Janet Rogers Workshop ~ Art Journal Pages

This is the portrait I painted in the Janet Rogers workshop. I think the color could be better but I enjoyed the experience, meeting Janet and some new friends. It was held out in the country, quiet and secluded, with animals nearby. Russell Farm Art Center is in Burleson, located on a Texas Century Farm, and it's an organization of working artists dedicated to fine art, with an emphasis on wood sculpture. (Check Janet and Steve's website to find out about their workshop in Italy in 2009.) I took a SWA workshop with Steve Rogers last October. The painting was from a photo on Port Bolivar and now Port Bolivar has been nearly destroyed by Ike. There are other posts about the workshop.

Art Journal Pages:

I'm still on the "stuff organization", trying to get on friendly terms with my computer, and painted my Joe T's square for a CBC project. Other CBC members there were Betty, Cindy Y and Maryann.The workshop was for 3 days and we did a floral first and then the portrait. I drew off the beach scene but didn't get around to painting it as Janet kept us jumping. We had to laugh at her because she moved so much it was really difficult to get a good photo of her unless we just said "Stop. We need a photo." She was an excellent instructor and walked the room answering questions when it came time for us to paint - always an endearing quality in an instructor.

This is my Janet portrait in my Cason All Media Sketchbook. This week I've gone over my notes and have included some Janet "sayings". Practice your color swatches, why did I do that, I love Bounty paper towels, (which she held onto like a security blanket, under her arm), make puddles, make color changes, don't count flower petals, I believe in swatches, adjust water from the puddle edge, try things, don't be boring, "smoosch" your edges and from US, "Why do you paint with one eye closed?" She reminds us to draw, draw, draw and we love her drawings and especially the drawings and paintings of big, pouty lips.

Here is a slide show of some images taken during the 3 day workshop. Janet knows her medium and can explain it now for practice, and more practice.

Joe T's and Art Journal Pages

This 8" square was painted for a project designed by Canvas by Canvas member Margie Whittington. She wants a Fort Worth themed painting. Watch for it on the Easel. Joe T's is a favorite restaurant of mine and has figured in many events of my life, real and imaginary. A favorite fantasy of some fellow elementary librarians that I'd be married in Joe T's garden and they could all be bridesmaids dressed as favorite storybook characters. Fortunately, that event remained a fantasy.
Last week I was in the Janet Rogers workshop and will post some photos later in the week but for now it will be an update on journal pages.

I've been in an organizational nightmare at home and this rolling cart is a solution for my watercolor paints. Nine paintings were accepted into the Preservation is the Art of the City show at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center and 5 paintings sold opening night on the 4th.

Painting at The Upstairs Gallery on Monday I finished my cactus square for Karen's project, updated my charm bracelet with a palette, 9 for 9 squares for CBC paintings, Girlfriends, and a diary for "art journals", one entry in the Art in the Garden show, and the assembly of a mobile laptop desk. Hint (buy the floor model already assembled if they will sell it to you.)

This is not an abstract. It's a portion of my pathetic kitchen floor. It has the original brown linoleum from 20 plus years ago and some squares are coming off and leaving ugly white edges - mainly where I sit and roll around in my chair. Several years ago I discovered a quick fix to keep from having a complete overhaul. Brown shoe polish the white and put silver duct tape around the edges to prevent more lifting. Now the old silver is wearing through and getting very sticky so it was a time for some re-flooring and it nearly blinds you upon entering. I can't even think about moving everything out (bookcases, jelly cupboard, chests, tv, tables) and having a professional install a new floor. It would just be too disruptive and then I'd have to have new wall paper - just can't deal with that at the present but a friend did suggest I try brown duct tape next time since I wasn't aware it was available. All decorating hints are appreciated.

Continue with closet sort, the reception, mail, and we met Lynx at the gallery opening. We had to meet anyone who came to the opening with a coat hanger in his tie, positioned to make it look as if his tie was in a perpetual wind storm.

A granddaughter visit and I gave her my journal and watercolors and this is a combination of Grace and Maddie's work. Grace loved the orange which we know as cadmium or Chrome or some other technical name and she calls it "Home Depot Orange."

Shower heads quit working and that led to the realization of the 16 year old Ruud water heater had expired and it's scary when they mention "financing available". I'm finding many, many 3.5 high density diskettes during the cleanup and saw Ratindra Das demo at the SWS meeting, new computer that would not have been purchased if I'd known about the water heater. Monster Ike on the way and after the fact it has completely destroyed that wonderful Port Bolivar where CBC took some vacation time last year. Now to the store for some brown duct tape.

