Discovery Gardens in Tavares, FL is part of the UF Extension office.  They have a lovely garden with many different areas to wander through.  Fountains and shady nooks and cactus and chimes and lots of benches.  Very fun.  

My Sketching Group in Florida met there this morning for a few hours.  By noon it was close to 90 in the full sun so we broke up then and headed out.  

Here's my initial sketch done with my Lamy fountain pen in my Stillman and Birns notebook.  

I used my Winsor Newton small wc kit and water brush for this.  It's not my most favorite sketching set up but I was kind of in a hurry this morning and took my smallest set up.  I hope next time I can take a little bigger palette and some real brushes.  

I plan to add some printing and maybe a map and I'll repost that when I have time to do it.  

The fountain played lovely splashing sounds as we painted.  I think we had about 6 or 7 people sketching.  One of the gals sketched me into her drawing...that was cool.  

Some of the gals went to lunch but I had a meeting and had to head home.  Hopefully next time.  

This was done with a Lamy fountain pen (no pencil) in Lexington gray ink and my Stillman and Birns Beta Sketchbook (my absolutely favorite).

It was a still afternoon and about 80 degrees and slightly overcast with the sun peeping out now and then.  The gal who had this set up at the Garden Show was down near the fountain area in Donnelly Park and it was shady and delightful to sit there.  Greg was so kind as to just wait for me.  He didn't even have a newspaper to read!  I consider this my birthday present from him!  There is enough white space left that I can do a little journaling about the day later. 

We bought a hibiscus plant to replace the one we lost last winter and I bought 4 tiny little plants for my "fairy garden" that I have been doing in a small pot indoors the last few winters.  People strolled happily among the many flowers and displays.  Lots of people brought their dogs.  This is a wonderful sketching event.

We stopped at a few garage sales along the way there and I found an absolutely darling bowl/gravy set in Christmas motif.  $3.00.  It'll be perfect for the holidays.  I didn't own a gravy boat.  I'll sketch them later! 

A Hand Painted Book for Violet

My loyal and patient blog followers have watched me watercolor and collage my alphabet book for my new great granddaughter much of the summer up north at the cabin.  My daughter had the book published this fall so that I could give it to my granddaughter, Maddy, in October when I was traveling south to FL.  

Here we are in northern Illinois on Oct 17.  
I also gave her the original pages which my daughter had laminated and bound.  You can see the book pages if you scroll on back on the blog.  

The book was very personalized...a was for "apple computer" and c was for "California" where she was born, etc.  Z was of course for "Zentangle".  This is a tad blurry but you can see it better in other blog posts.  Here's a child who will know Zentangle from birth!!!

A nice surprise for me too was that my daughter had all the drawings and photos put onto a poster than can be framed.  What a neat idea.  She used Shutterfly for the book and poster.  

I share that you might be aware that you can put your drawings and paintings together is a truly fun way.  Christmas is coming!

The book, as you already know, is highly themed to painting...b is for "brush" and w is for "watercolor", etc.  I expect her to love art and be an artist too.  

And here is a great grandma brag photo of Violet Virginia at 4 mo.

Inktober challenge draws to a close

It's time to say good bye to Inktober again.  It's been a fun challenge and especially since I was traveling part of the month!
This tangle is called "Cruffle".  

Fun to be home in FL now...just got back from the pool.  
Not too tough! 

Sandswirl is an "oldie" but a goodie.  One of my first tangles.  Q-belle is new to me but is pretty okay.  

We are beginning to settle in here in Florida.  
The first week is so hard...we are tired and a bit off switching times and trying to replenish the fridge and shelves and meeting old friends and getting caught up.  

Went to book club at church today. That was nice and stopped at the local art store.  Picking up materials for the wc classes I am teaching.  That starts on Nov 6.  

Hoping some more art will come soon.
This is gouache and collage started up north.  
Would like to get more going on this too.

Inktober Challenge #21 and 22

Hammadox and Yuma are both interesting and fun to do.  I've added a bit of watercolor to each.  Yuma was tangled AFTER the watercolor dried.  

We are in TN now just north of Nashville and headed to Alabama tonight.  One more night on the road.  We are always SO ready to be home by the time we get to the last night.  Drove through a lot of  rain in IL and KY yesterday which made for a stressful and tiring trip.  

