pajarritolindo

The production of pants

2009-04-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've had pants on the brain for a while. I'm not a fan of those tight legging type pants for babies and Conor only has 2 pairs of wide leg pants that still fit. Does a baby really need more than 2 pairs of pants? Probably not, but seeing as how he's too little for sunscreen this summer I thought a pair of linen pants would be perfect. I tweaked a Burda pattern 9711 to make this pair. They're roomy, but I think the tight striped onsie, makes them appear bigger than they are. Sadly, the onsie will have to be retired after today, but I had to pair it with the pants. After all, the day may come when my son doesn't allow me to dress him as a French sailor...
The crocheted blanket he's sitting on is a gift from a good friend of my husband's family, Madeline Percoco. We've received several beautiful handmade blankets for Conor, and this is one of my favorites.

Welcome Conor!

2009-02-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

Our latest and most flawless project was completed February 13th and is going to be taking precedent over any projects of the sewing and painting variety. Not that I was a very prolific blogger to start with, but I'll likely be posting even less for the next few months, if that is possible. I do have a large stretched canvas awaiting a painting for a very important client (you know who you are), and a baby sweater to finish knitting, but otherwise my craftiness is limited to having a donut and coffee while holding a bottle in place with my chin. Until then..

Poladroid

2009-02-09T08:24:00.001-08:00

I recently stumbled about this site where you can download a free software program onto to convert digital photos into polaroid-style images! The program adds a polaroid camera icon to you computer that you then drag your photos into. It then spits them out and you can even 'shake' them with your mouse until the color comes in. Brilliant! I need to figure out if I can print them...

Watch me use serendipitous

2009-01-23T08:21:00.001-08:00

During a very serendipitous afternoon a few weeks ago, we came into a lovely old rocking chair.

We had gone to fabric world in search of 1960s style buttons to sew onto an old coat I picked up at goodwill back in the summer. We came up empty handed and I still don't really get how they stay in business, when they haven't rotated their inventory since 1972? Anyhoo we decided to go into St. Johns for lunch. On the way there, we walked past an vintage furniture shop and decided to pop in. We had been thinking about getting a rocking chair, but were unsure where we would fit it in our tiny house.

There were a few small rockers in the shop, but they were expensive and not quite appealing enough to shift furniture around for. Then we came upon our landlady whom we hadn't seen in a while. She was on bike and picking up a great old piano bench. We mentioned we were there looking at the rockers when she said, 'Oh you need a rocking chair? I have one on my porch you can have. Why don't you swing by and drop my stuff off and pick up the rocker?'

Never ones to pass on free, and knowing that she has excellent taste, we stopped by and voila there was this perfect sized old style wooden rocker with a padded seat. I liked the original fabric fine, but it had a small stain and I can't really resist an opportunity to buy new upholstery fabric. I also wanted to add some cushioning to the seat to make it really plush. I ended up getting the fabric with the little birds at bolt. I wasn't sure about it when I got it home but now I lurve it and it goes great with these. I meant to photograph the re-upholstering process since we re-did the webbing and built up the layers of cotton, but somehow between being a bossy flossy control freak (no! staple here!), I forgot the camera.. Thanks to my husband for his infinite patience. Oh and I did find some great big black buttons at the same shop.

Winter blast 2008...

2008-12-20T19:50:00.001-08:00

is good for making cookies.

Hot Stuff!

2008-12-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

2 posts in one day! Unheard of.
I've been sewing potholders lately. It all started with this book. I love the faux chenille ones, and they're so quick and easy. I hope to make some more for holiday gifts. I mean, who doesn't need a potholder?

Nature abstract

2008-12-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

Acrylic on braced luan

I painted this the other day in a frenzy to produce something to fill a blank spot on our bedroom wall. I gathered some leaves and pine cones while out walking Vinny and used them to start drawing shapes. It's rare that I paint something with our house in mind. I usually like to have other people's art up in the house, but can't afford any large pieces.

Abstracts are not usually my thing, but it's growing on me..

Around the corner

2008-12-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

I keep passing this corner when I walk Vinny. I wish I could find some wet cement to draw in and watch it fill with moss.

5 minutes a day...

2008-12-05T16:03:00.000-08:00

I jumped on the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day bandwagon a few months ago. Thus far I haven't veered off the basic recipe. I ought to try some of the wheat bread soon, but I guess I haven't tired of white bread yet. I've been known to eat a half a loaf right out of the oven with butter and honey (gluten anyone?).

The basic recipe is also really versatile. Aside from free form loaves, you can make sticky buns, pizza dough and dinner rolls with it. I'm still not certain how they calculate the 5 minutes... but it is quick and easy. Not to mention that simply knowing I can whip out some sticky buns at the drop of a hat makes the world brighter.

It's starting to get cold outside

2008-11-21T15:50:00.001-08:00

Pillow Talk

2008-11-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

I am so excited about these pillows! I'm excited because it's my first project using freezer paper stencils which was so easy, and I'm excited because it's the only thing I've finished in the past 6 months.
We got this uber masculine Ikea couch this summer which I love, but it was in need of a feminine touch to balance it out. Vinny has taken our former couch pillows out of commission, and so I wanted to make some large comfy pillows that could easily be washed.

