'm just a stamp or two away from being done).  While I have been busy creating these two paintings that are full of visual of noise, I have felt increasingly unsettled, cranky even.

So I have put them away for today.  As close as the end of term is, I still need a day to find that peaceful space inside of me.

I have listened to the kids laughing and playing, I sent my early riser husband back to bed to fight his cold, I can hear the grunty snores of my cat, as I sip this still hot cup of coffee.  You know, the coffee tastes really good this morning.

Five Hours of Painting

Well I painted for five hours today (and I'd like to give a shout out to Wes who brought me coffee at the studio in the Art Building this morning).  After all the work I can't say that I'm done, but I can say that I've taken a big load of the pressure off myself for the projects that will be due next week.

In celebration I made a postcard today for the Postcard Project.  I haven't made many postcards this term because my school workload has been pretty heavy, and honestly something that I do for my personal enjoyment has to take a backseat to something that I'm being marked on.  It's the hard cold reality of the student's life.

You know, I hate having to justify myself.  I've felt self-concious about posting about the postcard project ever since someone complained about not getting their card yet on on of my public spaces.  The truth is that the cards are free, and I'm doing my best to make them.  But part of me felt bad about not getting them out every week like I did last year.  Another part has been astonished that someone would complain about having to wait to get something that is a free gift of original art.  It's interesting how our society is one that has turned into one that is totally abosrbed into the cult of instant gratification.  Some things take time.  My mom used to tell me that anything worth having is worth waiting for (which may explain why I didn't get married until I was 32).  So I've stopped feeling bad about that, and as soon as I stopped feeling bad about it I was able to get so much more work done, including the new postcard.

It is another lesson I have had to learn the hard way.  I can't spend my life living to the ideas of what other people think I should be doing. I have to set my own priorities, and do what I feel is the most important.  OK, so as a student my professors have a lot of say over what is important on any given week.  That is true. But I decided to go back to school, and that is really important to me.  So that is my priority.

I have one more week of classes.  I'm very excited to start my summer break (spring/summer... since there is still snow in the back yard!)  I'll get back to the blog, to making art, to going out into the mountains with the kids, and all the stuff that I love.

I refilled the bird feeders this afternoon and felt the sun on my face, and could feel that knot of busy-ness start to unwind a bit.  I have really loved this term at the University, and I'm excited to go back in the fall, but for now, I'm really looking forward to my break and all the things I'll get to do for my own enjoyment.

Heck - I might even be able to make my garden grow this year.