The Web...

Woke up to FOG this morning~!!

Craig and I rode out to look at stuff and check water tanks and he took me to where I needed to spray the weeds...

However, I was seeing ...other...stuff....

COOL WEBS!



I bet these would make great backgrounds for digital images....should *you* not have webs of
of your own...feel free t snag these



I thought I had another shot that showed tons of gathered webs over the tall grass and rails of the fence





but I don't see it right now...









It has turned off no wind today (rare in SD)
and about 100...


hope you found a nice cool spot someplace today




thanks for visiting

Student Finishes 2 Projects

The past several weeks Shayla has been learning to work with acrylics and to blend..She had never worked in paints prior to class
These 2 projects were executed to enter into the 4 H arts division and she finished in time to do so.

I think Shayla came away with her lessons well...she learned a lot about blending paint and the kinds of brushes to use and why

How to incorporate the different products used with acrylic paint and how to begin to shade with in her painting project.



This project she also learned how to image transfer using her own drawing for the image.
Which i encourage for her future projects.

Lets wish her well to take home the ribbon!

A few postings below you can see these projects in their beginning state.

thank you for visiting..

The Growl...IDK...

Well...I am putting myself out here today...I don't usually paint open mouth expressions...and I have NEVER done teeth...IDK...this might not be a good idea but...I am gonna be brave and post.

The other day i posted camping pictures with Sarah and charlie growling...these represent my painting of that scene.




Here is #1 sketched into place expression and trees for the background














Adding eyes













I use all golden products and this time I gesso'ed the page of this journal
the pages are a cross between a canvas and a watercolor paper..a strong composition and it holds up to most anything i have ever done to it








The final glaze is quinacridone/nickel/azo gold
which went a bit yellow for me...so i blended some titanium white and gloss glaze for a lightening up treatment here and there...

practice journal spread...Charlie and Sarah

Have you Heard!

Birds gathered before the big storm last night...all the animals were out!
but the wires were full!!!
last night tornado's hit all around
downed lots of trees but as far as I am aware no injuries and no demolished buildings
i watched 3 tornado's make up then they went south

softball grapefruit and baseball sized hail fell just as close as 10 miles to the north of us
outed vehicles windows!
a full large grown man was shown on KELO land update holding 3 of the hailstones and his chest was full.
but today is beautiful
:)
and everything is is so lush green and clean..

Mr. TURTle!

It is WET around here! Driving up the road yesterday? the day before maybe I see this HUGE turtle crossing the road.
I mainly got out to make sure he would go across the road, as the drivers around here have no consideration for the critters
they run them over and think nothing of it...I try to save what i can...

He was covered in mud..from the little pond on the opposite side of the road.

I don't have anything major to report in about...been catching up cutting grass weedeating and such this week, the owner of the place I keep grounds for, was coming to town and I like things to look especially spiffy when he arrives.

I have begun a portrait spread...the growl...

Evolution...

This was quite the difficult painting on several levels. First i haven't painted a life painting in a LONG time. Next this child is soooooo pale then this day pinked up by the sun and I wanted the piece to reflect the days events.
Here is the very beginning of the project...I ended up many time with her looking just too old..more like her mother...so a lot of adjusting occurred




the pictures are backwards but I was finally getting her skin tone and then i added her eyes

























Here is the final glaze done i used..quiinacridone/nickel azo gold for the final layer...i think it helped lesson the pink and golden up the hair.












Hannah

ED

Meet Edward or Edwina...Ed for short..
Yesterday he either fell or was pushed from the nest...in the horrible heat of the day it was 110 under the eaves where the nest is...keeping the cement wet I think helped keep him alive and his parents kept him fed. His siblings didn't make it.
Probably another 2 days and he will be able to fly off...right now he can hover low and he keeps up near the wall.

This was the nest and that is the temp from this morning.

It isn't as hot today and yesterday!
I hope nothing eats him...and he learns to fly off...

We hope your day is going well
:)

A Cool Pond!

It has turned off rather warm today...in Platte, SD..not hot by my standards...I am from the south ..now it is HOT there!...
But close today...

I thought a image of a cool pond might help us. And this post had some issues
i am not sure if lightening didn't maybe hit it..it might make a cook background or beginning to a painting not sure yet

Here is the pond this is just a small part of it...it rambles along for the better part of about 8 acres..then spills into the creek..this is in our west pasture.

Sure hope the summer is going well for you!

Thank you for visiting.

Buried Treasure Post..

Participating in Seth Apter's 'Buried Treasure"

http://www.thealteredpage.blogspot.com/

I was surprised to learn I have been blogging 4 years!

3 years ago..I think... I was commissioned by "Laura Ingels Homestead" living museum located in De Smet South Dakota...I did three styles of boxes for them that year, this was my favorite though.

The "painting" is an elixir created from crushed glass, pigments and flux. Fired in the kiln, the "paint" becomes new glass...as the image fuses into the glass substrate...the boxes were constructed using bevels for the bottoms sides and an antique glass for the painted parts, lid and bottom. The solder lines were sculpted to finish the box decoratively.

