My Still Life

My Still Life
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

In Cynthia Padilla's Botanical Art: Still Life class at Powell Gardens. The thought of doing such a large (to me) drawing in colored pencil is very daunting. I am such a detail-focused person in my art. We were working on 11 by 14 inch Bristol, vellum finish. Nice stuff for cp! I just did what I did and it's going to be nice and big! Not so bad! We were especially enjoined to make things actual size and to pay attention to the negative space around objects. It was hard not let perspective take over completely, the far orange wanted to be small. And a photograph does make things look different...just a little. Our "film plane" is curved, cameras' aren't.

I got to meet Jill and Cynthia and Rex came by for the artists reception after the class. Such nice people! Jill graciously shared her still life objects with me, I hadn't gotten the materials list! Luckily, I did bring the necessary art materials! Many people brought woodland objects and flowers and all were generous with them. Cynthia demonstrated all the art materials and had extras we were encouraged to try out and buy if we liked them. All skill levels were represented, some had no previous art experience and others had more, and all made lovely still lifes to draw from.

Most of all, I enjoyed getting to make art for a very long period of time, uninterrupted! What a luxury!

I did take a few photos, but out of respect for the privacy of the others, I won't share all of them publicly. If you were there, contact me and I'll email you yours!

Great class, great people, great fun!

Orchids and Hydrangeas Exhibit

In conjunction with Powell Gardens conservatory exhibit of live orchids and hydrangeas, special guest curator and botanical artist Cynthia Padilla presents a representative online viewing of art and the artists inspired by orchids and hydrangeas!

Where: Powell Gardens, Kansas City, Missouri
http://www.powellgardens.org/
Date: March 1 - April 30, 2007.
Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Getting There: 30 miles east of Kansas City on Highway 50.1609 N.W. U.S. Highway 50 Kingsville, MO 64061
Telephone: 816-697-2600
Garden Hours: 9 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Garden Admission: $8/adults $7/senior citizens $3/children ages 5-12 Free/children under 5 and Friends of Powell Gardens.

Reception w/Artists: Join curator Padilla and a selection of the exhibiting artists in an art reception open to the public. Padilla will also have there a collection of related themed rare and beautiful antique botanical prints for view and sale. Powell Gardens is home to some of the region’s most unique contemporary architecture. These facilities, set among the serenity of the ever-changing gardens, provides an ideal locale for this themed exhibition... "Orchids & Hydrangeas."

Orchids and Hydrangeas Exhibit Blog with representative pieces by each of the artists in the exhibit.

Daffodil

Daffodil
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Spring brought warm temperatures this weekend. It also brought some wind that pulled apart a window crank. We had to leave the front window closed so it wouldn't break. The front windows face south and, with the warm days and sunshine this weekend, it gets quite warm in the house. We kept the back windows open all night last night and I got to listen to the robins singing this morning when I woke up. Rianna rode the bus this morning, also, so I got to take a bit of a walk. I remembered to bring my sketchbook and pens with me and drew a few things. Nice day.

What I Want To Be When I Grow Up - by Malinda Welte

brassiawip8
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Ok, I'm going to acknowledge, first, that I really don't want to grow up.

There. Now that that's out of the way, I do love being an Artist! With a capital "A." The photography I love, the painting I'm improving at, drawing I've rediscovered. Seeing. It's all about that. Watching my children play, seeing the forms of their hands, their expressions, the negative spaces between them, their toys. Things around me, flowers, buildings, my city (My City!). When my son goes to Kindergarten full time in a year and a half, I have to give up my time with him during the days. A Mother gets through that, he's growing so much now! But, also, I'll be expected to go find a "job." I'm sad about that. I have to find a way to convince the "Powers That Be" to convince my spouse that it's a good idea to let me stay the "Artist." I have some habits to modify, some ideas to implement...wish me luck!

Palomino Painting During Spring Break

Palomino Painting
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Gotta keep active kids active or they get crazy! So, we got Breyer's activity kit with two unpainted horses, a book on horse colors and a set of paints. They had a grand time slopping on yellow ochre mixed with white and a touch of raw sienna for that perfect Palomino gold! We're finishing up them tonight, I hope. We'll even out the main body color on them and we'll do the shadows and highlights and clean up the manes and tails (Geordan got especially crazy with his!). We also got out a lot last week, the weather was really nice!

Bikes at the Park

Bikes at the Park
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Kids have me working on some projects now that the paintings are delivered and there is a choreography to learn for the student recital at my bellydance school. We have spring break right now, so it's kid time! Rianna and I bought a Breyer kit to paint two horse models, she wants hers to be a palomino and I'm partial to yellow horses, too! I might try some antiquing in the mane and tail (the paints are acrylic and I used to paint ceramics so this is pretty familiar territory).

