Fog and Sunshine

A big hello from me and this little fellow who visited our front yard this week. Isn't he a beauty?

The past few weeks have been quite a blur, dominated mostly by computer issues. We had two family computers encounter problems in the first part of May. My daughter's laptop was able to be nursed back to health. The family desktop computer where I do the bulk of my Etsy work (making art prints, etc.) started crashing and encountering unexpected shutdowns. We had it in for repairs twice and a technician visited here. Oh the time that was spent/wasted on it!

Last Friday, it started crashing again and I told my husband I couldn't deal with it anymore. On Sunday, we went and replaced it with a brand new iMac. We are now a two-Mac family. The black cloud that has been following me computer-wise continued this week with weird, ominous start-up error messages on our brand new computer that had the Apple technicians scratching their heads. Yesterday, I spent an hour and fifteen minutes on the phone with an Apple technician and we finally figured it out.

Next big challenge. My Etsy print files aren't printing exactly the same way. I am using the same printer but I am now using a different operating system and monitor. To say I've been feeling a little stress lately is an understatement. I have been waking up at 4:00 a.m. and can't get back to sleep because of thinking about the computer.

This morning, I started typing an email to my husband in the Google search bar. (Hmmmm...hello universe, can you direct this to the right person for me?) I began pouring coffee into a cup that was already full and I missed the turnoff on the highway--an exit I take all of the time.

I know that everything will be fine with time. Better than before. I am certain of it but still wish this transition was a little easier.

A sweet little bouquet gathered by Chloé. It still looks beautiful after a week.

I am behind in everything right now: my blog posts, Etsy team quotas, family responsibilities. I talk about home-cooked meals more than I make them. I haven't painted in over two weeks. There are still flats of annuals waiting for me in the backyard. Thankfully, Mother Nature has been looking after watering them.  The weeds have enjoyed that I've had my back turned to them and they have been sneakily growing taller than their annual and perennial companions.

Meeko keeps looking at me wistfully and occasionally doing this combination whimper/sigh that goes straight to the heart. I know what he's thinking--that a little more attention directed his way would be welcome along with a few extra walks.

What else? Emma turned 18 on June 1st. How did that happen? I am so proud of the wonderful, quirky (in a good, interesting way), beautiful young woman she is.

Emma's birthday cake. I did find time to make it!

Other news from the past couple of weeks? I sold two original watercolours to two separate buyers--both from Australia. I have sold many originals in the past but never on Etsy before and to so far away! It was quite a thrill. I have received lovely emails from both buyers confirming that they received the paintings and loved them. Phew! That makes my heart sing. I've talked before about how hard it is for me to let go of my originals. But when I know they are with someone who loves them, that makes all the difference to me. It's also encouraged me to add a few more to my shop and I'll continue to add originals every now and then.

I also have a couple of new prints ready to add to my shop but have been waiting for a day when I have both the time and enough sunlight to photograph them.

Emma finished school a few weeks ago. Chloé wrote her last exam this morning so the summer has officially started here. Did you hear that, weather? (Maybe it did, because the sun is out today.)

Oh yeah! I got my first pair of real glasses yesterday! So when the fog finally clears, I'll be able to see everything better than ever.

The view outside our front window very, very early yesterday morning.

She Loves Seashells

You can see that my shell painting has evolved and my painting table is covered with natural relics. I quite like the idea of living in a natural history museum. It suits me.

This is the kind of painting that I just love doing. The composition just evolves. I started with three shells and then just kept adding elements. The key is knowing when to stop and I'm almost there. Just a bit of detail and shading to go. These are from the beautiful seashell and sea glass collection that Cindy sent me from Australia. Tiny, amazing treasures.

Don't forget that you have until Friday to enter my giveaway for the little 'Snowball' original ACEO. You can enter here.

Fall Frenzy

If you've ever wondered if I do a lot of tests before finalizing my prints. Yes, I do...about a million of them. (Well, it feels that way sometimes.) It can be tricky to get the printed result to look like my original painting, especially when what I see on my screen tends to be lighter than my printed output.

I've learned with time that I can squish several 'tries' on one piece of paper by reducing and repositioning the image just before printing.  That has been a big paper saver. The image at the right is my final version. The late afternoon light is making them look a little darker and less sharp than they actually are.  I hope to have the print in my Etsy shop in the next day or so.

