Harstine Island Farmers Market

This is my area with my card rack, table and peg board props.

The last two weeks, or there about, I've been so busy with packaging my Giclee's and Note/Greeting Cards and printing up business cards etc. in anticipation of my first time selling in an open Market. Today, that day finally arrived. It was a beautiful day with sun shine and not a cloud in sight. My husband had an early meeting to attend and wasn't able to help me set-up at the market, but my neighbor (and good friend) offered her help. It was much appreciated to have another woman's eye for detail.

Me, in the thick of conversation with a customer about watercolor.

This little Farmers Market is located on Harstine Island at the local Community Club and only open from 10-12 on Saturdays. Today there must have been approximately 25 vendors selling their wares (wish I would have counted ). I have been working diligently to be prepared for today, and was a bit nervous when I left to set-up before the Market opened this morning. I felt it was a positive adventure, one I'll do again. I received some helpful suggestion's and came home with more money from sales than I had expected. It was great ... no booth fees, close to home and the support of my many friends who dropped by during the morning.

Things I'll do different next time:

• Consider using a canopy. Three of my friends have now offered the use of theirs and I'll probably take them up on the offer as the summer continues .... or at least get to the market early enough to grab one of the few shady spots.
• Take something better to use as a change drawer. I hadn't given this much thought, but ended up using a make-up bag. It worked fine for only two hours but I'll try to come up with something different for next time.
• I should have made more packs of cards. I sold individual cards for $2.25 each, Packs of 6 for $12.00, and the packs sold very well.
• I need to paint more "local" sights.
• Next time I'll arrive at least 1 hour early. TodayI arrived 45 minutes before the market opened.
• Place price tags on each pack cards instead of relying on one sign to tell the price of all cards.
• Also, I will take a photo of all the vendors. (aha... maybe that would make a nice subject to paint.)

Ahhh, en Plein Air

This is my Plein Air set up, overlooking beautiful Hood Canal

Lately, I haven't had a lot of motivation where my art work is concerned. I felt stagnate and could tell I had lost that once exciting feeling I use to have with my work. THEN........ I heard about a group of Plein Air artists that meet every two weeks. I've always wanted to join a group of Plein Air artist, but never had the opportunity. Then I met the person who started this group when we were both entering our work at the Arts Association Annual Spring Show, and I begged to join in on the fun.

I'm the artist on the bottom left hand corner.

I neglected to ask permission to post their names and photo's so you only see the backs of this great group. (I'll ask next time.) I'm told the group varies from 2 to 8 artists on different outings. This particular outing there were 4 of us.

The group met Tuesday morning on beautiful Hood Canal. About a 45 minute drive from my house. The weather was pretty nice with a few occasional clouds that would hang over us and chill us, then the sun would come out again and all would be fine.

So, this new group has given me the boost and motivation I've needed. I'm not much of a landscape painter, but hopefully I'll become better if I continue on more outings with the group.

Honorable Mention

I was the proud recipient of an Honorable Mention award at our local Art Association's 17th Annual Spring Show. This show was filled with exceptionally good art and our judge, Ned Mueller had to have a tough time choosing Best of Show.

This entry, White Lilies, is a small watercolor measuring only 6" x 6", double matted with a 5" wide border. The frame is metal with a slight lavendar color to it, and measures 16" x 16".

Home-made Vine Charcoal

Who'da thunk that I could make my own vine charcoal? Awhile back someone mentioned making their own vine charcoal and continued to say their favorite wood to do this with was Madrone (Arbutus). Then they went on to say they just wrapped it in tin foil and placed it in the fire place. So I found a Madrone tree, grabbed a small branch dried it out for a day or so, then proceeded to wrap it in tin foil and placed it in the fire place over night.

The next day this was what the Madrone branch looked like. I was worried that as soon as I touched it that it may all fall apart, but it didn't. It was very solid. I'm not particularly fond of the turn out, as it seems almost too hard to make a mark on paper. I'm wondering now if it was because I left the Madrone bark on the branch, because after I draw with it a bit it becomes easier to make a mark. Maybe if I'd have taken it off it would be easier to use. But, on the other hand it isn't messy at all, and my fingers stay nice and clean.

Here you see a small piece of the charcoal I've broken off for ease of use, and some scribbles. I think it was well worth the effort and I'll probably experiment with some other woods in the future.

Major League Baseball

Last night we were privileged enough to attend a major league game between the New York Yankee's and the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners may have lost, but if you've ever attended a Major League ball game, just being there is thrill enough. This is a watercolor sketch of a major league baseball player ... though no particular player at all, just the essence of the game.

