Art in My World

Perkin's Rowe Glimpse Been trying to complete some more watercolor pieces with trees in them. We are suppose to be painting summer trees, but with all the beautiful color here in Louisiana, who could think of green? One cloudy morning I drove around town getting a few pictures of some colorful trees before the upcoming storm could wipe all the leaves into the ground, and came upon this little scene. The colors were just striking: what with the store front and the orange tree to the side. I think I will try in this in oils too at some point.   Anyway, I was able to send in three pictures to my art instructor in London this week. Below is a redo of one of the Grand Canyon trees I can't seem to get right. 

The Lone Tree When the children were very young, only the first two were born, after dinner all four of us would cross a busy road/highway to spend the last hours of daylight walking down our "country road." Luke and Jarmon would scamper about looking for rocks, bugs or whatever little boys dream about. We would bring a plastic wagon their grandmother had given them for Christmas one year to pull them alone when they got tired. Ruth came alone later and she joined us, first in a front pack and then in the wagon. It was a magical walk full of laughter and chatter. So peaceful and calming after a hard day.

A Little Orangey We had this assignment: to paint this seascape using two complimentary colors on the color wheel. I chose yellow-orange and blue-violet. All colors must be mixed from those original two. I have much to learn about waves and rocks and seagulls and atmospheric perspective. One must look boldly at ones mistakes to move forward... So far I am the only one who has used these two color combinations.  I actually like the use of the colors, it just needs a bit better execution in the waves and a little less chroma and somehow make it all look less busy? This actually was my third try :)

Homemade Household Cleaners For a long time, I had a problem. Whenever I would clean the house and the bathroom I would come down with a huge headache, a cold, or I would feel nauseous. After years of feeling this way, who could blame me for not wanting to clean? Then I realized, maybe it was the cleaning supplies I was using? After looking at the ingredients and reading the side affects online of these cleaning products it was clear that they just had to go. Part of me bought all the lies that unless I used these products my bathrooms and counters would not be clean, especially if I did not use bleach. So, I read around a bit and realized that by using simple ingredients I had around the house, like baking soda, vinegar, and salt, and by adding some herbs (which actually I had been using to make some medicines and body care products)and some essential oils, I could make great cleaning and wonderful smelling products. The smell of these cleaners are an extra bonus and therapy. N...

Just Down the Lane I was blessed to have grown up in Virginia where we actually had four seasons. Summers were great, but the weather would begin to turn crisp and you knew what was about to happen. I never tired of looking at all those yellows, and oranges and reds that would magically appear on the trees. As a child my mother and father would take us hiking in the fall looking for beaver dams, or up into the Blue Ridge Mountains along Sky Line drive...there never was a prettier sight than all those trees in full flame! Every now and then Louisiana will burst out with a tree here and there full of color and it brings me back to those Fall days as a child seeing those trees in all their glory. Each season has something about it that is special, something different to look forward too. God is good to give us this change!   Tried my hand a little bit this weekend with fall trees...I tried and tried, but ended up liking the first painting the best. It did not come out like I had...

Smoky Mountain Sunshine     Continuing to tackle trees in my watercolor paintings. With this one I added the challenge of a bit of sunshine and fog. I like the background affect, but realize now I am not comfortable doing the foreground. What does one do with all that space? How can I vary my brushstrokes to add interest? And how do I learn to add atmospheric perspective with watercolors? I think I am off to do another tree painting, this time fall trees lining a path...

Muffin in a Mug Many of you know I have been battling with my weight for a long time. One thing that I have learned is that due to our American way of eating, many of us suffer from what is known as insulin resistance. So, I have been on a journey to find a way to cook for my family, many of whom suffer from more severe gut issues. A dear friend at church steered me to a book called Trim Healthy Mama. The basis of the book is two types of meals. Each meal has its own fuel to burn, one being good fats, the other good carbs, but never the two shall meet! I was skeptical about the recipes they provided, for many of them looked so easy. The ingredients were not your common ones for many who have not yet tried to get rid of carbs, but for me, who lives at Whole Food, and who has been trying to get rid of certain flours for the past year, many of the ingredients I was at least familiar with. So I thought some of you might enjoy these recipes, and as I find ones I like I will share. T...

