Monday, January 18, 2010

The Outcome


I took my painting in to the wonderful people at the Friday morning Water Media Group at Mountain Artist's Guild. We decided it wasn't quite done, and I punched up the shadows and water a bit. Does it look better??

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Reality wins over Watercolor .. Again

One of my enduring passions is trying to capture some of the incredible colors and shapes that we see at our two neighborhood lakes. So far I have pretty much failed to get the effect I want in any attempt so far, but I think I am getting a bit closer lately. Here is my latest attempt, barely dry, along with a couple of photos of the area that I used as reference. I seem to be getting the best effect by doing an on-the-spot study and a bunch of photos and doing a new painting back at the house where I have room to spread out, and that was what I did here .

I have decided that the real difficulty is that the rocks themselves are of a visual complexity that makes them seem unbelievable even as you stand in front of them. They are sculpture, not geology, with whimsical colors and shapes. I suspect I just may never get it quite right - but I think I know who could. My long time friend and teacher Glen Knowles left me a message just as I was thinking about him and wondering if he would tell me it was time to leave the painting alone - it must be karma!

How about it - is this painting done? I almost can hear Glen saying "Put the brush down, Cathy, and back away from the painting... " (but I want to fiddle with it !) It is quite likely as good as I can acheive. (but it isn't what I wanted, not really.) Ah, the pleasant conflicts of the brush and paint!



These rocks have all these delicate colors and look rather as if they were assembled from the bits left over on God's kitchen table. Then there are the ones with the orange doodle markings, and the big green ones, and the fjord, and the effect of the bathtub ring, and the balancing rock - and that is just at Willow Lake. There are as many great spots or more on the Watson Lake side of 89.

I do love the Dells! Somehow I have to convince Glen and Pam to come over so I can watch a real master of watercolor take on those unbelievable rocks.


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Friday, January 8, 2010

Things that stay with you

Welcome to the new year ... how do you like living here in the future? There has been a theme to many of the conversations and email lately - everyone I know seems baffled by the question "How did it get to be 2010 already!" Connecting with old friends on the social networking sites is apt to bring this on, since a high school buddy can say things like "40th High School Reunion" or "my grand-daughter" or even (shudder) "my great-grand-daughter". How did THAT happen??
A related question comes to mind - where did all that past I am dragging around come from? Some of the dragging is metaphorical, but some is embodied in real stuff.

Tonight I broke one of the last of the excellent 7" soup bowls that we got the semester I moved from the dorm to the apartment. I have been attached to that bowl for almost as long as I have known my husband! Who would have dreamed that we would still be using the 1975 bargain bowls from Spags, the 1975 Pierced Olaf cutlery from the bank for opening accounts, or my Junior High era pencil sharpener!

I suppose it would not have been hard to predict that I would still have the saddle I got in 1964 or the horse painting from 1965. But the handmade angel we made in 1974, the year we were married but were too poor to buy ornaments? Who would have figured she would still have her glitter wings and tinfoil dress? The dirt cheap Olvera Street ornaments from 1975 still shine cheerfully.

A word to the young folks - get stuff you really like - it may be with you a long, long time!

And here is one last surprise to record for a much newer piece. In 1990 we visited a marvellous bakery in the shadow of Clifford's Tower in York England. We did in fact eat the bread frog, but the bread hedgehog was too cute and we were too full after all the other goodies, so we put him aside to eat the next day. I am happy to report that just as we have not eaten him, neither has anything else!