Determined to Fly - SOC3 week 3

I enjoyed letting go and making last weeks winged girl so much, I decided to make another one this week before my short attention span kicks in. This week's winning colors were lime green and purple.  I used basically the same process, although I did catch myself getting more perfectionisty (if it's not a word, it should be), and would have to try and stop myself.  This week's girl is a little more confident about trying to fly with her (encaustic wax) wings, because her butterfly friend is whispering advice in her ear...

 

Don't Fear Your Wings - SOC Week 2

Sometimes I feel the need to force myself to unclench, and let go of perfectionism, and just create as if I were a child again.  This does not come naturally to me, but at the same time I'm often drawn to art created this way.  So for this week's challenge I roughly tore out pieces from my collection of old papers, the rough shape of a head and dress, and created and painted a girl in one of my journals, with wings she's feeling intimidated about using.

I love the old papers against the bright pink and orange, the winning colors for this week and ones I wouldn't normally think of using together much - that's the beauty of challenges like Summer of Color that force us out of our comfort zone a little.  Her wings were created using white encaustic wax.

 

If you're not already participating in Summer of Color, click the link at the top of my sidebar to come play!

She hitched a ride with a butterfly - Summer of Color begins!

The long awaited and much anticipated 3rd year of Summer of Color has begun, hosted by the lovely and talented Kristin of Twinkle, Twinkle. If you're not already involved, click on the link at the top of the sidebar and come play!  The color combination for our first week is Citron and Turquoise, a combination I quite like.

This is done on a 6" x 12" piece of wood, with a lot of vintage bits and pieces. The Frozen Charlotte is riding a butterfly that I cut out of a very old piece of lace, some kind of elongated doily that is full of these butterfly shapes. The little straps I used to hold her in are all already part of it - this kind of thing can seriously make my whole day!

Lake Tahoe - part Deux

We swore last time we were at Tahoe that we were going to come back more often, and so far so good.  It was 100 degrees here yesterday, so we decided to escape the heat and go back to Tahoe, where it was a fantastic sunny 73ish.  We went to a State park that has a wonderful mansion, we'd toured it a couple of years ago and vowed to come back soon with chairs, books and picnic supplies, then promptly forgot about it. This time we came fully supplied, dogs in tow, and settled in for the day.  It was so beautiful - quiet and peaceful, we could hear the water lapping softly against the beach, which was about 15 feet from us.

 

I created my first "plein air" (I assume this means painting something outside while you're looking at it) there. Not great (it turns out it's not easy doing a watercolor in a beach chair!)

, but it captures the scene and I really found myself immersed in just seeing, and being there while doing it.

 

 

 

Looking up at the mansion from the lawn.

 

 

 

The boys, VERY worried that their Father did the unfathomable, walking away from our spot without them.

 

 

Looking back at the grounds from the pier.  Not a bad spot to have had your summer home, huh?

 

 

 

A coyote strolling through the grounds, stopping to look at us.

 

My Obligatory Rooster

I rarely spend 3 day holiday weekends at home, but that's what I did last weekend, and it was lovely.  I spent quite a bit of time at my art desk, although I don't have a lot to show for it.  I'm making myself try and get better at watercolor, doing some exercises and practicing some things. This is not easy for me, I'm not patient with myself and want to immediately just be good at what I'm trying and have something to show for it (who doesn't, right?) 

I did do one finished page in my little watercolor sketchbook - I figured it was about time I painted a rooster - doesn't everyone have to do one sooner or later?

Live in the work of your own making...

I was just playing in one of my art journals, and had the masochistic idea to create a portrait with oil pastels after the rest of the page was already done.  I don't highly recommend doing this over a dark background like this, especially on a highly textured page, but I persevered.  Her hair is done with an Inktense pencil, I didn't have it in me to try doing that with oil pastels also.  She looks highly skeptical of something, to me.

The quote says "live in the work of your own making, not that of others" -  from Robert Genn who I get words of wisdom from in his weekly artist newletter e-mails.  It had struck me as very wise...

Lake Tahoe

 

 

For those of you desperately trying to find a lake in this little watercolor, rest assured that I'm not under the illusion that one is there - I'm just throwing this in before we get to the good stuff.  I bought a watercolor book by John Lovett and this is the first exercise I've tried. I didn't have much hope for it along the way, but it kind of came together at the end.

 

Now, as promised, Lake Tahoe.  We bought a Groupon for a cruise of the lake - last year, half price, promptly forgot about it and almost let it expire.  We only live about an hour and a half away, but we just don't go there enough - a conclusion that we always come to on the occasions that we DO go.  It's truly a beautiful lake - the only one I've ever personally seen that can compete is Lake Como (breathtaking even if it weren't in Italy).

 

 

From the observation area overlooking Emerald Bay

 

 

 

 Mario in our hard-won spot on the top deck  

 The water is so amazingly clear

 

Someone's summer home in Emerald Bay from back in the day