Come on over to my other blog...

I'm taking a break from posting sketches so come on over to my other blog and see what I'm up to:

http://purplepaintsmuse.blogspot.com/

New watercolor sketch

I've gotten out of practice sketching, trying to do better at that... I did this pear study last night. Just a quick study, although I can see the pears need shading, they look flat. I've been working on my other art, collage, quilting etc and have not been keeping up on my sketching. It's hard to do it all!

If you'd like to see what else I've been up to check out my other blog:

http://purplepaintsmuse.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by, have an awesome weekend!

Tree trimming sketch

I did this sketch awhile back, in September. I had to go out and trim some of the trees and thought I'd take a break and do a quick sketch. My neighbor thought that was a little odd but oh well! I need to get back into sketching, I've gotten away from it a bit.

I'm still doing art, if you'd like to see what else I do check out my other blog:

http://purplepaintsmuse.blogspot.com/

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Hubby's hand surgery

Keep in mind, I'm not good at drawing people... I was so glad I took my sketchbook with us the day hubby went in for surgery on his hand. It was outpatient and wasn't supposed to take that long but we ended up being there almost all day. I did this spread, and another 3-4 while we were there. If I hadn't had my sketchbook I would have been bored to death!!!

Anyway, his surgery went well and he's almost healed up...

I've been doing art, honest...

My bad!!! I have been doing art, just not a lot of posting... I haven't been doing as much but I am still sketching, honest! I've been working and studying for work, and quilting... Anyway, I'm back!

I am thinking about merging this blog with my other one, it takes a lot of time to keep up two blogs... I'll let you know if I do. I have several sketches to scan but wanted to get something on my blog, I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging! I feel so guilty!

Anyway, sorry that it's been so long and thanks for coming by, have an awesome day!

Zentangled garden

This is one of the last spreads in the journal I just completed. I need to get busy and get out and sketch some real flowers! Fall is in the air and has been for awhile ~ which means an end to the flowers to sketch outside... I like fall, the leaves change and we have gorgeous sunrises, I'm not too thrilled about winter though.

This was a sketch I started of some flowers around the yard and never finished. So when I was finishing up my moleskine I decided to do some Zentangled flowers. I love the gradation of color that Margaret does over at http://waterblossoms.blogspot.com/ so I thought I'd try some different colors.

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

Another moleskine finished!

I just finished another moleskine last week! I've been busy but not doing too much sketching in the past week. I've been working on a crazy quilt piece, if you'd like to see it it's on my other blog:

http://purplepaintsmuse.blogspot.com/

I ran with hubby out to take his car to the dealership and didn't take my sketchbook! Of course we were there a lot longer than we thought we would be. I've been doing really good at taking it with me everywhere but forgot this one time...

Hope you have a great week!

Another twinchie sketch

This is another page of two inch square sketches. I went a little Zentangle crazy on the bottom. :D These are fun to do, trying draw this small....

It's feeling like fall today - it's 70 and you can definitely feel fall in the air! I have some iris I need to move and a couple of small trees to move too... I wonder when the aspen will start changing ~ might be a little early this year.

Hope you all have an awesome Monday!

Making zuchinni bread...

I just finished making two more loaves and some muffins of zuchinni bread. I'm having a bumper crop of zuchinni this year. Not any spaghetti squash yet, we'll see, it may have gotten planted too late. I've had about 6 cucumbers... not too good but better than last year. How do you like my "food processor?" LOL! I do have one but this little grater is so much easier to use and clean...
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Another big Zentangle

This is another full spread Zentangle in my Moleskine so it measures about 8" x 10". I learned to Zentangle from Rick and Maria, the creators and masters of Zentangle:

http://zentangle.com

You can get their kit with a mini CD on the different patterns, plus a pen, and 50 tiles! They're constantly coming up with new tangles, so check it out if you're interested...

We had hail last night, I'm so glad I had brought in my Stargazer Lilly the other day. I need to get a few sketches while it's looking good, it smells really good!

