Playing With a Variety of Drawing and Painting Materials

 

I am fairly sure I posted this photo on top of the "peace pole" project here at University Woods but I did take a photo of it after it was placed in someone's garden.  They are randomly placed around the grounds in the gardens and planters.  Look very cool.  Acrylic.  

The Tiger Lillies are blooming all over campus now and around the Wisconsin area.  And Lillies of all kinds.  It's just "Lilly season" now.  they are such a pretty waxy flower...so vibrant.  These are just outside on the patio here at University Oaks.  Watercolor and ink. 

This is one of those sketches you do when you are waiting for something.  I was down in the Oaks Community Room the other day and waiting for something...can't even remember what for at the moment.  But I do like the lamps and the furniture in our center.  Sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright theme.  Ink and white charcoal.  

Graphtint pencils by Derwent.   I got the initial box of 6 "tints".  They are a water soluble graphite with just a hint of color.  I think I am going to enjoy using them.  They do also come in 24 shades but I am thinking that I'll play with these 6 for awhile first.  

They are different from "watercolor pencils" which do not contain graphite.  I used 3 tints in this sketch...a dark indigo shade, a Mountain gray shade and then just a touch of Ivy green around the label.  It's quite lovely for studies like this.  I hope to put them into my sketching bag and try them more.  So easy to use with just a water brush to activate.  Here's a look at the tints:

What's Up in June?

This page seemed to just design itself...taking me from mid-April through early June.  From temps in the 50s to temps in the 90s!  We are having a veritable heat wave in Wisconsin in June...quite startling as it is hotter here than in Leesburg, Florida!!  AND very very dry.  Worrisome drought.  And as I write this on the 11th of June no rain in sight.  My mini memories above carried me through the lovely spring flowers blooming in the woodland forest here next to The Oaks with everything I've always loved (see below for more on that) and through graduations and shared lunches and garage sales and art projects and two lovely books.  The feather theme appeared midway with several quite nice turkey feathers from our woods as well as song bird feathers.  And led to my reading When Women Were Birds!  

I did these tiny sketches standing in the woods and briefly stopping to see what I was looking at. Three different dates in April, May and June.   Many of them were labeled by friends of the woods!  Some I looked up on iNaturalist..an app on my phone!  Others were old friends.  Jacob's Ladder and the Golden Alexanders were new.  

This beautiful foxglove is from Julie's garden just along her patio.  Such a beautiful one.  

And here's my Peace Pole around in a garden here at University Oaks among the many flowers and vegetables growing in the amazing heat. I am not sure how many there are but surely 15 or so at least scattered about the campus.   Someone located mine for me and I took my first trip up to visit the it the other day and found Ian who was gardening near by and gifted me with some delightful fresh lettuce!  Lucky me.  

June is seeming to slip through my fingers...meeting new folks and sharing histories.  Katy was here for lunch this week...we visited the lovely bistro salad bar for that!  We plan to visit a neighborhood garage sale tomorrow (as the heat is supposed to abate slightly for Saturday).  Really 90 is over the top for garage sales for me!  Whew.  Father's Day weekend Beth will come for a visit and we so happy to have her too!  Our first overnight visitor!  

Just a few weeks now until we go up to the cabin for the month of July.  Greg is especially excited about that!  And it will be fun to cozy up in the reading corner again...enjoy the lake front and hopefully enjoy some family visits.  

There's an outdoor musical event tonight here on campus...I plan to take my sketching things.  What a lovely month is June in Wisconsin.