blossoms, fuschia

Today is sunny but windy and cool. We might get out to the screen house for some time this afternoon, since it looks like a day to be out. I've been reading up on printing techniques and am going to do some for my journal. Gelatin printing gets great effects. I have two pencil drawings to add also. One is the blossom on an Easter lily the other is a blossom on an orchid cactus I got a couple weeks ago. Since they're on small pieces of paper, I haven't figured out how to integrate them.

April 10, 2009 The fuschia color - doesn't that sound better than "pink" - is from one of those magazine subscription inserts. Over a small piece of the gold paper,it made an effective focal point and nice for writing on.
Several stamps one over the other created the background texture.
lovely afternoon
in the field, solid grey skies
spring days are coming

April 9, 2009

This circular stamp is surprisingly versatile - I was careful to ink one spot orange for each of the full moons. I saw the moon set on the quick walk, and the moon rise that evening, both times out with the puppy. The verse recalls this event:
Orange full moon sets
early morning. Rises again
round, yellow at night.

simple events

It has cooled this morning. I'm hoping to get a walk with Deezel and that the laundry will dry outside before the rain starts. I mailed out a flier yesterday for an art journaling class I'll be teaching here this spring.Email me if you'd like the information.
A year ago, I was out frequently with the puppy. Now I seldom see the evening world. I'll have to motivate myself to get out. We have to watch for the skunks that visit us.
April 8, 2009
The blue paper is from an advertisement, I don't have a collection of blues. The writing is on tracing paper. The bird stamp is so cute I had to use it even though it looks nothing like a pileated. I used for some other bird sightings.

rainy days, art work, paw prints

This afternoon I'm meeting the 4th grade at the Exeter Town Hall to see the student exhibit. There are 10 pieces from the class there with work from the other schools in the SAU. We will look, sketch, share and write about the work. Tomorrow, I'll prepare the foam core dot for the staff dots and post it on Thursday.

April 7, 2009
The rain continues this morning from last night. Deezel and I did go for a quick walk. Sophie followed, sort of. Art classes this afternoon.

I stamped the card with a grey inkpad , glued the scraps, and wrote on vellum to go over everything.

Monday, April 6, 2010 I did some work in my Art Journal about rain using some photos from "365 Daily Haiku 2009", tracing paper and a poem I wrote,"Another Day of Rain".
"Rainy Day Study" shows the photos on vellum.I printed the poem on vellum also, cut it back somewhat and put the photos under it. Before gluing the photos,I wrapped two pages with tracing paper after I wrote rain related words on the pages.
The photos are somewhat covered by the poem, then when the page is turned, the entire photos are visible.
Here's a photo of Deezel I took this afternoon


April 6, 2009
beautiful morning, quick walk through the woods with Deezel

The sunrise reflected on the grey tree trunks with an orange color. I used scraps from the craft advertisement for the color against the puppy paw tissue paper.

I like that the text is written irregularly among the paws.

bloodroot

Today:

Earlier, I took pictures of the bloodroot, which was not out yesterday. Last year it was April 19th when they blossomed. I fell in love with this plant when I saw Ruth MacDowell's quilt "Bloodroot" which is owned by the New England Quilt Museum. Of course,the blossoms on that quilt are nearly a foot wide, the real ones are about an inch from petal tip to petal tip. they are brilliant white against the brown, heavily textured earth.
April 19, 2009

summer weather, Easter, clean gardens

It's going to be another wonderful day today. Deezel and I will do our walk, before it gets too warm. I'll do some more garden cleaning - getting rid of last year's stalks. Then after I vacuum, I have some art time.
Yesterday we had 15 people for Easter lunch. Nieces, Kelly & Jennifer, nephews Tristan & Tyler and Tyler's wife, Heather, were here.Friends Ila and Becky were here also. Niece Haley and nephew Adam were too far away. She's in Spain "studying " for the semester; he's stationed in San Diego. My three brothers and wives were here. Sisters Anne & Elizabeth were absent. Our new kitty, Zeek hid from all the activity. Buck Wheat tried all day to get out.
It was a perfect day for sitting outside. The backyard is firm. Heather and Tristan wore Deezel out playing with him.

April 5, 2009
more guests,the star being the puppy of course.

This abstract collage is with pages from a craft advertisement, puppy feet tissue and tracing paper.

April 4, 2009

This entry marks another of the first days with the puppy. Several friends visited to see him so the tissue paper with paw prints dominates the entry. My initials made with a stamp, are highly visible.

April 3, 2009
Third grade was on a field trip. I made note of hearing the peepers for the first time on Thursday night. Since it says "11:30 last night", I must have been out with the puppy.
This entry consists of a stampbooking paper (with the dots) and two pieces of Japanese paper. The date is highly visible and an important part of the page.
Peepers late at night
singing full and sweetly to
announce the season
The colors and themes of the papers feel like spring.

carolina wren and sunny afternoon

WOW what a day yesterday was. We took a drive to Wentworth Greenhouses - had to go a long route, since Rte 108 was still closed due to flooding - and I got pansies, an Easter lily, and a beautiful orchid cactus, related to the Christmas cactus.
We spent part of the afternoon checking out all the work we need to do in the gardens and yard... this weekend. The wrens were courting in the field.
School today to work on the Dots with three classes. Two of my classes are on field trips.

April 2, 2009
Deezel slept well last night, had to wake him up.

The verse says it all:
Lounge in summer sun.
Puppy and kitten playful,
bring laughter and joy.
I used a part of a beer label because I love the art work, the dog is funny. The colors of the label fit a hot spring day. I colored one of the paw prints for the sun and used some gold paper for the color of the field with sun on the brown grasses.

April begins ...

I can see signs of blue sky - thankfully it's not raining. We got through the night on Tuesday supervising the sump pump and water levels !!!! We means Roger. I went to school yesterday the long way because the usual route was under water for about a quarter mile. Today's a day for some art, some writing, a long walk with Deezel, lunch with Paula, getting some pansies from my favorite greenhouse (Wentworth's in Rollinsford) and washing floors. The family will be here on Sunday.

April 1, 2009
Second walk with baby Deezel through the woods.
This collage is a combination of writing on the card, doodling some accents,gluing some scraps,and writing on scrap paper.
another day for
words avoiding my brain - quick
walk with the puppy
The number one became important because of the connotation of April Fools' Day

March 31st addendum ------
I began wrapping up the "Dots" project built around the book by Peter Reynolds "The Dot". All of the classes have been doing this. First, the librarian read the book to each class and discussed it. I reviewed it with the classes and had them create dots of their own for several class periods. I had them start with oil pastels on colored paper they are so freeing because its about the richness of color and , in this case the shape. Classes have also painted dots and splatter painted some paper to make dots. (Splatter painting is so fun and so messy, I always talk about Jackson Pollack when we splatter.)
Today students in three classes made the choice of the one to attach to a 4' foam core dot (one per class) They are fabulous. I will post photos after the 2nd to have most of the classes' work. A few kids lost interest in just doing the same shape each week, several worked on one for several classes, others were enjoying the simplicity of the work and enjoying using dfferent media.