Visiting Germany

Yes, I am in Germany, Muenchen, (Munich) to be exact, staying with a friend for a bit. After a challenging summer and fall, I felt rewarding myself with this trip a good idea. Winter in Germany is a lot different that winter where I live, in Northern California. It is colder, although the first few days here were quite pleasant, almost spring-like. The snow returned, though, and yesterday we took a ride to Starnbergersee and strolled in the snow on the shores of the lake. Lovely. Snow on the ground, and light snow falling. Dressed for the weather, it was quite wonderful. I took pictures, but cannot upload from here. Later! I promise.

It's October!

How can the whole month of August AND the whole month of September have gone by since I posted? Well, of course I have been busy. Haven't done much art work, but have taken a couple of nice photos. I'll post one here--the lovely hydrangea on the alley side of my house. Last year it had 2 blossoms total. This year it has been lush, covered with blossoms, falling over into the alleyway. Early in its season the blooms are quite blue, but as time goes by the newer ones are greener, very interesting colors. This shot is midseason and I think quite enchanting. Hope you like it, too.

Green is Such a Challenge

Recently I had the opportunity to sit in a friend's back yard garden with my watercolors and my large Moleskine sketchbook. The variety of greens assaulting my eyes was almost overwhelming. I had thought I would do a full page of the lushness, but just had to scale down. So here is my page of vignettes, and another small piece, a watercolor postcard of the fabulous BLUE chairs. I must get out more.

Photoshop Final Project

So I have been taking this Photoshop class, as I may have reported. Here is my final project, a self-portrait. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although after I finished I thought of several other things I could have done. And this wasn't the FIRST thing I tried. For me, the hardest part is deciding WHAT to do. Figuring out HOW to do it is the fun part.

Twice in one day?

Somehow I got it backwards. The Weibel painting was done with the Winsor and Newton set, and the Campovida was done with the Sennelier. Does this really make a difference to anyone but me? Why did I bring 2 travel sets in my bag? The obvious answer is I am totally nuts. Duh.

Here I am!

It seems I'm just not a daily blogger. I always think I will be, but then life takes over and I do something else instead. But last weekend I went to several wineries in our beautiful Mendocino county and was inspired. I actually did 2 watercolor sketches in plein air, with other people all around! Sketching in public!

So, here they are. What do you think? They are 6" x 10", top one with W & N travel kit and pen and ink, bottom with Sennelier travel kit. It was a great weekend.

March already!

I have been taking a Photoshop class at the local community college, and our most recent assignment was to create a magazine ad for a product, real or imagined. Of course, there were required elements to use, such as scanning, using a gradient, etc.

So I scanned one of my marbled silk scarves to use as the background, and went from there. The class critique was today. I listened carefully to the input from the teacher and my classmates, came home and modified my piece; I agree their suggestions were improvements.

So here it is: I think it's rather nice. And all true! I wonder when I'll have time to make more of those fabulous scarves?