New Acrylic Paintings ~ Art Journal Pages

6" Acrylic Cactus Square as part of a painting for Canvas by Canvas. (At the request of Karen, the designer of this painting, my initials have been scaled down but I forgot to take a new photo. We try to put our initials on each piece but I agree this was a little overkill.) CBC is working hard getting a show ready for The Fort Worth Community Center and our October show at the Petroleum Club. You may take a sneak peek on the CBC web site to see what's on the easel.
This is my acrylic square for Cindy Y's project of the Texas Flag. This is a pecan leaf on a white background square. The pecan is courtesy of Cindy as I told her I only contracted for the leaf and she is always eager to paint on your square or your square if you'll let her and she always does a beautiful job. The pecan is the Texas state tree.
This is page 20 of my art journal, Canson Montval all media, 9 x 12, with lunch at Hoffbrau, painting boots and pecan leaves at the Upstairs Gallery, a trip to Dallas for the Park Cities Presbyterian Art Festival guidelines, a secret message tucked into a cut up greeting card that may have good news for my friend, and my old bugaboo bills.

I signed up for AT&T U-verse and we've become friends from my many tech support calls but they have been super, my scales are screaming again and I need to eat more veggies instead of Personal Pans and pancakes at I Hop, movie to see Vicky Christina Barcelona, my new notebook from Borders with a lovely design on the front by Laurel Burch.

Trying our two new items, a metal pan of watercolors, Lucas, from ASW and a Raffine sketch book 5.5 x 8.5, Lana paper made in France and it is 100 pound, 48 sheets and it took the watercolor nicely. I decided to use the Laurel Burch design on my first page and used some gold pen outlines.
This is the notebook with the Laurel Burch design from Borders. The design appealed to me so much that I had to try my hand at reproducing it in my art journals.

Boot Square ~ Friends ~ Journal Pages

10" Square for a Boot Painting for Canvas by Canvas. I used a photograph of a pair of my red boots. I have designed this project and keep checking the CBC web site for a sneak peek. There are 4 squares finished as of Monday. Six of us painted at the gallery and later headed to Dallas for food and a kickoff meeting for the 3rd Park Cities Presbyterian Art Festival. All the details will be on their web site in about 2 weeks and it is a well attended and organized art festival and sale. This year the theme will be Parables: Surprised by Truth. This will be the third year to enter and the first year we won first place with our theme and the second year our painting, Core of Sin, sold before the show officially opened.
Just more boring closet clean out and finding too many pairs of ill fitting jeans, saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with girlfriends, started to read Charles Reid's new book, Watercolor Solutions. More of that on another blog post.

Friends:
So many precious details of our children's lives are lost forever in our ill equipped memory banks but one clear incident remains. I learned about true friends from my daughter and her friend, Kelly, when they were in elementary school. I watched and listened after their return home from school one day and they were headed across the street to Kelly's when I overheard one of them say, "I'll carry your books and you can carry mine." What a friend. How heart wrenching to watch them on our last Sunday in Virginia saying their goodbyes. That morning they were baptized together and later as Delphia and I were drying off and dressing two wet little girls in the restroom they realized the finality of the event and they held each other and sobbed and cried and so did we.
You are very luckly and fortunate to ever had even one very good friend. I lost my shopping, going to the movie and walking friend several years ago and never thought I'd find another. Now I paint with 8 others in a group called Canvas by Canvas and we're more than business partners - we're truly good friends. It always amuses us when a man that we don't know very well is prone to ask "Bet you get in a lot of cat fights?" At times we let their imaginations soar but usually we say "No, this group of 9 women try to be a loving and thoughtful group of friends. We realize our good fortune. We are all independent and a little strong willed but that's a good point." No schisms and screams for this bunch. Other groups of women friends can understand this.
The following journal pages have made me consider friends again when we all received an email with the subject line "I have bad news" from one of our members about a health condition. How do you journal and then have some privacy. I've opted to print off that original email and then cut and paste in my journal each of the CBC member's response and covered the messages with a piece of white net with gold sparkles to mark that time. (Earlier that day I've purchased a bottle of new perfume and added the scent sample and such a nice fragrance now in my journal and purchased a rolling cart for watercolor paints).
I've been dealing with the situation with journaling and we had a special called meeting to be together, hang out and paint on Sunday. Check out our "expensive" Sam Moon necklace of a crown made from Sam Moon earrings and each one of us are wearing one. CC made us all a "thinking about" bracelet and my Mudd backpack and I just sent my first text message. I could have made 9 telephone calls in the time it took me to hit those keys trying to get to the letter I needed, sent it to my kids as they were the ones requesting I get this feature. I don't think they want to hear from me so much as being able to send messages to me.