Hope you have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Hidden pictures

On a recent trip to the dentist's office I was so bored drawing the same old thing there, they had these Highlights magazines, I've always loved the hidden picture challenge! I decided to draw the cover of the magazine instead. When my kids were little I ordered this magazine for them just so I could do the hidden picture page, of course you can't circle them when you find them, it spoils it for everyone else... :D

Hope you have a great weekend!

Painting for sell on Etsy

I am really enjoying painting and sketching my trumpet vine flowers this year! I just added this ACEO (art card edition original) to my Etsy shop for sale for under $10. This measures 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and is signed and dated by yours truly... Excuse the blatant plug here:

http://purplepaint.etsy.com/

These are so cool to paint. The yellow and red bleed together, that's what got me hooked on watercolor in the first place, the way it can bleed and mix - very cool!

Now I need to get off the computer and do some art! Have a great day and hope you have time to do something creative.

Another weird plant

I told you, I love weird plants. I'll just let you read my journal entry about it... Still cracks me up when I remember the look on hubby's face when I wanted to buy it... I totally messed up on the pot but this was drawn in ink so no erasing possible.

Have a great day and try to squeeze in a quick sketch!

A new Zentangle

I finished shading this Zentangle last night. These are a lot of fun to do when you're sitting in the doctor's office and you've already sketched everything in the place. I have several new sketches, I finally took a few minutes and scanned them all. I'm thinking I should have shaded a little heavier on this one...

Hope you have a great day and find a little time to sketch!

Wishing well...

Here's a quick sketch I did of my wishing well. I kind of messed up the top of the wishing well, oh well, good practice. Last year I did a sketch with a watercolor wash of the same view but I had a clematis hanging over the well. Well, this spring a mole or vole took care of that and ate the roots off the plant! I didn't really like it anyway. I'm thinking about putting a trumpet vine in it's place...

Hope you have a great day and try to squeeze in a sketch or two...

Grain elevator

On a recent trip to Kansas to visit my mom, I did this really quick sketch of an old grain elevator. I think this took about 5 minutes. It was really hot out!

Have a great Sunday!

Torch Lillies

I sat out on the front porch and drew these the other morning. I wanted to capture them before they were gone for another year. It was actually a little chilly - only 56. The temps are already dropping in the high country, wonder if we'll have an early fall? And I could have sworn I've heard El Nino mentioned - maybe a snowy winter. That would be good! Especially after almost no snow last winter... Yes, I'm into weather, I guess I come by it naturally, my dad was a farmer and rancher until I was 5 or so and then he went to work for the State Department and was always watching the weather... I find it fascinating!

This is a sketch I did recently. Whenever I run out of things to sketch I do my hands or my feet. I guess I should practice self portraits... Summer is flying by and I can hear the weeds growing!!! Every time I go out it seems like there is a whole new crop of them!!!

Hope you have a fabulous weedless week! :D

An Iris

This is one of the irises from my yard. I wanted to sketch one of each variety but didn't get that done while they were blooming. I'm finding that I like drawing from life much better than from photos, your eyes can see so much more than a camera can... And I also notice now that I forgot to color the stem - oh well, use your imagination. :D

Have a great day and take a few minutes to do a quick sketch.

Blogversary giveaway!!!!

Okay, I'm finally ready!!! For my Blogversary giveaway I will be drawing one name next Monday, July 20th to see who wins both of these ATCs! All you have to do is leave a comment on THIS POST with your email address (example - purplepaint45 at yahoo dot com) and I will pick one of you!!!! If I can't get a hold of you I will have to pick someone else... Good luck! And thank you so much for all your support and encouragement! It's so nice to be back sketching, posting on this blog has helped me keep it up.

Thank you all for your comments!!! I did this the old fashioned way, wrote everyone's name down and cut them out and put them in a box and drew one name from the box and the winner is Nancy!!! Congrats!

It's my blogversary today!!!

I have been blogging for several years on my other blog, but last year I decided to get back into drawing and sketching and I started a blog just for that. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement! I'll be doing a giveaway... not sure what it will be yet... so stay tuned.