The Right Path In my watercolor class, hosted by a very talented man in the UK, we are beginning our adventure with trees: how to paint them organically, how to make them convincingly real by the use of shadow, how to paint the layer of branches...trees, to me, are as hard to paint as the human form in all their complexity. I am looking forward to the challenge...and I am off to paint more trees! This scene is from one of my favorite places: the Smoky Mountains in Cades Cove. Suffice to say, there will be many more paintings coming from this area!

  I have fallen in love with this drink: Kombucha. It is a fermented tea full of probiotics. I first tasted this strange drink when one of my sons was diagnosed with ulcers of the colon. We wanted to try staying off milk products, but needed the benefits of yogurt. So...our journey began into fermented foods...and we came across this tart, fizzy drink called Kombucha. From the first sip we were hooked on the stuff, but the price? Not so much. Little did I know that there was a whole fan club full innovative people who make this simple drink at home, and why not me? Besides the cost of the "Scoby"--it stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast--and the cost of the bottles for a second fermentation, one just needs a gallon jar, some tea and sugar. Many people drink it plain after a first fermentation period, but I like to flavor it with fruit, pack it into these cute bottles and let it ferment again for a real fizzy drink. What You Need Ingredients ...

The Smokey Mountain Haze There is something only water colors can do: creating a misty, transparent atmosphere. It is the transparency of washes that makes water color so appealing for me. One of my favorite places to hike as a young girl were these mountains. The summer of my senior year I spent a month in an old CCC camp blazing trails and having a true bonding experience with 12 other crazy people. Since that summer I have loved those mountains, and when my children were still young: Robert not yet born and James still a baby, we began introducing my children to the wonderful experience of hiking and camping. I took thousands of pictures and hope to one day paint many of them some in water colors like the one above and I will try a few in oils; but water colors captures that blue haze that ever seems to haunt these mountains. 1994 Our First Trip   This was our first trip to the Smokey Mountains. It was hot in Louisiana so we were little prepared for 32 degree cold fr...

  Its been a lot harder to get back into the swing of painting...much harder than I ever thought. This month in the Complete Artist website, we are concentrating on the sunset and the colors it brings to the clouds and surrounding area. As I write this I have already gone back and made changes to this painting...the disadvantage of paint that takes forever to dry...you can't quite let it go until it does. I am happier with this one compared to my first try. Simplicity is best, I think.  

Violet and Yellow Sunset I keep coming back to this picture taken hastily as we drove away from Las Vegas towards Death Valley. It was a beautiful sight all covered in violet with the sky lit up in yellow. Some of my road shots are my favorites...time to get painting again.   

Symmetry These little beauties pop out of the ground without any warning. One day you may notice a stalk and the next thing you know they are blooming. They don't last long, but in the South their presence means: Fall! We are still experiencing 90 degree weather here in Louisiana and temperatures only in the low 70's at night so I am surprised they decided to show their heads at all!     

Clearing out the Cobwebs Life is returning back to normal after all the happenings this summer. It will certainly go down as the busiest one yet and the most memorable so far. As I clear out the garden of its weeds, harvest the last of the herbs and vegetables and ready it all for a quiet fall, I am reminded of the intricacies and complexity of life. Its the little things that get overlooked and yet are so important. I love how God gives us pictures in nature to remind us of that. For the first time in months I broke out my paints. One has to start small after so long without a brush in one hands, so I did a small gray scale painting of a scene I had worked on a while back. In the Complete Artist group, they are working on sunsets, first in gray scale and then in color, wet on wet. Maybe tomorrow I will tackle that! In the mean time, it is good just to be painting again!     

