Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice, the darkest night, after which the light comes back.  it is the birth of light.

As I have done for several years now, I went over to St Patrick's to light some candles and send some energy and intentions out to be birthed.  Today is the day of all days to do this.

Here is the tree at Rockefeller Center:

Inside the cathedral.

I lit three candles this year, they are the three at the top next to the angel.

More inside the cathedral.

This year's nativity scene.

Metal Mouth

A week ago today Daya got braces and I haven't posted about it yet!

Before

During

After

Waterfall

This is not a great painting.

It isn't even a very good painting, but I'm still glad I got in some easel time.

Yesterday was too cold/windy to go out painting.

Pastel on black Richeson sanded paper, 8x10, couple hours.

Snowy

Here is a little quick snowy color study.

5x7 Sennelier oil pastels on Colourfix-primed Stonehenge.

Wet Alpaca

I got a nice new alpaca hat in Hudson.
Alpaca is wonderful- it is warm and soft and never itchy like wool.

This is my lovely alpaca hat:

The other night I went to pick up Daya from dance. It was raining lightly so I didn't bother with my umbrella, and my alpaca hat was so nice and warm.

I was on the train.
A man stepped on and I thought, 'Wow, that guy stinks.  He smells like a wet dog."

Oddly, the smell didn't go away when I got off the train.
Which led me to the discovery that it was ME!
I was the stinky one!

Apparently my alpaca hat, when wet, smells like a wet cat.

I Froze Again

Friday wasn't cold enough so I went out again yesterday and it was cold.

But I made a painting.
I went to the cemetery but not really for cemetery stuff...there is landscape and there are clouds.

Also, I left my painting cap in Brooklyn. Probably because of the cold.
It didn't turn up in the lost and found so I know exactly where it is, hiding very well, and I'll go get it Tuesday.

I really love my painting cap and I want it back.

8x10 pastel on that wonderful dark gray Richeson sanded paper.
A little less than 2 hours.

I think the physical discomfort teaches me efficiency.

Several times during this painting I was ready to be done but the painting wasn't done talking so I kept on.

It always feels good when it is over.

I brought a lot of pastels. This is something I should really do more often.

My Yellowstone box is very large and requires my heavy-duty tripod, which is also large and heavy, but can possibly support Godzilla.

It is very sturdy and solid..

Yellowstone box

Know When to Jump Ship

Yesterday I went to Brooklyn Botanic Gardens to paint, and it was a cold but lovely time.

While on the train over ***** I thought I might paint in the Japanese garden, specifically the little Shinto shrine which is there.

And that's where I set up my gear.
It is a small space, not much room around the shrine, but it is so! adorable! and I thought if I do my composition correctly I could put the shrine in the landscape.  Even though I was way too close up.

I tried to make it work, three times. I really was just way too close and there was no way to back up.
The third attempt was a halfway decent start on the shrine, but it was turning into a very involved architectural painting and I wasn't enjoying it because I really wanted to paint landscape.

I had been looking forward to this trip all week, I was so happy to be there, and there was just no way I was going to ruin my painting day by painting something I wasn't enjoying.

It is important to know when jumping ship is the only good solution.

So I stopped and pondered.
I had my gear set up and I liked the location, so I didn't want to move to a different spot.

There was some nice landscape with pretty colors just behind the shrine and I liked that, so I moved my tripod to the other side of the little clearing and started over.  One of the nice things about using sanded paper is that it takes a lot of abuse. It is expensive so I refuse to waste it, and it was no problem just working over my three previous starts.

The block-in stage of this painting was really super-ugly- seriously ugly- and of course that's when people came over to look! When this happens I tell myself several things, over and over.  And over.

I tell myself that I can make it work, I will make it work, it will turn out well. I can do it. I also tell myself not to rush. You just can't be in a hurry to get through the ugly stage, as uncomfortable as it is.
A prayer for help here and there is helpful too.

There are several things I felt went really well with this painting.
The clouds- I have a bad habit of making all my cloud edges too soft, and I didn't do that today.  I used five shades of blue (and a purple) in the sky, and I found that small subtle accents of the middle-darker blue around some of the cloud edges made them stand out more.

The trees I did very last.  There are some distant trees behind the dark foreground trees, and I painted from back to forward.  The very distant foliage shapes went better than expected, and so much of it (as well as the clouds) was a back-and-forth between subject color and sky color.

8x10 pastel on Richeson sanded paper (the dark gray one, my fave!!)

I WAS SO COLD by the end of this painting, it was 35 degrees and I had been standing still for almost three hours. This is very apparent on the right side in the foreground trees......

My Belly River box is back to work!

my view behind the shrine

my original location

*******
Apparently the 5 train doesn't go to Eastern Parkway anymore which I find baffling.
I discovered this when the train went way past where it should go, but the 2 and 3 share the same stops so I just switched trains and went back a few stops.

Here are some pictures from around BBG.

The Ugliest Couch in the Universe

This morning when I got to the office I walked across the floor in my dazed pre-tea state to get...tea.

I walked around the corner and mentally shouted "WTF!"

There is a new couch.

This thing.

We had a couch already, and it was a pretty nice couch.

It was dark grey.

It was also fairly new, meaning it wasn't gross.

And now we have this eyesore, probably because it was on another floor where someone important must dwell, and they said,  "I can't look at that thing one more day, make it go away!" so they took our nice dark grey couch and gave us this thing.

Someone intentionally designed the pattern on this thing.

Someone actually paid for this thing.

It is the ugliest couch in the universe, and now I have to look at it every day.

Winter Walk

Last Friday Daya and I went up to Hudson for the weekend to see Dru and go to Winter Walk.

Laurey, Branwen, and Cathy were there, too.
Rob joined us on Saturday.
We left on Sunday.

Because Branwen is both amazing and completely insane at the same time, she paid for hotel rooms for everyone.

When I got to Hudson she told me "Oh, you and Rob are staying at The Barlow. The rest of us will be down the street at Rivertown Lodge. Daya and I are sharing a room."

!!!

I haven't had 2 consecutive child-free nights since summer 2014.

The Barlow is really, really NICE.
The bathroom! was! awesome! and we had a remote control fireplace.

Cathy took this Winter Walk pic and I wish she was in it, too.

Branwen  Dru  Laurey  Me  Rob

Daya joined us a little later--it's nice that she is old enough- and she knows Warren St in Hudson well enough- that I let her do what she wants.

The Box Finale!

My Belly River Box has returned home!  It was here waiting for me when I got back from Hudson on Sunday.

I really ought to blog about that. hmmm.

Ben reinforced the back, replaced the hinges, re-stained the whole thing (I LOVE how it smells omg), gave me a new palette and little cup.  He did say the new palette was because the old one was a casualty of the rebuilding process.

I'm SO HAPPY to have my box back in working order, and I will take it out on Friday.

Acrylic Glazing Pitfalls

So, I learned from the Aloysious painting that if you need to glaze acrylic paint over a dark background, the thing to do is not do it.  Just don't. Ever. Mix your colors with black and paint direct, then apply straight color over that if you need to make it stand out a little more.

Not only will you accomplish the effect in a fraction of the time, (2 layers!) it will actually look the way you intended it to look.

If you really feel the need to glaze in acrylic for something other than minor touch-up, do it over a light background.

Here is Lucky, Branwen's cat who passed away in September.

I wanted to do matching Rainbow Bridge portraits for Drusilla and Branwen.

This weekend I will see Branwen and I'll give her the painting.

Lucky was much more cooperative than Aloysious...probably because he is a cat and they enjoy being admired.

5x7 acrylic on canvas panel

It's so hard to get a good photo.