Middle Border Artist

Spring! Where did the winter go?

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:33:00 +0000

After four months I am finally catching up with this blog. It had been a mild winter. Which is good since we put in a new tree last fall to replace the rock elm that was taken out the year before. This little sapling is a tulip poplar and the city forester warned us that the very young trees are very vulnerable to winter. But Don still insisted on getting one from the Arbor Day Foundation

The early warm spell has me planting greens, radishes, onion seeds and carrots. Though there was a heavy frost last Wednesday night. I covered up the garden bed as a precaution.

Monday, for her eighty-first birthday, my mother went into surgery to remove a bowel obstruction. Fortunately it doesn't look cancerous. But at her advanced age there can be complications, so she still is in the hospital.

Here are some of the drawings I have done.

Pasture Codgers, tinted charcoal on charcoal paper, I just had to use both of these trees; they reminded me of two old guys arguing with each other!

I did some drawings in conte crayon this winter. I found it was easier to convert the original photo to gray scale first. The conte color range is black, sepia, bistre, sanguine, light gray and white. Most of the landscapes where taken at the height of summer when all was green, and that was too distracting.

Disintegrating House

Big Old Barn

Pasture, on tan charcoal paper

Stone Head, on light pink charcoal paper, compare this with the drawing above; same colors but different background paper. That make a big difference in the look.

Madonna Statue, Black & white conte on dark gray paper.

Oliver 55, on medium gray paper. Yes, Oliver tractors are green! and that is an overturned white jug on the exhaust stack.

Here is a drawing that combine two of my interests: cats and leaves. The original had a gray and white cat that didn't show up that well against the background. So I used photos I had taken of Lou as a stand in for color and markings.

Creekside, 11.8 inches by 18 inches, colored pencil on gray Canson Mi-Tients paper. This drawing is entered in the Colored Pencil Society of America contest this year.

Lou has been further inspiration. One day I looked up from my computer and saw Lou napping in the hallway. I did a quick sketch and then since he wasn't moving, I took some photographs.

Lou's Afternoon Nap, In progress, 11.5" x 16", colored pencil on Eggshell Canson Mi-Tients paper. For compositional purposes, Lou was flipped so he was facing the center.

Cat sketches

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:21:00 +0000

The new cats hang out with me in the studio, when they aren't playing with each other they curl up in their special places nearby and nap.
This has inspired me to get out my old sketchbook and pencil case and keep them handy. Here are some of my better efforts done on Blick 80# sulphite drawing paper, 9" x 12" with soft sketching pencils or a soft charcoal pencil with some blending done with a tortillion.

The New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:46:00 +0000

First snow of 2012 today! It has been a warm and dry spell for December and January. Then today it snowed about 2 inches. This meant going out and shoveling sidewalks. Luckily the restaurant next door had the front sidewalk cleared this morning so this afternoon I only had to shovel off the extra inch or so that had accumulated. The wind had drifted the snow some and was deeper in some parts.
I finally finished the Red Oak Leaf & Others colored pencil drawing. This took a long time. There were times when I had to stopped and do another drawing instead, or else I would end up rushing and doing a less than satisfactory job.

Red Oak Lead & Others, colored pencil on white colorfix paper, 12" x 18"

These are some of the other drawings I did as relief from the Red Oak Leaf drawing:

Winter Evening, Oil pastel, 18" x 24"

Old Dairy Barn, 18" x 12", Derwent tinted charcoal on homemade grit paper

Tree Line, 18" x 24", Oil pastel on Stonehenge ice blue paper covered with clear Golden pastel ground.

A drawing did as soon as I finished that Leaf drawing. Wanted to change pace, so this drawing of a horse was done in Conte crayons on blue Strathmore charcoal paper.

New kitties! and update on drawings done

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:22:00 +0000

Previously I wrote about the death of our Thunder cat. It was sad but it created an opportunity for a new home for other cats. The day after we got back, Don check the classified ads online and found two cats needing a home just down the street. A young couple just had a baby and realized they couldn't afford a baby and two cats. She wanted them adopted together, the male cat was very shy and adjusted very poorly to change; having his companion would help him. The problem was that potential adopters wanted the personable young female and rejected the shy male. We wanted two cats that got along together and understand the need for patience in having a cat adjust to a new home.

