A Wonderland

Earlier this month I spent some time in Colorado visiting friends, cooking,  and hanging out by a fire.  At the view at 7-9k feet is exhilarating and simply wonderful.

It is always hard when I return to the East Coast and put nose back to grindstone. I bought a friend tickets to the show Ann at the Kennedy Center for a Christmas gift.  The seats were great and although I didn’t think I’d enjoy a one-woman show about Governor Ann Richards, I did.  In fact I loved it.  The show will run until the middle of January so if you’re in DC try to make it.  You won’t be sorry.

I am hoping to get some time in visiting some museums during the weekend there are some amazing art shows in DC.   There is also the Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt Show at the National Museum of Natural History.  While you’re there peek at the Evolving Universe, hit the Hope Diamond and commune with the dinosaurs.

I am still trying to finish up a lace shawl which is a gift for a dear friend.  Once that is finished and blocked (and two other items are blocked) the final gifts will have been given and the  holidays will be over.

Be safe this weekend.

A World Gone Crazy

I am taking this weekend weather threat into consideration and prepping for the hurricane (Irene) for one reason  and one reason only.  Because apparently someone ticked off Mother Nature in DC.

Who would have ever thought we’d have a 5.9 earthquake here? I was at lunch when it struck so luckily i was on the ground floor vice high up in my office.   Once I saw a soda cooler and an ATM heading towards me I yelled earthquake and left the place.

As a public service announcement I’d like to share this weather forecast chart.  I believe it will help everyone make calm and safe decisions in regards to how to prep for Irene.

Predicted Required Response to Landfall by Hurricane Irene

Seriously though, there is a great hurricane checklist you can download (it’s a pdf) at www.redcross.org.

 

 

Juneberry Triangle

I finished this last night.  The Juneberry Triangle is lace knitting on steroids.  It was not easy to say the least and I had a lot of bumps and issues along the way.

I’m pretty proud of it.

Juneberry Triangle

 

Juneberry Triangle Edging

Sitting Out & Eye Candy

Back Study, silverpoint

I’ve finally realized the hard way that I am not superwoman.   Not even close. I’ve had some health issues (nothing serious just colds I can’t shake) so I finally decided to sit out a term for Rob.

I hate getting out of the grove but in the fall I only made every other class so it seemed best to just take a break and come back in the spring.

I love this drawing.  I drew it during an upper torso anatomy class with Rob and its one of my favorites.

 

 

Finally a Sweater

 

My First Sweater!

 

I’ve been working hard at learning to knit this year.  My first lessons were in April and I’ve working on cowls, some lace, shawls and hyperbolic crochet (for the Washington DC area Coral Reef Project at the Smithsonian).

This is my first sweater.  I’m very proud of it, the pattern is the Gathered Cable Pullover and it’s sold through Interweave.  I used Silky Wool which feels like a washed t-shirt after it’s been blocked and washed.  Very very nice!

Friday Night Class

Grasaille Demo, Robert Liberace

Fibre Space, a local yarn store that I love has been selected as the flagship store for designer Jared Flood’s newest endeavor, Shelter.  Shelter is a beautiful yarn that is processed and spun in the states and it’s simply yummy.  I stopped by there yesterday after work to see the loveliness.   I left there with five  skeins of the red (long Johns) and a lovely pattern for a shawl called Terra.

Afterward, I headed to class with Robert Liberace.  I’ve decided that for the next 4 weeks I’d work on silverpoint drawing instead of painting (its a logistical problem).

Once I arrived I found out that the model hadn’t shown in one of the classrooms.  So I told Rob I’d love to model for his demo.  Yes I am evil, but I adore his work and its fun, and modeling gives you a very tiny sense of what a professional model has to endure for his/her job.

So this is the study Rob did.  It’s an initial grasaille, with sienna, black and white used.  He toned his canvas with the sienna and once dray started painting using a #6 brush and black.  I couldn’t see what he was doing, but he said that he was using the black in the manner of Howard Pyle (early 20th century artist and illustrator), like he was drawing with it. and he used it for the shadows.

Rob then went back in with a mid-tone mixed with the white and black to model all the mid-tones and soften the transition between shadows and mid-tones.

Once done to his satisfaction he added more white and captured the light and then used an even brighter light tone for the highlights.  He created this painting in two sessions a total of about 40-50 minutes.

Isn’t it beautiful?

Another Year Older

My sister is in town visiting, we had our birthday recently and its been wonderful celebrating with her. She used to claim to be the oldest, but once we hit 40 (which hurts when it hits back!) but since she’s in my timezone she’s once again older than me. So order is once again restored to the world!

Cheers

Friday Evening Class

Egg 26, Duane Keiser

Last night was an odd one for me.  I worked some on my silverpoint class from last week, mainly evening out the shadows.  I did add some background shadows but not much.

I went to a new page in my moleskine and tried several portraits.  None of them worked well so I gave in and watched Robs amazing watercolor sketch demo.

I also brought in several of my Duane Keiser paintings from his One Dozen Eggs paintings.  Rob spent about 15-20 minutes talking about them with the class.  It was really interesting to see through his eyes four paintings that I love so much.

Duane your work is well loved!

Silverpoint

Silverpoint drawing on prepped surface (moleskins)

We had a great model for class last night.  He was placed in an awesome pose that reminded me of a spanish bullfighter, cocky and so very proud.

I was to his right so most of his back was in shadow and his torso was in profile.  The majority of his chest and arm are in shadow and the arm is foreshortened as well, so what might seem like is lower belly is actually his forearm and hand.

Not certain how well this will read but figured I should post it.

A Port in Any Storm?

Yesterday afternoon a storm hit the metro DC area that was brutal.  I’ve lost a huge limb of the tree out back of my house and I think I’m going to have to have the tree cut down, I post a photo in a bit.

There is a huge limb that fell from my tree and slammed into my neighbor’s fence, shed and is occupying his entire yard.  A tree across the alley shed a huge branch with totaled my neighbor’s truck as well and his next door neighbor’s car as well.

When I say huge, I mean these branches weigh between 300-400lbs at least.  Several were tossed 20-40 feet in the air.

I was at work when all this happened.  I noticed it had gone grey/dark and looked out a window,  At first I thought it was snowing.  Turns out I was looking at small hail flinging about sideways.  When I checked the weather forecast on the net it said max of 37 mph winds.  Yeah, 37 mph my Uncle Bob.

So I had no power and my street looked like a war zone.  It took well over an hour just to get home on the metro.

Today was cleanup day, I took my truck into the back alley and two neighbors and I loaded 4 truckloads of limbs into my trusty Toyota.  I then drove to the front of the house and left them curbside so the city can deal with them.  We cleaned out as much as we could of our yards and even the pain in the butt neighbor’s yard so she wouldn’t have to deal with it.

I was a good citizen today.