Thanksgiving in the Country

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving at my sister’s log cabin in the woods. It was warm and cozy and festive inside, and food, stories and laughter filled the house.

Dinner’s ready to serve!

The table is set. The crowd is about ready to gather around.

I love this whimsical folk art dove.

This pie safe was built by hand by my brother-in-law, using wood  from a big tree that he cut. The tin was hand punched by family members, a project that lasted over a period of two years.

The portrait is of my grandparents and uncle.

Here is the website that my niece created on the history of this amazing place.

I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving today enjoyed time with friends and family.

The Last Before and After of the Series

“Echoes 36″ – Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5″

This is the final version of what I was calling Painting Two. That previous post and this one show you all the different stages it went through.

To resolve it, I needed to close up some of the holes and unify the color a little more. If you saw this one in real life, you would see a lot of heavy transparent and translucent layers of paint. It has now been added to the Echoes Series.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I might not get to post, because of family members staying at our house. We will be heading out to my sister’s cabin in the woods, each contingent taking one, two, or three menu items. Mine are pecan pie and cranberry-orange relish. Easy! We will be picking up my two aunts — my Dad’s remaining siblings, 90 and 94 years young. There will be 14 at dinner.

I am thankful for simple things like family time and the joy of sharing! Happy holiday!

Another Before and After

This is another before and after. Here is the before . . .

And the “after” — the final . . .

"Echoes 34" - Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5"

This one didn’t change after the last post. I decided it was done.

Another Before and After

Here are the next painting’s “before” and “after” photos. This one is finished.

Before

Untitled - Work in Progress, Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5"

 

After

"Echoes 33" - Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5

 

I decided it would work better with the orientation changed. Plus, I think the blue shows up even better in the final version.

When in Doubt, Paint it Blue

This is today’s shot of what I seem to remember is Painting Number One in this series of five 12 x 12’s. So that’s what I’m calling it.

You won’t believe what I did to it. I could not get anything to speak to me on this canvas. So I set it aside and tried not to think about what to do next. The colors were wrong, and the ridged pattern was still getting in my way just a little. So I have completely changed the color from warm to cool and rotated it. Surprise, surprise –I think I like it now!

You can still see the reds and yellows, but the overall blue works.

Here is the “before” . . .

And here it is now.

“Echoes 32″ – Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5″

Work in Progress – Number Four Revisited

The previous stage of this painting can be seen here. But I’m going to show it in this post again, because it’s been rotated as I worked on it. I liked this previous version too, but in order for it to be my painting and not someone else’s painting, I needed to make it fit better into the series.

Untitled Work in Progress #4 – Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5″

Untitled Work in Progress #4 – Current Version
Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5″

I’m happy with this one. Things are starting to get on a roll.

Ready for More Projects

My studio had gotten a little out of hand, so this morning I had to stop and straighten everything up a little. Now I’m ready to do battle again.

There’s always a studio dog!

View from the opposite side

Some tools of the trade — brayers, cheap knives, mat board squeegees.
I didn’t find my good knife until after this picture.

Plus some shots of my table top, which is covered with freezer paper, taped down, shiny side up. When I want to clean a brush or a knife or a squeegee, I just deposit the paint onto the freezer paper. Some day I’ll transfer some of these paint passages onto canvas or a board.

I feel better now. Back to painting!

Works in Progress, Painting Two

This is the current state of the second painting in the series of five that I’m working on. First, the “after” picture . . .

Untitled Work in Progress – Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5″

The above image shows the painting when it is still very wet with a mixture of acrylics, glazes, and clear gel. It will not end up quite that glossy. I have been applying Golden Fluid Acrylics and Golden Self-Leveling Clear Gel in analogous colors, mixing the gel and the paint together directly on the canvas with a big plastic painting knife. The gel keeps the paint transparent so that I don’t completely hide the texture below. The relief portion is a piece of paint skin. In the upper left hand corner is an application of Golden Acrylic Glaze, Violet Earth.

This painting may be close to finished. I am happy with the colors and might simply close up some of the holes that I don’t particularly like. I’m not crazy about the white streaks still showing in the upper right. Those are where I scraped away the wet paint. I’ll probably put down more of the same Yellow Ochre Glaze in that corner.

And next is the “before” picture of that painting. It is my intention to unify the color while preserving little passages of the original colors. As you can see by comparing the “before” picture below with the current one, a little complementary color goes a long way.

Blueberry the Cat Gets Her Own Bird Feeder

The head of our bed is Blueberry’s favorite perch every morning after we get up. Dad has promised her he is going to buy her a bird feeder of her own to hang outside in the tree, so that she can have more bird watching fun. Our cats aren’t allowed outside. Too many predators, including roaming dogs around here.

Works In Progress, Painting One

Here is the current state of Painting One in the series of five paintings in progress.

After – State 3 or 4 or . . .

Before – State 2 or 3

The “before” picture was not a great one, but it gives you an idea of the progress of this painting. The “after” version feels like it’s finished.  As Emeril says, it feels “happy happy happy!”

Painting in Progress Number Five

Untitled - Work in Progress, Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 x 1.5"

As you can see this one has a long way to go. But I wanted to show all five individually that I’m currently working on. Still flying by the seat of my pants on these. I started to type “paints.” Yeah. That works too. I promise, promise promise to show the next stages of all of these, with before and after pics.

This weekend has been spent mostly outdoors. The weather has been wonderful for working in the yard, raking leaves, covering up my beds with leaves for future plantings, and poring over bulb and seed websites. I’m such a complete beginner with flowers. I love growing things you can eat, but I also want some flowers. And there will be herbs. Always herbs.

We have a lot of squirrels and chipmunks, and I’m reading that they will eat your bulbs if you can’t outsmart them with chicken wire or cayenne powder, etc. But the good thing is that they don’t like daffodil bulbs! Guess what my first bulbs are going to be. I’d just as soon not go to battle with chipmunks. They are so danged cute. But sadly, one of my dogs killed one last week before I knew what was happening. A chipmunk has to make a living too.

What is a turkey shoot? I’m not sure I want to know. There was a turkey shoot at the fire station in my neighborhood yesterday. I didn’t know it until after the fact when I saw this sign. I wondered what all the gunfire was about yesterday.

Chicken stew is a big thing around here too, for fund raisers and community events. It’s the same as Brunswick Stew, but chicken is the only meat. I make a mean chicken stew myself.