Along with the cats we got two large ceramic food bowls, cat food, cat litter, a carrier and a cat toy. The cats had been neutered, the male was declawed, and current on their shots. As soon as they were released from their carriers, they went and hid in separate areas of the house. After only a few hours the young gray & white female, Lily, came out and made friends with me. It was days when the yellow & white male, Louie, was seen. We knew he moved about the house while we where sleeping. After 3 days of not seeing him, we had to take action in getting Louie to accept us. I bought a kennel, set it up in the studio with a litter pan, food and water. I also set in a sleeping shelf. Then we cornered Louie in the bedroom and nabbed him. He hated that and struggled. I still bear the marks. Into the kennel he went. I spend most of my day in the studio. He became accustomed to me and let me pet him through the cage. Eventually I would let him out in just the studio and put him back in when I left the room. After about three days of this he was comfortable with me, though not with Don.

The kennel saw further use when the female cat was declawed and she was kept in there to restrict movement while convalescing.

We decided the names Louie and Lily sounded too much alike so Lily became Millie and Louie was shortened to Lou. Though sometimes I call him Louper (Lou + leaper) since in playing chase the string he would take great leaps into the air or Lanky Lou since he had proportionaly longer legs and tail than Millie. Lou, once he trusted, is an affectionate, cuddly cat.

I could on further about these cats, maybe in another post!

I did two more oil pastels after coming home. Then it was time to put them away and do leaf drawings in colored pencil.

Marsh in Flood, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Floating Leaf, 16" x 20", oil pastel

Maple Leaves on Pebbled Concrete, 7" x 10.5", colored pencil on gray paper

This drawing is an entry in the Prismacolor colored pencil contest, please go to

http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/172075/voteable_entries/37924549?ref=nf

and vote!

Backlit Oak Leaf, 7" x 10.5", colored pencil on gray paper

In progress, Red Oak Leaf, 12" x 18", colored pencil on grit primed paper.

This drawing was a tryout for a set of 12 Creatacolor Soho Urban Artist colored pencils. I bought them on sale some time ago, put them away and just rediscovered them. I took a printout of a Tang pottery horse from my "do it someday" file and did a drawing on my homemade grit paper. The colors came out more brilliant than the dull colors in the source photo.
Unglazed Tang Pottery Horse, 10" x 12", colored pencils on homemade grit primer applied to coldpressed watercolor paper.

A change in our household

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:28:00 +0000

It has been three months since my last post! We spent three weeks in September on a 7,000 mile trip out West. We went to Ogden, UT (the Great Salt Lake) Crater Lake, Lava Beds National Monument, Lassen Volcanic National Park, drove through San Francisco, drove on the Pacific Coast Highway, toured Hearst Castle, stopped to visit my aunt in Fresno, Yosetime National Park, drove the pass over the Sierra Nevada, saw Mono Lake, went to Death Valley, Las Vegas, Pipe Springs National Historic site, went shopping in Gallup, NM and Taos. It was quite a trip.

We started this trip on a sad note: just before leaving we put down our old black cat Thunder. She had been taking medicine for hyperthyroidism for about two years. She had little interest in eating. We would tempt her with different varieties of canned food and put the medicine in. She would like something then didn't want it anymore and we would try a different variety. She has been deaf for several years and her primary interest was lying on our laps and napping. She got very skinny and stopped grooming herself and sometimes her hind legs would give out.

For our trip last year we had someone come in to feed and give her the medicine everyday. This year she was worse and there was a fear that she would die while we were gone. So the morning we left we went to the vet, said our goodbyes and watched her as she died.

Thunder came to us at our previous house. The summer of 1992 was a wet one. One day Don discovered a black stray kitten sheltering in the van engine compartment. She knew soft touches. We fed her and after a short while agreed to adopt her. But before taking her inside to meet our other cat at the time (Blitzen), took her to the vet for a check up. This little kitty had worms, an eye infection and was pregnant. All of that was eventually taken care of. She came to us with a kinked tail and a fang bent out of place. So she had quite a time in her short life before coming to us!

