Me * me * ME

* Self Portraits *

Different times in my life

 Pen-Mid 60s

 Watercolor-mid 60s.

Colored markers-about 60ish.

Photo of me in front of an acrylic painting I made of me, several years ago. My grand daughter who is 22 now, was about 6 then. She told me my self portrait had too much make up and looked mean!

So the title of that painting was "Mean Grandma". Funny.
I was in my 50s. Grand daughter also said, you ARE OLD!

 Contour drawing technique-Not too recent.

Threshold-Recent

Pencil-In my 40s

 Pencil-HS Senior pic -18

 Watercolor - Oh I was a baby, about 17

 Pen-40s

 Pencil-40ish

Watercolor-early50s

Watercolor-early 50s

Just me, myself and I.

OK, young folks, you didn't invent the selfies!

I just prefered to draw mine!

 LOL

For the Love of Pencils - Two New Artworks

Pencils!

   

Some of my pencils! 

This winter I rediscovered how much I love to draw. 

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My process is to make a detailed drawing from the photo and/or set up and then color it in. When using the watercolors and gouache it's the same as when I'm using the pencils. It is so relaxing to me, and quite a thrill when the finished piece turns out the way I want it to.

I'd gotten so accustomed to using water media, exploring other media didn't come to mind. While in our winter home, drawing with number two lead pencil began to fascinate me. I was in a drawing group and the other people were very complimentary of my work, but they began to ask why I couldn't use color too. So....that caused me to consider colored pencils! I had watercolor pencils but had rarely used them. The first few images I used watercolor pencil but when the art started looking really good to me, I was AFRAID to add the water to the pencil! So, I didn't. 

Now that I am back in our summer home, it's still pencil drawings I want to do. I'm using dry watercolor pencils with the other pencils. Did you know there are hard, sharp colored pencils, soft vibrantly colored pencils, sets for portraits, sets of 12, 24, 36, and 48 different colors and lots of variety in graphite and carbon drawing and most common number 2 lead pencils! The great thing, they are not terribly expensive and so......I got me a buncha pencils, Baby!

Most Recent Pencil Work

Photo above,

"Muffin and Fruit Breakfast"

Pencil 'Painting' below.

This picture is so covered with pencil; it is thick and kinda cool to touch it!

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Photo above

"Heart Swans"

Pencil Drawing below

 Ready to begin pencil "painting".

Art from My 'Set-UP' and Photo of the Set-Up

When I am working the way I believe I should be, I set up my own things to paint, photograph the set up in the best light I can either due to the time of day or with artificial light and paint looking at both. 

The paintings I'm showing here were all done in that manner.

Believe I may still have prints of this one. Orignial Watercolor and Gouache Sold in Morristown by  Carol DeMonbreun.

Origninal Watercolor and Gouache Sold to the Kites.

Original 12 x 12 canvas on board panel, in acrylic paints, sold at the Rogersville Gallery on Main 

Street.

 'Coffee 'n' Cookies All Round' gifted to my sister-in-law, Kay. If you are like my brother and you are not sure what the round things with white coming out are - they are homemade sandwich cookies - vanilla wafers and vanilla icing! Not for the dieters. 12 x 12 canvas on board, acrylic painting.

'Stackin'Cups' 12 x 12 canvas on board, acrylic painting, hanging on my wall.

Original owned by my hubby, Charles Toney. This is his favorite painting, mostly because of the subject. All the itmes in the painting are ours purchased when we lived in Italy and the bench they are sitting on is a church pew he saved from the dump while we lived in Italy! It is Watercolor and Gouache.

Original still available. It won third place at an annual art show in Rogersville one year. It's Watercolor and Gouache and it's a big painting. It's 22x30 watercolor paper and matted to even bigger. May be why I still have the thing!

Original is hanging in my house. This is a window sill at our house in Potzzuoli, Italy and the roses were growing next to our door. I loved the light play and that's what inspired me to do the painting.

It is also Watercolor and Gouache.

The Original was painted for David Peterson as a gift for his parents. David brought me the vase and flowers and we went to his parents home to take the photographs I used to paint from. This was an enjoyable painting, although all those little flowers were quite a challenge!

Me, On Art

My favored kind of work to do is realistic, and could be called photo realism. The colors and the way they change with the availbale light always pull me to an image. 

When so much in life is uncontrolable, it's nice to control the image on the page! It's even better when the resulting painting is something others can appreciate.

Enjoy your life. Don't let the ugly and uncontrolable win. 

Find the beauty, it's all around you.

PS Looking back at all of this, I think you might get the idea I like flowers and coffee/breakfast! 

Photo Essay: Spring At Our Tennessee Mountain Home

It's the most beautiful evening. The sun is shining and our irises have begun to bloom. The snowball bush we've had for several years and that my husband has patiently looked after, has blooms for the first time! And, it is loaded with them!

Today marks the sixth day of some kind of respiratory problem I've had. Without giving you the ugly details I'll just say I have felt really terrible. A few minutes ago I became aggravated with myself for giving in to it all, and took myself outdoors for a walk around my house. I took a few pictures I'll share.

All the flowers and plants up here are very healthy, full of blooms and growing well this year. It must have been the perfecty winter and spring for them.

God's creations are so glorious they pulled me out of the gloom.

This pretty little bloom is a 'stray'. 

It is mixed in with the orange day lilies that will bloom in mid summer.  

The first blooms of our snowball bush! 

One of the irises we bought from the Iris Festival a couple of years ago.

The first iris to bloom this spring. I was out a couple of weeks ago!

Some sentimental things.

Buster was my husband's brother and he gave us this tub 

to use for a flower bed.  The azalia bush loves it.

Buster lost his battle with cancer at 47 years old.

The shoes with rock garden moss and hens and chickens were our brother-in-laws. My husband's sister gave us the shoes with flowers as a thank you for helping her mover here from the big city several years ago.

The brother-in-law passed a couple of years ago.

This is a pond my husband had dug and has been trying to stock with fish. 

The little log cabin is the neighbor.

God Bless America

Happy Mother's Day Moms.

Cards to Sell

Pictured here are some of the cards I have in stock. 

If you see anything you are interested in please leave me a comment or a Facebook message.

 ~ Petunias in a Pitcher ~ Coffee Any Way ~ New Mexico Scenery ~ Miss Betty's Rose ~

~ Polar Bear Mom and Babe ~ Espresso Please ~ Chairs ~ Indiana Morning ~

 ~ Paint Creek Autumn ~Jack 'n' Jill ~ Breakfast ~ Blue Bird ~

~ Jay on a Fence Post ~ Arizona Sky ~ Saint Thomas Indian Mission ~ Blooms and Bird ~

~ Iris 3 ~ Nancy Buttons ~ Sittin' Pretty ~ Flowers in an Embossed Vase ~

~ Winter Trees w/Clear Blue Sky ~ Swan on a Golden Pond ~ Bougainvillea ~ Island Girl ~