today

in 1977
we became a family
and over the years we've had our ups and downs as everyone does
but we're still here
still together
*and people said we wouldn't last!*
and at the end of the day, still in love

and here is to a better 2016

2015 wasn't too bad for us, it started out a bit rough
the van went and we had to buy a car..... so now we have our prius
*i'm still in shock that we have a prius*
we lost phoebe, fawn, falstaff, mr quail and the budgie girls..... everyone was old however- but that all still broke my heart- i don't like losing my animal family
they got a home for life here.
on the plus side, i didn't have any major falls........ although i was diagnosed with fibromyalgia
and i did bring my bad arm and possibly broken shoulder back without medical attention....... *please.....three different freeken drs and no one could figure this out?*
i don't have full movement and i keep doing the exercises, trying to get full movement back if i can
now for you all, i wish you a safe and healthy new year.... i wish you interesting experiences....... new and old friends....
laughter and lots of good memories

i don't make resolutions but my plans are to continue to paint..... possibly going on a few research trips *day trips probably*
i also hope to print more paintings this year...
and continue some of the series that while i figure they are finished, i could sort of expand on...... with the idea of a calendar or something

another plan is to reorganize and expand the studio......now we may not be able to add on.... but if i can expand my painting area at least 4 more feet into the rest of the studio that would be a good thing.......
also i need to rebuild my work surfaces that hold tools/supplies and palettes...
when i do...i need them on wheels (and my drafting table too..... bernie is resisting that idea but i need wheels on it)
more lighting over there too

so anyway.....happy new year to you all
see you on the flip side

dear santa

well it's that time of year again.....
i miss my folks, but this year not as bad as some...i figure they are watching over me...
and i also figure they are thrilled that my work is very well received.
i have a few requests for you santa, if you don't mind
i've made a list:

* i have some friends who are very sick, recovering from surgeries, heartbreak, and illness, could you give them a bit of a boost?... they are all over the world, and while i imagine syria is going to be rough to get to......there are some over in that neck of the woods too..

* and speaking of that neck of the woods, is it possible to find a way for folks to learn to coexist a bit more peacefully? i watch the attention grabbing ravings of lunatics, and i wonder if things here will ever truly change?

* some sort of help or epiphany on the environment for folks to again work together and take care of our tiny and very fragile planet....spinning through the vast and endless darkness of space.... so incredibly and amazingly abundant with life. it would be such a horrible unspeakable tragedy for this to all be lost.

* some miracles would be nice, elevating folks suffering daily..... it's all fine and good to give them a meal on the holidays but wouldn't a better gift be, a better life daily? it's little things you know, like lack of pain, wholesome food, access to actual medical care.... a warm/dry roof...... clean water..... i know some people in america at least have figured out how to end homelessness..... how about the rest of the world?

* teaching folks we are all in it together, we are all inter-related- and to behave as if whatever we do, is what is truly done to us...... color really is only skin deep, and we are the tribe of earthlings.....(or maybe send some damn aliens to teach our asses that?)

* help the angry folks to find a way through that... they are scared, and bitter, their hopes and dreams are gone....... they need to find a fresh start somehow and a quiet heart

i know it's a lot santa, but see i figure more folks will listen to you then anyone else
i do have hope that people overall, are not stupid, * although some are occasionally sucker punched and miss the mark**
so maybe if there is a way to wake up their highest selves......

maybe that? maybe each one do one unselfish reach to another?

anyway santa
happy holidays to you and the mrs....and the elves and the deer
*i'm probably going to paint deer again btw, so if you'd send me one it's good...... they can come home after their portraits

still working with gourds

and so far it's not working for me
i have to set up in the studio and i have to make sure the lighting stays consistent-
meanwhile i have a bit of a fibro flare, this one i think is stress induced, and is mostly my shoulders and my energy levels
even now after 12 hours sack time, i could lay down for another 6 it feels like
meanwhile i am trying to figure my gourd paintings
and i am trying to justify energy levels that even make painting hard with trying to clean the house
so far painting is winning out
but the guilt is crippling too-
now other news
cheapjoes is having a free shipping on brushes.... damn
i could use more gouache brushes too
but i'm going to have to pass
and i am going to have to pull out the gouache probably today for individual gourd paintings
although i think that even with them the lighting i want for the group is going to have to be set up.....not roughed in and imagined
i want a particular light