Thunder tore up the old house pretty good with her claws and had an independent attitude. Unlike Blitzen who didn't seem to get enough human contact (she was a stray too). When we moved to our current home, Thunder got declawed and she also had less of an independent attitude and Don's lap was her place. She outlived three other cats: Blitzen, Brillion and Gracie.

All of our cats were special in their own ways and all had their stories. Thunder's finally came to an end.

Thunder, 1992-2011

More Oil Pastel Mania!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:32:00 +0000

The weather has certainly turned very pleasant. Temperatures are in the 60s to low 80s degree fahrenheit. I got my Auto PAP machine but getting the benefit from it has been not easy; I still wake up in the night and feel tired in the morning. I went to a help forum and found out that is a common situation; it can take awhile to get used to the mask and everything else.

Here are more of the Oil pastels I have done this summer. They are all 18" x 24".
Rocky Hill

Squash Blossom

Calm Evening Sky

Root River Bottom Land

Tree On Cliff

Foggy Pasture

Pickwick Mill, in progress

Working on a new Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Two months again have passed before an update. This summer has been different for me. In May my left knee got very bad and painful, cortisone shots weren't helping. Finally I got X-rays done of that knee. It was become worse with bone spurs all around and being uneven. This was enough to recommend an off-loading brace. Despite being a bit larger than the largest ready-made brace, the PT opened up the top frame enough to fit my thigh. With better mobility I can move around more and combined with calorie counting I am losing weight.
This past week I also had a sleep study to check for sleep Apnea. Sunday night I was wired up with lots of sensors and was in bed by 10:40 PM and woken up at 6:30 AM. I had to get up in the night to use the restroom, which required the technician coming in to unhook me so I could get out of bed! That day at home I was very tired and went to bed in the middle of the day for three hours.
The doctor's consultation recommended a second test using the CPAP since the test showed two incidents of mild apnea. Fortunately, I could get in the next night. I used the nose mask, was in bed just after 10 PM and got up at 5:30 PM because I was awake and bored. Using the CPAP was a success! I got the very important prescription, went home and was active all day, doing extra activities, like cleaning, which I don't normally do.
Don had researched online for a travel sized Auto CPAP and we ordered it along with the mask, heated reservoir and some other accessories last night. I am looking forward to being more alert and active all day.
Because of the severe knee pain this summer, I did only the bare minimum of gardening and yard work. After the knee brace I was catching up with yard work and then the major hot and humid spell hit! It was really too dangerous for someone in my physical condition to do much work in that weather and the brace was uncomfortable in the excess humidity. After what seemed to be weeks of this the hot spell broke. Finally I partially drained the watergarden and fixed the leaks were the old and new liners joined. The water does drop slightly but that could be from evaporation or leakage from the water features.
Next post I will show more of the oil pastels I have been doing this summer.

Oil Pastel Mania!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:15:00 +0000

I have been neglecting my blog this past 2 months, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!
I started a series of oil pastel drawings, most of them 18" x 24" to make it easier to frame them. So far most of them have cooperated and were willing to be that format. The business next door has finished its remodeling and is now an upscale restaurant (Pogreba Restaurant). Don and I went over to have our complimentary meal for being good neighbors. The construction crew have been well fed since they were given the opportunity to try out the chef's creations.

There was a tornado in the southside of La Crosse last month. It tore up a few blocks pretty good.

Wisconsin Landscape II, 13" x 26", oil pastel

Yellow Asian Lily, 18"x 24", oil pastel

Marsh Footpath, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Marsh Foot bridge, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Two Wild Roses, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Goldfish & Waterlily, 18" x 24", oil pastel, in progress.