I drew out some plant silhouettes onto freezer paper using some cuttings from our eucalyptus tree for inspiration.

Then I used an xacto knife to cut out the design and ironed the freezer paper (shiny side down) onto the grey cotton canvas fabric.

I used Jacquard textile paints to fill in the stencil. I wanted something bright against the grey, so used 157 Flourescent Violet and 105 Scarlet Red.

I let things dry overnight and then peeled back the paper and ironed over the print on the reverse side to heat set it.

I know it's only a matter of time before Vinny claims these as his own, but I'm trying to reason with him.

Yes!!

2008-11-05T07:30:00.001-08:00

Yes, we have old bananas!

2008-10-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

I only like to eat bananas when they're green. If they're not firm, I like them blended up with milk and cinnamon, like a licuado from my Mexico City days. When they get past licuado stage, it's time for banana bread.

This is the 2nd or 3rd loaf I've made from the Bon Appetit Cookbook, I checked out from the library. It's the perfect recipe. Super quick and easy. The bread is sweet, but not too sweet and always comes out moist and perfectly formed. It even tastes better after a few days. The recipe makes 2 loafs:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups sugar
1 cup solid vegetable shortening ( I use butter.... ymmmmm butter)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 c buttermilk
3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 6)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter & flour 2 9x5x3" metal loaf pans. Mix flour, baking soda & salt & set aside. Beat sugar, shortening (or butter), and vanilla in large bowel ( I use my Kitchen Aide mixer). Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well in between. Mix in flour alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions each. Stir in mashed bananas & nuts and divide batter between prepared pans.

Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool loaves completely in pans on rack. Remove from pans. Wrap loaves tightly in foil & store at room temperature at least 1 day and up to 3.

Yea... I've gone as far as 5 days, but I'm wild like that.

Moccasins!

2008-09-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

These moccasins are a birthday gift from my mom. They arrived today and I couldn't wait to put them on. Never mind that my birthday isn't until next month. I'm not one for waiting. I've been wanted a nice pair of comfortable moccasins for ages. I saw these in a shop in Sun River, but they didn't have my size. I ordered these from Minnetonka Moccasin online shop. Yea, ok my mom handed me her credit card, but that's just how we do gifts sometimes. I was originally going to go with a pair with the thunderbird beaded design. My husband (and sometimes fashion advisor), let me know that they looked like something a 50 year old housewife would wear and to go with the plain red ones instead.

My apologies to any 50 year old housewives who read my blog. Personally, I don't consider that description to be a negative, but he's been questioning my 'taste level' since we started watching Project Runway. I decided to heed his advise this time and have no regrets. Since I scaled down my shoe addiction, I no longer have a red pair, and these are so versatile and comfy. Thanks mom!

One can never have too many moccasins, so I do still see a pair of these in my future. Maybe in pink or yellow for Spring?

angry goat people

2008-09-25T14:22:00.001-07:00

I sat down to paint today for the first time in months. I was drawing on this left over block of poplar wood and kept erasing ideas. It went from bathing beauties to these funny looking goats with angry expressions. Eventually some of the underlying drawings merged together and the goat faces became people in a park. These photos are part of the same painting, but for some reason, when I shoot the whole thing, it's blurring, but detail comes out clear? I hadn't used acrylic in a while. I had forgotten how the quick drying time allows you to draw over things. The result is a sort of sketchy drawing/painting, which I like. I feel like I should have gotten more painting accomplished today, but I ought to be happy that I did anything. Maybe the goat people will lead to something. Baahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Prince and the Pea

2008-09-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

Our cat Sebastian is in love with his brother Vinny. He took over Vinny's dog bed to be near him, and forced Vinny to the couch. Now he tries to snuggle with Vinny on the couch, so Vinny found a new perch atop three pillows. He likes to be comfortable and who can blame him really?

Err Where Did August Go?

2008-09-02T07:49:00.001-07:00

Hard to say really...
It went swimming quite a bit.
It took a trip to the Oregon Coast.
It took an awful lot of naps and walks in the park.
It read some good books and watched some movies.
It went to the State Fair!
It didn't really make much in the way of art, but September is here now and I've got big plans. BIG PLANS I SAY!

Smoothies all week!

2008-07-13T08:54:00.001-07:00

Friday we went berry picking at Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island. At first we were a bit hesitant to pick a lot because we're not really jam makers and I'm not sure how many blueberry pancakes and boysenberry crisps I can eat. I can drink a smoothie however. In fact, I can drink one every day. So, we picked with the goal of having smoothies every day for a week. I may need to work on my food photography. I don't think the yellow table helps... but this morning's boysenberry, raspberry yogurt smoothie is delicious!

Tuesday!

2008-07-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

Yep it's Tuesday. Now that I work 4 days in a row per week, Monday is the hump day. After that it's a breeze.