It was a grand warm day yesterday here and my DH took the day off to go to the park with us! We got the little bike out and both kidlets took turns riding it. Geordan's way too big for his trikey, so I've had him riding in the basement on sister's bike and he was ready to solo! It was really funny seeing sister's Barbie helmet perched on his too-big head! He didn't care! While he and DH were running to the local gas station, I got a chance to sketch my girl riding back and forth by me

Raquy's New Drumhead

Raquy's New Drumhead
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I got the art done on the new drumhead painting for Raquy Danziger's birthday present. She had her birthday just before the St Louis workshop. I had brought my Raquy Signature drum with me and had painted the head of mine. She really liked it, so, I had her husband send me a spare drum head when they got back home so I could paint one for her. This is different from mine. I found some different pigment materials that make it a little more like mother-of-pearl and a little more sparkly and used an opaque black paint. I do need to find a different carrier for the pigments, the one I've been using peels off and when I took my drum head off, the mylar contracted, the paint didn't. I'll head to a hobby shop I know that sells paint for Lexan R/C models, it's much more suitable for this. I'll see if there's a clear version that I can add my pigments to. I have some more time, Raquy's in Egypt for a while longer. I'll also re-do mine, too.

Parallel Bars - Everyday Matters Challenge #71

Parallel Bars
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

When I was young, my dad would have my sister and I video tape the Olympic Games broadcasts so he could watch them when he got home from work (he works Twilights, 3pm to 11pm). His favorite sport was skiing. He'd gone to Winter Park, Colorado with Mom for a vacation and taken lessons. That Christmas, we all got skis! When he took us to Colorado over summer vacation one year, he bought me a pair of boots in Aspen. We skied in the pasture. About 3/4 of a mile up the highway from our house we leased a pasture where we kept our horses and there were some small hills on it. We learned to fall and get up and to do snowplows and to turn and to side-step up the hill. For a young kid (I was about 8ish) this was all grand fun!

So we taped the Olympics. And watched skiing and figure skating (which I took lessons for). Then we taped Summer Games, too. I wanted to watch the equestrian events, but they weren't shown as much as the gymnastics. But there were Nadia and Olga, the waifs who flew! And Bela Karoli, all blustery, squeezing those 10s out of his girls.

I took ballet/tap/jazz/acrobatics class when I was 11 or 13, but by then, I wasn't very flexible and wasn't interested in working hard enough to get that way. In Jr High, I took the summer gymnastics class in the school district, it was fun, but I didn't get beyond doing good round-offs and cartwheels. I did watch my friends excel and wished I'd done more work.

My kids are in gymnastics now. They are young and still made of rubber and full of energy and have great teachers that make it really fun for them. They go to a great school that they could go far in if they want it. I won't push, but if they want, I'll encourage. It's great exercise for their little bodies, they learn so much from it and take it into everything else. And they won't ruin their feet, like ballet will.

I sit in the loft with the parents, and watch and fly with them!

EDM #96 - Something Sweet

EDM #96 - Something Sweet
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

It was the weekend of sick kids & we still got in a Birthday Party! Yesterday, we went to the Dr to check out Geordan's fever and left to find out that Rianna had been sick at school. Geordan had picked out this jell-o parfait at the cafeteria and only ate one bite. He was much more interested in the cheese pringles and goldfish crackers. I had a baked potato and drew the parfait. His diagnosis was a cold and that he should just keep having ibuporphen to stay comfortable and Robitussin CF for his cold symptoms. They've put Guaifenesin in as an expectorant and Dextromethorphan as the cough supressant so it works pretty well. It's also formulated for adults and children, so we don't have to buy something for each.

Rianna Asleep

Rianna Asleep
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Everyday Matters Challenge #54 - Draw someone/thing you love.

My daughter's been home sick from school all week. Seems like Strep, it's going around, but I can't get her in to see the Dr til tomorrow. She looks so young still when she's asleep. She turned 7 Saturday. It's the cheeks! This was done a little larger than usual... about 8 x 10 in a 9 x 12 sketchbook with charcoal pencil. I haven't used charcoal before, in any form. I like it. I'd like to try some a little softer, this was a General's 2B med charcoal pencil.

EDM Challenge #84 - Bread

EDM Challenge #84 - Bread
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Does everyone know about cinnamon sugar toast? Toast, butter, cinnamon, sugar. I mix the cinnamon and sugar in an empty spice bottle so we have it ready. Rianna eats it most days for breakfast and tried to eat some today but it scratched her sore throat. We use wheat bread, going through about a loaf a week, sometimes more. I grew up on Wonder Bread, though. It was supposed to be healthy, or something, now we know better. I have baked bread from scratch, some black rye bread that turned out heavy as a stone, what a texture that had! Our current infatuation is for the dough balls you can buy in the freezer section. You thaw them in the microwave for a few seconds, the put them in a greased pan with greased plastic wrap over them to rise for 2 hours in the oven with the burner off. It stays just warm enough. Then you bake them for 15 minutes, nice and fluffy! I like bread!