Large Tree by River, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Spring! Maybe

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:46:00 +0000

This month just can't make up its mind. Nice weather, then snow. On April 19 there were at least two inches of snow here at the house, other places in the region got more! Maybe it will settle down and leave like a lamb. Currently there is one of those April showers that bring May flowers.
I did get some yard work done: cleaned up the flower bed near were the large tree was taken out last fall, picked up and sift the white rocks that where on the path through that flower bed (the new tree will be put where path was), cleaned out more flower beds and remulched. Still more, always more! I wish the window installers at the catering business would finish. Their scaffolding is over my rose bushes.
I needed change from all the tree drawings that I have been doing, they were starting to look alike. In my "will do someday" files is a photograph of a yellow rose "Topaz Jewel". We have two bushes of this variety and they have spines like cat claws. Though not quite seasonal, it is a nice change of pace.
Topaz Jewel, 18" x 24", oil pastel
Stage 1, I gridded the white primed colorfix paper and did the basic drawing with yellow and green pastel pencils. and blocked in the background with blue-violet.

Stage 2: I finished blocking in the background and leaves with my cheaper, harder oil pastels and just starting with the petals.

The finished drawing: this is when the nice, expensive Sennelier Oil pastels are used. The colors are toned down from the garish under painting. To reduce the brightness the leaves were gone over with a complementary red-violet color.

As relief from the large, demanding flower oil pastel drawing, I did a smaller, quicker drawing in a medium I rarely use: Conte crayon. The subject is my late Gracie cat. She had to be put down last fall. She was a faithfull companion in the studio. For this drawing I used a tan background to stand in for the bits of light brown fur mixed in with the gray and white tabby stripes. Gracie was what is know as a grey or dilute tortieshell cat. A regular tortie has black, dark brown and red fur with much more dramatic contrast. I did this drawing with out gridding first.

For even a further change of pace I did two drawings just in graphite pencil. The dead tree is from an old slide I took many years ago at my parents. The barn was a color photograph with little contrast. I did a lot of "pruning" on the foreground trees to the barn could be seen better.

Spring has sprung!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:45:00 +0000

March has been doing a lot of transitioning from winter to spring. On March 23 there was heavy snowfall here in La Crosse. Here is the view from my studio window. Then it warmed up, melted off then snow again on April 1st! The temperatures are very nice now; up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. Last weekend a major thunderstorm system went through spawning tornados and hail, fortunately not in La Crosse itself. The weather warning siren went off, prompting us to turn on to the Weather Channel and finding this area the center of attention with at least five tornados sighted on the ground in the three state area (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin). I finished Coulee Pine Tree and posted it on Wet Canvas for critique. It was suggested that the tree was too dark for the scene and the forground grasses where unnecessary. So I erased back the green on the tree, lightly went over it with a dull red colored pencil and erased back the yellow sky in the upper left corner and put in light pink. Redoing the foreground was a major undertaking. I removed as much color as possible with tape and poster putty, then erased with a soft white eraser and picked up the crumbs. The erased area got two light coatings of white opaque watercolor. Then I colored in with blue and white colored pencils, dissolved them with Odorless paint thinner and smoothed the layers out with a piece of wool felt. If you look very carefully at the actually drawing, some of the original grasses faintly show through. I also wasn't careful enough in layering the white watercolor and had some hard edges that showed up when colored over. This has been a learning experience and an idea what to do next time major changes are needed.

For a change I did a drawing in Derwent Tinted Charcoal. The subject is an old apple tree at my parents. The source photos where taken the previous March. Old Apple Tree, 16" x 20", tinted charcoal on gray charcoal paper.

The remodeling at the catering business next door isn't done yet! The original windows that where covered up when it was resided about 25 years ago are now opened up with new windows. I was concerned for our privacy and the window installers said there will be stained glass inside. That should be beautiful at night. I will have pictures of that later this summer.

Gardening is coming along, I had covered a bed to warm it up faster and last week planted kale, spinach, bok choi, chard, red onion sets, radishes and carrots. The radishes have sprouted. I still have all the white onions from last year and will harvest them before the rest of the seeds are planted.

The watergarden has a leak and will need to be drained and the join between the old and new sections redone. That won't happen until next month.

Winter Almost Over! Getting those winter themed drawings done.

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:16:00 +0000

This March so far has been a typical March: Snow, then melting, maybe more snow, rain instead. Just waiting for that last gasp snow storm.
Don and I went for a drive one Sunday and surprised a bald eagle feeding on roadkill. He wasn't too shy, just flew up into a nearby tree and waited for us to move on. I took some photographs and used one as a basis for a drawing.
Eagle in Tree, Derwent Drawing pencils on gray Stonehenge paper, 15" x 12".