Here's a new encaustic painting. This one was done a little differently. I painted some of the flowers with oil paint directly on the wood, and then fused a layer of clear encaustic wax down. Then I painted a few more flowers in oil paint on the wax layer, and fused another layer of wax, etc etc. I like the way the oil paint goes on the wax, and then certain colors sort of break apart when you fuse wax on top of them. There are some cool effects to be had and I may try it with portraits.
24 x 11" encaustic & oil on braced birch wood panel. SOLD

Fuegos Artificiales

2008-07-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Lastnight was obviously the 4th of July, but also the one time of the year that I was able to play with the 'fireworks' setting on my new camera! I love the blurred effect and soon realized I was watching everything through the camera instead of in real life. We took a lot of pictures, but will only display 5 here, lest you all already have digital cameras and tired of the fireworks setting back in 2000. Likely, since I tend to run 8 years behind technology.

After a good bbq and some street corner fireworks (pictured above) in SE, we stopped on the Morrison bridge to check out the city display. I usually avoid downtown during the 4th, but it was pretty cool to see hoards of people stopped on the bridge looking up at the sky and oohing and ahhing. If we do it again, biking is the way to go.

Moonflowers

2008-07-03T14:56:00.001-07:00

12 x 12" Original Encaustic painting on birch plywood.

I've had 2 encaustic paintings in the works for some time that I wanted to finish up today. This is the first one. I'm really happy with the darker background with the light yellow oil paint rub over the top. These particular flowers look lunar to me, thus the name. The 2nd is drying before I can add more wax, but nearly there. Both will be in my shop soon.

In other (totally unrelated) news, I've decided to stop using shampoo again. Thick, curly hair reportedly does better without it. I went without before for a time, and noticed good results, but then started shampooing again for some reason that I can't recall. The only problem is you have to go through a grease ball phase first while your hair adjusts. Time to break out the headbands..

Goodbye June

2008-06-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe today is the last day of June. It's been busy with relatives and a new dog. I also painted our living room twice and we held a mildly successful garage sale. Those professional RV- garage sale folks are a little intense in their quest for guns, ammo and antique military memorabilia.... Sadly we couldn't accommodate any of their initial requests, but did send them away with a cast iron dutch oven. Which reminds me, I've got to order these for camping this summer!

And the picture? That's Mt. St. Helens. I grew up in Oregon, but only went there for the 2nd time last week. It's spectacular. I still recall sweeping up our driveway on the coast, collecting ash from the explosion to save in tiny jars. I don't know what became of my jar. I wish I had it now. I would use it to launch a curiosity collection. Burnt toast in the likeness of deities and such...

2 days at the Beach

2008-06-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

We just returned from 2 days at Rockaway Beach. The sun rarely comes out for me when I visit the Oregon coast. We packed winter coats and expected to be bundled up inside this time, but the weather turned out perfect.

Our rental was right on the beach and perfectly cozy. After the back deck with the fantastic view, the next best feature of the house was the kitchen. Eggs cooked in a pink pan on a pink range, just taste better.

Vinny proved himself to be a great beach dog and even smiled for a photo!

Vinny keeps an eye on things

2008-06-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

We've had Vinny for a little over a week now. I'm loving taking him for walks, but at home he can get a little restless. Yesterday I tied three leashes together and set him up on the front porch so he can wander in the house and out to the sidewalk freely. He immediately chilled out. Vinny likes to keep the neighborhood in check and watch the skateboarders. He's a porch dog.

Hummingbirds

2008-06-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

9 x 9" oil on oak floor tile
Here are some hummingbirds I've been working on for my mother in law. I still need to coat them with resin. I hadn't painted birds for a while so it took me a while to get back to it. I love birds, but I seem to enjoy painting humminbirds more than any other kind. They can be so colorful and strange. Now that they're finished, I think I'll work on some more birds for the shop.

It's a Boy!

2008-06-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

I think we're welcoming a new member to our family today. Monday I was taking a nap after work and Shawn woke me up to say there was a pug on the Humane Society website and they were open for another 20 minutes and did I want to go visit him. We'd been loosely keeping an eye out for a small dog, and so in a sleepy haze we went to visit. He's a sweet one, though a bit out of shape (he and I both...) and with a skin condition that hopefully can be cleared up with a good diet. His name is Baylee (pronounced Bailey) and I'd hate to change since it's been his name for 5 years, but I guess it's all in the tone right? We'd like to name him Vinnie, though I figure we could also get away with 'Bay Leaf' pretty easily and he might not detect a difference.

It's Pie Day!

2008-05-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

Some dear friends are getting married today and celebrating with an evening bbq, and we're bringing pie. Shawn's strawberry rhubarb is on the left and my apple is on the right. This is his 2nd strawberry rhubarb pie in a week and if it tastes anything like the last one, it's delicious. I loathe forming upper crusts, so opted for the heart cookie cutter crust, which seemed appropriate. Both recipes are from the Joy of Cooking. I venture away to more exotic cookbooks but always come back. Their basic pie crust is really the best.

It's in the bag

2008-05-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well, instead of finishing the paintings I've started, I launched into another one this weekend, so no finished projects to share just yet- though I think I'll show some works in progress later..

