Tag ... you're it!

Celeste, who does beautiful oils has tagged me. When you've been tagged you are supposed to mention who tagged you, (that would be you Celeste) then tell 7 things about yourself. Then you're supposed to tag 7 others . I was tagged some time ago, but that was to tell some "weird things about myself" ... who me, weird???

1. I use to read a lot of novels. Now the only time I seem to be able to finish a novel is when we are out on our boat ... where I've been known to finish about a 5 books in 7 days. Now I seem to read only how-to books, art books, art marketing, art promotion, self help books.

2. I'd rather be in the Pacific Northwest than anywhere.

3. Although I usually paint in watercolor I love oil paintings.

4. I love learning about building anything. I don't build anything, but I love learning how others do. I think I may have been a carpenter in my last life the way I am intrigued with power tools. Well, I guess I like learning anything that I know nothing about. I think I drive people nuts by asking "why?", "now when do you do that?", "do you have to do it that way?"..... I want to know everything from the ground up.

5. Of all household chores, I dislike emptying the dishwasher the most. It always seems to need to be emptied in the most inopportune time.

6. I became a Master Gardener - in Oregon, about 12 years ago. Also I was a professional cake decorator. I must have really grown tired of them both because I'm not interested in either now.

7. I am a procrastinator. I am trying to overcome this but it's amazing how it keeps creeping into my life.

Now you know a little bit more about me.

Some of the people I want to tag I've frequented their blogs for awhile, some of the others I've recently found. Lets find out some more about: Manjiree, Nancy, Helen, Andy, Laura, Toni and Steve

Some smaller works

Three small 5" x 5" Blue Heron paintings

SOLD

In preperation for a couple of holiday bazaar's I'm going to be involved in, I've been working on some small bird paintings. One show is on the 29th of November here on the Island, and the other is a larger two day event starting with First Friday the following week on both the 5th and 6th.

Catching up on a few things

I'm too late to post this one on Karin Jurick's "Different Strokes blog, but I am trying to catch up and paint the ones I've missed anyway - just to give them a try. I find I tend to get bogged down with the detail of some of the photo's she uses, so trying to simplify is a challenge for me. A good challenge none the less.

Also, I recently sent out my first newsletter. I thought I might send my newsletters out via snail mail but with the price of stamps I now think e-mail is the best way. This is a photo of my newsletter I printed out. I have notes all over so I won't forget how I did certain things I felt worked.

Week 10 challenge ....

I am enjoying painting these Karin Jurick challenges. I find since I am not attached to the photo's I can loosen up and paint them more or less as I would a sketch and not fuss with detail like I usually do. These photos will show you my process this week. I did the first sketch last Thursday and the drawing yesterday, waiting until today to do my painting.

Trying not let the other doodles interfere with my thoughts I decided to sketch this out on some scratch paper before attempting it in watercolor. hmmmm, ok, this may be fun.

Next I decided to get my drawing down on paper.

I told myself NOT to obsess with this one. Make it sketchy, get your thoughts down and don't look back. Its not a masterpiece, but I am pretty happy with it and feel I accomplished the looseness I had wanted.