For a change I did a couple of oil pastels on primed paper. Over the Hill, oil pastel, 13" x 26" was also based on photographs taken during a recent drive. The format is and unusual 1 : 2. While cropping the source photo the picture just didn't seem right in a more conventional format.

Late Afternoon Glow, Oil pastel, 18" x 24", is more conventional in dimensions but just as colorful. Oil pastel is an opportunity to use subjects with little detail but lots of color. It also uses more larger arm muscles than the fine finger muscles used in controlling color pencils.

My current work in progress is done with oil-based color pencils on primed paper. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of drawings done in oil color pencil. Coulee Pine Tree, oil color pencil, 11.75" x 18"

The melting snow has revealed the garden beds and I am wondering when the plastic sheeting should be put on to pre-warm the soil for early planting. The catering business next door has been doing remodeling all winter with reshingling, and an addition put on in back. The roofers had to come into our back yard to work on the south side. I pruned back the rose bushes radically last fall in anticipation of this and looking forward to lots of new growth. The watergarden has a leak and we will have to reseal the liner joining between the old and new watergarden sections. Hopefully that won't be too much a bother! (Knock on wood!)

Back to the drawing board

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:35:00 +0000

3 Trees at Quarry Hill is done and on the wall for evaluation. So far I am pleased with it. I added more dead leaves on the right side tree to balance the compostion some and left the woods in the background more open than the source photo showed. Let's hope I feel the same way in six months after I take it out of storage for review!

As a break from my larger, more elaborate drawings I did a series on 12" x 9" black Canson Mi-Tients. The first two shown here are done in Derwent White charcoal. Searching is based on an orginal photo of a nineteenth century marble sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Chinese Metal Horse

White Chinese Horse is done with a silver colored pencil. It looks white in the photo, in person by moving the paper around the silver gleams.

Painted Han Horse is done in Derwent Drawing pencils. They are quite opaque and cover the black paper well.

Winter Work

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:10:00 +0000

This past month I haven't been doing much drawing. I have a large watercolor and color pencil drawing in progress. I have also been doing matting and framing of my work, making a great effort in getting caught up with that. I have a dozen done so far, then ran out of matboard. While waiting for more matboard I worked on my drawing.

As is usual for my WC and CP drawings, the background washes simplify doing the sky and snow and the colors help set the mood: a clear, cold winter evening when the deer come out to feed. Three Trees at Quarry Hill, 17.75" x 24" Water color and Prismacolor and Faber-castell Polychromos color pencils on watercolor paper.

I forgot to post this drawing last time. This drawing spent quite some time in the planning stages. The inspiration was a herd of horses spending their winter in a bare yard and large shed for shelter. This pinto horse standing in front of the open shed door basking in the winter sunshine caught my eye. There were a lot of adjustments done around him to improve the composition. The window was moved and the foreground hay feeder was from another part of the yard. I also experimented with a tractor tire feeder that was there too, but decided I needed something in the foreground that could overlap the background. Pinto, 11" x 16" Derwent Drawing on tan Canson Mi-tientes.

I'm back, with some changes for the new year and more drawings

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:51:00 +0000

The past month has been busy for me, with Christmas, other personal activities and drawing. I resigned from VIVA Gallery this month. Sales are very poor there for me and the monthly fee and long drive every month aren't worth it any more. Last weekend, Don and I drove to Viroqua and removed everything. To try something different I opened an Etsy shop to sell the matted reproductions, marbled paper prints and digital art cards. Later this year I will be checking out some galleries in SE Minnesota as a place to sell my original art. I am still at Gallery La Crosse and there personally every month for the First Friday receptions from 6 to 8 PM.

Another change! Today, we drove over to Kasson, MN (14 miles west of Rochester, MN) and taped a session for Brushstrokes.tv http://www.brushstrokes.tv/.

The topic was Paper for Colored Pencil. The taping when smoothly and easily. I did need help with appying makeup to reduce shine. I general avoid using makeup, it is just a complication I never wanted or needed. I don't know when my presentation will be available. We might do more. Just keep checking!

