A Grey Day in January

Hello there, well as the title says it is a grey day in January.   Now it is Winter in our part of the world, I know Summer in other parts of the world, but the sun could shine and still be nippy outside.   We are getting a tiny bit of rain, always can use the wet stuff.   To me the grey days mean sacking in and watching a movie or six, cooking something yummy and just full of calories or taking a nap or something useful like that.   So I am fixin' to start another painting and then put some beads on a piece of CQ or something like that.   That should take care of my grey day in January.

We have had a different 2017 and now being 2018 not sure what we are doing, I know you kind of have a life plan but Hubby and I just go with the flow of doing whatever happens and deal with it..  Have you ever thought ok we are going to do this adventure, but then at the same time you and Hubby say the same thing and then you wonder if the adventure you are planning is the right thing? The timing is right? Just hold off til later, maybe? Is this what we are suppose to do right now?  I think this time we will listen to our Angles, yes gasp, we will listen to them.  We did ask them to lead us, I guess by the hand we are such hard heads and don't listen like we should.   We are both Taurus and that may explain why we are hard headed.  Well that just certainly sounded like ramblings but Grandson did say my blogs are like Bunny Trails and go all over the place.

CQ is still in my world and I think it and my painting is winning for the privileged of getting to stay in my jumbled up and everything has it's place, but looks like a unneat mess.  Well I know the ones that are artsy can certainly understand that sentence.   I figure if my art room is neat I am not creating a thing, so I had rather have it jumbled.   I will be getting rid of a lot of the unpainting and un CQ pretties. 

I did this CQ pouch forever ago and just purchased a NEW phone.   Yes our old one was at least 6 years old but so cute and little. It would not give all of the text messages we got from Grandkids so out it went.   That is important to a Grandparent.  So we keep it as our night light so we don't step on the furbabies at night when we have to get up.  The old phone has not gone to phone heaven.   The NEW phone is bigger and I found the pouch and lo and behold it fit and now the NEW phone has a cute little coat when it goes out.  The other pretty on the phone is my credit card holder and holds all my "old people" cards Eldon says I have to have with me.  The pouch has a little pocket on the back so it holds everything I need. 

A sweet little front of a bigger pouch, so love embellishing these and the more "stuff" I can get on them the better I like it. Not sure what the section above the faerie is, looks like two bunnies but  I don't have any bunny things.    I guess we can call it what we want.   Shapes, right?  Funny story, we were going to a nearby town to get the dogs food and I said you know that shape looks like a Kangaroo.  Well off at a distance it did,  it was a black plastic bag wrapped around a tree and I swear it had a tail and all the Kangaroo things.   Remember we were 4 lanes and part of a field and a very large media away and I am an artist and have sort of an imagination. Shapes.

This is one of my newer portraits, and I have named her Yellow Rose, one sweet lady has already purchased her and I cannot see what she creates with Yellow Rose.


I have been doing more portraits, almost like a mad woman, obsessed with them.  Learning the different techniques on Let's Face it 2018.  You do still have time to go sign up and would enjoy learning a lot of techniques and then when you like one just jump on it and play to your heart's content.    This month we are studying the Renaissance movement.   So learning a little, I don't think that will ruin my brain, and just enjoying it all .

I started doing these paintings and they were all girls, so I thought lets do a guy.  I looked and looked and found this one.  Well it was Joan of Arc so I thought she cannot look like a guy.  She was a strong woman but still a woman.  So I just took my artistic license and made her a girl.  I think she will approve.  

Now this young lady is not a Renaissance lady but she had a mind of her own and just appeared.  Now as you can tell I was going to add a flower but it turned into a white feather.  When white feathers appear Angels are around. A sign from beyond to offer hope and encouragement Spirituality,faith, protection, purification and hope. Looks like I am sending this to all who want to look at it.  I liked that  meaning.  

Another Renaissance lady, she was a modern day lady but then I just painted her in the Sepia/Umber tones.   I am loving doing these studies.

Now this lady is a Renaissance figure for sure, I did modernize her some.  I guess it is just in this Texas gal to make them look a little modern.  To me all the men and ladies of that time period all look alike in the paintings, but then it was in the 1400s to 1500s, I do have to remember that .

Alright last painting in this style, I cannot imagine all that hair, how hot it would be and the washing of it but they were use to it, whew she was fun to create.

                  These are my takes on the Renaissance period for right now. 

               Well thanks for coming to see what is going on in my world today.

