Artsy Fartsy...

Some of you know I've been taking art classes while on this trip and I thought I’d best show some of the results. I’ve got a ton more paintings, but I thought these might be interesting to you. The paintings actually look a little bit better than the photos of them...the light in the fifth wheel isn't the best for photography, but at least you'll get an idea of what they look like. I've still got lots to learn about the world of art!

The first one, of the old car is under glass so has some reflections that I couldn’t eliminate when taking a picture. I liked it because it shows the Route 66 sign and also the cactus, so is reminiscent of Arizona. It was one that I did in my watercolour class here in Tubac. It was fun to do because I was able to wet the paper, then drop the colour in on the car and on the cactus, then watch all the colours blend.

The second painting was from a photo that I took myself when I was home in November. I went for a walk on a frosty morning and one of the gardens near the road had some poppies on their last legs. The painting turned out ok, though I’d like to re-do it now that I’ve learned a bit more. I worked this one so hard that I wore through a layer of the paper in one spot. Again, it was fun to do because of the green wash on the side. There are five layers or more of colour in that wash.

The third picture is a coloured pencil drawing on dark pastel paper of an old sailor…no, he wasn’t one I was drinking with when I got my tattoo!!! ...he just had an interesting face and the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Anyway, that drawing was done during one of the two hour craft sessions they have here at the rv park…you take whatever you want to do and play. Lots of women are knitting or quilting…I took my pencils. The picture turned out pretty good…I wasn’t sure how to do the beard, but thought I’d best leave it with just the indication of hair before I overdid it.

Ah…Rat-Man. Tom doesn’t like this picture because of what it depicts… others I’ve shown it to don’t like it either, but I do. This old guy was done from a picture in a magazine and the story was about how people become attached to their pets…he happened to have a rat for a pet. This is also done in coloured pencil on matt board (the kind of board you matt a picture with).

The next painting is watercolour of the cactus at night and was an experiment. I took some frisket (gooey stuff that you paint on the paper to hold the white then rub it off after you’re done painting) and dropped it in the sky part of the painting so sort of indicate stars. Then I went full force and used some unusually bright colours (unusual for me anyway). The painting sort of turned out unrealistic, but that’s ok…it’s fun to do something different.

Last is the painting I did yesterday from another picture I took of a succulent plant in Tubac the other day. I still see areas that I want to refine on this painting. It’s a work in progress. The biggest challenge sometimes is knowing when to stop…I’ve messed up several paintings by going too far with them, but I only want to refine the stem on the shoot coming up in the middle. I did that part near the end of class and didn’t have time to wait on paint drying to finish it entirely. I don’t think we’ve got any big plans for today so maybe I can get it finished.

I thought I’d throw in a picture of of the flag we fly. It's a combination of Canadian and American and is the only one I've seen like that. We like it and have had comments from lots of others about it. It's a bit of a conversation piece.

And of course Oso. This was taken when we climbed up to the top of the Mesa near Sedona where we found the Indian ruins. He was scared when it came to climbing down the rocks…he didn’t like the height of some of the boulders we were climbing on so just took up residence at the top of the hill and refused to come down till we went up and walked him down. He was scared to look over the edge at the Grand Canyon too….sheesh…never heard of a dog scared of heights…what a baby!!!