Here are some of the drawings I have finished in the past month:

Bronze Han Horse, Derwent Drawing pencils on oyster Canson Mi-Tientes, 15" x 12"

Leaves in Gutter, Prismacolor pencils on gray Canson Mi-Tientes, 11.5" x 16"

Grounded Oak Leaf, Derwent Drawing pencils on brown Canson Mi-Tientes paper. 11" x 16"

Icy Oaks, Prismacolor pencils on light gray Stonehenge paper. 11.5" x 16"

May you all have a happy and successful 2011!

Drawing and more drawing!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:59:00 +0000

I finished the oil pastel "Autumn Drive" and pinned it to the wall. I am not completely satisfied with it, the forground with the road just doesn't work but I can't see any alternative to it.
Winter weather has settled in: Friday, La Crosse saw its most significant snowfall to date: about 5". The new pump has arrived and is now in the watergarden keeping a hole open in the ice for the benefit of the goldfish. I also noticed that I have forgotten to remove all of the solar-powered garden lights! However the frozen ground will make them impossible to remove.

I am in the mood for more leaf drawings. This little drawing actually took much time in designing and altering from the source photograph. An evening could be spent in adjusting light/dark patterns, changing formats and moving elements around in search of the best composition. Derwent Drawing pencils on fawn gray Stonehenge paper.

Derwent tinted charcoal pencils got some use. I did this barn on laid charcoal paper and did a smaller drawing based on the same source photograph of just the silo. Old barns and charcoal seem to go together well.

This drawing of yellow leaves was my demonstration piece done at Gallery La Crosse. It is done on dark gray paper with oil-based colored pencils. I did most of it that evening but later I changed the background some.

Here is my latest work in progress: "Leaves in Gutter", Prismacolor pencils on felt gray Canson Mi Tients.

Back from latest trip! More drawings done

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:52:00 +0000

We came back from our trip over a week ago. I am catching up with business. The pump we ordered for use in the watergarden over the winter never came so Don cancelled the credit card charge for it. It was ordered early in October and never came and the seller never responded to inquiries. So another one, from another seller, is on order. The big pump we use during the summer (3800 gph) is much than is needed for winter use.
We went east on this trip, all the way to Hilton Head Island, SC and Savannah, GA, by way of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Asheville, NC. We toured several Civil War coastal forts (Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie in Charleston, NC and Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, GA), The Battleship North Carolina in Charleston, the Hunley exhibit in North Charleston, Tybee Island Lighthouse, Trinity Cathedral and the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, SC. The aircraft carrier Yorktown is at Charleston, but since we have already toured a similar carrier, Intrepid in NYC, skipped it.
Yes, I did managed to also tour the Asheville Art Museum and spent money in their gift shop and made the rounds of art galleries in Bluffton (near HHI) and Asheville. However, my legs are not very good and negotiating the sidewalks in downtown Asheville wasn't easy for me. While in Tennessee, we also did the arts and crafts drive just outside of Gatlingburg, TN and ate in a tea room! The food was good and met Don's approval. (He even liked the Wild Plum tea).
Another highlight was touring Biltmore house in Asheville. Though I had to walk, (the wheelchairs weren't big enough, and couldn't go everywhere) it is a fascinating place and the staffing courteous and helpful.
On the return trip we stopped at Dayton, OH for more time at the Air Force Museum. Last year we spent two and a half days there but Don still haven't seen everything. I didn't mind since the scooters there are very nice and it was an opportunity to fill up the sketchbook I was keeping on this trip. The light levels were low and made some of the displays hard to read, wish I had thought to bring a headlamp like Don did. We did this on November 11, when G. W. Bush was there. We arrived just before 2 PM and the place was filled with uniforms of all kinds, civilians in formal dress and the city police bomb squad and dogs were there just in case. Until 5 PM some areas were off limits but then the museum stayed open until 8 PM. We left at 7:30. The following day was a ten hour drive back to La Crosse.
Home, I looked over the drawing I did just before leaving on this trip and made some slight changes.

I immediately did another one similar to it but done with Derwent Drawing pencils on fawn gray Stonehenge paper.

