PAINTING OF MILHAM PARK SLEDDING HILL

 

For my second painting I chose a photo I took several years ago at the Milham Park sledding hill in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  I have fond memories of sledding there as a child.   I hope they still allow sledding,  it is a golf course.  The nice thing about this hill is that it gradually gets steeper at one end and fades out to a very gentle slope at the other,  so all ages and skill levels can enjoy it from two year olds to dare devil teenage boys.

For a few years right after college,  I spent some time in Texas and got into a conversation with a co-worker about snow at Christmas.   He was very concerned about the snow and asked with a worried tone, "How do the kids ride their new Christmas bikes?"   I was stunned.  I had never thought about bikes for Christmas and replied, "You don't get bikes for Christmas!"    Then it was his turn to be shocked.  No bikes for Christmas?   What do they get?  I quickly replied,  "We get sleds and ice skates!"   Of course, what did he think?  It was a clash of cultures.  I don't think he had ever been north of the Mason-Dixon.

Another thing he had probably never done.    Make snowmen.........

• See more of my photos at:      https://www.flickr.com/photos/36275350@N06/

• 
  

WINTER SUNRISE BREAKFAST

 

The sky was ablaze with color one morning as the sun neared the horizon.  I grabbed my camera and ran out to capture the sunrise.  After taking several photos, I realized I had taken a picture of a squirrel having his breakfast up in this tree.  He is sitting there in a crotch of the branches silhouetted against the pink and lavender sky eating an acorn or a walnut.  

Several years ago I made a series of squirrel pin/pendants for my fall collection of ceramic jewelry.  The squirrel is holding an acorn and I made acorn earrings to match.  I still have some and will probably put them out at the next West Michigan Potters Guild Fall Show.

• See more of my photos at:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/36275350@N06/
• Find out when the next WMPG Show is at: https://www.facebook.com/WMPottersGuild/

• 
  

  
  

WINTER WALKABOUT

There are only two of them now, but at Christmas there were four.  

Sometime in January there were three and now there are only two.  Every day they make their  rounds of the neighborhood.  Many days I see them walking past my front door or they greet me on my way to the mailbox.   Other days I just see their foot prints in the fresh snow   They are noisy too sometimes.

Many years ago, I when I started making holiday themed ceramic jewelry, I made turkey pins and earrings.  I have sold out all of them,  but still have these examples in my own collection.

• See more of my photos at:

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/36275350@N06/

PAINTING AGAIN

PAINTING AGAIN

     Last October I finally began painting again after several years of thinking about it.  I never seemed to have the time, but seeing the bright orange and yellow trees out my window every morning inspired me to make time.   Some of my tubes of paint had dried up,  but there were enough to work with and my pastels were still in good shape.  I also found a couple small groups of colored pencils.   I began with a sketch and a watercolor(y) wash using acrylic paints to lay in the general color areas.  Then I intensified the colors with pastels and defined some edges and details with the colored pencils.  I had tried for years to capture sunlight in my paintings and finally I think I have been able to get the values right. This painting of trees in blazing autumn color is drenched in sunshine just like it appeared to me many mornings in October.  After going back and forth with pencils, pastels and acrylic paint to develop the colors, I put the finishing details on it and recently framed it.  The bright sparkles of sunlight on the water was impossible to capture so the white looks more like whitecaps which is at least appropriate.      I don't think it is possible to capture sparkles.  The contrasting values would be too great.  Maybe I will keep trying.

    As I looked at the beautiful autumn leaves in all their colors,  I remembered the ceramic leaf pin/pendants and earrings I have created for my Fall Collection of ceramic jewelry.  

• See more of my photos at:

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/36275350@N06/

WINTER SUNSHINE

 WINTER SUNSHINE

When the snow is white and fresh and the sun  is shining in a deep clear blue sky,  even January is beautiful.   This was the view out my front windows the other day.  The patterns of snow blown by the  wind on the ice and the blueness of the sky was breathtaking.  These kind of mornings are what inspires me to make snowflake pins and pendants in my ceramic jewelry collection for winter.

• These little snowflakes are pins that can also be worn as pendants. See more of my photos at:

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/36275350@N06/