Dumbarton, Scotland painting

This is Bob's latest painting, and I think one of his best. I always see more in it than he does! It's from a photo taken from a train at the Central Railway station in Dumbarton, Scotland. I love the roof peaks repeated in one of the hats, the exit sign, and the expressive figures of the women as possibly they rush to another connection. This is from a photograph taken by a friend, so I can't tell you much about the location since she took it from the train window. I believe it is a 19th century municipal building seen through the arch. We visited Scotland in 2017 but were not on the train.

The painting nearest his right hand is our friend and former Lakeside neighbor Jack Prior racing a 420 at Webb Institute on Long Island. That's going into a show at Mill Run Church soon. The painting over his right shoulder is the Tolbooth in Edinburgh, but the glare on the glass blocks the clock.

Mother's Day Painting

 

  

On the lakefront by the Hotel Lakeside

Year of the Tiger

I saw this painting by Narasimma Balaji, Artist, at Watercolour Sketchers on Facebook. Since this is the year of the Tiger, I asked him if I could post it here on my blog. The Lunar New Year is rung in Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, with festivities celebrated by nearly 2 billion people worldwide that can go on for more than two weeks.

  

My college roommate at the University of Illinois is Chinese--her family moved to Brazil to escape the Communists, then she came to the United States as did most of her siblings (I think there were 12).  We still write at Christmas and she and her husband (also an architect and watercolorist like my husband) just recently moved to a retirement apartment after more than 40 years in a beautiful old house.

  

Homeschool art project

My husband works with children who are homeschooled by their mother for their art requirement.  Today they worked in watercolor; he demonstrates and then they follow what he does. Because they spend their summers at Lakeside also, today’s project was a sail boat. They have also been his models for some of his winning paintings, a current one in the Ohio Watercolor Society Traveling Show.

The younger girl won best of show this summer in the Lakeside Children’s Art show. The older girl takes ballet lessons and last winter was in the Nutcracker production here in Columbus which we went to see.  The boy likes to dress like a cowboy and at lunch today he said the Roy Rogers prayer.

“Lord, I reckon I'm not much just by myself,
I fail to do a lot of things I ought to do.
But Lord, when trails are steep and passes high,
Help me ride it straight the whole way through.

And when in the falling dusk I get that final call,
I do not care how many flowers they send,
Above all else, the happiest trail would be,
For You to say to me, "Let's ride, My Friend." “
Amen

Monday Memories—watercolor

When my husband began painting in the 1970s he had a limited palette, burnt umber, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue , yellow ochre, cadmium red, Hooker's green with a few dabs of other blues and reds. He did barns and trees with no leaves, because green is very difficult to master in watercolor. Over the years he got more frisky and added a bird, then a chicken, a cow, and the barns got more red, a...nd the skies more pink. Then he took up sailing and started painting boats that weren't washed up on a beach or rocks. About 5 years ago he painted some flowers. A few years ago he started painting people, like 150 people on the dock at Lakeside and even did one of 5 girls in colorful saris last year. But as far as I can recall, Max is his first dog.

Max is a one woman dog—my sister-in-law Debbie who we were visiting in California two weeks ago.  He would look like he would let you pet him, or throw him a ball, but then would back off.  This will be sent to his “people.”

Good-byes just don’t get any easier

Today my husband and son are enjoying the Memorial tournament, so I made an appearance at the farewell luncheon for Pastor David Drumel and wife to give him a painting from my husband. They are moving back to the Nashville area after 6 years in Columbus ministering to our seniors at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church.

A haunted painting?

When you live with an artist (or two if you count me), you have a lot of art in the closets (we also buy it), so we're always rearranging. Last week we did a major shift. I've been hearing really creepy noises in the living room in the early a.m. I’ve decided it is the painting of the big house near Delaware, Ohio,  It is so large it has acrylic instead of glass in the frame to reduce the weight. When the heat comes on it makes expanding noises, then contracts.

He was an architect before he was a painter, so as architects will do, he remodeled it a bit for the painting--took off an addition that detracted from the original bones of the house. I think he also gave it a coat of paint. It had been refurbished about 20 years ago, but had fallen a bit in recent years. So if you drive by this house, it may not look quite like this.

The environmental regulations have become so restrictive that it is very difficult to save homes like these—lead paint, sometimes buried fuel oil tanks, etc.  Plus the heating costs with 12’ ceilings is often prohibitive. 

My caballo is prettier

Their "caballo" (art horse)


My caballo (horse art)

From Dick Blick web catalog

"Made of oak and handcrafted in the USA, the Caballo is a bench and an easel in one. It folds easily for travel or storage — its attached wheels and poly straps make it easy to move anywhere.

