Painting #310 - Nov 30 - Late again, with good reason

Well, it's been a stressful day, I worked on a painting before lunch, and after lunch I went over to the studio, guess what, no heat, so, I lit the furnace (good thing Jim showed me how to light it), then, I lit it again, and again, and again, over 20 times, so, when he called me to say he was on his way home, I told him the furnace wouldn't stay lit. Well, to make a long story short, we had to turn the furnace off, and put in a space heater, it just won't stay lit, and when it did light, it made a boom, scared me, so he was checking it out and there is a crack in the furnace block (I am sure I don't have that one correct, but you get the idea, it is really messed up), so he's checking on a furnace tomorrow, so the space heater is going to have to do for now, so I think I will be canceling my painting classes for tomorrow, the space heater is a kerosene heater and it isn't really working well either, it smells really bad, and I think I will be replacing it with the other heater that he has burning in the basement, it doesn't smell, so that's my plan, if he won't move it, I will, we don't really heat the basement, he was burning the fuel off, a few years ago, he loaned it to his mother and she put some bad fuel in, so we are cleaning that one up and I think that one will work better, it is doing a fine job in the basement. I also told him that if the furnace costs too much, that I'm thinking that we will replace the trailer (it's really old and rickety anyway), we looked at a couple this spring and he wouldn't pay $3,000 for one that was almost perfect for what I would have used it for, so, now we will just have to see.

Well, as a result, there was too much left to paint on the one that I was working on before lunch, so I got out a flower picture, and decided on this one of crocus, I'm really thinking spring here, yesterday was our first snow, and it's nasty! I'm ready for spring already, so this it the one for today, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #309 - Nov 29 - A good day to paint but a poor day for travel

What I mean by that is that it was really raining this morning on my way to the Senior Center for classes, once in class I didn't notice what it was doing outside until about 3:30, it started snowing, and it snowed and snowed. By 5:30 it was about 5 or 6 inches deep and the roads were a mess, it usually takes me about 15 min. to get home from Coldwater and it took me slightly over half an hour, so, I didn't go out again once I got here, and if it doesn't melt much, I won't be going anywhere tomorrow either. Well, that will be a good reason to get started working on that portrait.

Today's painting is a photo that my friend Edith gave me, it's on a 5" x 7" Aquabord, the first one I painted was painted on a 1/2 sheet of watercolor paper, when I was looking for something to paint today, it just seemed to say "maybe you should paint a small one and see how that goes", so, that's what I did. I like the misty effect in the distance, and it really went very well, I probably have about 3 hours in this one.

I'm going to make this short today, I've got some TV to watch, I'm addicted to "the Universe" and any thing that is Geological, I really love watching the History channel or H2 (which is the old History International) and the Science channel, I can watch these same shows over and over, so, I must watch, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #308 - Nov 28 - a much better day for painting today

Once I got started with this one, I got very interested, some days it goes good and some days you struggle, so, today it went well, these flowers were taken almost 20 years ago, at my old house, the pink roses were a bush planted from a start that my Mother gave me, I brought a start here too, so I still have these. The white flowers are mock orange, and they made a lovely combination.

I am going to make this short tonight, I have a slight headache, it's been working on being a major headache all day, I wanted to start a portrait today, but, when I went over to the studio, the pilot was out and it was cool in there, I had to call my husband home to light it, he did show me how to do it the next time, so I won't have to have him come home to help me out.

I got to attempting an organization of my file cabinet, while I waited for him to get there, I've been bad about stuffing the magazines and reference material in the cabinet, helter skelter, well, I couldn't get to the files, so I took them out and was sorting through to see what could be thrown away, and really got wrapped up in that, so the portrait is on hold for a day or so, maybe I can get to it Wednesday, we'll see. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #307 - Nov 27 - Didn't do much of anything today, need rest

I'm still tired from this last week, I didn't accomplish anything, really, just this small floral, and I really pushed that. I just couldn't feel it today, and I'm still tired. Hope this small painting will fill my blog obligation, since it's the only one I have today, not very challenging, but some days are just like that, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #306 - Nov 26 - I'm beginning get a bit tired of company

Today we had another family gathering, and it was a mad dash this morning to get everything done, then I had a catastrophe, my bread machine made a mess, well, I guess I really did, I added too much stuff to it and it overflowed, that's the first time it really went over, what a mess, got that cleaned, well, the bread rolls were a bit flat too, I guess it didn't get raised enough, and I had an overflow on the slow cooker, and of course, we didn't get the stuff put up in time and had to throw the stuff in the oven to hurry it up, so I'm kind of glad this day is over, I didn't get at the painting as quickly as I should have so it's late, again. It has felt like Sunday for the last 3 days, now, finally, tomorrow is Sunday, and I'm hoping for a day of rest (well, a rest from cleaning and cooking, hopefully).

I tossed around a barn picture, I know I did a barn picture yesterday, but this one seemed the one for today, after I started it, I wasn't sure it was the correct selection. All those bricks, and the vine growing up the end, whew! I guess I didn't think of all that, I'm glad it's finished, I started to stress out with it, I was tired to begin with, and I probably should have selected a floral, but, once it was started, I just kept working. The hardest part was the vine, and then the bricks, mostly the bricks because there were so many, I just got tired of them but they do look nice. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #305 - Nov 25 - I did not shop on Black Friday

This is the best day to stay home, I never shop on Black Friday, the shopping was done yesterday, and it wasn't too busy, of course, it was right at the time for dinner, and most people were having theirs, and we were late to my daughters, but, all's well that ends well, the dinner was great and went really well, we stayed until 5:00 and I'm sure she was whipped, but I really do think she's a glutton for punishment, she let my other grandson, Derek, stay for the night, and those two boys were wound up like eight day clocks, and full of pie, I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do than keep 2 hyper 11 and 13 year old boys (Ryan is her only child and he's the 11 year old). She must have survived, she came over about 11:00 a.m. today, I gave her a perm, it took about 3-1/2 hours, she has long hair, the major part is rolling it up on the rollers.

Well, then I tried to paint and couldn't get into it. I took a break, took a short nap, cooked supper, washed dishes, watched some TV and then painted. I have about an hour and a half in this one, I took this photo over 25 years ago, and this barn is no longer there, of course, you can see it must have fallen down, you can see right through it. The sky was really light against the darkness of the barn, it was dusk, and the sky was slightly pink, well, it was pretty boring the way it really was, so I ramped up the colors, and lightened the barn a bit, then it was fairly quick, I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #304 - Nov 24 - Thanksgiving - wonderful day

Well, I had a lovely Thanksgiving, I didn't have to cook, my daughter invited us over for dinner and cooked enough food for an army, plus, I got a wonderful new buffet crockpot that cooks three different things, I've wanted one for over a year and we just got one today, I'm planning on using it for Saturday, another family gathering and the last of the Thanksgiving meals, then we are good until Christmas, then I can use it again.

Well, today's painting is that winter scene that I started on Tuesday, and worked on yesterday at the Gallery, I really didn't get much time to work on this, only about an hour and a half, I really had to finish the trees and the road, and fine tune the snow and bridge area, I think this painting works now, so I like this little painting and I hope you do too.