Post #999 OMGosh!

Happy Halloween!!!

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Weather in central FL was wonderful…sunny and clear and about 78.  I am seeing SNOW on Facebook from friends back north in WI!!!  Sticking to the ground type snow!!! And some rather nasty looking weather in the central states and all the way east to West Virginia!  

We will have a cool down here tomorrow to Sunday too.

Temps will only get to a high of 60 here tomorrow.  If you have been used to 85, that seems coolish!  Back up to 80s by Tuesday, however, so I am not "weather whining".  

Everyone have a good weekend now…stay safe and warm and healthy!

Lucky Me!

In three more posts I will publish my 1,000th post on this blog!

I have been blogging since June 2009.  Five years and 4 months.  

On Nov 9 I will celebrate my 75th birthday.  I find these two memorable events come quite close to one another.  

Looking back at my first blogs and re-reading some of them I see that my friend Paulette Jensen has been following this blog for ALL 5 years!  What a loyal follower!!! Paulette was my FIRST teacher the fall after I retired.  And her wonderful introduction to watercolor has spun me off into a delightful art-infused life in the 15 years that followed.  And she never stopped supporting me!!!  Thank you Paulette!!!

I also thank my daughter, Julie, who introduced me to blogging and got me set up that first year.  She's been a great support also and we even went to CZT training together last June!  All 3 of my kids have been huge supporters of my work. I am so grateful to them.   And to my dear sister who hangs my art all over her house!  And to my super great husband who tirelessly loads up my art supplies twice a year and treks them cross country so I can enjoy them…encourages me to try new things…carries my framed art to shows, drags my bags of "stuff" to workshops, and gives me space to create wherever I am!  Lucky me.

Blowing In the Wind

Blown watercolor Strings
Purple: KauriKunda, Paradox, Crescent Moon, Tipple
Brown: Cadent, Coroline, Curly Bracket Feather
Turquoise: YNY, Slaw, Jellyroll

Here are the other 3 blown watercolor strings I blew at the same time as the yellow one I posted previously.  

I tried out tangling with a purple Sakura pigma 01 on the top left and a brown 01 on the right top (along with a water-soluble Tombow pen for some shading and a little brown watercolor pencil).  The bottom one had some metallic pen details added.  

I am discovering that the ones where I have blown an "enclosed" string are the easiest to tangle later.  Open ended ones are more difficult.  I also like the lighter colors…turquoise and gold better than the darker purple and brown.  

Some folks try a hair dryer on high or canned air for blowing so that they get more wild lines.  So more experimenting to follow.

Diva Challenge: Betweed Mono tangle

Betweed (3.5" tile)

The challenge this week is a mono-tangle (one tangle only) and the one Laura has chosen is NOT my favorite.  But that is the name of this game…give it the old one-two.  Try it anyway.

Between has been around quite awhile and you can find it demonstrated by the wonderful Maria herself.  Her's looks beautiful.  I never have gotten the hang of it after all these years.  

So…I decided to have fun with a "paint-blown" string to see if that could perk it up a little.  The CZTs on their FB page have been chatting about this.  I used Dr. PH Martin's liquid watercolors for the intense color and dropped it on the tile and then with a straw I blew the strings.  I did one in purple, one in brown, and one in bright turquoise.  (I haven't tangled those yet.)

BUT all the CZTs think, and I agree, that the dark colored ones like black look "sinister".  Sort of creepy.  I like the bright colors like this one.  

Of course when done, all I could see was spider webs.  

So I added a little plastic spider that I had dropped into my tangling box up north before I left.  Just in case.  You never know when you might need a spider.  

This blown paint/ink string idea is not mine…lots of people have been showing this on their blogs.  Thanks to everyone who thought it up!  (note: some people use "canned air" to blow the ink/paint around).  Alcohol inks won't work on paper…they have to be on a non-porous surface.  But acrylic inks would.  

Spooky Time

OKAY…it's time to get really spooky in the ole Tangle a Day calendar!!!  Count down to Halloween now!!!  

Wartz works just great for spooky fingers.  Kind of an "eyeball" theme going here.  Anyone for soup?  

Diva Challege: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Knotz, Screen, and Yew Dee

I am a breast cancer survivor. 18 years.
Mammograms can save your life!,,





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Here are my last two wc journal entries for my trip east and south.
The first is my sister's home in SC and the second is the Blue Rick Creek in the WV mountains.

Both are small sketches..5x7" under an hour en plein air.



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Location:En plein air journal sketches while traveling

Diva's Challenge this week:Yuma

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Yuma, Uncorked, Vache 1, Revolution

Yuma was familiar to me but thought I would toss in 3 that I had not tried before. Can't remember now where I found these. It might have been Pinterest.