The gorgeous feather is from an Australian Ringneck parrot. It was part of the beautiful collection of feathers and shells sent to me by my friend Cindy. The colours in it are amazing. I showed you the original painting before.

I am in an intense preparation period. I'm two weeks away from delivering prints and cards to an arts and crafts show that I have been doing for over 18 years now. You would think that with all that experience, I would be very good at having my materials ready well ahead of time. No, not really. This time of year, I don't sleep so well (my brain won't stop), family dinners don't always make it to the table and everything else has to wait for my show delivery to be over.  So, of course, because I really shouldn't be painting, it's what I want to do the most! But instead, I will work on doing more prints and making some new cards as well as framing and packaging what I have already.  And, because I am distracted these days, Meeko seems to be trying harder to get my attention--not necessarily through the best behaviour.

The past week has been an interesting dependency test. We had a 'boil water advisory' for two days. It's the first time it has happened to us. (A pipe in a neighbouring municipality broke.) Then, our cable company announced that there would be interrupted service over a period of 72 business hours (depending on how many hours they count in a business day, that's potentially a lot of days!). We had no internet for half of the day yesterday. It's back today--for how long I don't know. Do you want to know something? I found it easier to boil water than I did to be without the internet. Fingers crossed that our street is fine now and they are off working somewhere else.

An Aussie Feather

My first Australian feather study.  So many beautiful colours in one feather. I'm going to try to walk away from it and leave it loose, without too much detail. Someone might need to tie my hands. :)

Across the World

When I began my blog nine months ago, I'm not sure that I knew what to expect. I was in the midst of resuming my painting career and I felt it was a way of making a public commitment to that. I knew I liked to write. I was an English major in university (not a surprise I suppose that I like to write). What I didn't expect was the friends I have made. Lovely friends in all parts of the world.

Last week, I receive some mail. Good mail. Really good mail.

One of my blogging friends sent me a collection of shells, sea glass and feathers from Australia. Thank you, Cindy. I hope you understand the thrill and joy I felt in receiving and opening your beautiful package. Aside from being a blogger, Cindy Lane is a wonderful artist, amazing photographer and an art teacher. She lives in Perth, Australia.

I visited Australia many years ago.  What an absolutely beautiful country.  Sadly, I didn't get to Perth. We did visit Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Cairns and Brisbane though. It was an amazing trip.

When I received my wonderful package from Australia, it felt good in so many ways. It was a beautiful gesture from a blogging friend and fellow artist. It was a collection of gorgeous natural objects from a country I love, not to mention that someone took the time to walk on a beach thinking about me. Pretty special.

This past week, I visited an art supply store--one of my happy places. I bought some new watercolour paper.  I have almost always painted on 140 lb. cold press Arches paper. I have painted occasionally on Arches 300 lb. cold press paper, Saunders 140 lb. cold press and, most recently, on Saint-Armand handmade paper. Having Cindy's beautiful shells as inspiration allowed me to test out some of my new papers. Here are three quick little shell studies (ACEO size) on Arches 300 lb. hot pressed paper, Arches 140 lb. hot pressed paper and BFK Rives 280 gsm paper.

Most every happy story has a tragic underside (English major bias I guess). Well, here is the one that belongs to this one. When I was photographing Cindy's shells for my blog, I was juggling more than one thing.  I had the camera around my neck. I had a blank stretched canvas propped at the side (and steadied with my knee) to reflect the light, as it was a dim day. I was using a tripod that was not quite at the right angle for my photo, so I was tipping it forward. As I was manipulating all of these things, the canvas slipped and fell. Do you ever have something happen in front of you and you feel that it is occurring in slow motion? This was. As it happened, I yelled 'Nooooooooooo' and it just might have been heard in Perth.  When I lifted the fallen canvas, everything was fine except for the two beautiful sea urchins that were smashed into many pieces. I am not a gazelle but I have a pretty good track record for looking after delicate things. These lovely objects had made it across the world intact and within 24 hours I had broken some of them. I cannot tell you how terribly sorry I was. Tears may have been involved.

My sea collection with two pieces from the smashed sea urchins at the top

Thanks again, Cindy, for sending me these gorgeous treasures from the other side of the world. What a beautiful place we live in.