Thursday, July 16, 2009

A sketch called Ambrosia




Ambrosia

This is a sketch that I've been working on a bit at a time. I'll be approaching this in a different manner. Thinking about adding color on the bond paper. I'm usually transferring a pencil sketch to a watercolor block and adding watercolor and gouache to the second generation. I don't want to go through that process with all this detail. I did the pencil sketch about two months ago when I got sick with a cold. I then went over the pencil sketch with a black art pen. This took several days to do. Now, I've been visualizing how I'm going to add color. It'll be different than my usual applications.


Her feet remind me of my mother's feet. Especially her big toes.


Painting her view.

Ambrosia

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

My Little Helper and The White Oleander


Here's Dorothy washing dishes. The ball has ended and it's back to work for my chickadee. It's not all glamour around our home. There are responsibilities to be taught and learned. I probably give the impression that I'm always cracking the whip with my Toot. No, I enjoy having her next to me while I'm washing the dishes and she practices on a cup or a spoon. She loves the idea of helping with the dishes. Most of the time she's playing with the suds and water. I do like that her Dorothy dress became her very first apron-Why not.


These are the Oleanders that have been on my mind. I found out that these healthy looking flowery bushes are poisonous. When I found out about this I couldn't sleep that night. All sorts of horrifying thoughts flashed across my mental screen.

They grow on both sides of our backyard. This is a bush growing over the fence from the neighbors yard. Ominous....I try not to look, but they are there and I'm trying to figure out what to do.


Here they are next to my compost bin. Could I have raked some of the flowers and leaves and mixed them with my compost? I haven't used any of my compost on any plants. It's still pretty low, and now I'm afraid to use any of it. Honestly, I haven't had anytime to garden. Anyway, I'm thinking about starting over and moving the bin to a new location.

The movie that kept me up and lost sleep over was White Oleander. I was fine until I watched the bonus features and heard that it grew abundantly in California. It's everywhere! So I looked it up and there it was The White Oleander. Scary and at the same time so interesting. Plants, I mean. I just want to grow a couple of herbs, but I didn't realize that there could be some evil plant putting its noxious branches around my harmless rosemarie. I've got to rethink this whole set up and process.