Sharing My World 74

Share Your World – September 4, 2017

What color do you feel most comfortable wearing?

Did you know, when it comes to clothing, there are many different shades of black?  I’m pretty sure I own a sample of every one of them.  It is possible for black pants and a black top to not match.  But frankly I don’t care.  My closet is a black hole.  For variety I might throw on a dark blue or dark purple jacket or sweater, and sometimes my shoes have splotches of colourful wildness, but black is for sure my fade-into-the-background comfort colour.  My sister has tried to steer me away from racks of black in clothing stores but for me their magnetism is strong.  “Oooh, I like this!  Does it come in black?”  (Sister fakes shooting self in head)

What is your favorite type of dog? (can be anything from a specific breed, a stuffed animal or character in a movie)

Well behaved dogs belonging to other people are my absolute favourite.  German Shepherd and Jack Russel come to mind.  I also have a little stuffed Starbucks dog on a bookshelf somewhere that I quite like.  He doesn’t shed.  Or bark or drool.  Or need to go out to the backyard to pee in the middle of the night.  I’m just imagining worst case scenarios so I’ll be less tempted while looking at pictures of adorable dogs that need adopting.

List at least five favorite flowers or plants.

Tomato plants (they smell amazing), sun flowers, daisies and Black-eyed Susans,  strawberry plants, lilac bushes.  What is wrong with me, I don’t have any of those!  I have had great success with tomato plants but we always get early frosts here and all the fussing with them in the fall is stressful.  Yes, I am that kind of gardener.  Maybe I’ll try some again next year since I’ve had several seasons break from it.  We grew dwarf sunflowers once in front of our house.  I have a picture somewhere to prove it.  They were beautiful and odd-looking  at the same time.  Sunflowers should be gigantic and in fields.

People with green thumbs are admirable.  That gene skipped a generation with me and went straight to my daughter.  I’m sure the ghost of my grandma hovers over her and her plants in a state of blissful ecstasy.

What inspired you this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

That magpie was pretty inspiring.  I took a photo of it on some half dead grass and it rolled its little bird eyes and flew over to a rock amongst some bushes and posed there for me instead.  That was the day W decided to accompany me on my walk but went missing a few blocks into it.  He was admiring some guys front yard and I guess stopped long enough to be noticed and struck up a conversation with him while I just kept walking because I was out for a walk dammit, not gawking at front yards or a chat with some random stranger.  I went all the way to a busy street and doubled back thinking I would meet him continuing on the walk.  But there was no sign of him, so I walked through the park and then back over to the busy street again to see if he might have gone that way, then back through some walkways and back to the exit from the park just in case he was somewhere around there.  Anyway you get the picture, me walking around in circles and W nowhere to be found.  I was home and showered and had breakfast before he finally showed up, all happy that the guy he was talking to took him into his backyard to show off his award-winning landscaping horticulturists dreamscape.  The guy has a guest book so apparently he’s delighted to entertain nosy people and take them on tours.

This is the kind of shit that happens when you marry an extrovert.  You cannot take a normal walk together.  So we haven’t tried that again.  I go walking on quiet residential streets after people have gone to work.  He goes to the busy streets around the mall.  I don’t even like to say hello to people.  He learns six peoples life stories in ten minutes or less.

Next week we are leaving on a four day road trip, from Alberta through Saskatchewan and Manitoba to southwestern Ontario where we will visit family for a couple of weeks before heading back home.  I’m excited about the family part.  He is really excited about the drive.  Weird.

So I might be around here less, although I’m not sure how that is even possible, or I might be so bored driving through places like the prairies that I learn how to use my iPad without getting car sick.  Just so you know to expect the unexpected.  Or the completely predictable.  I will probably be doing some of the driving as well, so when W is hanging out the passenger side window becoming best friends with a service station attendant I can just drive off.

Hope everyone is having a lovely Labour Day weekend.

Just Jazzy 319

Paint yourself a beautiful day.

Just Jazzy 314

Make your own happiness. Nobody can do that for you.