When you're ready to paint, just unfold the Caballo, and you've got an instant studio space complete with a place to sit, a supply drawer, a storage compartment, and a sturdy easel for sketching or painting.

Perfect for working on location, it's also a great space saving solution for anyone who has to share "studio space" with the rest of the family."

Bonita's Apples

Bonita is a blogger I follow who takes the most wonderful photographs--especially of food (always very healthy and often over a campfire), her family outings in the mountains or interesting places, and her Bahai fellowship. We got permission to use one as a reference photo for a painting (by my husband) and this is the result. The cat didn't want to get up so she came along for the show. He didn't like it, but I made some suggestions and I think he's going to keep it. I think a bit more dark on the right side of the oar would really give more depth, but he says no.

Watercolor class with Bob Moyer

Here's last week's art class results, minus one, which has already been folded and put away and I'll use the back! One is OK for framing, one for back of the closet, and one to think about.

A few more things in week 6

Tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. is the bird walk and Wednesday morning at 8:30 is the herb class and the topic will be camomille. During the last birding event I learned that Europeans are anxious to see our cardinals and blue jays, which we hardly notice, because they aren't native to those areas. I'm still trying to find a time to get to the archives to research some of the cottages that I write about. It was closed today. Tuesday and Thursday evening the community theater group is doing Cheaper by the Dozen, and we've got tickets for Thursday. The play almost had to be cancelled because they didn't have a "father," and obviously, he's a key player. But Joe Day came to the rescue. He was supposed to be in South America this summer, but his backpack with his passport and plane ticket was stolen, so he's spending the summer with his parents, and the talented young man was available to take on the challenge. Some of the kid-actors were hawking tickets the other night--really cute. On Friday I may skip the Great Lakes lecture and instead do the tree walk with our neighbor Bill.

Today was the first watercolor class of five with Bob Moyer. He'll be doing a fall watercolor workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday September 22-23, 2009 at the Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast. The Workshop with lodging and Wednesday breakfast is $140. Although I've never stayed there, it's a lovely B&B. The hosts are Dan and Joan Barris. (Don't miss the recipes on their site.)

Here's today's class work, an iris. Bob did a demo, and then we dabbed around and copied what he did. Everyone in the class took home a good first effort.


A few minutes into the class, I became aware of a really irritating sound that just wouldn't stop. I said, "What's that awful noise?" "Oh, that's the children's rhythm and drumming class." And it went on, and on, and on, and on, for about an hour and a half. Glad we don't live close to the Rhein Center!

Dawn of the 6th week

Walking out the door at 5:45 this morning I could see a bright star in the east. Very different than the first week when it was much lighter. I also met a skunk and a raccoon checking out the tent on the hotel grounds. Today was actually the Raccoon Run, a 5 mile run. I did this once--walked after the first 2 blocks. This year's t-shirts were mint green. I used to buy one if they had extras, but we have drawersful of t-shirts from travels, VBS and Lakeside, plus our son used to be in the business and he designed some for us.

By the time we got to the Patio Restaurant for breakfast after church on the lakefront, things were pretty much over. My husband has an art display at The Patio, and has sold four paintings this summer, which will certainly help with the expenses.

Today at the Rhein Center

This is our watercolor class with John Behling, OWS, who also teaches in Columbus, and is retired from the Social Work Department at Ohio State. He likes bright colors in sharp value contrasts.





Other classes today near by were glass and calligraphy. The classes are mostly in one big room, with some on the stage, or the porch and some in the yard.

Final day of class--Friday family photo

My husband teaches Perspective Drawing and Watercolor at the Rhein Center for two different weeks (M-F). He likes to get the morning slots (9:30-11:30) so he can sail in the afternoon. Today is the final day of the second week of classes when the students grab their boards, pencils and erasers and go outside, spread around the grounds, and actually draw a real subject.

I don't know if all the instructors prepare as much as he does, but he is meticulous, focused and mentally thinks it all through ahead of time. Except that one day. He forgot his markers (demos on a white board) and I had to rush up there on my 40 year old bicycle. Last night he was putting some final touches on a demo painting the entire class did-one point perspective with shade and shadow--and cutting some mats. All paintings improve about 30% if you put a nice mat around them. And if you have a fabulous painting and a poorly cut, dirty, or too small mat, you subtract about that much.