The fall scenery in the Smoky Mountains was wonderful so I did an oil pastel based on a photo I took. Done on dark blue Colorfix paper, 18" x 18".

Finished a drawing, another in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:45:00 +0000

"Grapevines on Rocks" is finished and on the wall for evaluation. So far I am very pleased with it. The past few weeks have been very dry and warm here in La Crosee and I have been doing outside work getting the yard and watergarden ready for winter. The waterlily leaves have been removed, the bridge that spans the narrow part of the watergarden has been primed and repainted, some of the water hyacinths have been removed. The vegetable garden has been mostly cleared out except for the cabbages that haven't grown much and the onions that I started from seed this spring, I separated and replanted. Next year they should yield bulbs.
My latest drawing is based on photographs I took in the marsh last month. The shadows cast by this lacy leaf on the bridge deck are very interesting. And somewhat complicated to do.
"Shadow Lace", 11.5" x 18", colored pencil on primed paper. In this drawing I brushed the blue shadows with odorless paint thinned and covered with more blue to get the shadows dark enough. On the leaf I scraped out the highlights, the primed surface made this easy to do.

Summer has ended! Fall drawings in progress, the La Crosse River Marsh in flood

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:12:00 +0000

"Wooded Road" the last of my summer pictures is now on the wall for evaluation. All that green and yellow! Now is time for subjects with much less green in them. My next drawing is based on a photo I took during one of our driving tours in the region. There was a small dam (I can't remember where) with rocks and grapevines down stream of it. I altered the photo to make it more purple and yellow and more constrasty. For a change I did this drawing on maroon Color Fix paper, (13" x 18"). The sanded surface eats colored pencils fast but the painterly, pastel-like appearance is worth it. After all I have lots of pencils just waiting to be made into pictures. The dark shadows I brushed into the grain to make them darker. I tried using colorless blender in the highlights but it doesn't seem to work well with this surface.

I haven't been bike riding in the marsh since the heavy rains earlier in September. Yesterday I took a short ride to the north end of the marsh trails and was met by road blocks to restrict access. A bicylist came off the trail and said it was water covered in the middle of the marsh and unpassable. So I just rode my bike to the bridge over the La Crosse River. I really didn't do much riding, I was taking lots of photographs. The flooded marsh was fascinating and beautiful! And there were no mosquitos! The few photos shown here are only a fraction of what I took that day. Of interest was the three canoeists coming downstream. The lower part of the La Crosse River is popular with boaters since they can start at a convenient location up river and end up near downtown in Riverside Park.

Last of the summer drawings

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 03:16:00 +0000

Blufftop View is now pinned to the wall for evaluation. I have exaggerated the effects of the sunshine spotting the tree trunks and the shaded ground. Something to help you the viewer stand there and look out over the Mississippi River.

My latest project is also on the theme of sun-dappled woods except this scene is a Monroe County backroad. The deer far off in the distance is an add on to use as a point of interest. After this drawing, I will be working on fall-themed drawings with more reds and yellows in them. Wooded Road is 18" x 24" oil pastel on white color fix paper. As an experiment I toned the paper bright yellow. However, I found that the charcoal underdrawing is impossible to erase completely without removing the underpaint. I had to carefully lift excess charcoal with a kneaded eraser.

More progress on Blufftop View

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:26:00 +0000

After a few more days of hot, humid weather, it is back to cool, dry and pleasant. This summer has seen almost twice as much rain as usual. I am more able to do more work inside and out as well do more bike riding. Maybe I can lose a few more pounds before winter! This drawing of the blufftop view is coming along nicely and hope to finish it by this weekend. I have more summer drawings to do in oil pastel planned.

New work in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:59:00 +0000

The heat and humidity has let up and I am now feeling more active. I have been working in the backyard trimming back rose bushes, thinning strawberries, mowing the lawn and other duties. I even started another drawing.

This is a view of the Mississippi River from a Minnesota bluff top. Not a very large drawing for me, just 15" x 12". It is done with Prismacolor pencils on white bristol.

The Art Fair on the Green was a financial disappointment, I didn't sell anything! but the following week I learned that I had sold more matted marbled paper and a drawing reproduction at VIVA gallery.

