Birmingham Child Care Examiner: Share this poem with preschool parents: nothing in my bag today

Birmingham Child Care Examiner: Share this poem with preschool parents: nothing in my bag today

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I have an account on a site called morgueFile that I share my photographs on. A morgue file is a place where publications keep photographs and other related resources they used or may yet use in articles or for publication. The site is a photo-reference bank for artists, authors, journalists and others looking for just the right image without breaking the bank to pay for it. I have about 1,200 photos listed and catalogued there and, someday, I will add the references I've gotten there to my portfolio. It's neat to see my work used to illustrate articles on childcare, charity, women's shelters, books for increasing happiness in your life. I feel useful and like I have contributed to Society with my photographs. This columnist emailed me her article link this morning!

A Bottle of Ink

My favorite inks are Noodler's Bulletproof Black and Lexington Grey...it's a love-hate relationship, though.  I bought myself some Lamy Safari fountain pens last year for my birthday (?) and the inks were highly regarded by other sketchers and Moleskine enthusiasts.  They are waterproof on cellulose materials and wash off of others, making them good for mailing addresses, checks, important signatures and pen and ink sketches...if you're patient.  Those who know me know that "patience" isn't my strong suit.  If the conditions are humid, it takes a while to dry enough not to smear or run when painted over.  I love to write and draw with it and the pens, so, I wait.

At the top of the label in this tiny sketch, you can see where the ink smeared when I tried to wash a tiny bit of blue over it.  It had been drying for an hour. 

Last night, I got out my bundle of Sakura Pigma Micron pens, my first favorite pens before I got the Lamys.  I'll carry them around for a back-up when I'm out and don't want to wait for the ink to dry.  In the meantime, I'm going to check out my sketchbook papers, maybe the sizing is interfering with the ink absorption?  Maybe some of the paper isn't cellulose?  I used two new types in this sketchbook, made for Utrecht by Canson, I think.  In the process of testing my pens (there were some older ones in the bunch), my kids decided they liked them, too, my daughter wants her own, to buy with her Christmas money.  We'll make a pilgrimage to Utrecht this weekend...and maybe stop off at Creative for a tube of Daniel Smith watercolor along the way!

EDM #7 - Draw a Container From Your Kitchen

Glass jars are fun to find in different shapes, sizes and colors. I have picked up interesting ones since I started getting allowances. I don't say I collect them, I don't buy them for any particular reason other than they're pretty or I have something that needs a jar...but I do have a few. These (I have four) are just small, 8 oz or so, clear jars with plastic gasketed lids for bulk spices & herbs, this one has parsley, another has thyme. There's a World Market store up the street that carries them for about $1 each.

Art and Trains

We finally got to see Art in the Age of Steam at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art!  Wonderfully represented works in different periods of art and stages of steam travel development!  When my money order finally gets to Flickr, I'll organize my albums a bit and you can see some of the wonders of modern rail equipment that I've captured over the years.  In the meantime, enjoy my rendition in miniature (about 1 1/2 x 1 inch) of Monet's Gare d'Argenteuil in pencil and ink. 

Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926
Gare d'Argenteuil, 1872

Oil on canvas
Unframed: 18 3/4 x 28 inches (47.63 x 71.12 cm) Framed: 34 3/4 x 36 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches (88.27 x 92.71 x 8.59 cm)

Musée de Luzarches, Conseil Général du Val d'Oise, Cergy-Pontoise, 106.2008

Argenteuil was about eight miles northwest of Paris. By train it was only a short journey from the city center. Monet lived at Argenteuil from 1871 to 1878, and this is the first of several views he made of the station. He painted it not long after dawn, probably in one sitting, and applied the paint in broad and vigorous brushstrokes.

<a href="http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/Exhibitions/AgeSteam/CollectionDatabase.cfm?id=55012&amp;theme=Exhibition">www.nelson-atkins.org/art/Exhibitions/AgeSteam/Collection...</a>

New Year

My first drawing of the year!  Let's see if I can get back in the habit!

5 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, cp wc, 4 x 4 grid, pigma micron &amp; noodler's in my hand-bound sketchbook.

I grew up around rodeos.  My parents kept their horses at and my dad worked at Benjamin Stables in KC.  As a kid, I went to the Kansas City Rodeo, state fairs &amp; the American Royal.  Usually during the event, there would be some cowboy or rodeo clown riding a trained Brahma bull (that's BRAY-mah), similar to riding zebras or other wild animals, completely a novelty.  Brahman cattle, natives of the Indian sub-continent, are used to cross with beef cattle for leaner meat (correct me if this is wrong!) and for their ability to withstand drought conditions.  This fellow (properly, a BRAH-mah) is a Schleich toy, about 3 inches tall at the hump, waiting for his new brown coat on top of my monitor.

Noodler's Lexington Grey in my Lamy Vista on cold-pressed wc paper, gridded.