Paper and Threads

Here are two EDM Challenges from several weeks ago.  One of my art goals for 2009 was to draw the EDM Challenges weekly, but I'm not as diligent as I was in years past.  I never did several of them, and seem to be late posting them more frequently. 

Here is my husband's lock for his gym locker and I think the only "coffee pot" among many in our apartment that I haven't drawn and painted previously.  This is a one mug Melitta coffee filter - which makes an acceptable cup of filtered French Roast coffee.

Now on to #250 and 251....

Posted by Shirley at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This is a very busy week in our household - my husband and I do all of the cooking for family and friends on Thanksgiving (20 adults this year) and we're not getting any younger.  This year, we moved the venue to my daughter Rachel's apartment, but that meant that we were caterers - a new challenge.  But we didn't need to set up the apartment which was a wonderful help.  It was the year when all 3 of our children and their families were with us.  We have several hours of champagne with 7 hor d'oeuvres, then soup, salad, turkey, sausage stuffing, fresh baked bread, etc, etc, 

Tuesday: I bought great carrots to use for our soup and decided to sketch them while cooking. 

Wednesday:  I used fresh lime juice for a recipe and cut up all of the mushrooms for soup - and sketched and painted both of these while taking a break from cooking.

Thursday:  The day was a whirlwind, and after the guests left and the children were asleep, I sketched and painted my 2 year old grandson's stuffed flamingo.  He loves flamingos and entertains us constantly by assuming a one-legged flamingo pose and flapping his wings.  When my daughter came in the morning to pick us up with all of the food, he was hugging the flamingo and shared it briefly with me.  I would like to make this into a Christmas ornament this year for his stocking so none of us will forget this great stage.

Posted by Shirley at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yesterday my husband and I went to our grand daughter's pre-K class to talk about our ancestry.  All of our parents were born in the United States.  All of my husband's grandparents were born in Belorus and emigrated to the US from 1900-1908.  My grandparents and 5 of my great grandparents, were born here.  But my great grandmother, the only one I knew, was born in County Armagh, Ireland and moved here alone, following her fiancee, in 1887.  She was a really cute, very elderly woman when I was a child - somewhat deaf and never without her black cane.  

Here is a picture of Annie Ballance which was taken upon her arrival in New York City.  When I researched our family, I found her passenger list, which recorded 2 pieces of baggage - both of which I now own.

This is a picture of Sydney standing near the largest of her steamer trunks, which is in our apartment.  I scraped off the paper cover and stained both trunks 50 and 30 years ago - and have moved them from place to place since then.  This trunk has a wallpaper lining and glass top filled with family photos.  All of the quilts I made that are no longer in use are carefully folded inside.

I was delighted to finally paint both trunks as part of my journal page from yesterday - reflecting our visit to Syd's class.

Posted by Shirley at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I love strolling on Madison Avenue, past the windows of the famous designer boutiques.  But Madison Ave also has its share of street vendors, and as I walked up on Friday, I sketched their wares and the street decoration that has already been added to the lamposts for Christmas.

When I carry my sketchbook and pencil case, I also carry this artist grade travel set of watercolors by Daler-Rowney, but half the time I draw when I'm out and then paint using my regular Winsor-Newton palette at home.  I plan to replace these paints with my palette, but never do...maybe next year.  The size and shape of this travel set is wonderful - and the mixing areas include the flat areas and 4 deep end wells.

Posted by Shirley at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I am currently taking Kate Johnson's "Keeping an Artist's Journal" on-line class, so I will probably upload daily journal pages more frequently to my blog because I need to also upload them to our class Flickr pool to share with Kate and my classmates.

Tueday:  Busy Day, so I sketched my lecturer at the New York Public Library Tuesday evening.  I did have paints with me, but felt very conspicuous the way the seats were set up.  I decided not to finish painting her as I experiment with different ways to compose my artist journal pages. 

Wednesday:  Melanie Testa and 3 other art buddies played with Melanie's method of tracing images from our journals, painting them, painting a background on WC paper in our journals, and then gluing the two layers together.  These were sea gull images from my summer vacation journal - and a link to the original journal image from my blog in June 2009.  Her method is described in an article she wrote in the May-June 2009 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

Thursday: Two leaves I picked up from the sidewalk when walking home from nursery school with 4 of our grandchildren.  They were sketched and painted when I came home from babysitting last night.  I have no idea what kind of trees they are, but every autumn I find a few of these gorgeous patterned leaves on New York sidewalks!

Posted by Shirley at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)