This one might actually be my favourite one yet. I mean in terms of pencil and tea. I loved the donkey as a pencil sketch on its own, not sure if the coffee improved it, but this one works. The patchy cow and the splotchy background are a perfect match.
I’m happy with this.
Seems I’m on a sort of barnyard animal streak. Not sure how long it will last, but I’ve always loved animals and cows, donkeys and hares have always been favourites. Though I’d never tackled a hare before.
By the end of this month I think I’ll have to work on finally selling stuff online. The sketches are small at a little over A5 size, easy to post, and totally affordable, even if I sell them with a mat board.
I’ve been looking into restablishing my etsy shop, which has been opend and doing nothing for months or looking into an art online shop. Its a lot of reading and research and testing and it will take time to work it out.
On a positive note, my new smaller/newer/more portable laptop has arrived finally and this is the inaugural post using it! YIPPEE! And so far it seems the WordPress app actually words properly on it!
Its so much better and faster than this ancient old tablet and so pretty! I’m donating the old tablet to a nephew to play games on. He’s happy. I’m happy. Win win.
The electricals have been taking forever, but I think they’ve finally sorted them out. The new electrical board for apartment 1 is almost finished and the holes in the walls are mostly filled.
The shower recess has been delineated and the window removed while we wait for a new, smaller one.
Next week I’m told they’ll start plastering walls and tiling. I hope.
Meanwhile, Lainee has been unwell. She’s been acting fine, always hungry as usual and her sweet self… but her gut hasn’t been happy. First she woke me up to go outside and poop for 3 days in a row. So I cooked boiled rice and chicken breast and she seemed to settle a bit. No more waking me up in the middle of the night… But the soft/slimy or runny poop continues days later.
So I took her to one of the local vets. They checked her over and gave me gastrointestinal diet food, some syrup to aid digestion, probiotics and antibiotics. They recommended it was time to get a heart ultrasound again and get her insides checked at the same time. That appointment is for next Tuesday. Hopefully she’ll be better by then, and hopefully its nothing more than some kind of bacterial infection.
After that I should be able to go back home for a while. The guys say they’ll keep working, and fingers crossed they will, ’cause I really want this reno finished.
They say it takes 30 days to form a habit. Let’s see… maybe after a month of daily art I’ll keep at it and not take long unproductive breaks. Hope springs eternal.
Then again, with summer coming up and with it being the busy season on a tourist island, who knows…
Today I share a quick sketch of a hare looking startled to be featured on a blog. This time I got bored of working with boring ol’ pencil cause I can’t really smudge and work it with my fingers, and can’t get the depth of tones I’m used to with pastels or charcoal.
So, I started to wonder what I could use to give it that extra dimension, given I’d already donated the crappy acrylics to some underage budding artists, and had no other art supplies on hand.
I found tea bags. Handy as a beverage and an art material.
Never one to knock back the chance to work with tea (having stained my share of fabrics and doilies with it) I decided to give it a go. Thing I discovered about using tea as an ink is that tea gets darker as it dries, so bits I thought looked too pale and went over ended up a little darker than expected.
Still, I rather like the effect. Art meets clumsy tea drinker.
Meanwhile I thought I’d give coffee a go as well. Since we don’t have any instant coffee at home in Athens (my go-to for coffee staining) I asked mom to make me a greek coffee to paint. She thought I was going to paint the coffee cup and even put it in a nice cup with matching saucer. Instead, I dipped my brush into it and added a bit of dimension to the donkey I drew on Day 1.
Its a totally different colour and unlike the tea, it doesn’t darken as it dries. Its more of a WYSIWYG medium.
(‘What you see is what you get’ for those unfamiliar with the old fashioned graphic design term. Pronounced wiz-ee-wig.)
I got my new acrylics today but not sure if I’ll jump right in or if I’ll play with tea a little longer.
If it wasn’t for the last minute nothing would get done around here!
Today’s contribution is a pencil sketch of a donkey. It brought back memories of art classes at Campion school, working with soft lead pencils. Its been a long long time since I worked with pencil only.
Even before art school I sketched with charcoal. There are so many types of charcoal to chose from… willow, konte, pitt, in stick or pencil form… there’s never been a need to pick up a plain old fashioned pencil for anything other than scribbling a quick note.
A few months ago I saw a shop that sold more than those horrid HB pencils, so I got myself a 2B and a 4B. Since the traumatising experience with the crappiest of crappy crap acrylics I bought by accident, I had no choice but to venture down memory lane and remember how to work with pencil.
