Veggie Doodles

As the US collectively shivers in the arctic chill of what is being called the coldest winter in decades, we are heading for the deep freeze here in NC as well. 

Nothing much to do except paint and putter. I am working on my statue paintings in the studio, but I am having more fun painting the veggies when I take a break from the larger projects I am attempting. I keep the moleskin notebook and a travel box of Sennelier watercolors on the kitchen counter for my doodles. This means I only have a few colors to work with and have to really think about mixing the colors I want. I used this travel set when I traveled to  Italy, the cappuccino's I indulged in after a delicious meal  kept me awake at night, so I painted two paintings that I ended up framing and showing.  I am realizing I have good luck with Sennelier paints. Maybe it is because they use honey as part of the formula for their paints. They do look yummy enough to eat. 

I had a lot of fun with this cabbage. It is great practice. I am getting better with mixing greens. For years I was struggling with how to mix colorful, but muted, green foliage. I may keep working on this one a bit more. So far, I have doodled in short spurts on this cabbage for a week. I am also painting a very bright red pepper.  I suppose painting the vegetables is keeping me from getting too lonely for the summer garden....it will be here soon enough. In the meantime it is fun to dream about those beautiful vegetables on paper, and take long wintertime naps with the 97lb brown fuzzy Finn dog.  

Dreaming and Doodling

While recovering from the family flu bug passed around over Christmas I had little energy for anything but a few doodles recently. That, and the yearly bookkeeping for the business has kept me busy. Better to get that over with now. 

Besides, I was sneezing and coughing so much that any attempt at a stoke with a brush could be sidelined by a sneeze. 

The seed catalogues are coming in daily. The photographs are so enticing. I thought I would see how they looked in watercolor. The bean pods were very fun. Though I would like to do more of this type of botanical on bigger sheets of paper so I can get more details on the ribs, seeds and flowers.

While visiting my daughter over the holidays I saw that she had framed a painting I did of my tomatoes and peppers a few years ago. I thought, wow, I could do that so much better now, I have learned so much in the meantime. 

When I came home I painted a Costoluto Genovese tomato from the catalogue, the same tomato growing in my garden when I did my first tomato painting. I doodled these in my moleskin notebook during the worst of the body aches and fevered exhaustion. This batch is much improved over my first for sure. I have more colors to play with now as well, like Opera, Mineral violet, and Poppy, which I did not discover until this year.

The benefits of being sick for a week was all the sleeping and dreaming I got to do. Yesterday morning, while in the dream state, I was was hanging out with angels, working on a painting in the studio. I was consulting with one of them about the next step, the angel suggested another layer or two of turquoise on a portion of the painting to enhance the change in values. I had a feeling in my dream of awe, that angels would be actively working with me on my elementary attempts at self taught art. I thought, Oh! I am finally hanging out with angels. 

This is really amazing.

I woke up with a Wow feeling. I do get seasonal dreams often near the solstice and equinox, this was definitely one of them...laying out the next phase for the journey. I get the feeling that what ever I end up doing this year, it will be inspired. 

I also got the message about the 'Change in Values' as the planet Pluto begins to transit my 2nd house....of things we value......yes, angels, I caught that.....a thousand thanks for the heads up.