I wanted to share this photo of some small paintings I shipped out a while back. I rarely buy prepared surfaces or canvases for painting, and instead lean towards painting on what I have on hand. When I started making small paintings to sell on Etsy, they were all on these nice wooden blocks a friend had given me or on recycled floor tiles. I wanted to protect them in shipping, but didn't want to just wrap them in bubble wrap. I ended up making these little envelope pouches out of left over canvas and using the vintage buttons I've been collecting, with no project in mind, for years.

A lot of my paintings lately are too big or thick to fit into these nice envelopes so I think I'm going to have to scavenge for some more recycled tiles this weekend.

Rhodies

2008-05-25T08:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we took a break from house work and visited the Rhododendron Garden. Growing up with rhodies everywhere I thought they were run of the mill and kind of ordinary. Cover an entire park with them howver, and let them grow to mammoth proportions, and they're extraordinary. Oh and its free after 6pm, which is how things ought to be.

Home

2008-05-23T12:33:00.001-07:00

Encaustic on hand built birch wood panel 12 x 24"
This is the finished piece with the bird transfers I was working on yesterday. I'd started out last weekend, making an encaustic painting of the bird house in our back yard. I wasn't sure where it was going to go, until I figured out the tranfer method yesterday. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I added some collage elements with the thread and painted over the surface with oil paint in some areas. I did a raw umber oil paint rub over the entire surface to accentuate the texture of the wax, which gave it a nice antique look. I also finally figured out a satisfying way to sign my encaustics using the letter stamp tools I bought months ago.
I've got some hummingbird paintings, flower tiles and another larger encaustic flower piece in the works and I'm aiming to get them all done this week. There truly aren't enough hours in the day.

Wax transfers

2008-05-22T12:04:00.001-07:00

With some trial & error, I'm learning how to do image transfers onto wax. This is a detail of a larger piece I'm working on. It's not quite finished, but I'm really excited by the possibilities of collaging images onto the wax. This is how It's done
1. make a xerox copy of an image
2. heat the wax surface where you want to apply it so that it's soft, but still solid.
3. place your xerox image face down on the warm wax.
4. burnish the image - I rubbed the back of the paper with a wooden spoon, but scissor handles seem to work well too.
5. If you're not sure the image is completely transfered, you can heat the back of it with your heat gun- but not too much!
6. apply warm water to the back of the image with a sponge and rub gently.

If all goes well, the image will have transfered onto the wax and the paper with rub away. In some cases, part of my image rubbed away, but even then, the effect is pretty cool.

This is all I could get in before work, but I'm excited to get back to the wax tonight. Though the season premier of my absolute favorite show is on tonight, which could set me back..

Garden favorites

2008-05-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

I remember when we first moved into this house and bought plants at a furious pace. We couldn't wait to have a full garden. Five years later, we're nearing plant capacity. I miss visiting the nursery and picking out plants based solely on flowers and foliage with little regard to how big they might actually get, but it's fantastic to wake up and see what's blooming in the garden.

We've even committed a few plant names to memory, and euphorbia is no longer 'that prehistoric guy'.

¿Cómo se dice? ¿Cómo se llama?

2008-05-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a chance to see Obama speak at the waterfront on Sunday, but heard from many who braved the heat and walked for hours only to find they couldn't get anywhere near the stage. A 75,000 turn out in a town of 568,380 is pretty amazing.

The Oregonian has a great photo set of the event on Flickr.

It was projected that Obama would win the Oregon Primary by a large margin, but even so, driving by his election headquarters after work and seeing the excitement outside got me a little misty.

Acid green is the new black

2008-05-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm completely smitten with my new digital camera. It's a Canon PowerShot SD750. I haven't figured out all the features yet, but can't get enough of the color accent feature. It picks up a predominant color in the scene and turns everything else black and white.

Today was really hot. We went to a swimming spot on the Washougal River. There's been a lot of news hype about people dying from shock after jumping into the freezing rivers. I only took one dunk and it was absolutely what the day called for. Perfect.

Primary Flowers I & II

2008-05-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

A pair of new 6x6" encauastic flowers for the shop.

Silver briefcase mystery

2008-05-15T07:56:00.001-07:00

We went for a walk to the park last night and upon return, this was sitting near the curb by our house. We thought about opening it in case it contained a million dollars in unmarked bills, but the 2nd theory was that it contained a bomb, so we decided to leave it be. As of this morning it's still there..

More waxy flowers

2008-05-15T07:51:00.001-07:00

24 x 11.5" encaustic on braced birch panel.

Strawberry rhubarb pie

2008-05-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

I made this tasty pie on Saturday for a birthday party. It came from the same cookbook that I got the sticky bun recipe from. It appealed to be because it called for a crisp topping instead of the double pie crust. The top crust kills me every time.

As per the recipe, I was to have enough dough left over from the bottom crust to make a lovely leaf design around the top rim. I got three leaves out of it.

The top crisp was still pretty dry after baking it. Maybe it had too much flour? I remedied that with some gobs of butter melted over it. No such thing as too much butter right?

Next post is about painting, I promise!

front porch barber shop

2008-05-03T15:35:00.001-07:00

It's a sure sign of Spring when haircuts can take place on the front porch.