I think he added an Amish buggy with a reflector (required by law in Ohio) on this one after I took the photo. Notice that kitchen table? Several years ago when we were both painting, I decided it was just too much mess in the kitchen and fixed up each bedroom with a small corner with room for supplies and good light. I think I used mine once or twice, and his is a catch-all for his class supplies. So we still use the kitchen table.


This is a student from the first week drawing one of the favorites of the class for a two point perspective.

Perspective class at the Rhein Center

These are the projects my husband's class has been working on this week. The first week population is low, but he says teaching a smaller class is easier. These are his demos (does them in class) of one point, two point, and using shadow and shade for perspective. The painting over the mantel is not his; it was done by Ned Moore of us on the beach in 1974.

This class will be offered again during the 3rd week of the season.

Mistaken identity

When I was making my wonderful purchases at the yard sale on our street in Lakeside on Saturday, I mentioned to the owner where we lived and said my husband was an architect. He got very excited and said, "Oh, he's the guy with paintings in the Patio Restaurant. He had a great painting of our niece, Rebecca, last year, but it was sold." I looked a little puzzled and said, "Which painting was that?" "The one of the little girl fishing off the pier." "Oh, that was Lindsey, and we almost didn't sell it." (Lost her in the divorce.) "But it looked just like our fishing tackle box and was a dead ringer for our niece." Then another person stopped by to pay my husband the balance for the painting she bought last summer. I don't know why he let her take it without payment, but he did, and then she apparently forgot about it. So he sent her a reminder--a year later. She's quite a talker, but she took pity on him since he was on a ladder painting the house. The things you don't know going on in your own family!

Our Alaskan Cruise

About eight years ago we were preparing to take our first cruise--our first really big trip. I had it on my list of things to do when I retired and wrote it into my Post Employment Plan (PEP). Also in my PEP was to take up painting again (after about 30 years.) Those were the days before blogging when my family and friends just received fat envelops or stapled copies of things I wrote. When I was visiting my family at Easter, I found one of my hand painted post cards from that trip. I didn't have a scanner in those days, so had no record of it. I'd taken along a tiny little w.c. set and post card size #300 paper. I have no idea where the rest of them are or to whom I sent them.

Maybe a theme--Ron looking for Mindy

I used Mindy's husband again for my painting (see last Wednesday). May have to darken the ice on the lake for a little more contrast with his hat. I found some buckle over the shoe boots for him, and will probably need to add a few more footprints in the snow, otherwise there's no way for him to get seated. And I should have left some snow on the park bench, but maybe it melted before Ron got there? Mindy is off teaching art classes, and Ron is wandering around Ohio looking for her. She made some good suggestions on last week's so I grayed the sky and put in some more shadows and rescanned it.

New Year's Resolution Nine

Join Mindy's watercolor class on Tuesday afternoon. This is from a photo of Mindy's husband walking in Ennis Woods--it must have been on one of our few sunny days.

Are you making New Year's Resolutions?

In January 2006 I made a quasi-resolution to get back into my painting. We'd spent several weeks cleaning and decluttering and I had a new workspace with natural north light. I still haven't used the new area I set up described in this blog. But today I got an e-mail from Mindy Newman about the Tuesday watercolor workshop at the UA Senior Center. I'm there on Tuesdays anyway serving lunch, so that might be a good deal. $10 a class, walk-in, in case you're interested. Mindy's a fun teacher. She's especially outstanding with beginners, so even if you've never picked up a paint brush, she'll find you have talent. I'll add it to my "maybe-a-resolution list" I'm working on a Thursday Thirteen Reveal. This is just the advertisement.

This photo has appeared several times, but since I mentioned my premiere issue collection blog yesterday, that's what is on the bottom two shelves. That too should be one of my resolutions--if I were to make any, that is. When I was looking at the Stampington web site yesterday I see that it is coming out with a new magazine about aprons! So I'll have to watch for it to add to my collection. My sewing memories blog gets a lot of hits about aprons.

Since this photo was taken, I've bought several pretty storage boxes which help keep them in place. I can still see the titles, but it puts a little color on the shelves. Can't do that in libraries.

And all those books. Just look at them! Some belonged to my great grandfather. If I were to make any New Year's resolutions, I might make one about reading some of my books. I got new glasses yesterday. That should help. The new glasses (they should be called plastics since they aren't made of glass anymore), or my new eyewear was returned 4 times. I think these are keepers. I went back to the original frames I had during the Italy trip. Turns out it wasn't the frames afterall--the prescription was wrong.



And then there are all the oldies but goodies: eat right, exercise more, try new recipes, keep my desk clean, brush the cat, yada, yada.