I'm Back! With new drawings to show!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:54:00 +0000

For over a month I have been having internet connection problems and therefore not updating this blog. I won't trouble you with all the trouble we had getting this computer connected back to the internet.

The month of July is busy for me. Next week I will be at The Artfair on the Green on the UW-La Crosse campus. Five of us are sharing a double site for the Odin Arts Cooperative. Hopefully, some of my cards and prints will sell, at least enough for my share of the entry fee.

Here are some of the drawings I have been working on for the past six weeks.

This oil pastel was inspired by the Bluff Country Studio tour we took in April. Too keep the colors cool and green, I made it a point not to use any earth colors at all. The resulting blues and greens with the pink and orange gravel road kept the effect of the cool, rainy spring day that it was.

The inspiration for this scene of a great blue heron on a fallen tree was several years old. I spotted this while bike riding through the marsh one evening. The digital camera I was using at the time was small and gave a soft image, but it was enough. This drawing was also an oil pastel.

This charcoal drawing is a radical change for me. I was adjusting a recent photo of the La Crosse River and made a gray scale copy to get a good idea of the light/dark pattern. The resulting image was so much more compelling than that in color! So this 10" x 12" drawing was done in charcoal pencils.

My latest is also based on photographs taken recently in the La Crosse River marsh. Early morning is the best time for picture taking. Because of the size (18" x 24"), the background was done with watercolor washes. No way could I get the smoothness required in colored pencil without lots of time and care.

Everything is coming up roses!

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:13:00 +0000

There has been great weather here lately, it's a marvel that I get anything done indoors. I finished the Oakleaves drawing and pinned it to the wall. I think some minor changes are needed.

The wonderful weather has encouraged me to bike ride through the La Crosse River Marsh several mornings for exercise and to take photographs.

I am not the only photographer out there! Among the joggers, dog walkers and bicyclists are men walking around with enormous telephoto lenses and tripods to get shots of the birds (great blue herons, white egrets, Canada geese, mallards, etc.). Here are my humble efforts taken with my Kodak Easy Share Z712 IS with its 12x optical zoom. The pictures have been cropped for better composition.

The backyard is coming along nicely. We have moved the tropical waterplants from the basement to the watergarden, brought out the garden statuary and set up the pipes for the box water features. Don still has to get the big pump set up with its large in-ground filter and attach it to other water features. Maybe this weekend. The pink, white and red rugosa roses are blooming, with the yellow ones just budding. Many other flowers, irises, dianthus, and chives are blooming. The peppermint is trying to take over the bed it shares with other plants so I have been thinning it out and making peppermint iced tea.

Last week we noticed a new visitor. A hummingbird moth! We didn't recognized it as a moth at first, it was so strange.

Finished drawing, new leaf drawing in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Sat, 15 May 2010 02:32:00 +0000

This drawing of the railroad bridge over the La Crosse River is now pinned to the wall for further evaluation. This bridge is near were the La Crosse River joins the Mississippi River and isn't used for the railroad anymore, it is now for pedestrians. In this drawing I used a brush and odorless paint thinner to smooth out and flatten some of the areas of reflections in the water. Other areas I used the colorless blender.
I have just started another leaf drawing of a cluster of young oak leaves. It is only 8" x 10" but small doesn't mean simple. There is enough going on to keep me fascinated in putting in shapes and colors.
Today was the first day this week it hasn't rained or been cloudy, windy and cool. So I have been outside catching up on gardening and picking the first radishes. Earlier this week I was matting and framing drawings.

New work in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Carol) — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:45:00 +0000

We got more rain the past two weekends. Which was very much needed. The last weekend in April was the Bluff Country Studio Art Tour. We spent two days driving around Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa to various artists' studios, homes and group shows. Fortunately, the rain held off most of the daylight hours since we drove around alot on gravel backroads. The scenery was great and I took lots of photos. Now we just have to drive those roads again when there is some sunshine!
This scene of the old railroad bridge over the La Crosse River is based on two photographs put together. I did further modification on the computer to make the colors brighter and more springlike. As I work the colors can be further modified. Here shown are two stages in the progress of this drawing. It is 20" x 16" on white bristol paper done with Prismacolor pencils.