Mostly with this watercolor sketch I concentrated on shapes. I wanted to show the action of the player -I wasn't focusing on color... If I were to do it over again, I'd pick some blue-greys along with some warm sienna's.

On another note.... some of you who have subscribed to my blog and hope to receive the updates in an e-mail, are not receiving them. Mostly this is because you have not yet replied to the verification email sent to you by Feedburner to complete the subscription process. Unverified subscriptions are not active subscriptions. Because Feedburner verification emails get sent from this catchy (not) email address: "donotreply@emailenfuego.net", people sometimes miss it or it goes into their spam box. So, please check your spam and junk mail. If by the end of the week you have yet to receive an update I'll e-mail you personally incase you have already deleted this information and we can start over again.

Another experiment ...

Maybe it's the nice weather, but lately I've been wanting to try other mediums and materials ... spreading my wings maybe.

The photo's here are of a house that always catches my eye when I'm in the neighborhood. The front of the house faces the water, and is surrounded by vegetation, some beautiful well manicured shrubs and flowers. I have not done it justice, believe me.

The test/experiment was to use a crayon in the appropriate color then use watercolor paint on the top of that, allowing the the crayon to create texture. In the first photo, you see where I've drawn out the image in pencil, then used crayons in a light manner in the appropriate places.

In this second photo (on the right) you see my first washes of watercolor. You see a little of the texture if you look closely... some on the porch overhang and on the grey cement wall on the bottom right... and maybe in a few other places ... if you look closely.

Then lastly the finished experiment. I've added more value to the surrounding foliage. If you look closely you can see some texture. I think if I were to do this again I'd use a little more crayon. Not using too much as to fill in all valleys of the watercolor paper, but maybe just a bit more.

Do I seem a little crabby lately ...

SOLD

Have you noticed that crabs seem to be on my mind lately?

This is another dungeness crab that I've tried to capture in a loose manner. My work ususally is so tight, that I need to make a concience effort to loosen-up. The support for this crab is regular brown craft paper, upon which I've used charcoal to draw the shape of a crab, then using pastel to create the middle and light values... then back to charcoal to make the shape of the legs - then a touch of brown conte' here and there.

What I learned with this painting/drawing:

• The craft paper was not very forgiving. When I wanted to blend the colors, the paper just held on to the pastel ... such as the white on top of the crab back. I was going to blend the white lines ... it just sat there, not blending.
• Craft paper has a great brown color that I find attractive, so I may try pre-coloring some watercolor paper to paint on.
• I'm not sure I will ever become comfortable with the dry chalky feel of pastel and charcoal.
• I love the look of charcoal.
• I would like to become better at using pastel ... even if it is messy ... I have some artist friends who really are masters of this medium and I so envy the look they can achieve.

Watercolor sketch

HAPPY MAY DAY EVERYONE

This is a fast watercolor sketch I did this morning ... knowing that sometimes I work happiest when I am not concerned with the out come. I usually work slowly and each stroke of the brush pretty well thought out ... for the most part I am happy with the work I finish using that method but when I just want to play, this is my favorite way to handle watercolor - loose and free, a splash here a splash there.

Oregon Junco

Another sketchbook watercolor . I seem to be doing everything but the important things I want to accomplish. Maybe soon I'll get back to my full sheet that is sitting on my easel with a little bit of color on it. It could be the weather that keeps me distracted... spring seems to be here in full swing. Sunny one day and rainy the next or rainy in the morning and sunny an hour later.

More spring sketching

Spring rhododendron's are showing up all around now, giving me yet another flower to watercolor in my sketchbook.

I'm really happy with my new "subscribe" link over to the right of the screen. One subscriber tells me it really works great. Once you subscribe by placing your e-mail address in the box, the next day after I update my blog you will receive an e-mail from me, Nancy Van Blaricom: fine art, showing the new post to my blog.

Spring

Watercolor sketch in sketchbook.

Grape Hyacinth

I find this is the time of year that everyone is sharing plants with each other.

This is a sketch of some grape hyacinth.

I'm finding that I'm not very motivated today to work on the important things that need to be done today if not sooner ... I have 15 days to finish a full sheet painting I'm working on to enter in the local spring art show and some of those day's are planned with other events. Also the Farmers Market that I plan on selling some works at this summer will soon start and although I have some inventory I still need to expand on that quite a bit. Meanwhile I'm finding myself getting distracted with other things. But....Today I will:

• get the first signs of the image on the full sheet of paper
• print out 2 more cards and package them
• work at putting the greeting cards on my web-site (I worked on this yesterday but was not happy with the layout... but I'll work to see if I can't come up with something I an happy with.)

