My Art and Music

Christmas for babies

When you shop and do Christmas for babies, it's like you've discovered Christmas all anew again.  My friend has a grand daughter who we went shopping for today and I was in charge of wrapping all the gifts which is almost as fun as unwrapping....because of course that's what you think of when you're wrapping!

So here they are - all ready for a Santa delivery:

 

Mostly clothes and such, but a few toys to open on Christmas morning

 

OK - went over board on this one

 

All ready for Grandpa's sig

 

Here's a close-up of the Christmas Angel for Isabella!

A long-time dream come true - Spoonflower

This has got to be the coolest thing alive.  Spoonflower is a fabulous place where you can upload your fabric design and they will print it for you.  I've been wanting to do this for years, and am elated to get a place that will do this.  The cool part is that even if your design is a little quirky and something only you would be interested in, they will do it for you!!!!  And it's not all that expensive.

So here's my quirky little idea....as I'm a diver, love stuff that has fish, and that sort of thing on there - so this was my "test" design:
 
And

Now this matched together like this:

You can click this for a larger view.

Now lest you think that I'm some sort of genius....I arranged this from an old design by Esher which is this design:

What I wanted accomplish with my "test" was to see how well Spoonflower would match this design and needed something pretty intricate - I thought this fit the bill

So here's what I submitted to Spoonflower

This is a little different than the watercolors above, but I had to do some simplification - after all this was a test.....

So here's the end result:
 
Of course now I have to make it up!!!!

That will be the next blog!

IF: Opinion

I always think the topics don't pertain to anything I'm doing, then POW!  Something happens and there it is.

This requires just a tad explanation....but never fail, I'll supply not only the explanation but the cartoon as well.  But basically my opinion is: Beat the h- - - out of OSwho!!!!

Saturday nite the University of Oklahoma Sooners play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in an in-state Bedlam Rivalry.  This year the stakes are higher than just braggin' rights.  If OU wins by a substantial margin (which translates into "show points for the polls") then OU could have the opportunity to play for a national championship.

Apparently the Wronghorns are so worried about the status of their ranking, they have raised enough money to hire a plane to fly over Boone Pickens Stadium to remind the public voters than saxet deserves higher ranking and therefore the opportunity to play in a nat'l championship. 

Enter the Ruf-neks a student Sooner support squad that are the only support group authorized to carry and shoot 12-gage shot guns which go off with every touchdown.  They are trained thoroughly and are in charge of riding/driving and care of the Sooner Schooner during games.  I personally think that the OU vs OSwho game will be a target rich environment - on the ground with the football squad beating the Cowboys, while the Ruf-neks can target the sexat flying plane!

My final opinion....I think a rematch between the Wronghorns and the stellar Sooners would be splendid - it would shut those ol' saxet Wronghorns once and for all!

IF: Wise

OK - I wasn't going to do this because it's so predictable, but I was asked to draw an owl for a friend so had to put it up!!!  It's for a Santa invite.

Our Annual Fall Show (at the Gallery)

I'm a member of this gallery where we have a show every spring and fall.

It's a lot of fun and the gallery looks really spiffy when we get all the new art up and it's gorgeously hung.

Greeting guests is a must - particularly our fearless leader...or is that leaders....our art leader (center) and our gallery leader (2nd from right!)  Looks like they're having a serious conversation.  Don't let it fool you - they are exchanging witty repartee!!!

Our guests artists.  These wooden pieces were beautiful and so creative.

Of course there's always the wine - here is our house wine connoisseur passing on a particularly delicate and light refreshment, dated 2008!!!!  Our wine expert is, if nothing, up to date - even on the 2008 vintages!

And then there's the wonderful food - and a view from the other side of the camera - or pen as it may be....this a well-known columnist around town enjoying her picture being taken!

And then there's the friends - lots and lots of them. But something tells me these people are smiling too much - it's obviously the delicious food being served!

But back to the art - and showing our latest works!  Here's one of our artists (on the left) showing a art peruser!  Now all she needs to do is close the sale!

And of course the sale.  Here lucky Valerie makes off with an excellent selection of one of Jane's finest pieces. 

And so it's time to close the doors on another art show and a fine evening of fun, friends, food and even some great business!

Illustration Friday:Strings

  
This is a lot of fun.  It's a sight that gives a topic each week to paint - this week's topic is strings - aren't all autumn leaves attached to strings?

Passing it on

It's fun to blog, but it's just as much fun to pass it on. My diving buddy who is an excellent writer (he writes all the stuff on our diving site) started his own blog and it's going to be a lot of fun and informative. He has a great creative streak, and I am constantly amazed at his creative composition. Check it out here

More from San Salvador

Once I get started, hard to stop.....this lighthouse screamed "Paint Me!!!"

What's a poor artist to do - paint?!!!! San Salvador is the Eastern most of the Bahamas Islands (stands to reason since this where Columbus first landed), and stands to reason they would have a fabulous lighthouse. I was busy taking pictures below, but there's a beautiful and exquisitely intricate prism in the lighthouse. These were taken by a friend (who crawled all the way up that lighthouse to take these!!!)

Aren't these beautiful...

As most lighthouse aficionados know, the prisms help magnify and brighten the light so not as much energy or candlelight power is needed. In the olden days of burning "candles" or some such in light houses, this was a must to see the light from a ship at sea, which saved smashing ships, which saved cargo, which is a smashing idea!!!

Ugh!

Which brought up another lighthouse I painted....

This belongs to my cousin who lives on the location where Cathy & Heathcliff declare their undying love for each other.....errr....I mean, on a lovely part of the Maine coast!!! He was notorious for setting a tape player in the middle of the lighthouse during Halloween with all sorts of scary sounds and making the kids go inside for their "treat"!!! He has my sense of humor! Guess it's a family thing!

Another trip, more watercolors

We took off to San Salvador, Bahamas for my dive buddy to see his "hammerheads, black-tipped sharks, and rays"!  Yikes, and I jumped in the water first!  Oh Well, they say stick close to the wall when sharks appear, so that's exactly what I did.  Actually it was a lot of fun, and my buddy had such fun, it was hard not to get into the spirit of it.  The place turned out to be much better than we thought and that added to it as well.  If you're into diving with big marine animals, Riding Rock Resort, is THE place to go.  I know your mind is a lot easier now that you have that piece of information!  And just in case you need some nice pics of the trip, they are here!

When you first drive up to Riding Rock, (it's a long 5 minute drive from the airport), there's a warm, happy yellow building to greet you - this is also where the dining room and Wind Drift Bar are located!

Next is the beach
 
One day I was walking past the beach and this umbrella and chaise were laying out there  - just for me to paint - so I did!!!

All the buildings are painted this warm yellow & red trim (there was a sale on yellow and red paint I guess), but it does make them all look very warm and welcoming.  This must have been some important anchor or something, but I never got the name, I just paint things, I don't get names!!!

And then there's this....I can't pass up a ruin of anything and there are a lot of them in the Caribbean - old estates, old sugar mills, old pirate houses - who knows and even the natives aren't sure.  This was different.  I had them stop the car so I could get some pics.  Couldn't wait to paint this....as I got back in the car, apparently the tree was very significant...it had been planted by Columbus.  I though OK - how historical (or rather hysterical).  Anyway, one of them couldn't keep a straight face to say that it grew about 2 feet every 100 years.  It finally occurred to me that this wasn't planted by Columbus, this was a joke planed by my diving buddy

A couple of new works

Looking through some old travel pictures, found some great boat shots.  I take a lot of "reference photos" to paint later if I don't have the time to paint on the spot, and found these that I really liked and meant to do last May when we were in Roatán.