Harvesting Has Begun ;-)

Harvest Shelly Beans, Lettuce Mix, Mixed Baby beets

{Edit: I have no idea how I manage to put this post here, it was supposed to have gone to The Edible Garden blog! My apologies if I have confused you! Stay tuned for more art!} This was my harvest Friday, Oct 21: Hopi Purple Pod beans in their pods weighed 2 pounds, 6 ounces. (the shelled beans weighed 8 ounces), mixed baby lettuces, 3 ounces, mixed beets and greens  were 1 pound and 12 ounces, the roots alone weighed 10 ounces.

Hopi Purple Pod beans as green shellies

Some folks have never heard the term 'shelly' beans. These are simply those sorts of beans that you usually eat as dried beans, shelled out fresh and eaten before they have dried. With frost a possibility any time the next couple of weeks I probably won't get too many pickings but it's nice to have them while I can.  Next year I'll start them much earlier and pick beans in the late summer through fall. When I have them then I also usually have tomatoes and peppers and make garden chili when ever things are ready.


On another note I have discovered another gardening blogger and just love her blog. I have probably spent most of the afternoon reading it! The Empress of Dirt, a woman after my own heart!

LADYBUG ROCKS

A Flock of Ladybug Rocks

After a couple of weeks with no time to paint I managed to paint a flock of ladybugs. I also took pictures and typed up step by step instructions and published a free tutorial: How To Paint Ladybug Rocks. I'm thinking about doing more tutorials, just not sure what to do next, after all, ladybugs are pretty simple. But then maybe some people would like more complex projects to work on?


So this is my entry for Paint Party Friday: I hope you will stop by and marvel at the amount of beautiful art that is all around us and the wonderful artists that share their visions with us.

Now one of the reasons I haven't gotten to a lot of painting lately is because I have been quite fixated on getting as much wall building done as possible before it starts freezing at night and I have to stop the concrete work. Also I've been working in my garden and last week got my first harvest of baby lettuce. Have loads of work to do out there before frost too. I will probably get back to painting more regularly when the weather cools off a bit more.

PS: I just discovered Marsha's Spot with a blog hop for Squidoo writers. Sounds like fun so I've jumped right in and listed this post for the first time.

No Painting this week ;-(

OK, it's been a bit of a crazy week and after work, then coming home to water the garden, feed the bunnies, feed myself, check up on all my web stuff, I have just been falling into bed. So I haven't got in any painting time. I did however, manage to make two calendars over on Zazzle using some past art, so here they are. If I get any thing done Friday morning I'll add it in, but not holding my breath!

Rock Art Dogs 2012 by maryhysong
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I used a lot of the rock art dogs I did back in the spring for this Rock Art Dogs calendar. And for the Cats calendar, I picked some of my favorites from my 30 Cats in 30 Days challenge from last January and February. There were a couple that were just not a good length x width ratio that I had to leave out though.

CATS 2012 WALL CALENDAR by maryhysong
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Italian Sunflowers

Italian Sunflowers, 18x24 acrylic on canvas

All right, was a very busy weekend with 2 birthdays parties, one Sat. and one Sun. And with my daughter and her 3 girls spending the night Sat. night.

But I did manage to finish the Sunflowers. At least I'm going to declare them finished because if I keep mucking about I'm liable to ruin them.

Besides I'm getting the itch to try them in watercolor.....


In the meantime I've added some of my photographs to items in my Zazzle shop.

Italian Sunflower by maryhysong

Sunflowers

Sunflowers, 18x24 work in progress

I have been working on these sunflowers some more this week. It is hard to find just the right shadow color for the big one that is back lit. I've tried several things and am still not quite happy with it.

I'm also really noticing a distortion from my camera; I'm getting a 'fish eye' sort of look, this shot isn't too bad but on some it has been real noticeable. I'm sure it's just a camera setting or something. Will just have to play with it some more.

I'm using Chroma's Atelier Interactive Acrylics. I like how I can blend one layer into the next, but I am giving some serious consideration to trying out some of the new water miscible oils. If you have tried them, please tell me what you like or don't like about them, or if  you prefer one brand over another and why.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers, 18x24 work in progress

One day in Italy we were driving to Sarnano to see the Carlos Crivelli exhibition and as we came around a corner we happened on a field of sunflowers in full bloom. Working from a photograph I took, here they are.

First I drew them, them went over the drawing with diluted regular black acrylic, adding some shading.

Sunflowers, 18x24 acrylic on canvas, work in progress

After the that I washed Raw Sienna over the canvas, lifting out some of the areas that should be the lightest.

Sunflowers, 18x24 acrylic on canvas, work in progress

Here I've begun working on the sky, mostly Cerulean and white with touches of French Ultramarine and Cobalt.

Sunflowers, 18x24 acrylic on canvas, work in progress

Then I darkened it at the top with more Cobalt. I went over the lightest petals of the main flower with white.

I've used some burnt umber and nearly every yellow in my paint box to start on the flowers. Slowly working my way down the canvas.

Bell Peppers

Tonight I decided to try out some more of the handmade paper that I bought at the paper making museum in Fabriano. This is colored a light green and has a smooth side and a rough side. I used the rough side. This quick study of bell peppers was done in Atelier Interactive acrylics. I didn't use much water with them because the paper is pretty thin and I didn't want it to buckle.

This one is done on the same paper with soft pastels and pastel pencils. I don't have a large selection of pastels so I don't have a lot of colors to work with, this was about the best I could do with what I have.

These were inspired by the exhibition I saw in Ascoli of Giulio Gabreielli's (1832-1910) work. He mostly used guache or oil on paper and worked in small sizes. It was really cool to see his little sketchbooks. Also very cool was the fact that many of the buildings and landscapes he painted are still there, in some cases little changed from when he painted them. The exceptions are the additions of electric lines and the exchange of donkeys and horses for cars and motorbikes.