Extension Art

The Art of Extension

The Carroll County Extension Agents are having a celebration

for 100 years in extension and they asked me to help them by painting them a tree.

This tree is going to be part of their timeline,

as they place leaves on the tree for agents, 4-h'er's and volunteer leaders.

If you have served in the Carroll County, KY area of 4-h in any form,

you should drop by this week and put your leaf of the tree.

The tree is starting to take shape.

It's on two sheets of 4'x8' plywood covered with batting and flannel.

 Working on putting in some grasses at the bottom.

 The trees branches will form the timeline for 100 years of Extension.

 Checking it out to see if we're even sort of symmetrical.

Working on the highlights.

The tree is mostly black with some other colors thrown in for some depth.

Then I highlighted with cad yellow, cad orange, burnt sienna, Indian yellow and hookers green.

Adding lots of distant branches and limbs so you can hang lots of leaves on it.

Here's the finished tree.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Theatre Art

Final Production

My granddaughter Kelsie is getting ready to graduate from high school.

She has belonged to a homeschool theater group and been in 8 productions.

This last weekend Kelsie was in her last production with Center Stage Productions.

She has grown up in this group in many ways, particularly theatrically.

The final production of Ramona Quimby 

was this past weekend and next weekend.

She played the part of Aunt Bea.

You'll see she is nothing like the "Aunt Bea" we all think of from Andy Griffith.

Told ya she didn't look like "that" Aunt Bea.

Here she saves the day by bringing "Whopper Burgers" for dinner.

They built a 3 story apt. set for a few scenes like this.

 The kids do everything from building the sets, sewing the costumes, doing the make up and hair, props, lighting, music, and all the acting.

Two mothers started this group years ago and are stepping down after this production.

Their kids are grown up and no longer in the club.

Many kids have had some wonderful experiences including my Kelsie.

 Kelsie gets married in this scene.

She looks beautiful here, 

but we are no where near ready for this scene.

I love this photo.

 CSP puts on their productions in the historic Holland Theatre.

At the end of this production CSP will have donated $100,000 to the Holland Theatre.

It has been used by the Save The Holland group who have been restoring this fabulous theatre for a number of years.

Click here to see more about this historic theatre.

A hilarious moment by Miss Kelsie.

Ramona and Aunt Bea.

This young girl, Ramona, is 11 and is in her first production.

She is quite the actor and hopefully she'll audition for the community theatre group associated with the Holland. 

Kelsie has brought our family much joy and pride in all her endeavors.

She's off to college in a "few short months"

and we'll let you know when that decision has been made.

She's got some pretty interesting options open to her right now.

Thanks for stopping by today.
 

 

Art Exercise

Heavy Lifting Drawing Exercise

While I'm on the campaign trail for my son-in-law Eric Stewart

for Logan County Family Court Judge,

I haven't painted much.

I take my grandson Caleb out for 6-8 hours per day to canvas door to door

in the 36 precincts in the County.

The other day I decided to try something different.

OK, let's clear this up,

I wasn't drawing and driving.

But, I had my sketch pad next to me and when we pulled up to a house

I had to pick out something and draw it while Caleb went to the door.

It usually takes him about 2 minutes if he gets to speak to someone,

and less than a minute if he only hangs a door hanger on the door.

A few of the drawings I worked on from memory for a few stops

but most of them I did in the 1 or 2 minutes we were in the driveway.

This was my first sheet and I started in the upper left corner

when I spied a wicker love seat nestled among some

really tall pines.

Not all of the drawings I started were finished,

but it was so fun to quickly decide on something

and then try to get it on paper.

If you've followed me you know I've working a lot on drawing

because

I don't do it well.

I thought this "quick draw" exercise might help.

And it did.

This sheet had a little pump house, 

which I don't think I got the scale good on it.

My fav on the sheet is the arbor in the lower left hand corner.

 

We were in Zanesfield and the houses are close together

so Caleb walked from house to house

while I parked and worked on the church on the left for about 15 min.

The house on the right I did in about 2-3 minutes.

 

 The house on the lower right had a zillion angles,

so I was just trying to figure out how to get them.

 I did get most of them correctly,

which is a huge breakthrough for me.

This chair was really rustic and was sitting in a yard

with flowers surrounding it.

The windmill was one of my favs because I felt I made a break through in seeing its parts.

 

This church had those several roof lines,

interesting windows

and its the kind of thing I seldom get right,

but I was happy with this

 

And this is what inspired the whole exercise.

This cute little wicker love seat was snuggled in a pine grove 

far away from the house.

It looked like the perfect end of day spot to unwind.

I'm sure you'll see many of these parts or whole drawings 

working their way into paintings in the future.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my art today.

Seeing The Art in Architecture.

Architecture is Art

Hello from the campaign trail.

All across this country there are amazing architectural treasures hidden out there on the backroads.

I've taken a number of photographs,

but I have to share these.

As I was looking over the precinct maps I saw two, not one, but two covered bridges

in Logan County.

I had a little time on Good Friday, so I lit out to find these bridges.