I've been cutting my husband's hair for about six years. I used to cut my own hair in high school with sometimes disastrous results. I'd like to think that I've since improved, but occasionally still have an off day. There's no method to my cutting. I'm an intuitive barber. Sometimes it works out and sometimes.... well, it will always grow out. I suppose that was also my grandma Barb's philosophy. I just didn't see it that way when she chopped off my carefully feathered bangs in fifth grade.

Encaustic flowers

2008-04-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

5 x 6" encaustic on birch panel
After much experimentation trying to translate my previous flower paintings to encaustics, this is what I've come up with. There's really no controlling wax, which is what I sometimes love and sometimes hate about it. This was a good compromise. I was able to control the wax to some extent and do some drawing in it, which is fun, but there's also some lovely 'mistakes' where the wax blends and does what it will.
They are happy little paintings for Spring, and the best part is they smell fantastic!

Have a good weekend Ms. Petersen

2008-04-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

I'm off to the beach for a blistery & possibly snowy weekend. Maybe I'll finally get a
chance to watch my library movies.

I don't have any new art to post before leaving, but after some trial and error, I figured out a method for translating my floral paintings to wax. I have one done so far, but two others in the works, so I'll post them when I get back. I'll also be posting the other paintings I finished in my shop next week.

Oh and the posting title? I live next door to Safeway and so despite it not being my favored grocery store, I seem to find myself there nearly every day and sometimes three times a day when I'm being especially forgetful. Every time, when I punch in my club card number upon checkout, the name 'Amanda Petersen' prints out on my receipt. The checker then looks at the receipt, hands it to me and says 'you saved $2.03 today Ms. Petersen.' I never thought to correct them, why bother? Today I was running out and I forgot something at the checkout stand. I heard someone yell behind me, 'oh wait.. Ms. Petersen!', and I turned around. I guess after 4 years of being called Ms. Petersen, I'm conditioned. Just who is this Amanda Petersen I wonder, and why do I have her club card number?

Self portrait with glasses

2008-04-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

I rarely wear my glasses. Only to watch movies with subtitles and to drive at night. I could probably stand to wear them more, but my glasses are a tad large for my face. Since I don't wear them daily, I went for the cheap big chunky black frames. I usually spend too much on designer frames, and well I wanted some heavy duty glasses. The kind you don't lose or break, and that you can't see the edge of when you're wearing them.

I nearly went for a pair of red "Sally Jesse Raphael" frames. I remember when these were all the rage. I didn't wear glasses at the time, but my mom got a pair. I think my sister and I must have pushed for it, but I was so proud that my mom had these cool glasses. Strangely enough, the SJR frames were marked down heavily at Kaiser. I myself am getting too old to accesorize ironically, but surely these must make a comeback. It fits in with the 80s, and well, they are surprisingly flattering.

Painting with gnats

2008-04-14T07:35:00.001-07:00

Oil on birch panel 6 x 6"

After painting my imaginary flowers, I moved on to paint some actual flowers in our garden. I sat my stool down to paint a red tulip, but ended up painting the bleeding heart instead. I hope the tulip doesn't mind.
I battled swarms of gnats to paint these. They were out in force. Some met an untimely death in my palette. You'll be happy to know that none are buried in these paintings however.

In other news, I received a lovely email from Etsy seller/blogger Jade Scott, who posted about my Edie prints in her blog.. She makes great jewelry (lurve the necklaces..) and has some fantastic deals in her shop right now. Aside from her own work, she also posts great finds from Etsy. Thanks to her blog, I now see 100 more things I need to own.... sigh.

Spring is here!... or at least it was yesterday

2008-04-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

6 x 6" oil on birch panel

Yesterday was gorgeous. In the 70s and perfect for sitting outside and painting. During the week, I had worked on two different 'people with glasses' paintings, but they were looking too forced and weren't working out. I took that as a sign to veer off into some imaginary flowers. These were really fun to paint. I mostly paint from observation, so it was fun to to paint from imagination for a change, and just lay down different shapes. While I did these in oil paint, I think I'll continue the idea with encaustics. More to come... who says that winter time is more productive for people? I get way more accomplished with some sunshine!

Really great music

2008-04-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

We went to see The Avett Brothers lastnight. Wow.... If you haven't had a chance to see them live yet, you really should. I couldn't believe the amount of energy they have. It was the best concert I've been to in recent memory. After having not seen any live music in maybe a year, we're on a concert going frenzy this week and seeing Cat Power Sunday night. I've always wanted to see her perform. There really is a lot of fantastic music out right now. I haven't been this excited about new music since high school really. I mean I was a grunge fan in college, but let's face it, most of that music was really awful. I still love Fugazi and Husker Du but I'm just not going to listen to it while I work in the garden.

Back to painting..

Fred Terry Drives his tractor

2008-04-05T18:46:00.001-07:00

6 x 6" oil on birch panel

Just in case you though I'd only be painting men in glasses...

2008-04-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here's fair-goer Aunt Fannie Johnson Smith.