There is something beautiful and a bit miraculous to hear a sermon, composed by a man, and yet the words spoken cut straight to the heart of what we needed to hear. Then you realize, yes Fred spoke the sermon, but God created it just for us, for that particular hour. It was balm indeed to our grieving hearts. How Jesus Reveals Himself to Man

Lemon Balm. I have grown this plant for years, but not until recently did I know how many various uses this plant provided us. In the herbal medical community it is known as a carminative, a nervine, an antidepressant, and antimicrobial. This means it can calm the digestive tract, calm our anxieties, relieve tension in our bodies; it has a tonic effect on the heart and circulatory system; and when added to lotions, the extract has some antiviral activity when applied to the skin. So I harvested some today and created a few items: For a Lemon Cleansing Cream I made a lemon balm hydrosol. Hydrosols are wonderful, especially rose hydrosol. One day I will write a blog entry on how to make a hydrosol, but in the meantime, look this up on the internet. There are some nice videos on how to do this. So after making my hydrosol I created my cleansing cream: Lemony Cleansing Cream 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons of apricot kernal base oil. You can even make an infused lemon balm oil to use ...

    When I lived in the country, my husband built me a large pantry full of shelves, particularly to store the many canning jars accumulated over the summer season. There was a great sense of accomplishment, when during the fall months I could look upon the hours of labor, knowing there were months of food ready for eating! It was also a pretty site, all the colored jars lined up sparkling with goodness.   I couldn't resist doing a little bit of canning this week, so I chose some easy jam recipes to get my feet wet again. Here are the two I tried. One turned out bright red (no added food coloring needed), and the other: a pretty orange.   Orange Plum Jam 5 cups     finely chopped pitted plums 2 tbsp      grated orange zest 1              package regular powerdered fruit pectin 5 1/2        granula...

  Chamomile is a pretty fernlike plant with small daisy-like flowers. Who knew that in this little package so many good things await. In a world full of stress and sleeplessness a good cup of chamomile tea is a great remedy. Fresh flowers are always best, but dried will work just as well. This tea not only helps with anxiety, but it will settle a sour stomache.   Chamomile Tea 2 tsp of dried flowers 1 cup of boiling water Pour water over flowers and steep for 15 minutes. Strain and sweeten to taste with honey or sugar.   Lately, after my children have struggled with ulcers and colitis, I have been on a long journey to learn more about herbal medicine. When I first began learning herbal medicine way back when my children were first born, there were not many opportunities for learning, but with the advent of the internet, access to knowledge and online classes have been a great help. Many companies have been birthed selling the hard to grow herbs too...

A Welcomed Guest While harvesting some dill weed to dry and the seeds of the flowers, I came across one of the caterpillars who love this plant: the swallowtail butterfly. Way back when the children were little, and I was new to gardening I found these black little, little caterpillars all over my dill and fennel plants. I thought what a fun project for the children! So, I cut off some of the branches and put them in a large gallon glass jar along with plenty of the plants they seemed to love. We were in for a wonderful adventure full of amazing surprises. We carried that jar with us where ever we were...out to the barn, on the table while eating and doing school, into the livingroom during devotions. The caterpillar kept eating and growing. It shed its black coat for a pretty striped one, and it still kept growing and eating. We kept filling the jar with more food, and then one day we were rewarded with an amazing and strange sight. That caterpillar turned into a chrysalis and I...

Pineapple Sage Down here in the South this plant seems to weather well over the winter coming back strong and healthy. This plant has a heavenly, fruity scent both in the leaves and the flowers. It goes well in fruit salads, in fruit smoothies and teas. Though it tastes best fresh, it dries well and holds much of its flavor for a great cup of winter tea. So today I went out into the rain and harvested a bunch to dry for later use and made myself a cool smoothy afterwards: the weather here being hot and humid! This is the third year I have gotten to enjoy this plant. Later on in the summer I plan to make some cuttings to grow a new generation.   Pineapple Sage Tea (Spring or bottled water is used so as not to overpower the delicate pineapple flavor with any water-related aftertaste) 1 quart spring water ½ cup packed fresh pineapple sage leaves 3 T honey 1 lemon or lime Bring water just to a boil and pour over the sage leaves. Stir in ...