bits

We've been out of our air conditioning most of this week.. coping it with many ways, including popsicles and hanging out in the basement.

I did a little work towards the canvas I stretched the other night.  I painted it white (which wasn't all that easy, as the fabric had been a heavy blue cotton), and began to sketch out in green paint this drawing I made the other day.  These are koi fish I found pictures of online.

Bits

We've had a very busy day - fixed the water heater again, and took the old one out to the dump...  Then I took a load of things into town to donate that had been waiting for months.  Esme was a big help.  We also got her basic school clothes shopping done, the things I needed her to try on etc...

Our air conditioning has also went out and my main computer has been dying for a week in the heat of its own processor...  so I am trying to adapt to using my tablet, which previously I only listened to audio books on - it was a tablet Esme had years ago that she couldn't run her games on well....  but, it seems to do this and my French lessons and social media OK enough...

I have gotten to halfway point on the French which is awesome... more than a month straight practice.  And yet I have not yet learned the word for forest or tree or stone... l'eau et les chaussures oui... heh

I am reading Patricia McKillip's "Wonders of the Unseen World". Many of the stories are delightful - many of them are complicated and leave rabbitholes of thought to fall down.

Thinking about making banana bread here soon tonight but not wanting to heat up the only cool place myself and three dogs have taken refuge in the cement floored kitchen.

Sketchbook

Sketches of roseate spoonbills, 7/7/2017 Marie Lamb.  Graphite pencil, overlay with Micron pen, colored pencil background.  11x14 inches on canson sketch

town houses painting

The big thing about this painting is that I didn't outline everything in black.  I usually get to doing that when I add so many details.  I saved the black for the wrought iron and a few small places where it should be.  Apple Barrel acrylics over pencil on standard sketchbook paper.  It's about 14" by 9".



I had a painting from 2002 that I finally put up in my kitchen, of fish swimming in a pond.  It makes me happy to see it there.  It took me a very long time to admit that I saw it in my mind's eye often and wanted it on full display.  Tonight, I finally acted (with some nudge from Mark pointing me towards the frame I had forgotten I had) and hunted down this little cat drawing.  I knew I had seen it recently, and it is another one of those that comes to mind again and again... it is joyful, and the lines are elegant.

So, here it is imperfectly 'matted' with a sheet of wallpaper with a hole cut in it and some artist tape hinges behind it.  It is hanging up in my sewing room where I will see it often.

ma belle fille de minuit

 ma belle fille de minuit

"my beautiful midnight girl"

Our cat Minion laying claim to my lawn chair because it matches her eyes 

and she uses it more than I do.

 And I caught a big lazy bee wandering around my nasturtiums.. well he was flying low and slow, but he was definitely into every flower he could find, so maybe 'lazy' isn't the right word.. he was taking his time but he was on the ball.. heh

I so love the nasturtiums this year.. they haven't grown well in the past, but this year they are making up for it.

I got a cucumber, a tomato, a small green pepper and some beans today - blended them all up with some mayo into a salad to eat with tortillas and cheese today at lunch.

Fish painting (second)

second try at one of my favorite paintings I've ever done, that is hanging in our kitchen.  I had a migraine headache last night and thought I'd try the theme again to see if it relaxed me some.  This painting is smaller, but has even more fish.