Park Ranger

2008-04-03T19:31:00.001-07:00

6 x 6" oil on birch plywood.
I'm posting a photo of this painting, taken with my sad little digital camera, so my apologies for the poor quality. I'll replace it with a scan once I gather a few more paintings to take to Walgreens to scan. I really ought to buy a scanner. I'm just not sure where I'd put it. Living in a small house means surfaces are extremely valuable real estate. If I buy a scanner, where would the printer go? I could move the printer on the file cabinet, but then where would the serger go? and so on...

In other news (can we really call it that?), I can't stop listening to She & Him.

Cowboy Harry Webb

2008-04-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Harry is a sharp dresser, plus he just so happens to wear glasses, thus meeting my new portrait criteria!

I'm having a lot of fun painting skin tones. I used to mix primary colors together with white to get this putty tan tone that made everyone look like Barbie. I'm now onto a better technique of keeping the colors separate so you can see greens, yellows, pinks and blues in the skin tone. I'm much happier with it. I'm still painting with the first tubes of oil paint that I bought to experiment with. It's amazing how much longer they last compared to acrylic paints. I have every color under the sun in acrylic, but with oils, I've stuck with the primary colors plus a yellow ochre and a raw umber. This is forcing me to mix more of my own colors and also just keeps life more simple. Both good things for now.

In other news, it's supposed to reach a balmy 60 degrees today!

People with glasses.. a series?

2008-04-01T07:44:00.001-07:00

6 x 6" oil on birch plywood
Back to what I like to paint best- people with glasses. Not sure why. I've been trying to push myself to do abstracts or more mixed media work. I'd still like to, but what I really enjoy most is painting people wearing glasses. So I'm not going to fight it for a while.

oh hello again

2008-03-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some small encaustic paintings I did a while back. I'm still experimenting with different techniques with the wax, and meanwhile am back into oil painting. Wax and cold weather aren't as compatible as I had hoped. I'll start posting some more oil paintings tomorrow. I'm not outright promising a new 'nearly daily painting', but secretly just between you and me, that's what I'm hoping for. So, I need to get to painting tonight, just as soon as I tear myself away from harpoon lagoon.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

Dear sadly neglected blog.
We had a lovely Spring brunch yesterday. We are lucky enough to have fabulous cooks as friends, and had an insanely plentiful potluck spread.

I tried out a sticky bun recipe from the Bon Appetit Cookbook I got from the library. I get nervous with anything that requires flipping after baking, but they were so tasty that any malformations in the flipping went unnoticed.

Where is the rain?

2008-01-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

I've been eyeing rain boots for some time. I walk to work and am generally trudging around the city more often than most.. and it's rainy here. Or at least it was... until I splurged on my super fancy Hunter Wellies. I love a classic green rain boot. Polka dots and plaid is fine mind you, but not for me. Not really. The classic wellie may now be high fashion due to Kate Moss Glastonbury Music Festival circa 2006, but I can't bring myself to wear rain boots in dry weather. That's ridiculous. Like the Queen, I will await a proper wet and blustery day to sport my wellies. Let's just hope it's soon.
The cold spell has also been poor company for encaustic painting. I can only have one heating element on in the shed at one time before blowing the breaker. I can either keep myself warm, or the wax, not both. I did manage to finish two small pieces and nearly finish a larger one before my toes froze.
It has been good knitting weather however...I'm on my third scarf and hope to break into hats or gasp sweaters next.

Candy Rings

2008-01-12T15:54:00.001-08:00

6 x 6" oil on birch panel

I've always said that plastic is my favorite gemstone.
These small paintings were done last week. I'd been thinking of painting my plastic ring collection for some time. I didn't realize it would be so much fun. They remind me of little pieces of candy.
Note to self- always do at least 2 paintings of an idea.

Mail Art

2008-01-04T08:12:00.001-08:00

My friend Leslie is an avid Mail Artist (that with a capital 'A' Leslie in case you're reading), and recently organized an exhibit of mail art at Central Library. I wasn't familiar with mail art or ATCs at all until I met Leslie, but had fun making the two collages above to send in for the library exhibit. There is indeed something wonderful about art sent via the postal system. I used to write long letters to friends with comic strips and elaborate gift packages. Now it seems I can't even type out an email. Apparently email is outdated now anyhow, and while texting is growing on me slightly, it's no match for snail mail. If it's not too late for resolutions, I think I ought to send more mail in 2008. I'd also like to receive more mail, other than the credit card offer, free tanning session variety...
Portland's DIY alert blogs about the library's mail art show here, and you can view the entire show online here.

2008

2008-01-02T10:41:00.001-08:00

Here are some tamales to keep you satiated while I get back into painting mode. We made them for a Christmas Eve party using a recipe from my favorite Mexican cookbook.. I've always wanted to make tamales. It was time consuming, but with good friends and old school rap music to dance along to, it was a blast and they turned out delicious!
Now that the New Year is here it's time to get back to art. I've been busy knitting, sewing and baking the past months. Crumy weather seems to bring out the domestic in me and makes getting out into the art studio/shed more difficult. The weather is still crumy granted, but the wax and paint are finally calling me so stay tuned...