and eventually if/when we do the studio roof i swear, i am getting a north facing skylight....
for that particular cool diffused light

prints

i posted on fb the paintings that are at the printers.....
we were only going to scan them as we can't afford to print without prepaid orders.
well i got some orders
so we are going to be printing the two pansy paintings...... 80.00 a print and 5.00 shipping
i am working on a price for the original paintings as well
since i am now getting asked for them
this is all very huge and very scary for me
but i'm doing it
as was pointed out to me, if i don't.....most likely eventually my paintings will end up in a landfill
so better that they go to good homes now

meanwhile bernie's cut back the trees, which means i can light the woodstove, so naturally the weather has gotten very warm again!
i'm ok with that.....
actually i am ok with a snowy but mild in temperature winter where the lows are around 25.......
** hear that mother nature?***
i'm not thrilled with my paint water having ice on it in the morning IN THE STUDIO
you know.....WHERE i paint!

so anyway..... today i am to take many more photos of the gourds
and we'll see where we get to

gourds, branches, and the printer

yup winter is coming...... even though the trees are still mostly green.

bernie's cutting back limbs so the chimney from the woodstove is safe 

but this does mean winter is on it's way

---still on the list is insulation and crack filling...oye-along with covering windows in the studio and the door wall in the duck room

more wood and a tank of oil

today, we pick up 'two foxes' from the printer

and amelia and company as well, which is a pen and ink, on rag bristol.

(and their digital files-but no prints) 

while at the printer, i will drop off the first chicken for scanning, that is going to the bird farm to thank them for their hospitality and allowing us to descend on them to photograph their birds and to have them share photos they took with me.

at this point i have two more chickens due to be scanned.....and 6 more to be painted

along with gourds and corn and pumpkins

i wish i could be painting a witch too but that's not to be i guess this year

also in studio news, i am trying to figure out a way to get steady north light for some of the work i am planning... short of installing a sun tunnel.....which i would love to do- the closest i can figure would be a cool white led light hung from HIGH over head?

but i don't know if that is going to work for what i've got in mind (high overhead is a joke as the ceiling in the studio is only 7'2'')

but the thing is.......i am getting more and more intrigued  by the overhead cool north light i see in old paintings, and how it affects colors.... so i am really wanting to work with that for a while

i swear i should have my studio in a glass house..... and i so would if i could afford to and afford to keep it comfortable while working

now i am supposed to be getting my shower, to go to the printer, however i am sitting in the studio sort of listening to bernie cut the trees back, as in case of an emergency i can help him

yes i know

yes i do this all the time

yes even he thinks i'm nuts

oye

gourds have arrived!~!!

thank you so very very much.....

i am going to be taking them outside shortly and photographing them with some corn and leaves and if the pumpkins are ok.....them too
and also individually
i have lethargy though today.....
tomorrow is the printer
(after poor bernie cuts back trees so we can use the woodstove-branches too close to the chimney)

 meanwhile i've been sort of cleaning and reorganizing, rethinking my studio work area
and i realized i have it all sort of..........half baked
some things need to be where i can easily reach them from both the easel and the drafting
and to do that i need to move them and also move my easel........
so the new layout which i am going to try and finish up this fall will have my easel in the corner...... move the cds/cd player and the tool caddy, and camera to the center and further break up the paints.....gouache is going to be going into a smaller plastic drawer unit, leaving the wooden drawer chest for transparent water colors
colored and graphite pencils stay in the same place... sketch pads move over..... cut paper boxes get centralized as well
and somehow the shelves need to be hung...right now i have them stacked on coffee cans..... and that is taking up too much space now if i had just a BIT more floor space, i could set up a still life area that is easier to deal with-and to light........
as it is i am going to see about moving stuff down towards the back of the studio about 18''......that won't cover the ac in summer or the back up heat duct in the winter

i wish i could just open that area totally up but with calpurrnia still territorial marking (since that stupid jackass neighbor with the 7 un-neutered male cats spraying all over-she's never gotten over that) .....i can risk her getting into the painting area easily

so there you go....further small progress in re-organizing the studio's work flow......