It not only brought back memories of high school art classes, it also reminded me of sitting at my desk in 4th grade, sketching horses and tall skinny girls with my best friend as the teacher droned on about history or math.
It wasn’t too painful… (sketching with pencil, that is. Math was painful!) I might try it again.
Although I ordered proper acrylics to pick up tomorrow.
z
ps… I worked on the donkey a little more, adding a touch of greek coffee to give it a bit of depth. Seems rather appropriate – greek coffee for a greek donkey.
A friend sent me that in a message… I sent it to the contractor… Think he’ll get the hint?
The last few days he’s been coming in alone for 2-3 hours a day. He’s been concreting and cementing holes in walls. I understand. All that needs to dry in order for the walls to be finished and the kitchen to be put in or the bathroom to be done. It makes sense.
At least the big stuff like isolating water and electricity is done.
Of course, hard to explain that to mom who sees one man come in at 8am and leave at 10.30am…
The photos below were taken before he began filling holes in walls.
Meanwhile, I don’t know when the cement will be dry enough for them to begin working on the bathroom or floors… I do know there is at least one more step before they begin tiling or plastering…
Next week I’m thinking. Its already Thursday and history has shown that they don’t come in on the weekends.
I’m considering going to Paros in about a week for a couple of weeks. I’ve got 2 customers waiting for grooming which, on their own, is not worth going home for. The cost of tickets won’t be covered by 2-3 grooms. But I miss my own space and my work and there is plenty to do there. Not so much left to be done here. I just want to make sure they’re on a good track towards finishing before I go… Or perhaps I should go now, before they get to the nitty gritty…
I don’t know. Indecision raises its ugly head again.
z
ps… if you read this prior to me picking up the error in the title, I have a good excuse: the g on my keyboard sticks. Sorry! If you didn’t, please ignore this.
A little late in the day, but better late than never.
In fact, so late in the day that I almost backed out of my idea of drawing/painting one picture a day for the month of March. I mean, I hadn’t told anyone I considered doing it, no one would miss it… no one would know I chickened out!
Well, except for me
But somehow I managed to force myself to do something.
All this time in Athens I’ve had withdrawals from the projects I’d started on Paros last month… but I didn’t have any art supplies here. So this morning, while in the city, I visited an art shop for some stuff…
I opted for acrylics, thinking I need practice with them and I didn’t feel like gouache or watercolours.
I’m kicking myself now cause I didn’t pay close attention to the actual paints I bought… ugh. I opted for a box of small tubes since I only need a few things to keep in Athens. I’d been looking at the mini Amsterdam tubes and thought I’d picked up their mini set. Instead, Id picked up some crappy brand. And I mean real crap. This stuff is like the paints that come in big bottles and have absolutely no substance, body or pigment. The kind you give to kindergarten kids. I am so annoyed right now.
With the thin consistency and transparent quality of the paint, it dried way too fast to blend or it would turn to mud if I applied it liberally in an attempt to blend… Still I tried to create something just because I was p’d off.
Here it is. Amazing work.
On the upside, it can only go uphill from here, right? Huh?
On the downside… do any local art shops sell quality watercolours or am I going to have to try pencil work till I get back to Paros?
I believe I mentioned somewhere in the blog that I joined a writing group on Paros that meets once a month. Bell, Book & Candle started many years ago as a way for people who loved to write (professional or amateur) to get together and share a short piece written on a topic chosen each month.
I love to write (why else keep a blog?… well, to show off, of course, but to write too!) so I’d wanted to join since hearing about it when I first got to Paros. There is a limit to the group members, so I had to wait for someone to leave so I could join. I joined about 5 months ago and love being part of the group, and enjoy the challenge of writing on a specific topic each month.
I’m attaching a piece I wrote for the last meeting on the theme of ‘choices’. Fellow members suggested I should share it/publish it because it might be helpful to people to understand the particular situation I wrote about.
z
The Choice
The coffee grew cold in her hands as she sat staring, unseeing, out the window.
The wind raged outside, battering the trees with rain as it whipped their leaves into a chaotic dance, mirroring the turmoil inside her. It had been a long week of sleepless nights and days spent agonising over what she should do. Her stomach clenched tight and her hands felt clammy against the cold cup, but she continued to sit there, paralyzed by her inability to make any choice at all.