                                                      Annette
                                                       xoxoxo

A Wordy January Post

Hello and can you believe January is here?   I would say I just dilly dallied around but honestly I was doing something artsy, not sure what.   I always say though even making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can be artsy, if you want it to be.  Really just can’t put my finger on it.  A quick update on Rockport, where hurricane Harvey paid a visit.   Rockport is healing and is and will be a slow process but it is healing and it is interesting to see it all come back alive.   Today the Pizza Hut opened back up in their rebuilt building, they had been operating out of a food truck.  Just things like that shows the strength of putting the town back together.   Roofs are being replaced for the homes that are still standing and we don’t hear as much hammering as we did in our neighborhood.   So many families are still without homes and that is so sad, we don't know if FEMA is helping as much as they should, we have heard stories pros and cons as in everything.  Everyone is excited the little beach here is almost restored with its  new little tiki huts and the sand looks so pretty now.  A new tin roof on the Maritime museum and the small birds are starting to come back.   The big dump trucks have been doing a wonderful job of picking up debris.  Everyone could pile  it up in their yard or by side of road and put in categories.  The categories were tins, tree stumps and brush and building boards etc.  There are mattresses and furniture in there and then appliances in their own group.   The piles were tall, very tall but now just here and there.   I think I saw where they are fixin to start pickup round two.   Just an interesting process to watch.  The Snowbirds aka Winter Texans, we always called them Snowbirds, are coming back and that is good for Rockport,s economy as well as them escaping the snow.  A post on that little subject soon.

 Our Dairy Queen parking lot, trees were scrambled but back to normal now.  Prettiest parking lot around I would say. 


I have been doing some Crazy Quilting and of course loving it.   Believe it or not even when Baseball is not going on I either do the embellishing of the Crazy Quilt blocks or sketching. Now  the sketching is getting semi serious and the sketching be it with pencils or charcoal is getting in my blood.  Of course the painting is still going on in my art room. You can tell I am back into painting because just about everything I own to wear has paint on it.  Isn’t that a sign of an artist ?  I do have a little apron that one of our daughters gave to me to wear and it has a goodly amounted paint on it.

A few of the blocks I created and embellished around November.   There were more but don't want to wear your eyes out.   Of course with my faeries I have painted and printed on fabric. 

The next two images are some CQ blocks I embellished for a dear friend Nicki.   Nicki created the blocks and I had the honor of embellishing them for here.   She is going to create pillows for her bed out of them.   

                    Love Nicki's saying here and she is represented by the woman in the ciggie.

                                     

                                   This block represnts her two beautiful grandchildren.   

I have started my second year of Let’s Face It, a painting group let by Kara Bullock of Lets Face it 2018.   There are several wonderful artists teaching their styles of portraits.   What fun for me and I know the other artists taking this online treasure.   Taking them online is wonderful, you can create in your jammies at anytime of the day.   I feel like it is pushing me to sketch and paint  which is a wonderful thing.  This year starting off we are learning about different artists in Renaissance Movement, I find this so interesting.  I cannot imagine what they went thru to paint with whatever kind of paints they used . I guess that would be a good could hunt up that just for a personal project for myself.   Any who, here is a painting  I have done so far this year. I don't want to over load you but more are coming.   Promise. Not the pinkie promise thing, just promise.

This is  my Piero Della Francesca (1415-1492 ), Renaissance Movement, influenced art piece.   Now I did remember doing a bride once with a red background.  The bride was shocked but when she saw the photo she loved it so I just had to do a red background on Mr. Francesca's version with an Annette touch.  Kara Bullock guided us thru this and I just can't get enough of the portraits.  This one is acrylics and I am new with them but you know I am getting hooked on acrylics also.  Lets face it I love, like and whatever words cover this creating art.

Now last year Annie Hammon gave some guidance with layers as did Kara here on this portrait.   When I did lots of pastels I use to do many layers so this right up my alley.   I met this beautiful young mother on a plane on our way to see Grandaughter and Daughter in Hawaii.  I fell in love with the strength and goodness of the young mother.   She was shy, to me very shy but she was trapped next to me and when she and her friend left I got hugs and they called me Nana.   Now that was a success to me.   This is a painting of their young son I did.  I used the layers and layers and I think that is what makes it glow so much.  To me like in photographs,  film has many many layers and digital does not.   That is another subject but just had to throw that one in. 

Well I have more to visit with but will try to do better this year.   We will probably be moving again, we knew our "vacation" here in Rockport was only going to be a year and we need, we guess, to find a forever home.  I mean we have 25 more years to stay around.  We will be 100 then and really won't care where we will be living.   Besides I have a lot of CQ and art supplies I have to use before then.  We know wherever we land it will be the perfect place. 

               Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today

                                                 Annette xoxoxo