Painting backgrounds

I've been working in my journals and I am liking what I am creating more all the time.

I imagine I am getting better at it.  Practice does help.

Finding the right pens to be able to write over painted pages helps too.

When the friends in my creativity group noticed my work improving they began to ask me if I could show them how to paint the backgrounds.  We did a little workshop this week and here are some of their results.

Mary tried some water soluble crayons.

I believe above shows some of Karen's work with the water soluble crayons too.

Pinky included some stamping with her work.  I love that stamp and borrowed it, made several copies on other papers to use later.

Karen included some cut outs over her painted page. This page shows the technique of painting designs first with some gesso, then painting over it and wiping off.

April prefers less abstraction.  She had some gellato colors that she was trying out for the first time. She liked them a lot.  They are water soluble too.

More of Karen's work.  When in doubt, put a bird on it!

April is taking a lettering class from Joanne Sharpe and gave us all cards and she hand lettered the envelopes.

Two weeks ago we colored eggs. Mine is the skully egg.

The next week we took April out shopping for her birthday.  We had to shop a little ourselves so she wouldn't feel lonely.

Sadie news-It's good!

Remember about a year and a half ago I posted how I took in this old Golden Retriever that seemed lost?  I put up ads and contacted various animal shelters to report her but I never did find her owner and never had a clue about where she came from.  My cat Charlie had trouble adjusting to her even though the new dog was very quiet and gentle.

As you can see from the photo, Charlie adjusted to Sadie and we all settled in happily.

On Saturday, a stranger came to the house looking for chainsaw man, he needed work done on his saw and heard that Steve is the man to see.  He came in the yard and all the dogs were clustered around to greet him and he said, "That dog looks just like a dog I lost awhile back!"  How long ago? I asked and he said about a year and a half ago.  Well Sadie is his dog.  He just lives a mile down the road but he and his wife keep very much to themselves and I've never met them.  He said they had put up posters and put an ad at the animal shelter.   We discussed the merits of his telling his wife as Sadie was really her dog.  I said please don't take her back, I love her, she fits in so well here.  But I also said I hope he does tell his wife so she can ease her mind about what happened to Sadie. He took a photo of Sadie with his camera.  I said they could have her back if they wanted, but I hoped I could keep her.

Kobos

I lost a dog once, she just disappeared and I never knew what happened to her.  I never really got over the loss so I can relate to what they went through losing Sadie/Gypsy.  I'd have loved to have found out that my lost dog was taken in by some other loving family.  Instead I've imagined many other scenarios, none of them good.  Above is a painting of her that a friend did for me.

On Sunday the man, his wife and their 8 year old daughter came here.  I was nervous, wondering what would happen.  The woman came in and tearfully greeted her long lost dog and Sadie seemed to remember her.  The woman, her name is Jenn, right away told me that they decided I should keep Sadie, that set my mind at ease.  Jenn said that she was so happy to find out that Sadie is still alive and found such a good home.  She said Sadie looks so good, her allergy problems have cleared up and she obviously is happy here, so she should stay.  They still have two other dogs to love.

Above is a small piece I made of me and my lost dog, Kobos.

So now the mystery of Sadie is solved.  I'm sorry those people had to go through the pain of losing Sadie but at least now they know she has a happy ending.  The other good thing is that we all hit it off so well with these people, I believe they will become good friends.  The little daughter was such a sweetheart, she brought us a card she made and a little bag of goodies that she selected to give.  There were some chocolates, two books from her collection, a small tin of mints that when I later opened it I found it contained pretty rocks, and a cloth book cover. They all stayed for a couple of hours and we talked and I showed them around the studio and the garden and we ate some snacks.  It was quite wonderful.  I'm so happy Sadie is still here.  Oh, and it turns out that Sadie isn't a Golden Retriever at all but instead is part Chow and part Irish Setter!  That explains the spots on her tongue and her red coat!

Be well.