Sleeping Kitty - Finished

Sleeping Kitty - Finished
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Rianna picked out a new kitty at Crown Center Saturday. Tinalina is an orange tabby who sleeps on her own fleece bed and her tummy goes up and down like she's breathing. She's stuffed! It was hard to really define the features of the toy with the pattern in the fur and shadows being very soft. Graphite in my hedgie.

Union Cafe at Union Station, Kansas City, Missouri

1/19-20/07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

We got to come to Union Station for a while and run around a little to burn off some of the stir crazies before the snow hit yesterday afternoon. Some little boys with their dad and uncle invited us to play "duck, duck, goose" in the middle of the floor here. Lots of running and squealing! Then we walked across the Link to Crown Center and had lunch at Fritz's train cafe where your food is delivered by trains! When we were done, I checked outside and the snow had started so we headed up to Zoom, the toy store, and the kids picked out a toy each to buy with their Christmas money and we skee-daddled on home just in time!

Album Cover

Album Cover
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

After the Master of the Arabian Flute CD by Mohamed Naiem. The flute is an Egyptian Ney or nay, made from reed, it has a haunting sound. I had to make a paper cd envelope for it so I did some of the cover art, too. I left out the calligraphy, but may add it in later with some white ink, if I'm feeling ambitious. General's Layout pencil on 24 pound inkjet paper.

PITT Pen Color Chart

PITT Pen Color Chart
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I recently started a new sketchbook so I had to make a new color chart of my PITT markers. I love these things! The light cool grey lives in my pen case that follows me everywhere. So does the sanguine set, you just never know when you'll want to draw henna designs! I also keep the flesh tones handy, I'm not real great at mixing them in watercolors yet and end up wasting too much time at the park. They've expanded their selection, I think there are 48 colors now, including a lighter flesh-tone and many other lighter shades of colors. 103 and that turquiose are wonderful to use! Danny Gregory used to use them in his journals and I liked what he was doing, and my art store had them on sale, so I bought some. Wish I had some more greens, but they do blend a little while still wet. I run into Utrecht and grab a couple every once in a while, just pocket change really, and will slowly accumulate all of them. Art supplies! Love 'em!

Kids

Geordan Playing Dulcimer
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

This is a super-quick gesture sketch of my Cub playing my mountain dulcimer. He really had fun strumming with the picks and trying out notes on frets. I bought it a gazillion years ago at Silver Dollar City on my Open Water dive certification weekend. It was the first trip I'd taken by myself, too. I can still play some tunes on it!

Edit: Yeah, the dulcimer's on his lap backwards, he insisted!

Last night I curled up in the rocking chair with my daughter. We both drew, she in her pink sketchbook with my prismacolor pencils and PITT markers, and I in my hedgie with my sanguine pigma microns.

EDM Challenge 101 Draw a Bar of Soap

EDM Challenge 101 Draw a Bar of Soap
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Sandalwood soap I received from my Secret Santa partner in the Henna Page gift swap. Smells great, but I don't want to use it up! Pencil in my hedgie...that's watercolor paper!

Here's a song I remember from Girl Scouts...

"Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of soap),
Oh I wish I were a
little bar of soap (bar of soap),
I'd go slippy, slippy slidey, over
everybody's hidey,
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of
soap)!"

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

1-11-07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

My sketch of the design for the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts being built in KC by Moshe Safdie. My dh is the Zahner Architectural Metals Project Engineer on it! I'm terribly proud of this, Safdie is an internationally known Arch. as is Frank Gehry, whose MIT Stata Center was one of the first buildings Ron did work on when he first went to Zahner. (yeah, I'm throwing names around!)

http://www.kcperformingartscenter.org/
www.azahner.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry

Kleenexes

Kleenexes
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

When you send your significant other to the store for tissues because you have a cold and are out, what do they bring to you? Something nice and soft? Or sandpaper?

Couldn't let the day go by without a bit of ink...

Challenge #92 Brown Paper Bag

1-8-07 Challenge #92 Brown Paper Bag
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

In my father's house, there is a closet next to the basement door, just inside the kitchen. This closet is next to the chimney for the furnace, so all winter, it's nice and warm inside. This is where we kept the brown paper grocery bags, on the shelf above the coat rack. We used them for our trash bags. Put one under the dropped counter, next to the dishwasher in the island where the sink is. They came from Big V, without handles, with groceries, Wonder Bread, Wheaties, Velveeta cheese, and cans of Del Monte green beans. The ones we get from Sunfresh have handles, Spam, Best Choice wheat bread, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and are next to the fridge holding cardboard boxes, plastic and cans to be recycled.