My blogversary is tomorrow!!!

My blogversary is tomorrow! And I won't be here! BUT, I do plan on doing a giveaway! Not for this particular piece of artwork but for one especially for this occasion. I'll post more next week.

Battle of the weeds...

Every year I have a battle of the weeds. Well, I start out with good intentions... I don't like to use chemicals in the back yard because of the dog and the veggie garden so I try battling them by hand. Of course after pulling several huge black trash bags full, I give up... There is just too much art to do to spend all my time outside pulling weeds! Think of all the drawing, sewing, beading, soldering etc. I could be doing instead!!!!

Fake flowers

I don;'t usually draw fake flowers but I was waiting for a Doctors appointment back in May and got there really early so I was drawing everything in the office. Although during the winter I may just find some fake flowers and draw them, that is if they look realistic...

I have a blogversary coming up! Stay tuned - I plan to have a giveaway...

My favorite plant store is going out of business

I recently popped into my favorite plant store and found out they were going out of business, what a bummer! This place was awesome! A perfect place to go in the winter when you're ready for spring - those of you that know me know this would be all winter long! You can read my journaling to learn more about the place - it was magical! If I had seen fairies there I don't think it would have surprised me! They would have been peeking around the plant pots and fluttering around the waterfall and pond.

And while I was there for one of my last visits I talked Stephen into selling me a clipping off this rare Dendrobium (probably misspelled) orchid. It's awesome! The leaves are like velvet and a very, dark green, almost black with red lines. It's gorgeous! He said it's very rare - I went online and looked through tons of photos of orchids but never ran across anything like this one.

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Rose sketches

These are some sketches I did the other night. I have a couple of miniature rose bushes in my front garden and I picked one of the roses and put it in a tiny antique jar that I found ages ago. I think I need to color some of the sketches in, it looks really blah with just black and white...

Mini paintings

Here are some miniature little paintings that I did last night. I haven't decided if I'm going to trade these or not. I might put them in my Etsy shop for sale. But we won't get into the discussion if you can sell ATCs or ACEOs (Art Card Edition Original)....

I had every intention of getting up and going out to weed the yard - the weeds are taking over! - this morning, then got sidetracked painting some more little mini roses, and then visited an artist friends gallery and now I'm ready to paint and sketch!!! Maybe I'll pull weeds for awhile and then do some sketching and painting...

Paintings of Garden of the Gods, Colorado

I just got back from Garden of the Gods. I never get tired of that place! It's so gorgeous there! I painted these 3 ATCs/ACEOs, they turned out better than the larger sketches I did! I have discovered I cannot paint when I am hot, and hot it was!

Look what I got from Margaret!

I just got this gorgeous hand drawn and painted ATC from Margaret Storer-Roche yesterday! Plus a gorgeous card of her work, and her awesome business card, she even decorated the envelope! I have traded ATCs for years and years but I don't think I've ever traded fine art ATCs. This is my first and a beauty!!! I'll have to get with the program and make some more for trade! I am definitely going to have to get one of those trading card frames at Michael's to put all these in!

Happy Father's Day and panning for gold

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Yesterday, Frank and I headed up to the mountains. This is my feeble attempt at a map, it's not to scale and the mountains look really childlike compared to the real thing... but it's just a map. I'll have to practice more...

I am a weather fanatic, I usually always watch the weather! Well, this time I didn't and we were planning on heading to the mountains to go panning.... Needless to say, in the future I will always watch the weather... We got up to cloudy skies and threats of rain but headed out anyway. I love to go panning. No, I've never found a big nugget, or even a small one. A microscopic one yes... I don't pan to get rich, I just enjoy the hunt, and it's good exercise. The hiking and lifting rock, try it sometime... Anyway I got in a few hours of panning before it started to sprinkle. We decided we'd better pack it in, and we did just in time. As soon as we got on the highway it started pouring!!! And it poured for the entire 2 1/2 hour drive back to the Springs!!! But we had fun and it was so nice to get out of the city!!!! You get so caught up in the routine, it's so nice to break it! We'll have to head up to the mountains more often!

