Paint Party Friday - Week 15 - Sketchbook and ICAD

This week I had hoped to paint on a canvas but alas, no progress. I did paint in my "Walking in my World" sketchbook/art journal and on some index cards for my ICAD project. It has been a busy week for many reasons but at least I played with paints a bit before it got out of control! 

Index Cards:

Inspired by my Daisies...

By my Pink Daisies...

Looking up through my grape vines at the blue, blue sky...

And some of my sketchbook/art journal pages (pre-writing...)

A groundhog enjoying the lovely day

Fallen Feather

Did you have a productive and fun week? I hope so! I have guests visiting until Saturday so it may take me awhile to visit everyone - but I will eventually! Until then, have a very happy Paint Party Friday! 

Paint Party Friday - Week 14 - ICAD and Prepping Canvases

Another week of mostly small stuff but paint and paintbrushes were involved! Therefore I do have something to show for Paint Party Friday - Yay! - nothing major but I do want to participate.

This week (well late Thursday) I prepped some canvases, following Kristin's idea of using black gesso. Very cool!

4 canvases with black gesso - what a neat effect!

WIP -Started painting one of them ... but barely

I also continued with the ICAD challenge I mentioned the past two weeks - an Index Card A Day. 

Inspired by my Sea Thrift/Armeria

Fun with left over red paint

Watercolour inspired by my peonies and bleeding hearts - tied for my favourite this week

 

Acrylic and watercolour tulip - my last this year

 Doodling

Total silliness - my other favourite

And a non painted zen doodle.

More work on my weeding was done until the ants started biting me as I got too close to their hill in the middle of my flower bed! Still more to go, so I will visit all you magnificent artists between my outdoor efforts.

Hope you have a great time at the party! Happy PPF!

Sunday Sketches - The Canada Geese go for a Stroll

I have finally started my new sketchbook/journal "Walking in my World" based on things I see when out for a walk and loosely inspired by Julia Cameron's Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creativity. I haven't really started the exercises in this book and guess I won't for awhile as a friend wants me to do The Artist's Way with her, so that will come first. In the meantime though I will go with my interpretation of the title and sketch things I see when walking.

This week I had a lovely walk around a small island in the middle of the river. Lots of ideas for further pages! To start off, here is a Mother (Canada) Goose and her chicks walking in their world... for Sunday Sketches with Sophia at Blue Chair Diary.

watercoloured

original sketch

new sketchbook/journal cover

Hope you have a great Sunday! I look forward to visiting you!

Paint Party Friday - Week 13 - Painting Index Cards

June and outdoor activities call to me. Painting suffers. Does it for you too? I haven't touched the canvases I have "in progress" in some time. There are more dots on my pointillist tree but not enough to look significantly different. 

I have though been playing around with the ICAD challenge I mentioned last week - an Index Card A Day. Playing with watercolour crayons, watercolour pencils, watercolour pens, watercolours and acrylics, I've created some fun and very small pieces. 

Tried my new watercolour brush pens... but they acted more like ink than paint. A challenge to rescue this sky.

My favourite so far - watercolour background and acrylic flowers.

The watercolour brush pen worked well for the crow though.

Some great night skies lately... worth exploring!

A columbine/aquilegia from my garden.

 

Please join me on my deck for a Mojito!!

Have a great Paint Party Friday!! I look forward to seeing everyone's efforts! (Though if it's sunny it may take me awhile...)

Sunday Sketches- Let Me In!

Playing around with pencil and index cards for Sunday Sketches with Blue Chair Diary and Daisy Yellow's ICAD and this is what came out...

At first I thought she might be being arrested. But now I think she is locked out and is pounding on the patio door after a late night swim in the pool. What do you think?

I will be tackling weeds and edging today (unless it rains) so I may take awhile to visit all of you but eventually I will! Hope you have a great Sunday!

***

Oh!!!! And in other news.....after I don't know how many years of nary a flower - my rhododendron finally bloomed!! Yay!!

Isn't it gorgeous?! I'd even forgotten what colour it was.

And my wisteria bloomed too - rare for it, but it has happened. This time it was almost invisible - where the wisteria has shot away from its fence and intertwined itself with the green smoke tree on the other side. (Crazy wisteria.)

Great to see a flower finally (on one of 5 plants) even if I almost missed it!

Paint Party Friday - Week 12 - A Flower

Tough week for painting for me. I was busy with other things most of the week though I did paint a few things and hated most of them. Not sure they can be saved or not. Sigh. I did like this even though I added too many leaves in the wrong places...

Can't decide if I like it better vertical or horizontal... which do you prefer?

I also painted the second index card for ICAD - the challenge that I started earlier this week.

Not very productive .... oh well. How about you? I look forward to seeing what you did for Paint Party Friday!

Using my Pile of Index Cards - ICAD - 2 ways

As if I don't have enough things to do....

This week, I came across Daisy Yellow's summer challenge of an Index Card a Day - ICAD. And since I have a PILE of index cards on my desk.... this idea resonated with me. So I am playing along - 2 ways. 

The first will be as a fun and silly art experiment - and here is Day One:

Playing with zen doodles again...

And why, you may ask - do I have a pile of Index Cards on my desk? These cards are part of a system I use to keep myself organized. My friend Priti Lisa thinks I'm organized (um thanks Lisa!) and sometimes I am though other times I can be wildly out of control - you should see my house (and garden) at the moment. When I am organized though, I give all the credit to Index Cards and this book: Sidetracked Home Executives(TM): From Pigpen to Paradise. It suggests breaking all your tasks down into doable portions and making index cards for each. And then take out a card and do a task. Write down the date and put it away for a day, a week, a month, a year or more - depending on the task. Here are a few of my cards:

Time to do this one again!

Back on Track today!

So this is the second way I will participate in this challenge. I plan to do AT LEAST one task-related Index Card A Day! (Today I did about 10 - maybe I will start making progress again!)

Want to play along? One way or the other?