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I was surprised to the fresh strawberries at this time of year! But there they were! Looking like I should be painting them!

Having a lovely three day stay here at my sister's on Lake Wylie.
Off to a train ride in the NC mountains on Monday before we head south to FL and home next week.




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Location:Autumn in South Carolina

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-Wc on gessoed paper about 8x10
Not finished.

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Location:En Plein Air at Pipestem, WV

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I rarely post personal photos on my blog but this has been a family week for as we wrap our stay in Wi and now head out east and south now for a week.

Here are Greg and I with the two youngest of our 12 grandchildren.
Mike won the family fishing trophy for this summer.

We leave for Cincinnati tomorrow and then WV. Rain predicted for the first 3 days of this trip...some could be significant. We are a little concerned.
We do carry a weather radio with us and we'll check in often.


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Location:A family party

Diva Challenge #188: National Coming Out Day Oct 11

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The challenge this week is ti use the colors of the rainbow AND tangles that start with what letters LGBT.

My tangles are Lampion, Gommi, Bunzo, and Tucked In

We are currently en route from northern WI to FL and as usual enjoying lots of interesting stops along the way! Sunny weather in southern WI but BRISK temps especially in the evenings with frost warnings!


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Working with the Visually Impaired

4.5" tile: Spiteria, Printemps, Shard, Drained

Trying out another Apprentice Tile.  Now this tile  is cut from Canson Montval 140 cp Watercolor paper.  Very nice quality paper.  The zentangle official Apprentice tile is a glossier paper.  

This is a really nice option for visually impaired students.  Some of us have a number of students who fall into that category.  I think we should be carrying 4.5" tiles and .05 pens and/or Apprentice pens in our kits for students taking beginner classes who fall into that category!!!  

I am enjoying the tangle Spiteria.  It is the funky star shape tangle.  

We had snow in the north woods Friday and Saturday so Florida is looking SO good right now!!!  We are packing up and heading out soon.  

Diva's Challenge: Blind String.

Blind String: Squaro, Swags, Laces, Tipple, Striping

Blind strings for a challenge are always fun and makes you wonder why you bother looking at all when you draw strings!  They get so much more creative this way!

What is interesting about this one is that it is done on an Apprentice Tile (4.5") instead of classic 3.5".  I am prepping for a class on Wednesday where I'll have someone who is visually handicapped.  Since I had not used an Apprentice Tile myself, I thought it best to give it a try.  I used an .05 pen instead of an .01.  There is also an Apprentice Pen but mine are all packed away unfortunately.  I think the 05 will work fine for her.

I tried an ultra fine Sharpie but they "bleed" slightly on the soft paper.  No go.  Apprentice materials are generally for younger students.  

Last En Plein Air Painting of the Season

8 x 10 wc and ink on gallery-wrapped canvas

On September 26 the temperatures in the north woods of Wisconsin flew up to 75 degrees.  Indian Summer had come (and lasted about 48 hours).  THAT is all you get in the north woods!  

I grabbed my folding stool and paint bag and went outside down the path turning back up toward our little cabin.  The photo of the painting makes the cabin color a tad more "orange" when it is actually more red but I decided to leave it as it…warm and cozy and glowing in the late afternoon sunshine looking as it was on that day.  I haven't signed this painting yet as I see a few tweaks I want to make. But that will come next spring.  

That evening Greg and I took our wine and crackers and sat at the lake's edge to watch the sunset. It was magical and we held hands.  We wanted to just hold that memory for ever!  

This is the only painting I've done of the cabin since the loft was added and that has been many years ago.  The painting is of the "main" section…the living area and the "breezeway" where the door is shown which connects the main dwelling with the "annex" which is the screen porch and the building set aside for our hobbies: Greg's train layout and my studio.  Hubby has built almost everything by hand himself over the years.  

The window just to the right of the tallest tree in the painting is where I am sitting right now writing this and looking back out and down to the lake.  It is raining and windy and temperatures are dropping steadily…we may get snow flurries tonight!  Greg has a cozy fire going in the fireplace.  (That is the big tall silver chimney near the center of the painting.)  This is a treat of it's own, as early spring and late fall are our times to use it.  Again, Greg put this in himself.  A do-yourself kind of guy!  

We are packing this weekend…soon time to head to Florida.  We take about two weeks to travel…have reservations at Pipestem State Park in West Virginia along the way, a ride on the Smokey Mountain RR and a visit to SC to see my sister and brother in law.  Many fun adventures ahead.  Stay tuned!  

Calendar in Oct

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We will be " on the road" soon and so as usual I am tangling ahead in my calendar.


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Swag

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This is a tanglelation of Neil Burley's great tangle called Swag.

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