A couple of ATCs

These are a couple of ATCs I just did this past weekend. I wanted to do some more and some fabric ones but I didn't have time. These are fun and fairly quick to do.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado- another sketch/painting

After a disappointing early morning treasure hunt (garage sale-ing) I decided to grab my watercolor sketch book and head down the road to Garden of the Gods. It's very busy this time of the year with all the tourists, but they're nice and we have to share our beautiful places. It was a beautiful sunny day, which was really nice after all the cloudy weather we've been having! I really need to get out and do more sketching while it's nice!

Lilacs sketch

The lilacs bloomed beautifully this year! One of my bushes was just loaded! I brought in a couple of sprigs and put them in a huge ball jar I have. Back when I was doing just painting I would do a watercolor still life with lilacs every year. You really have to draw fast to capture them before they wilt. They usually only last one day. They smell so wonderful! I really wish they could bloom all summer! One of these days maybe I'll post some photos of my paintings...

Another Shopping sketch

Back in May when I took my daughter's shopping again I found some interesting things to draw. I loved the pig with wings! This was right about the time the swine flu news came out so maybe unconsciously I was thinking about that, or maybe the fact that I need to go on a diet...

I'm behind on posting!

I'm behind on posting! I started the next Moleskine before I finished the last, so here is one of the first sketches in the new Moleskine. My sweet husband brought home these gorgeous orchids for me on Mother's Day ~ notice that it has two stalks blooming! How cool is that?!!!

Another Moleskine finished!

I finished another Moleskine in May. I think this is the 4th one I've finished. I like to spray all the colored pencil sketches with Pym II, it's a protective sealant.

I've been so busy recently with my son graduating that I haven't had time to sketch daily, but I always try to do some kind of art of everyday, even if it's collage or cardmaking or quilting arts etc...

Might be time for a beer

I rarely drink anymore. Occasionally though a nice cold beer just hits the spot. I might have one of these tonight, my son is graduating from high school!!!! I am so proud of him I could just explode!!!!

You know it's funny, at the time you don't think graduation is that big of a deal but when you're a parent it takes on a whole new meaning!

More Twinchies

Here's another twinchie page - each square is 2". I didn't come up with the name, someone in the collage world did after everyone started doing inchies... These are fun to do although sometimes each little square takes as long as a full page spread... There are a couple of stamps up in the left corner that I picked up at a yard sale, they're all metal so I'm assuming they're very old. The Chiquita stickers in the bottom right corner are the actual thing, I'm not that good at drawing - yet. :D

8" x 10" Zentangle

Here's another large Zentangle that I recently did. These are a lot of fun to do when you're just not feeling very creative or can't think of anything to draw.

I'm trying to do better at posting daily or at least more often, we'll see how that goes...

Happy Memorial weekend! Hope you have a safe one!

Funky succulents

Like I said, I like all kinds of "different" houseplants. I love these two and lithops ~ living stones ~ although I don't have any lithops right now. I drew these while I was chomping at the bit to get my garden planted.

Pitcher plant sketch

I sketched this back in April. It's one of my "weird" plants. I love weird plants! I need to repot this or cut it off and start a new one...

Life has been busy! End of the year and one of our kids is graduating from high school this year! Woohoo!!!!!!!! So I need to get busy and clean the house, not one of my favorite things to do. It's so much more fun to just do art and ignore the housework... ah well. Who knows, maybe I'll sketch another vacuum! LOL!

If I don't post again before this weekend, have a safe and relaxing Memorial weekend!!!

The garden is planted!

This is a recent sketch I did of a fake hydrangea I have and my hand holding a paper. I just noticed how weird my hand looks...

I've finally planted all the seeds in my garden!!! I planted spaghetti squash, patty pan squash, zucchini, cucumbers, 2 watermelon seeds (they never seem to work for me), some leeks and lettuce. I have a really small garden so I just squeeze it all in...

Happy Mother's Day!

For all you mom's out there, Happy Mother's Day! Here's hoping you have a relaxing day and get to art all day!