Art in My World

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.