Challenge for October: #19 and #20

Okay..just one more.  This is 4 generations...l to r: my daughter Beth, my granddaughter Maddy, her daughter Violet and me.  We got to spend two days with them and tomorrow are heading to TN and AL and then to home to FL.  It's been a nice trip down.

Weather was clear and sunny and about 50 in northern Illinois here.
Note: the first two paintings behind Beth are mine.  

Abeko and W-2 are the challenge tangles.  W-2 is an old friend...from way back when.  Always fun to re-visit it.  Threw in a little Zander on that one.  

Meeting Violet Virginia

Here is my great granddaughter, Violet Virginia...all the way from CA.  We hit it off just fine!  She is 3 months old.  Smart, beautiful, and way above average!!!  

Inktober # 17 and 18

These two tangles are "Narwhal" and "Luv-a".  I liked both of them.  Narwhal I've done many times but the second one I thought would make such a cute picture frame.  If I had time I would have put one in.  But traveling along the highway as I am...I am lucky just to get the tangle done!!!

We are currently in Love's Park, Illinois...visiting family along the way...Greg's daughter in Poynette, my daughter in Madison yesterday and now my daughter and son and their family in Warrenville, Ill today and tomorrow.  So wonderful to get caught up on news and share laughter and hugs.  

We'll be in Naperville for two nights now and that's nice to give us a break from the "driving routine" before we head south on Friday morning.  Off to breakfast now and a busy day ahead.  We will be meeting our great granddaughter, Violet Virginia for the first time today!!!  So fun.

Inktober Challenge #15 and 16

Pushing ahead a little starting today because we'll be heading out tomorrow and on the road for about a week.   I am not sure when I'll have time to get these done.  Still working in 3.5" squares.

About half way through the challenge now.  I am always amazed at how fast it goes!  

I absolutely adore these two tangles: Inapod is an old favorite and Joki is a new favorite.  

Our itinerary will take us south through Wisconsin and Northern Illinois stopping to visit family.  Then KY, TN, AL and GA before getting to Florida.  Packing clothes for this is tricky as we start at at 32 degrees and end up at 88 degrees.  

Challenge 11-13

Here are the next 3 tangles for the Challenge...11, 12, and 13.

Copada, Heartswell, and Dewd.

So it's snowing in the northwoods now...we HAVE to go now.

3 days and counting.

Day 7, 8 and 9 in the Inktangle Challenge.

These 3 tangles for days 7, 8 and 9 are Onion Drops, Cockes 'n' Mussels, and Feba.  

We are having flood warnings up here in the cold north woods.  By Thursday night time temps will drop to 27.  This could mean snow?

GRRRR.

Also watching Hurricane Michael closing as it is hitting the panhandle on Wed/Thursday and it's surely to affect our home neighborhood (near Disney).  Whew.  Lots of bad weather all around!!!  

Tangles 4,5,6 for the Challenge

The next three tiles in the Ink Tangle October one-tangle a day challenge are Facets, Fleavy, and Pais.  

The count down to leaving WI seems to gain momentum as the deadline gets closer.  I closed my studio today.  I hate doing that.  I feel bereft now.  But I kept out some sketchbooks.  We will take off a week from Monday.  Lots to do.  But packing and closing things up takes up a lot of time!  And everything takes longer each year.

Sad watching my friend Mary Gayle close up her place for the last time as they sold it this fall.  They will be full-time Floridians now.

Hoping we can touch base with them there.

We expect snow next weekend.  

OH my.  

The first 3 tangles for Inktober

Here are the first three tangles in Inktober Tangle Challenge.

1. Mooka. 2. YAH (You Are Here). 3. and Ginilli.

I've been posting them online on Facebook and on my Tangle Groups.  I completely forgot to post here!  

But probably 3 at a time is a good grouping!  

Autumn Zentangles: Initial challenge

The challenge on the Face Book Zentangle group this week is to put together a tile that includes your initial (s) as part of the string or design.  V is Virginia and so I used some inspiration from another artist in the group and was inspired to use Hollibaugh and Purk as the two tangles to accomplish this.  Sometimes simple is more elegant.  V is a rather unusual initial.  Not a huge number of names start with V.  

Gorgeous autumn day in the Northwoods today.  Probably the last one in the 70s and 80s as weather man predicts a huge drop tomorrow and some rain on the way too.  So I hope to do a little sketching outdoors this afternoon.  