Thank you for sharing this moment and helping me participate with Seth's collaboration.

In the Tub

In the back pasture are cows..they have a lake and creeks for water and also a tub. This said tub sprung a leak.

So we emptied the tub and located the source, an old drain thing.

Craig was thinking major overhaul project
had to get the fiberglass out and patch the thing.
3 day process.

So I asked him if we couldn't just use a plug like a cork...


Tub ready for action...
:)

So far...no more leaks!

Sometimes it is the simple version.

Preparation for Student's Session This Week

I spent today preparing for this weeks class with Shayla..we each prepared a background to use to paint this horse profile...(i decided i need practice as well and not just for the painting exercise but to create a PDF)..so I took step by step pictures along the way...I have more to place in the PDF
but these are highlights for each segment..




Here is the background...both Shayla and I did one
i sent her home to do the drafting in with pencil...


here is my draft





and here is my draft done enough for me to begin painting washes









I begin laying some undertones...








i used magenta and Jenkins green







several washes of light burnt umber with gloss acrylic glazing
and some hints of raw umber
with a final wash of raw umber with water







and here is the finished head

all products are golden and the substrate is
Cranson Acrylic paper
(a watercolor paper variation..but it is thicker)

River!

Rising up from the river..swampthing...
a mermaid....

noooo it's Hannah..she is a happy little girl
loves the water
Her momma and da auntie sarah and char and machelle
are camping at the river this week


Sarah and char pose for the camera!









This is the river view about 5 miles from our place



Expansive!!

Wild Weekend!

Sunflowers are my favorite! i have been waiting for them to begin blooming and today i found the first one (nearest me) open...

In the back pasture are all these really pretty purply coneish flowers
i have no idea what they are..just wild and not a weed...





and then this yellow cone kind of flower much like that herb echanacia which i can't spell and spell check is not helping
so sound it out...the pinky purple ones









then a little further back is a spill over for the lake we have back there...
enjoy the weekend!

Student Progress

Here is a little progress report with my students on going projects. This one is a day 1 background...it is a rather darkish background but a good one for learning image transfer. Taking her sketch..we transferred it 2 times to the background....then highlighted it some


Since the background is so strong it was determined that the horses would need to be vibrant and achieving that meant white/gray/dappled tones

So she went over everything that wouldn't want to be lost but will be darker later...such as harnesses and reigns
And then began the horse tones...


This is where she is at the end of the session
I think she is doing a super job!



She is learning to work with acrylics...exploring different substrates..and learning how to work with the mediums that are used with acrylics
today we basically worked with water....

Solder Sculpting Day 2 Studio!

The beauty of solder sculpting..is you do NOT have to be such a great solderer with the solder lines

such as for a large area on a panel or expressly for box making, or many small projects kaleidoscope's as another example.

Making boxes is a lot of trial and error...even after you finally get the box construction down

many don't go together so perfect...answer to this

is decorating the seams and lids

to take focus off a not so great soldering job!

Now..i have been soldering forever!!...my seams aren't so much a problem for me..but

i do not like a boring plain box...make it unique..give it personality...sculpt something on it

bring it to life...

these same techniques are excellent for small things ...like those microscope slide pendants I see sported all around...decorate the edges and give them additional flare...clean up some of the soldering by finishing the edge off with a pretty edge...without having to purchase extra stuff!

Learn it yourself!!!

Here is a box I constructed today with flowers on the lid...this one I am going to instruct in the video...I think it is very doable for any level...

You shall see the flowers and a dragonfly (in the upper right corner)...what gives the imagery its personality is finishing it with patina, or you wouldn't see all the great crags and strokes and dots...

Thank you for dropping by I appreciate every visitor

Have a terrific day/evening

A WHOLE Studio Day!!!!!

I had the WHOLE day for my studio...
so I built a box..
perhaps this little Octopus might be part of the decorative soldering magic series I plan to offer...I am not sure yet...he isn't "difficult" to accomplish...I think...I need to run it past someone who hasn't ever soldered in such a fashion before I decide...




This is how he began...a blob of wire...in my mind he is sitting on a corner of rock..






There are all kinds of crustacean embedded within
oysters, clams, fish, seaweeds...a mermaid and a lobster




I thought I had picked a picture with them showing but I didn't...they were sort of blurry anyway..

I hope you think he is cute...I enjoyed the day creating him

:)

4TH of July

means a time to reflect what our ancestors have sacrificed to get us to where we are today...

still free...

it is my belief that for the most part we take for granted our abundance...not realizing what we have until it is too late and taken from us.

Today this happens on many levels...

take a moment and be thankful..the little birds will be very thankful with the abundance of choke cherries this year...they make jelly out these here!

Being a blackberry fan myself I have never tried chokecherry jelly...they say it is good...

Enjoy your day!

The NEW culvert

I came home to the crew getting these off the trucks

The pipes have arrived to repair the culvert..you saw the erupted pipe in a previous post

the plan is to have cement headers hold this one down

it will be quite the serious drainage pipe!

it should be 2 weeks and the road will be repaired...

those are bugs on the windshield not raindrops...