Fairy Nice to Meet You

2007-12-18T10:25:00.000-08:00

Number one on my niece's wish list to Santa this year, was a 'squishable' fairy doll that she could sleep with. Let me just say that as a child that would tear out brand name toy ads from the Sears catalogue to adhere to my own wish list (I couldn't risk any confusion..), I was impressed with her lack of materialism.

My sister couldn't find a soft fairy doll anywhere and efforts to turn up a plain rag doll to turn into a fairy were also futile. That's when I said 'geez, I could make a fairy doll.' How hard can it be? I made a rag doll with my Grandma Lilly once...

Three days later and much cursing.. (I think in hindsight I merely watched Grandma Lilly make the doll)...this is the result. I'm quite pleased with it. Ok there were some unforseen details. The cute round face I carefully embroidered underwent some cosmetic changed when the head was sewn together. The cute pouty lips ended up on her throat, and the little chin I embroidered became a necklace. The hands are a tad club-like, and as my sister noted, she has some slight edema in her left foot. For a first effort fairy doll however, I'm damn proud.

My sister designed the lovely dress. I helped by sewing closed the arm holes, which were later torn out. We also learned that while sewing elastic you have to pull the elastic taut if you want it to maintain elasticity after you attach the skirt. I think I heard Grandma Lilly laugh at us and shake her head upon this discovery.

The wings are on order from Ebay and then she will be complete. If my niece does not worship this doll and sleep with it everynight, my sister has promised to box it up and pull it out at her 30th birthday to make her feel appropriately guilty.

P.S. The cookies are done the cookies are DONE! phew....

Early Bird Craftacular!

2007-12-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

The cats got me up at 5 this morning. I couldn't go back to sleep. Usually when this happens I read, but I just finished my book so instead I made stockings! I lost track of my childhood stocking, and the felt one I made for Shawn is falling apart. I planned to buy some fabric this afternoon to make stockings, but decided this morning to forge ahead with what I had on hand. I'm glad I did. The brown is much more folksy than red and green. I lined it with some fun print fabric I bought years ago... probably with the intention of turning it into a skirt.. It's a bit lumpy in the photo, but has since been ironed smooth. I did the design by first tracing our silhouettes onto thin tracing paper. I pinned the paper down to the fabric and walked my sewing machine foot over the design. Once I'd sewn over the image, I tore away the paper to leave just the stitches. Tedious but faster than hand embroidery. The antlers are cut from some circular patches I got at SCRAP years ago. We don't have a fireplace. I hung them by the gas heater. I don't suppose Santa will shimmy down a gas heater, but like a fireplace, it is a heat sorce, so it just made good sense.

The Christmas Card You Won't Be Receiving

2007-12-01T22:24:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking about silhouettes lately. It started at work. I was asked to gather books for a grade school teacher who was teaching a unit on the American Colonies. I gathered some history books, as well as books with titles like 'The Blacksmith'. I also found some books with crafts from the colonial period. There was a page on the lost art of silhouette making. I recalled the familiar grade school project of outlining your face on black construction paper and gluing it down on a white background. It was so satisfying and fun to see how recognizable shapes are, even without all the details. I also really admire the work of Kara Walker, and love what she does with silhouettes. Anyhow all of this was on my mind when the topic of Christmas cards came up. We agreed we should make our own this year rather than buy them. I have a Gocco printer and all we really needed was a simple design to get started.
The photo shows what I came up with today.

I thought it showed a lot of potential. This is just the initial drawing mind you. It was to be printed in color with perhaps a wreath surrounding the deer. A little bit art nouveau, a little bit silly, but you know simple, obviously personal and kind of fun... I was ready to go. That was when my design got vetoed. Something about no way in hell my better half was going to let me send cards with his profile on a prancing deer to relatives and friends. Whatever. I still think I'm going to embroider the design on a pillow, or even make stuffed Christmas ornaments with the same motif. If you receive a store bought card from us this year, it's not because I didn't try.

All bitch, no stitch..

2007-11-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to knit for a few years now. I've checked out countless books from the library and recently tried viewing knitting dvds to get the hang of it. I managed to learn to cast on and knit, but could not figure out how to purl for the life of me. It started to make me really mad. I can learn anything from a book!
Last night I gave in and signed up for a beginning knitting course here. In 2 hours I learned a much easier way to cast on, a more comfortable way to hold my needles (My diy method was to jam one needle in my stomach), how to bind off a project, and how to Purl!!! At long last. The teacher was fantastic. She encouraged us to just keep knitting. Any mistakes along the way at this point are to be considered 'decorative design elements'.
So that's my homework this week- Knit endlessly to establish a rhythm. It's not so easy for me to keep going once I make a mistake, but I look forward to having something to obsess about in the evenings when it's too cold and dreary to make it out to the shed for painting. Watch out friends and family-- custom knit scarves with ample 'decorative design elements' may be coming your way this Christmas.

Things I've been doing other than blogging

2007-11-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

1. Went to see FEIST. Who was phenomenal.

2. Admiring this strange yet wonderful item on Etsy

3. Cleaning out the shed/studio yet again..

4. Reading this and this. Oh and this too!

6. Oh and figuring out how to insert clickable links in my posts...

I did also manage to get some small acrylic paintings up in my shop over the week and I'm up to two full pages for the holidays, which has me feeling very accomplished.

