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Completion of a 25 year commitment

I have 28 nieces and nephews. I began handcrafting baby gifts for them when the first one arrived, not dreaming there would be 27 more! They received hand painted rocking horses, tables and chairs, quilts etc.

This year I was determined to finish these out. I had 3 more (and then an older niece commissioned one when she saw these) to do to finish my final commitment. I got the bright idea of painting their grandma’s beloved farm on ornaments. Hindsight – life could have been so much simpler… but, that is water under the bridge. I can now say, it is completed! Much as I loved making meaningful gifts for them all these years, I am happy to have lived to complete the task.

The top one is oil on a porcelain bisque and the 3 below are oil on wood. As one niece said, then there was no way she would break it in years to come.

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Inktober 2023 Week 4

I forgot to load the last 5 images I did for Inktober. I opted to not complete the month – I had some bad allergy days, got behind, then chose to turn my energy to finishing Christmas ornaments. Here are the remaining 5. I do enjoy Inktober, but did not feel the push to finish it this year, which I found interesting. It was a fun challenge though.

21 – Chains (my childhood farm gate)

22 – Scratchy – barb wire and hairs from our cows

23 – Celestial

24 – Shallow – my cat’s dish

25 – Dangerous

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Christmas and Walnut Stain

For the first time, I chose to forage for walnuts in the backyard and create an “ink”. As was looking at it, I thought how cool to put it on some wooden ornaments I was creating for the nieces and a nephew! So I did! For an ink, this should be simmered for 3+ hours, but I was in a rush and only had an hour and a half. It came out perfect for a light stain. To use it for inking and ink washes, I may make some more and darken it. Really fun to do.

BTW – do not try to make ink out of catnip. Experience is talking here. Just don’t. One, the cats went bananas, and it does not make a very good stain. Not to mention I was happy it was a warm Nov. day since all the windows were thrown open.

Then there is whacked out cats in love with your Christmas ornament when you use it to stain the (tried it on the back of the one he is almost touching) wood. You have had fair warning! There are loads of recipes out on the internet. Foraged ink is loads of fun! Just follow the recipes unless you tend to be adventurous. Mint and catnip are not the same. Just sayin’.

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Inktober 2023 Week 3

Week 3 started off with some murder mittens.

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Inktober 2023 Week 2

Continuous line is coming along, and I am learning a lot that I never suspected – like, you really need to plan out where your start and stopping points will be and how you want to create textures, or not.

These do not land in order:

  • Toad
  • Bounce
  • Fortune (Warren Buffet) – this is when I began to realize I am getting somewhere with this
  • Wander – woo hoo, Bilbo and Frodo’s hobbit house – where all epic journeys begin
  • Spicy – my Bendi when he met the new puppy a couple of weeks ago
  • Rise – See below
  • Castle – Warrick Castle, England – the first castle I ever met in person and the awe is still there

Rise – the image in the upper right below – this is my annual commemorative drawing of my brother who passed away at this time in 2020. Smack during covid and we could not even travel for a funeral.

“Hope rises like a Phoenix from the ashes of shattered dreams.” – S. A. Sachs
Thinking of all the losses many of us have suffered in the past 3 years. Inktober is firmly linked with a consuming devastation and the climb back out of that dark place, until hope could catch me once again and carry me up – away from it’s grip.

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Inktober 2023 Week 1

This year I am absolutely swamped – with teaching a class, a busy tech writing contract, commissions, gifts, and more. Sooo…. something I had my students do is continuous line drawings as warmups. Well why not? They are quick.

Whoa! They are also humbling! Not easy at all, but very good practice for the artist’s eye and hand. So here we go!

  • Dream – Airstream above – always been a dream of mine to travel
  • Spider – our garden spiders as a kid
  • Path – a favorite birding path
  • Dodge – the Skydog Donkeys who dodged a bullet, literally, when rescued, and for some reason I labeled it “bullet” – you can follow them on Instagram as @skydogdonkeys
  • Map – Hummingbird migration!
  • Golden – Golden Retriever
  • Drip – The Cardinal in feeder of melting ice last winter
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Inktober 2023

Inktober is here! However, I am busy teaching high school art, working full time, and finishing Christmas commissions. What to do, what to do?!

Catch me on Instagram for a daily post – I will be working to build my skill with continuous line drawings. They are quick, but not easy. A good way to keep the ol’ artist’s eye fresh and the creative brain challenged.

I will post the week’s collection on here, so you won’t miss out if you are not on Instagram.

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Grandma’s Kitchen

In January I love to pull out my tan paper and practice on the toned surface with white ink. However, I tend to be recovering from a 3 month push on Inktober and then holiday painting and crash instead.

This year I did do an image of Grandma’s kitchen. She had steps leading down into it and I remember sitting on those steps with this very view many times as a child. I never thought about it, but she had an old stove, and then the new one in the corner. But with the huge extended family, both stoves were put into service during the holidays. I think of how small that kitchen was. Her whole house, really. And she raised 10 kids and a lot of grandkids there!

I also did a tribute to Cassidy, a little mini-hini that ran with the mustangs at Skydog Sanctuary. He passed and it was a great loss to even those of us who never met him in person. This made me want to spend more time drawing horses and donkeys!