painting

i'm sort of getting ready to start another round of painting,
moving things around in the studio a bit
thinking about how i work and where i can put things so i can maybe work on two pieces concurrently.
in the midst of this i spilled milk on my cobalt palette, as well as on my cadmium palette-i was not happy about that at all
well ok now i have washed them bit all that pigment and mixed pigments wasted.....

and i am thinking that the floor in that area is going to need peroxide too...
anyway some of the thinking i've done is how to set up so i can reach supplies from either the easel or the drafting table.. or should i just locate gouache on one and transparent watercolors on the other?
i need more lighting there as well
up lights would be optimum, but i am thinking a light bar, with clamp-on lamps is probably what is going to happen.

i also am trying to see what direction i need to take my paintings in next....
i am thinking that gouache needs to continue to explore how light falls on subjects, and what it does to colors.... i was so shocked when i figured out the actual blue of shadows at one point- i have to keep reminding myself to paint what is really there, not what i think i see-
gouache on dark paper forces my brain to work one way *reserve the darks for shadows*
transparent watercolor on white paper is directly opposite, *reserve the whites for light*
switching back and forth is a trip! as they both demand that you think about what you're going to do, how you're going to do it, and when in the process certain things have to happen. like when you need to mask out an image as you are going to be doing stuff to the background..... then lifting that mask to work on your main image.
now some people think that should NOT be done, but i know that for me, whatever works, works.... cause see i have this finished image in my head i'm also working towards

and the transparent watercolors, i think i need to go back to telling stories with, as the paintings that i don't hate as much are the ones with a story-
i think i'm ok that the gouache is about how to see, and the other is about overseeing sort of
i also am thinking i need to do both...
i could also with the gouache do one subject over and over if i had to in different lighting and different limited palettes
until i learned what i am looking to learn --- maybe the answer is....same subject, one in transparent and one in gouache?

i think that's part of what you do...you ask 'what if.............' and then you do it to answer the question-no?
that's how i approached porcelain work..... 'what if i try this, would that give me a better finish? or do i need to modify that'

i wonder if there is a grant for studio expansion? there seem to be grants for EVERYTHING else...
me having a body of work at the end of a grant period is not a problem as i am prolific, but finding and writing a grant app may be a bit of a problem.

i do long to do etchings again, (and porcelain work) i loved the atmosphere of etching... that slight haze of ink not quite wiped off the plate- really i need a bigger studio and it needs to be on a slab to support a press -

i keep wondering what a studio would look like for the work i want to do and i think it should be round...... and i think that the perimeter would be where the work actually happens because of that being where the windows are... and the center of the circle is a good spot for a desk/table .....to read/plan projects, do research....... (mat/frame/package-order supplies)- and when i have down time, i think of how i would set it up....where would the storage go, where would the slop sink be......how about the drying racks, or the acid vats and vents....?

no wonder i am having trouble remembering what i ate for breakfast, with all this stuff swirling in my head.....

for now in the next foreseeable future, i have to just decide about the corn/gourd series..... continue the corn in transparent? or go onto gouache, and do the fall series ...and if i do that..... do i continue on the black or go onto the other colored grounds?
i have the other indian corn in transparent..... i could do both i suppose, corn in gouache AND corn in transparent
ohohoh, i would LOVE to do various heritage corns (the not white or yellow ones) THOSE i would do in transparent, and have them labeled with their names
i have a cob of oaxacan green corn- but it's not a complete one.... i would like to do a complete one, and i have a deep red dent corn.... plus a not filled in cob of what could be stained glass or candy corn.....
not quite enough to do what i was thinking of
*i have written to a few seeds banks to see if i can get growers to sell me heritage ears but no luck*
this, and the frog project will be on indefinite hold, due to lack of materials/models...
both of which i could really enjoy......so it's a shame but it is what it is and i'll make do

so there you go.... a sorta of 'state of the studio' address..... more or less?
and tomorrow it looks like i lay out the next chicken

a bit less meh.....