Art du Jour 74

I watched a YouTube video yesterday and it inspired me to create this. The artist used acrylic paints, brushing various colours on to the canvas, letting some dry, and spraying others while still wet with water. She then used a paper towel to blot some of the water and colour up, letting the base colour show through and dabbing the excess on to other colours here and there on the canvas.

Well. Doesn’t that sound easy? I think my paper towel must be better quality than hers, because it lifted everything up and refused to let it go. So I was barely started and already breaking the rules. This is why I don’t take art classes and prefer to just wing it and see what happens. A couple of sea sponges worked way better than the paper.

I took a picture of the background I was finally happy with, just in case it all went downhill from there. Although I don’t know what difference that was supposed to make. It was really bright so I toned it down and blended it all with some watered down gesso.

Then obviously as you can see I don’t know which way is up, and flipped the canvas so the flowers would fit. I sketched them in pencil, went over them with gesso, painted them with acrylics and did some shading with gelatos. The lady I watched did a lot of ink outlines everywhere but I tried to keep the ink to a minimum. I added some texture and stamps instead.  Because that’s what I do.

Finally, as instructed (what? really??) I added white splatter, let it dry, and then added some black. This is supposed to keep the splattered dots from mixing and turning grey. And it worked. Whaddaya know.

I really admire the artists who make these videos because of their ability to stay serious and not swear. Someone should do a tutorial on that. Sorry, it won’t be me.

And that’s how I spent my Wednesday.  How was yours?  If you were serious and didn’t swear, never mind.

Art du Jour 61

What started out as a serious exploration of watercolour blending quickly turned silly. The left hand side you see here was originally the top, until I held the paper up to let gravity work its magic on the paint flow and this funny sad face appeared. And I found myself enhancing it with a few details.

So if you stand back, it’s just splashes of lovely bright colours. Up close it becomes something which might frighten a small child.

In the many artistic endeavours I’ve come across in the blog world there are some things I really like and some I don’t, and some that don’t particularly move me one way or the other although I can always appreciate the creative process.  Art is a very subjective thing.  And artists are sometimes their own worst critics and very hard on themselves.  Writers are like this too, humbled by what they feel is better work than their own, when it might simply be different – not more or less, not better or worse.

A little humility is a good thing, and working to be better is admirable.  But we should also strive for self-confidence and feeling good about who we are and what we do.  Drawing the line at turning into raving egotistical nut jobs of course.  It’s a fine balance.

All that was a long convoluted way to get to the part where I say positive things about my art. Even when it’s not likely to end up in the Louvre.  Yes, I did just roll my eyes.

I absolutely love these colours, and the hinted at flowers and the splatters of ink.  I love that I’ve learned how too much blending turns into a muddy brown and how I will learn to avoid that in the future.  And I love that I can see faces where they weren’t necessarily meant to be.

Happy Thursday!  I love that I always appear to know what day of the week it is too.  Yay me.

Art du Jour 45

Woke up this morning to snow (again) so I created my own little patch of spring.

And since its World Poetry Day, here’s one from the archives….

Spring has sprung

The grass is riz 

I wonder where the flowers is

Yeah.  That one is going right back from whence it came.

Our lawn people have called us about spring clean up, so somebody is optimistic.  Hope you’re having a fun Saturday, whatever season you’re stuck in.

Just Jazzy 309

Jazzy Does 100 Days of Happiness 96

Happiness is breathing deep and not letting the little things bug you.

Missing My Mom

♥♥♥Happy Mother’s Day to all the awesome moms out there.  You know who you are.  ♥♥♥

Just Jazzy 148

“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.”
― Iris Murdoch

Nature is joyful and filled with wild delight – but flowers are the happiest of all.

Birthday Art

The absolute best thing a grandma ever gets is random works of art.

 

 

Here’s what I got for my birthday (and mother’s/grandma’s day):  A tower plus some interesting red and purple things, enough coffee to add up to coffeeness, a yummy looking pizza dated “saturday”, a beautiful loving princess with a crown, pretty flowers, incredibly thoughtful compliments, a vicious looking snow person, and lots and lots of love.