I'm reading in my new Reid book (I have others) and love how he contour draws and I'd like to have the time to do all of the drawing exercises in all his books, the doctor visit and I used the word remember and I recalled a piece of jewelry my grandmother Johnson wore and she had very little jewelry but this one was special and had a fake pearl where the word pearl should have been, "I Remember Pearl Harbor". Memories are who we are...
cleaning off more bookcase shelves, not finishing any jobs just starting new projects, computer searches, wanting to give more study to the Shirley Trevena books.
Our friend, one of the youngest members, says "I hope I don't get kicked out of CBC because I can't be a "lifter" for awhile (an inside joke about who lifts and loads our heavy 33" x 33" paintings). I answered "We may have to take a vote because now it will take 2 of the older members who used to be "watchers and holders" and "one on each enders" to take your place."
Or maybe for awhile, dear child, we'll carry your books and you can carry ours.

Cessna 195 ~ 77 Victor ~ Wendell Eckert ~Journal Pages

Acrylic Painting on Canvas 9 x 12 (Nancy)
The completed Canvas by Canvas painting

77 Victor
Acrylic Painting on canvas 6 9”x12”, framed at 40” x 31.5”

Canvas by Canvas became aware of the Wendell Eckert story because of one of our members, Maryann, and some of her many friends. In fact she knows just about anyone ever mentioned in our conversations, and many times we’ve heard her begin a story or interject into one of ours “They Used To Live In My Neighborhood” and we’ve abbreviated it to “Oh, it’s just one of Maryann’s TUTLIMN’s.”

So Wendell Eckert is known to us by way of a Maryann TUTLIMN. His daughter, Gretchen, gave Maryann a photo of his vintage Cessna 195, built in 1949, as a basis of our painting. The call numbers of the plane were 77 Victor and can be seen on the wing and the numbers are unique to that individual plane. It is the call number the towers use to direct the plane for landing or other orders.
The plane was built in 1949 and was used by Wendell as the lead plane for the US Forest service primarily in the Sequoia forest. His job was to strategically lead the bombers into the forest to drop the fire retardant. The US Forest Service referred to Wendell as the “Voice of the Sequoias” since he was the lead plane for forest fires for thirty years.

An admirer of Wendell, William (Tim) McMaster has a video of one of his flights on YouTube and he’s seen taking a beautiful bride for a celebratory flight. Wendell was 79 years old in this clip and he began flying in college in Wooster, Ohio and flew until the age of 82 in California, flying over 24,000 hours in his career. He died at age 91. He was born in 1916 in Youngstown, Ohio. Wendell’s house and the airport can be seen at the beginning of the clip in black and white and the photo was taken right after the war. When the war came, he was chosen to join the Army Air Corp in California and serve as flight instructor to countless cadets preparing for battle.

Mr. McMaster told Gretchen he put the video on YouTube with hopes she might enjoy it someday. He said “We loved your Dad very much”. The Cessna 195 is unique as it is a radial engine tail dragger and few of the planes have survived the years because the planes are very temperamental and require very experienced pilots.

Watch the video to see Wendell with the Cessna 195 and enjoy some good music with the ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txCstdQpeuE

Gretchen and ZoAnn and Tim thank you for providing the information so that CBC could enjoy painting this work and getting to know your story.

More Art Journal Pages:

Birthdays are happy times but then there's that cake sabotage, framed some of my favorite art by Robert Burridge, Ted Nuttall, and Dan Burt.

More happy days when we deliver some CBC commissions, maybe I need more drawing practice on my car, and buying jewelry at Sam Moon's, especially big old hoops.

Got rid of my barely limping along freezer + $50.00 reward and a yearly physical and I don't have red hair but red hair is more fun to paint than mousy gray brown, Dr. Sarmini's hand is not that ugly and my nemesis - bills and cake.
First trip to IKEA and now I'm limping along with freezer (so many steps), hot old August, shopping for new Flax to wear to Class of 1954 class reunion in De Leon, pop. 2400, during the Peach and Melon Festival. We decided at our 50th we'd better meet every year thereafter. Thanks Harold, Marie and Naomi for getting us organized and for the great watermelon. Oh, yes and the Beijing Games started, but I was eating burgers out under the stars in De Leon and telling tales. The hangers show I've started closet clean out and why didn't I just close the door, forget it and paint? Clothes are multiplying, boxes overflowing ...