although it's a lot colder today..... i am coming out of the blahs..
today i put up the first real soupie of the season, cause it's very cold here
i am making chicken and dumplins
right now i am also poaching two extra chicken breasts in the broth for bernie to slice for chicken sandwitches at work tonight
and i am seriously hoping that tuesday he cuts back the trees cause it's freeken cold here- and i need to put the stove on
we need to break it in too so a low fire
meanwhile.....
i am trying to decide if i should do the corn and gourds on colored grounds in gouache or on white paper in transparent watercolors.....

and we may have found a body shop for less then going through insurance and the deductible
so while i am not happy about this.....it's better then 500 deductible

so then...... that's life in my little corner of pa
oh and.......we maybe have narrowly missed this current hurricane........joaquin ?
jersey and the coastal areas of course are taking a huge pounding.... but that's part of being a coastal area i guess

meanwhile we (me and the cats and budgie) are pretty cold..... i am going to give them some hot cat food to see if that helps them at all
i couldn't find the millet for captain cuttle.....i'll have to ask bernie where he put it
but hot cat food i can do

stay warm everyone, stay dry and safe

just...meh

i need to get back to work, but for some odd reason, i just don't feel like it
i did hear that my corn should be on it's way-
the replacement paper should be at the po today
(bernie will have to pick it up tomorrow)
for some reason though, work.... no energy for it

i don't know if it's the weather, which is cool, but humid and clammy, which makes it difficult for me to breath.
or, if it's just that i need a break..... some time out away from home/work
some sort of change in scenery?

i have to redo the buff orpington chicken then start on the black orpington and the white orpington.....
with corn and pumpkins interspersed, and probably leaves as well

i sort of wish that my studio had an etching press as i would work on etchings then while i waited for the omph to come back to painting.
and i also wish i was still set up for porcelain work..... that too would yield a nice break

so meanwhile right now, i am sleepy (either weather related or i am getting sick) ..... and sort of meh about work
not the best frame of mind to start a new painting in huh?

rain, at times heavy

brought a tree branch down on the prius,
put a huge dent in it
500 deductible on insurance
bernie said where it is....he's worried about water leaks
and that the paint already is chipping off so he is worried about it rusting
he is taking to the adjuster tomorrow
there goes my second wood load...
he's going to have to work at least 1 night overtime to cover
meanwhile his company still hasn't paid the overdrafts that they
ASSURED us they would cover do to them neglecting to deposit his pay

i am pretty tired of all this

ok yesterday, i dropped the two foxes and a pen and ink of amelia and the other ducklings at the printer to be scanned..... i am not printing them atm, but getting them scanned so i can send the originals to their new owners
i have chickens to get scanned too-one i know is spoken for in payment for letting me disrupt the bird farm in my quest for reference photos
i am hoping one other is sold
those will go to the printer next
i also took the majority of this years paintings to show ed the printer
he liked quite a few of them......
i know he is looking forward to the time when i will be getting more printed, as he does enjoy doing that for the artists that he works with.
so next tuesday we pick up the originals and the digital files-
i just said to bernie
i can't do this anymore
i need to get mats for the gouache paintings.... even ed the printer said that they needed to be matted and stored in bags due to the abrasion
oh man
so i have to look into that.... in bulk, mats would be at least 4. a painting
more if i cut them myself as i would have to get a cutter and storage and mat board etc....

but he's right

tomorrow the printer~! PS: i got a bad cold thanks bernie

the painting 'two foxes' will be going to the printer tomorrow to be scanned for a digital file, then ........it's new home in Massachusetts-  i am actually selling originals now.
folks have been asking
and it was pointed out to me that i am not getting any younger, so these paintings need to have their futures assured.
as if something happens to me, bernie won't allow any of them to be sold
and then if he dies they end up as land fill
so to avoid that
i have started to sell painting
i will continue to sell prints when enough people want a print of a painting (to make it feasible)

it's bittersweet about the paintings...but then i would have been a very protective mother considering how i tread the animals... and bernie and the people i think of as family

meanwhile i am thinking about two other projects....one that is foremost is the gouache project.
still considering that one
and i am thinking of a transparent water color project as well
i'd like to do a run of newts, more birds of course
and then something that is totally out of my comfort zone......which at this point i don't quite know what it is
something with light on form i would imagine

this is my thought process.....
'ok, i can sorta do this, i am used to it........ how about making a sharp left turn and therefore set my brain upside down'

that's how gouache on black paper started....... it was the total opposite of what i had been doing.....

