The Diva's Zentangle Challenge for this Week...and more

I haven't posted on Laura's challenge for awhile...since the trip to Florida for the winter, I seem to have gotten side tracked with like a millions things.  Ya know? Suddenly it was Thanksgiving!  Whew!
But it was a delightful gathering at an old friend's home.  

The tile on the left is Laura's challenge for this week...using Paradox and Bunzo.  I love Paradox but have never had much affinity for Bunzo.  But that is what challenges are for...to get you to try out a tangle again.  

The one on the right uses a new tangle for me...Abukas.  It is the sort of flower petal shape in the center of the tangle.  I liked it!  
I added Checkered Flag, Chillion, Hollibaugh, Btl Joos, Cirquital and Dimroth.  

The Zentangle class last Tuesday was well attended and enjoyed meeting some new friends and seeing some old ones!  

I have NO intention of going anywhere today (Black Friday) but will get out some of the Christmas decorations, play some Christmas music and maybe even start my Christmas Letter!  It's been rainy here in central Florida over this holiday but expect sunshine back by tomorrow.  

So it's a perfect day to dry out my new Red Rose tea in Carmel Apple Flavor.  Hope your day will be just the way you hope it will be too.  

Practice, Practice.

I am preparing now to teach a LARGE Zentangle® class on Tuesday.  One of the best ways to prep, besides actually packing up my supplies, is to do some regular tangling to get "in the mood".  

I forget how pleasurable and relaxing Zentangle is sometimes.

Tangles I chose here are Irradial, Lollywimple, and Rain.

I'll have over 20 in the class so I've asked friend and tangler, Cynthia Vose, to help me out. What a good friend!!!  

Below you will see some small little people sketches done during a recent meeting.  I have a big problem with hands! So that is something to be working on in the next months.  My goal is also to have the people look like they have personality and are not all the same person!  😟

I attended an Urban Sketching workshop a few weeks ago and the the main thing about this form of sketching that makes it different from say a travel or nature sketch is that an urban sketch should "tell a story" or "record an event".  Having some people in the sketch helps the story part immensely.

Joanne Sharpe's workshop

Here is Joanne (from upstate New York) leading Day One of the two day workshop on "Whimsical Watercolor and Fonts" at The Villages.  FAST PACED would be an understatement!! Some samples of her folded books are on the table.  I think we are headed that way for Thursday!  

This is just a small portion of the day...wow, it went so fast.  Beginning to focus on some of the variations of your own handwriting that one can practice.  

If you look back at the first photo of Joanne you see her holding a fold out booklet (4 parts) that are just plain silly fun.  The theme is a warm-up helping to relax and get into the mood of a "second grader".  A time in our lives when we were up for most anything and still thought of ourselves as artists. The theme was just wild and crazy dresses for the 2nd grader in us.  And a chance to play not only with wet watercolor washes but Tombow pens in wet washes.  

Hard to show here but this is a simple inexpensive composition notebook (like $2-3) from office supply that each of us creating to hold "work samples".  The pages are thickened by using Washi Tape to "bind together" three- four pages thus making it relatively stable.  

So on to day two...wish me luck.

Traveling at the Speed of Butterflies

Traveling at the speed of butterflies
You notice things.
Silence surrounds
Loud with sounds
Cacophony of crickets
Hawk on the wing
The river sings.
Traveling at the speed of butterflies 
You notice things. 
A human heart
A small kindness
A bee
A butterfly.

—Sara Thomsen. Written along the Missouri River Water Walk, www.nibiwalk.org

My daughter Julie has just come from attending the Women's Congress held in Minnesota from Nov 3-5.   Sara Thomsen was one of the people she heard there.  The themes were "climate, health, and justice".  You can read more about the congress here.

I love that Sara's poem exemplifies again the "theme" of my own blog (see the quote under the heading) as I pursue my goal of "paying attention".  I am sure that Julie will blog about her experiences in the days to come and I'll share some of what she learned.  

It's nice to think that even though I am "slowing down" as I get older that there are SOME benefits to that!  

I am, as I have blogged before, preparing for a two day art workshop up in The Villages on tomorrow and Thursday.  So watch for my sharing on that in the next few days.  

Sketching in the Leesburg area

A little time for some outdoor sketching this week...friends Pat and Pete were here from WI and so we managed to get out and about with them a bit.  On Friday afternoon we sent up to the Farm-all Tractor Museum in Leesburg.  Who would have thought to go there?  But the guys were all excited about it.  It was actually quite an amazing collection of just about every tractor and machine they ever made!

Plus some retro things that were fun to see.  

Saturday the guys went to a model train show up in Ocala so Pat and I headed over to Yahala to the Bakery which has live music and outdoor seating on Saturdays from 11-2.  We had a lovely outdoor lunch and enjoyed 70's music!  So relaxing.

Just nice to have a pen in my hand again.  

I have so many projects half done or unstarted yet in the studio.

And a busy week of many obligations coming up!  

Hope to have more artsy fun to share again soon.

Weather beautiful in FL...80s.  

I remembered to set my clocks to "fall back".  

Have a good week.