Tropical Fish ~ Mudd Girl ~ Sketch Book

10" Square Acrylic on Canvas Tropical Fish Project for Canvas by Canvas I painted with the Canvas by Canvas collaborative group today working on paintings for our Petroleum Club show in October and the Fort Worth Community Art Center Show in September. Soon the squares will be on a sneak peek on our web site...maybe this week. The tropical fish project was designed by Maryann S and Cindy C.
Mudd Girl:
After checking on purses for my age group at the mall, I ended up with a Mudd backpack from J.C. Penney. I asked about the age group it was geared toward..Teens? She said, "Oh, even elementary and Jr. High girls." Now I know I made the right choice as I really prefer backpacks to haul around pens, pencils, journals, and cameras. I sketched the hang tag and checked out their web site. http://mymudworld.com and you can enter for a Greece trip so sign up - I did and you can take a friend..Take me, Take me. Since my friends and I saw the movie, "Traveling Pants 2" last week we've talked a lot about Greece. Now comes the "Share Your Story" idea. If you click on this menu item you'll see lots of very young pretty girls who are moving the world but since Mudd is for girls who like to express themselves I entered our Canvas by Canvas story and how we are moving the world. So now our CBC members are "Mudd girls". Girls of all ages UNITE.
The Mudd bag that started it all:


Pocket Sketching:
Kath Macaulay has a Pocket Sketching website and she writes and teaches about how she uses a small format for fast sketching. Look at her site on the materials tab to learn more about her process. She likes a sketch pad, Strathmore Drawing, 4" x 6" for her work. Naturally I had to run out and buy one to try it out. I collaged the front of mine and on a page I've drawn the Mudd hang tag and used the new Aquaflo brushes that hold water (from Jerry's Artarama).
Nice to have if you are out without a good water supply and but have a few colors in a small watercolor set then you're ready to paint anywhere. The small sketchbook is not like painting on Arches 140 lb. cold press but you can certainly get down your idea.
I ordered some of the brushes for the Canvas by Canvas crew as we will have a paint out at a lake house in October and we like to bring surprise gifts for each other. Since Cindy Y had expressed a desire for one of these for journaling, I decided to order each of them a medium and a large but I can't keep a secret nor am I good at waiting for presents so the group got early surprises at our Sunday painting afternoon.

My Strathmore collaged cover and below the Mudd hang tag design.Now after reading the post, go sign up for a possible free trip to Greece and bring a pocket sketchbook.

Stetson 2 ~ Runner Up ~ Journal Pages ~ CBC

8" x 8" Acrylic on Canvas Stetson Hat for a CBC Project
Sometime this week we will have a painting in our sneak peek area showing our newest flag project designed by Cindy Y and this is the square I painted this afternoon at a special Canvas by Canvas meeting. All 9 of us were in attendance to show support and strength for a few bumps in the road heading our way this week and how wonderful to spend our time painting to lift some burdens. We spent our time laughing, painting, and planning the paintings for Monday and always taking photos. See the slide show at the end of the post and I'll write more about my Mudd backpack later.
Runner up:
I posted some time ago about entering a painting in a contest presented by Watercolor Artist in their Creativity Workshop. Sarah Strickley notified me that the June entries broke all records and that my entry was a runner up. You can read about the contest here.
More Journal Pages from my Canson Montval All Media 9 x 12 journal.
Home from the Burridge workshop, overweight and house a wreck, art supplies in every room, so cook up some pintos, meet my girlfriends for an IHOP breakfast and see a chick flick. Let's ease back into the routine.
Our Canvas by Canvas show at the Upstairs Gallery. I find I glue a lot in my journals then they resemble scrapbooks then come the photos.
OK.. get with the program and start cleaning and straightening before painting. Something is always lost, an emergency and how best to tackle the diet deal and a bloody movie.
I'd rather be painting, dancing, or at the computer. I'm missing my friends and trying to count some carbs...hello, friends, I miss you. My life of cleaning is the pits, fortunately this phase will probably be short and sweet.
Here is the slide show from today - just girl friends hanging out.