I also got my Edie prints back from the printer and was very pleased with the results. He did a fantastic job matching the color and the quality is 100 times better than what I got back from the online service. Lesson learned- go local. Even when it means visiting a dreaded gated community.

The next two days I will be in a furious wax melting mania. Cross me heart.

Fish out of Water

2007-10-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

I went to visit a local printer today to get giclee prints made of the Beales paintings. I had tried an online printing service, but the prints came back really flat and acid green in color. No good. So I found this guy online who is a retired engineer and husband of a great watercolor artist and made an appointment with him for this afternoon. He works out of his home in a rich suburb. I sort of knew what to expect because of the address, but when I got there I found a gated community! I hadn't entered a gated community since living in Mexico City. You could say I'm uncomfortable with money. Sure, I've had wealthy friends. Eccentric son of foreign diplomat money I can deal with. Suburban office working, beige carpeted Mc Mansion type money makes me twitchy, and a gate and buzzer.. well that just doesn't register. Driving around I felt I was going to be issued a citation simply for driving a car not of this decade.. or the last for that matter. I was thankful at least that we had fixed the car window so I was able to ring the buzzer at the gate without getting out of the car. The printer was nice enough. Very polite and experienced. I like the idea of knowing who is printing my paintings and having him work from the actual painting rather than a digital file. I pick up the prints on Tuesday. Wish me luck..
After leaving the land of large lawns and suburban bavarian architecture, I headed back to my neighborhood hardware store to buy some EnviroTex Lite Resin. The cashier did a little orchestra conductor dance as he rang me up. Then I went to Starbucks to thieve some stir sticks. Yup I'm workin' class.
Why the picture? All blog posts ought to have one- and well it's a perty day.

Edies are scanned, and completely clothed

2007-10-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

I've been using the scanner at Walgreens. I usually wait until I have 3 or 4 things to scan before I go, since it seems wasteful and silly to get a cd of just one image. Tonight I walked over with three paintings to scan and returned an hour later to get my disk. I was given three disks by a guy who said he was new. "It just started spitting out disks" he said, "I thought it was kinda wierd". errrr ok. I thought maybe he burned each image on a separate disk and took them home to investigate. Nope. I got my scans, plus 2 disks of somebody's naked pics. Artful nudes really. Tatooed ladies frolicking in the forest sort of thing. I really wanted to post one on my blog. In fact I almost regret returning them as I type. It was the right thing to do though. Should I be involved in a nude forest frolicking photos session, and my photos were to fall into the wrong hands, I would hope someone would do the same for me. Then again, it's doubtful that I would entrust them to an 18 year old boy working the Walgreens photo booth....
So no naked pics, just Big and Little Edie in all their modesty.

35 too old for colored jeans?

2007-10-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

errrr no-- not when they're bright turquoise and 17.50 from Old Navy! I guess you'd have to be 24 to justify the $68 pair at Urban Outfitters however..
I try to stay away from Old Navy, just as I try to avoid Forever 21. Cheap clothes, made in Madagascar... but it was my birthday and there was nothing fun at the thrift store... and they're bright turquoise.
In other news:
It's a beautiful Fall day
I'm melting beeswax in the kitchen
I finished the Edies! Just have to let them dry before scanning
I started watching Bonjour Tristesse with Jean Seberg and it's taking all my strength not to run to the nearest salon and get an adorable pixie cut.

Phone for you

2007-10-09T08:56:00.001-07:00

I finished another encaustic painting! I'm loooving playing with drawing into the wax. I've got to get some more supports built this week to keep going. I've been bracing thin birch panels with pine strips of wood to creat sort of a box that sits out from the wall. I've left the sides wood on this piece, but I may paint them white.. I could really use my table saw, since I've been using a hand saw to cut the wood and it's really slowing me down. I sort of like the less than perfect results you get with handtools however. Someday we will have enough space to store all my art supplies and tools...
Meanwhile I sold a painting on Etsy! One of my favorites "Beauty and the Bird", so it's off to the post office today and I have some $$ towards a much needed digital camera yipee!
Lots to do today.... but first off to the gym.

Sidetracked with the Beales

2007-10-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yea!! I just got my new encaustic paintings posted to my Etsy store. It feels so good to finally post new things. I hadn't posted much all summer since, as usual I decided to switch gears and learn something new, when I was just geting into a rythym with oil painting. Fun for sure, but it doesn't amount to many new paintings...
But alas a pause from the encaustics to finish some long neglected Beales paintings.
I've got this small little Edie just about finished- just lacking some minor touches, but I'm really happy with it.
My intention this morning was to paint a partner canvas- same size but of big Edie. Leave it to me to get sidetracked. Instead, I started a new larger canvas of a scene with both Edies on it. I 'd really been wanting to see both Edies together and to paint larger, so I'm glad I went with it. It's drying now so I can get back to work on it tomorrow-- and also Big Edie's portrait. I swear...! Must have Edie prints done for Christmas.