and now i want to think up something again the total opposite to set my brain upside down

so i will think.....and think and hope i come up with something

meanwhile i am interested in gouache

i can't believe i cut ALL ** the paper

** that was undamaged

i cut 16 sheets of paper yesterday...doesn't sound like a lot but i had to sit down between each one
so all the paper for the gouache project is cut pretty much, and in a box marked 'colored grounds for gouache'
!
i am planning on making sure all the materials and supplies are inhouse from now on, prior to the start of a project......
and while i thought i was done with gouache on colored grounds (at least for now) ...i realized that i want to do all four season, so in the end that would be 24 paintings
now the question is..... do they all have to be on black paper or can i do each season on a different colored ground....so fall could be what? tan?
spring could be on grey, winter maybe on pale blue?
or maybe continue the series on black and vary the subjects
my aim through this is to learn about how light affects your eye seeing things throughout the seasons.....
i've already learned that the dark ground causes you to focus tightly on the image....which during the summer was painted in a high noon type light for the most part
hard and harsh (to my mind) highlights
i am going to try to convey the softer more diffused light of fall that's colored by the leaves and sky .....i am not sure however if black paper is the right ground to showcase that.....but i go around and around --- so while the actual painting may wait-- the reference photos, and notes will be done as soon as i have the models in hand.

meanwhile i plan on continuing work on the chickens..... i have the hackles on the lavender rooster to finish and then he's done...
a second buffie.....
the black and the white
then hens......
i may move the regular watercolor work over to my drafting table and then use the table easel for gouache work
i'll see if i can work on two paintings at a time....
so far i don't know how i can, as each painting takes a bit of time- anywhere from 100 hours....... up but at least i know if something is giving me grief on one painting there is another option i can jump to
this however may take some rearranging of the studio.......something bernie may not want to hear
* he also doesn't want to hear 'i need more bookcases'*
but really i could so use a bigger studio....i think if i did get to expand ( we were going to when we could afford it) i would like an etching press..... and a sculpting area......i miss both- plus i think that would be a good way to keep fresh while i'm working

anyway....i'm about to get to the easel ....having taken the day off to cut and prep paper.....
tuesday does still look good for potatoes and to drop paintings off at ed to be scanned/photographed

tiny ducklings are going to a new home.....(in black and white) and it looks like the two fox have a new home

brushes and paper and paint --oh MY!

i got notice that part of my paper and brush order was in
i thought we'd have to wait until monday (when the second and final part of the order would be there)
but bernie ran to the post office
*** he's there RIGHT NOW**
so today.... i have to cut paper
(and freeze sausages from his shopping trip)
and in between i have to finish painting hackles on my rooster-

now so far yesterday, i had a pretty good fibro day, all things considered.....
i am hoping today will be just as good
i started to take the b12 in the morning instead of at night with the rest of my vitamins..... i think that has helped a bit
plus the weather is semi settled.

it has been decided that tuesday in addition to going (finally) for potatoes, that one or two paintings will be dropped off by ed the printer, to be digitized
and i need to have a discussion with him about the digital files
i need RAW + and as big as he can do them 5700 pixels is ok
i AM going to be selling the originals- which is scaring the living daylights out of me-
someone (actually several someones) made a lot of sense telling me that those paintings do no good in a box hidden from everyone...... (and those boxes are pretty full up now)

i am still wondering if anyone really actually wants them though
i also got quite a few opinions on pricing.....
from quite a few different people, not only artists, but collectors etc
they all seemed to agree that 300 per painting was a middle ground
so that's about it.....
i guess since most paintings take more then a week... *between 2-4 weeks* and the materials are 100% archival and lightfast....
that would give me a salary of approximately 100 a week...... for painting
see when it was put to me that way...... then 300 sounded reasonable- although it still makes me uncomfortable......which means i am probably in the correct ballpark

i still STILL need to get on the ball with the copyrights
i am behind on that
as in i still haven't done it yet and it's still overwhelming me and just the thought is robbing spoons (the spoon explanation of illnesses)
but it has to be done
i wish i could figure a way to have bernie do it
ahem.... then i could ignore it all...right?
go back to the easel in blissful innocence?