 

This is McColly Bridge

There was no real pull off to really get a good look at it.

I'm in someone's driveway.

Yes, someone has this view every single day.

 

I'm getting ready to drive through.

I can't really remember the last time I drove through a covered bridge.

 

How cool is this.  

This is Bickham Bridge.

It's a little more rustic, especially in the rock walls that hold it up.

They also had a pull off where I could get out and walk up to it.

This old girl got out and left the comfort of her car

and walked down to the water.

 

Here's a little more close up.

 

I'm way down there looking up.

 

Now this is way cool!

So now you know I had to get out some sort of art supply and do something

about capturing this bridge.

So here it is.  I'm sure it's going to be painted a number of times in the future. 

Thanks for checking out my art today and here's to future paintings.

Artful Campaigning

Artful Campaigning

My Son In Law, Eric Stewart is running for Family Court Judge

in Logan County, Ohio.

I am up at their home in Bellefontaine, OH working on the campaign for a few days.

(it's pronounced Bell - fountain).

Any way

today on the campaign trail,

I drove my 14 year old grandson around out in the county

as he knocked on doors campaigning for his father.

Isn't he just the cutest???

He has helped organize the routes of 36 precincts

with all the people who regularly vote in the primaries.

He has gone out every day to spread candidate love,

and flyers and signs everywhere,

after he has done early morning seminary,

practiced the piano and

done all his homeschool work

every day for weeks.

What we learned along the road today was everyone,

OK most everyone

has an artistic bone in them somewhere.

We were out in the county, not in a city or a town,

but out in corn and cattle country,

and we saw some really cute things people decorate their yards and homes with

to make it their own.

This super cute piece was made by a little old pipe smoking man out of tree bark and other scraps.

When I asked him if I could take a picture of it,

he wanted to show me the real animals he had in his little barn.

He had two little donkeys and one of them made quite the fuss when

we were introduced.

The gentleman was quite the character

but looking at his very neat little home and not a thing out of place barn,

you wouldn't know he had much of a sense of humor

until your eye caught this.

He had it outside on a wall of his garage.

The only decoration I could see,

but isn't it adorable.

 I don't know the story behind this little gem,

but it was too cute not to photograph.

This guy said his yard was a work in progress,

but let us add to it by putting a sign in his tastefully decorated front yard.

You can see the vibrant color of this log cabin barn quilt on this huge grain farm.

The world can never have too many guard dog gargoyles.

Industrial Yard Art.

I told you this was corn and cattle country, right?

Another success story,

as Caleb places another sign in this front yard.

Here's candidate Eric Stewart,

Future Logan County Family Court Judge.

It's late,

we're all tired,

but we've had a great day of campaigning

in the heartland. 

Thanks for checking in with us today.

 

Spring in a Jar

Spring In A Jar

I've been practicing painting daffodils for several days now,

and I've finally gotten something I'm happy with.

It is a combination of almost every practice painting I did in the last week.

I have learned so much through the practice, 

like how to get the bell to have dimension,

How to paint forsythia branches and blossoms,

How to get my jar looking like a jar, 

How to get that filmy paper looking part of the bloom to quietly show up.

Without further ado,

I give you

Spring In A Jar

  is acrylic on 12" x 9" 110 lb natural white acrylic paper.

$100 + $6 shipping

Daffodil Learning Curve

I Paint, Therefore I Practice

You've heard of

Practicing Medicine

Practicing Law

Practicing Driving

but practicing art.

Well of course we practice

and practice

and practice.

I could not wait for spring to get here,

and guess what,

It's here!

Now I can quit practicing snow and begin practicing spring flowers,

mainly daffodils for now.

Flowers my husband picked for me from our yard.

I know, he's toooo sweet!

With this inspiration, how can I go wrong?

 

I used a 12" x 16" coated canvas paper for oil and acrylic paint and taped off 4 quadrants

and began my practice of four different views of daffodils from my vase.

It's interesting what happens to the paintings when I take off the tape.

It's sort of like what happens when you frame a painting.

The only difference between this practice painting and the above practice painting

is the removal of the tape.

Doesn't the eye play some really cool tricks on us.

More daffodils to come,

because they are still mastering me.

Thanks for viewing my practice session today.

Real Signs of Spring

Do You Need Some Spring?

I know I do!

It's only been warm a few days, but that's all these daffodils need.

Just a few days of warmth and they start popping out all over the place.

Daffodil Fiends

Quick studies because I couldn't hold the rain off.

 

Best Buds.

Started this one outside but ended up finishing it indoors.

You wouldn't want me to melt in that rain would ya?

Both 6" x 6" acrylic on a panel.

$50 each +$6 shipping

Jarring

7" x 5" acrylic on a panel

$50 + $6 shipping

This was a quick study because daffodils are really hard for me to paint.
It's painted with acrylic on paper.
I was trying to paint daffs going in different directions and get abetter 3D look.

Learned a lot from these four pieces.

There will be many more to come as I learn to paint them and the other flowers
 we grow here on the farm.

Thanks for stopping by today.