Inktober Tangles anyone?

Inktober is a on-line challenge that appears about this time each year.  There are places to post the work AND there is list of suggested words so that you are challenged to find some image to match the word.  NOT easy by the way.  

Several of us did this a few years ago.  Fun but actually pretty time consuming!  It also comes while I am traveling which adds to the problem for me.  

So this year one of my Facebook Zentangle Groups has proposed a Zentangle Inktober challenge.  The group is called Anything Goes: Tangled Art for Everyone. Inktober Tangles sounds more reasonable to me.  However when I looked some of these up I found that they have picked some VERY challenging tangles for this!!!

Step-outs I believe are all located on line and should be available in hard copy or with videos to demo for you if it's a new one you need to see (or to refresh you).  Oct 1 is Mooka which is below. I did this one ahead as a sample.   I am challenging my art group in FL to see if anyone will take me up on it.  (Or any of my blog followers).  If interested you can put something in the comment section below.  

Art Display About Sketching

On Thursday our church (Lac du Flambeau, WI Presbyterian) is sponsoring an "arts" evening.  Along with music and finger food there will be a reception in the evening where members of the church can share their creative talents...carving, knitting, pottery, painting, etc.  Totally fun.  

I decided to share my sketchbooks.  Well, a few of them.

I brought along a few "how to" books that I enjoy just to give people a bit of a hint that there are ways to "learn" about sketching and enhance one's abilities even on your own.  

Creating a Dali

This oak leaf was the inspiration for my abstract leaf below.

My art friends say this looks like a Salvador Dali inspired leaf.

I have to agree.  It is about 8 x 10 on watercolor paper done with crayons (of all things) and black marker pen.  

This was the result of a short class one evening sponsored by Lakeland Art League on using crayons in art (again).  Because my paper was textured the crayons took that texture on. 

This is a very "free form" activity with drawings done in graphite first and mine turned out the most abstract of anyone's which was a surprise.  It was fun to do but I am not very excited about the result.  Still it did give me some ideas about how to start out free form art.  

And it's always fun to think outside the box now and then.   

Farewell to Summer

A fun last day of summer sketching at a local hang out in Minocqua.  I almost didn't go as it was 48 degrees when I woke up!  You have to be HARDY here in the north woods!  

But by 10 am it was close to 60 degrees and I layered up with a nice wool sweater on the top layer and off I went.  We got sun on and off and a bit of a cool breeze off Minocqua Lake.  I sat on the pier facing the restaurant.  (I am tired of painting water.) And the restaurant had not opened yet so all the umbrellas are still down.  

Enjoyed the darkish scudding clouds and started off with a string of festive lights strung across the deck...worked from there.  

The little map shows that the Boathouse is close to a bridge that actually makes Minocqua an "island city" technically.  The bridge signals you are leaving town heading south and heading back to central or southern WI or wherever you go when you are not in the Northwoods.  

On Monday of Labor Day weekend some locals gather at a private home just south of the bridge to have an annual end of summer party and wave to the people heading south.  It's cute.  It's become an annual event.  A wave-party.  

Expecting my daughters later today for a "Girl's Weekend" celebration of our own.  Lots of wine and chatting. Weather not looking too good unfortunately.  Rain most of the weekend.  But a bit warmer at least.  We might see sunshine on Sunday.  

My Outdoor Painters are officially done now for the summer but sometimes we try to meet one more Thursday if enough people are around.  Actually September can be a nice month with color beginning to creep in around the maples already!  

Most of Alphabet book is finished!

Just a few more pages to go and then the cover and the little alphabet book for my great granddaughter will be finished. 

A great way to ignore the rain up here in the Northwoods!  

This is actually my new knee.  

My granddaughter, Maddy

Play "find the nose". Violet's nose is one of them and her mimi,  my daughter, Beth.  

Couldn't resist since Maddy is big into yoga.  

Got a little drippy here.  

In honor of Great Grandpa Greg's love of trains.  Learning position words.
This one is done colored pencil and used a stamp for the train.  

learning about containers

This photo says it all.  

Hand printed papers teach about shape. 

Hey...we get our own page!  And G for Greg and G for Ginny too.  

Proud dad.  

Quilt is made of bit of my hand painted Washi tape.