Flowers on my deck

With the signs of spring all around I couldn't resist buying some geraniums for my front deck. I purchased 6 a couple of weeks ago ... they have a very pretty hot purple-red flower. The colors of the foliage is not as sick and washed out as my sketch/watercolor shows. I found it hard to make up a pretty green with my small watercolor palette I use for sketching. I guess I should just stick sap green in there an use that, changing the value as needed with either water or another color, but I really would like to mix my own - then again, half the problem seems to be that I use my water-brush, so very little mixing is done on the palette it's self.

Lavendar Iris

Its the time of year when most of us are so looking forward to doing some gardening after being house-bound through the long winter months.
This small watercolor is from my sketchbook. The book is approximately 5.5" x 8.5" and the paper is somewhere between smooth and having some tooth. So although its takes the watercolor fine, the page buckles a little. At first I didn't care for that, but now I've grown to like it ... feeling the familiarity pages filled with sketches and odds and ends taped/glued to the pages.
Have you noticed that I seem to vacillate between a loose painterly watercolor style and more realistic ... I enjoy them both, but this doesn't help sell paintings to go back and forth.

The tulip fields of Skagit County

Yesterday we were in the middle of some beautiful tulips fields about 100 miles north of where we live. People come from all over to see the beauty that not only takes your breath away but keeps you smiling the whole time you see them.

Fundraiser...

"I'll be home soon, Mom"

painted surface: 15" x 22"
framed size: 23.5" x 29"

On April 27 at Harmony Hill, overlooking Hood Canal, in Union WA, Turning Pointe Domestic Violence Services is once again sponsoring an art show/auction. This is Turning Pointe's major fundraiser for the year, as well as a chance for South Puget Sound artist to really shine. Being relatively new to the area this is going to be the first year that I participate in this show/auction/fundraiser. I will be donating a painting I did of my grandson's first school bus ride ... I've tried to capture the look of innocent anticipation and excitement on his face that I saw that day. This watercolor painting I think is appropriate to the show in the fact that so many young children are effected by domestic violence and innocence lost. The call to artists quoted 13 domestic - violence related fatalities in the past two years in our county alone ... how very sad. I hope my painting brings enough money to the services to help in some way.

Garlic Clove

I love seeing the paintings of the garlic clove by oil painters. Making it look almost heavenly - the transparent thin layers of the dried outer skin looking so beautifully transparent. For some reason I almost always prefer seeing the garlic rendered in oil than watercolor... maybe it's just the difference in experience of the artists. I thought I'd give it a try today. The first composition I attempted was of a head of garlic resting in a small saucer type bowl ... it was so pathetic that it's now in the trash, waiting to start a fire the wood stove later. Although I certainly wouldn't enter this into a contest, by any means, it's much better than the last attempt. Possibly it's just a matter of taking my time and "looking"... as with most art.

Two pears

I enjoy seeing paintings with fruit in them, but as a rule I forget to do anything with fruit but eat it ... by then it's too late. Although to paint a pear with a couple of bites taken out of it would make an interesting enough prop. I need to remember those sorts of things when I'm asking myself "what can I make a fast painting of"?

I had purchased these two pears to have pears and some cheese for after dinner instead of a heavy dessert - then only to have to come up with a something different because the pears were still too hard. There is some light colors representing a window that the scanner just refuses to pick up ... just as well, it really didn't help the painting at all.

Vinca Minor

I had a very creative enjoyable day. I was able to get two more greeting cards printed ( that means 12 of each subject ), also being full of creative energy I was able to get a wash on a full sheet painting I'm working on. It will need a few more washes to get the perfect color I'm after, but I'm starting out very light and will end being a nice soft even light foggy wash.

With the sun shining and all the signs of spring around, I couldn't resist getting out and doing a little gardening. One of my favorite ground covers is Vinca Minor - Common Periwinkle. It is a pretty evergreen, with little blue flowers. It makes a nice ground cover in shady locations or under woody plants. Some people have said that the Vinca Minor plant can be pretty invasive, but when I've planted this before, it did just what I had in mind... being a ground cover under huge Cedar trees where nothing else would grow. Also, I was able to get some geraniums planted in some pots by my front door.

Maybe my daily 2 mile walk is finally giving me some energy.

A little birdie ...

This little ceramic bird has been in my possession for so long that I can't remember exactly when I got it. It was in a secondhand store, and seemed to be calling my name to buy it. Its a very plain little bird with very few details, drab in color ... and yet so very sweet looking. I always keep it in my studio perched on the speaker to my computer. I used an HB mechanical pencil and watercolor, in my nearly completed sketchbook. It was a great day, very much looking like a perfect spring day. The bird and the weather were a natural go-together.