oye
ok so it's time to go ......that easel is calling me

more winter preps

bernie went to shoprite this morning on the way home from work ** thank goodness cause i can't right now***
on sale ronzoni, sausage, teabags, some frozen pirogi at a price i can't even make them for, odds and ends....
we still need another 3 cords of wood
100# of potatoes
a tank of oil
a new storm window in one of the studio windows
crack filler and insulation for the studio and duck room
a roll of bubble wrap ( i found a 48'' x 125' roll)
two packs of sheet plastic
and bernie needs shoes

so i am going to most likely either do a kickstarter to print some of the paintings-
and or sell originals
** which still need to go to the printer for their digital files to be done***

meanwhile i am still painting chickens
which i need to get done soon
as bernie got me two pumpkins! so i have them too
the corn i was promised from CT so far hasn't shown up, - i'll have to see if i can find some around town.

i wish i could get the paintings done as cards..... it is still going to cost 70.00 PLUS per painting to get shot for digital print files......
so at this point that would be a bit too expensive just for cards... (that's why i do a run of 8 prints- that makes it so i pay for scans/prints and make a profit)

any suggestions are welcome

oye

little pieces of daily life

a piece here, a piece there.
bernie worked overtime so we are stocking up.... (potatoes weren't ready tuesday so next tuesday for them)

but we are stocking food..... tuna at .69 a can we got 14 cans of that but needed a bit more-
sausage on sale tomorrow....we'll get about 10# and that will hold us through to the next sale
odds and ends

i am restless, the weather has been so glorious, i want to go out...i want to pick apples and pumpkins and rake leaves.....
none of which i can actually do
i would love to take the ducks on a walk as well.......
or go horseback riding
oye

meanwhile, i am continuing painting the chicken series..
and doing a lot of thinking about my work

i wonder if other artists go through this.....? i go back and forth about what i do.. i work daily, for the most part, i work hard, i push my limits .....but i don't push the envelope i think..... what really does what i do mean,?  if anything?
what is the point?
the only thing you could say about what i do is that i treat the every day, common images of life as portraits..... (i painted every damn kernel of that indian corn as if it was it's own individual portrait....took forever)
so in the end what does it really matter?

i also am considering the gouache on black..... i guess i am going to have to revisit it
as well as the other backgrounds- probably with seasonal things
and i am so going to have to figure a way to get some of what i need for models....i guess holly for winter? oranges? nuts?

anyway i wonder about the worth of what i do, even while i can't stop doing it
so there you go.....
part of today's musings on life

soft days of summer's end

you know the type, those perfectly brilliant days with perfect weather, in a very brief period of time between the demise of the hot hot weather and the onslaught of the cold and dark time of year.
days when you must must be outside,
when you must try to drink it all in
capture if you can the aliveness of it all
before being enfolded up into your cocoon for the winter
that's the reward for enduring the heat and dryness of august
the heat and humidity of the summer
and it's the memory that gets you through the seemingly endless slush and white coldness of sleep of winter

a potato day

at least i hope so
at least 2 bags of 50# each for the winter *** ahem, my beloved lehigh potatoes won't be ready until tuesday next ****--we are slowly getting ready
i wish most of this had been done earlier, (potatoes couldn't be done earlier- but wood could have been)
i wish wood was already stacked, trees cut back from the chimney, windows caulked, and covered with plastic
i also wish i had been well enough to garden, to build my cold frames and have tucked in winter vegetables under a blanket of mulch.
i'm better but not well yet.
i have some hopes of improving slowly.
meanwhile i am painting
right now i am in the midst of chickens.
i don't foresee corn at this point, but it is possible that in a week or so there will be corn and pumpkins and maybe gourds ......and colored leaves to paint
*** i need more lightbulbs*** (note to self-for the drafting table)
i am actually looking forward to getting the colored paper and starting a gouache painting on the drafting table while i work on my chickens on the easel.....

i did 6 paintings in gouache of the summer flowers here....... i am considering doing six paintings in gouache of fall/seasonal plants, possibly corn, leaves, berries, gourds, pumpkins, nuts...
maybe if i keep going i will, after a year, end up with 24 gouache paintings that could be called 'the four seasons' or something

now as an aside..... no one is more surprised then i am to find out how committed  i've become to all this work, and how one thing suggests another and how before i know it a series happens
and yet my subjects seem so randomly varied to me.... and simple, what ever is sort of to hand
and the really oddly interesting thing to me is, how involved i get when i'm painting whatever it is i am painting...
i also seem to be thinking of things such as...'what exactly is it about this light on this form'
all this is done while i am somehow in this weird meditative 'out there' state i get into while painting...

i never thought i would get beyond 'does this tell the story' , even though i am a great believer in 'just show up and work every day, no matter what'......
i probably should have/could have predicted this if i had actually stopped to think about it
meanwhile
as i type this
my painting is calling me .....i am redoing a purple chicken.....
don't laugh
he's giving me the stink eye and daring me to do better

preparing for the influx of stonehenge

the paper that is
i had said if i could find a 25% off coupon for stonehenge i would get it.....i did, so yes i did get it (bernie actually told me to-he liked the gouache on stonehenge series)
now 18 sheets of colored stonehenge are on their way (or will be soon)
plus two sheets of  pescia by magnani (blue) and one each of strathmore charcoal in a dark grey and a cadet blue.
plus an archival box to store the quartered sheets in.
i suspect that the strathmore is going to be for colored pencil as it's pretty lightweight at 64#
the pescia is 300 gsm so about 140#.....we'll see about the surface though- that one only has two options for what i'm looking for..this blue and a grey- but if it's not sized for water media, then i may have to either size it myself....or again, colored pencil work.
the stonehenge is only 90# -200 gsm, and i can make that work

all these papers are 100% cotton rag..
i am dying to get my hands on 100% linen..... i am starting to think i am getting to the point where my work is worth it..... a 300# or more linen would make me very happy in a full sized sheet......unbleached, internally and surface sized.....*** i think i just fainted***..... we'll see after the new year about the mills that have this- i know one is in the midwest, one in canada and one in france.......

so anyway i am getting ready in the studio for the paper to arrive
i've sorted my cut paper boxes, and pulled all the fabriano that i use almost exclusively, out..... it's all in one box now.
the other box has misc. paper from when i was experimenting with surfaces and weights.
i had decided that fabriano artistico 140# hp in extra white is my go to work horse paper.
for the most part, after testing and painting on a lot of other paper. i am only sorry i didn't get more in the 300# weight but at least the 140# is workable.
i have a few paintings on some of the others, and on cp and rough surfaces .....even one on soft press- they are exciting and wonderful-BUT- are a nightmare to photograph for reproduction, where as the artistico hp is much easier.

the stonehenge quartered paper will have it's own box (and yes i labeled all the boxes now with what's in there on drafting tape)

i figure if i can ever get flat files a 10 drawer unit should be ok for me.... i can put finished paintings in four sections per draw......and sort out the full sheets with a draw for halfs and quarter sheets......

and i need a bigger studio..... really i guess i do... i could use a cutting area and a matting/framing area (which i don't do now due to space) ....... storage ** hahahaha, storage around here means NOTHING.....there is none***
and i could use photography lighting..... if i could only get some glare free lighting i am actually capable now of shooting some decent usable digital files, except for the glare
so
that is my studio goings ons.....and my wish list/ goal list
or my 'when i hit the lottery' list

but it is nice to have sorted the paper out .....now i wish i had somewheres other then the budgie  cage top to store it
-- as does the budgie--

toning watercolor paper

i tried an experiment  on my watercolor paper, using staining pigments to tone it.
i'm not happy with it
this is what i did
i mixed up a solution of pigment (pthalo blue 15:3) distilled water, and oxgall
i wet the paper back and front and lightly wiped off the shiny spots-
and when it was sort of damp and flat washed on the pigment with a large flat soft brush, as evenly as i could manage....
let dry and did it again-
the surface i would imagine would be wonderful for colored pencil or even pastel
but i don't think it will be a good idea for gouache, it's already buckling like crazy- not what i wanted at all
now the next logical thing is to just attempt to work with the stonehenge which while i am not totally crazy about the colors....at least is 100% cotton and i know i can use, although i would really like to mount it
and if i can find an archival glue i will....
so far all the so called archival glues aren't...... which leaves me with hide glue
so i  will have to think about that for a while