She’d given herself a week to think about it, and today was her self-set deadline. No more procrastinating, no more denial. It was time to face reality. Since the morning the test had showed up positive she knew this day would come, no matter how much she wished it away. She had to make a choice and live with the consequences of whatever she decided.
The weight of responsibility was crushing her. She felt like the poor coyote after an ACME safe had been dropped on him from a great height.
All this time she’d been fighting, at home and at school, to assert herself as an adult, capable of making her own decisions, yet now she cowered in her window seat, wishing someone else would take care of everything for her. Wishing mommy and daddy would make it all right as they had when she was a little girl. The irony of it didn’t escape her, and she sighed, wiping a self pitying tear from the corner of her eye.
The fact was, she was the one responsible now, the only one who could make this choice. It was her life, and like it or not, she was an adult.
One thing she had learned during this last week was that having too many choices was actually harder than having none. If you had no choice, all you could do was get on with it and make the best of whatever situation you found yourself in. Having too many choices was a nightmare. There were so many things to consider, so much to weigh up.
On the one hand there was Paul. Should she tell him and lay some of the weight of the choice on his shoulders? Did she want to risk derailing Paul’s life as well as her own, knowing his sense of duty would require him to step up and be a father, even when he’d worked so hard to put himself on the road to the life he planned?
Should she not tell him at all? Was that even fair? It was his child too, didn’t he have the right to be included in this decision?
But what about her rights? It was her body after all. Did she want a child to raise, with or without a father? What about her plans, her career? Was she willing to sacrifice all she’d worked for ’cause of an accident? They’d never discussed having children. In fact, they’d never discussed a future together. They were high school sweethearts, with plans to go to college and have successful careers away from this small town. Their future was supposed to be full of promise, a adventure to look forward to, not limited by mistakes in the present.
Then there were her parents. She couldn’t face telling them. She’d been the perfect daughter till now, how could she let them down like this? She’d always studied hard, got good grades, and had earned a place in her first choice college. Her father was so proud she wanted to study medicine, he boasted about her to anyone who’d listen, saying that she’d become a famous surgeon, although she knew he secretly wished she’d come home and join his general practice. And her mother, how could she face her friends when her only daughter was a shameful statistic – another pregnant teenager.
She got up from the window seat and put the coffee cup on her dresser. She wrapped her arms tightly around her waist, consciously trying to comfort herself, while subconsciously protecting the thing growing inside her, the thing she was trying very hard to not think of as a baby.
She looked around her room. It had gone from a little girl’s room in pink ruffles, to a teenager’s room with a boho look of bright colours and an eclectic mix of patterns, textures and loved objects. Like her personality – adventurous, fun, fluid and evolving, not yet set into what she would one day become.
She moved closer to the photos on the pinboard, and gently touched them with her finger tips: her and Paul by the lake last summer, laughing so hard at his failed attempts at fishing that her sides hurt. Her and Kate, her best friend, doing duck-faces at the camera outside the ice cream parlour where they hang out. She looked so carefree. So innocent. So unaware of the agonizing decision her future held. Their future, if she chose to tell Paul.
Thoughts whirled round in her mind, none seemed to stick, none the ideal choice, they just chased eachother round and round, the same thoughts coming to the front, being rejected, then round again like a crazy merry-go-round.
What if she told Paul and he wanted to do the right thing and marry her, giving up his career, staying on in their small town and getting a job to support them both. Wouldn’t that be ruining two lives instead of just one?
Should she just have an abortion and continue her life as if nothing had happened? She was pro choice… but she wasn’t sure how she felt about that now it was her choice. The thing growing inside her wasn’t a baby yet. At least she never thought of it that way.
She’d avoided thinking of ‘it’ as anything other than a ‘thing’. She knew it was her way of protecting herself… of allowing herself a choice in this situation. If she began to see it as a baby, with Paul’s blue eyes and her smile, she knew she would never be able to terminate this pregnancy.
If she kept the baby, there was always adoption. But she didn’t think she’d be able to give it up. She couldn’t give away the kittens a stray cat had under their porch last year and now they had 4 cats. How much harder would it be to give up her own baby?
But what kind of life could she offer a child? She’d have to give up on becoming a doctor. She’d have to stay at home and get a job. What sort of job could an unskilled high school graduate get? It all felt so bleak.
She was pretty sure her parents would help once they got over the shock. They loved her. But what a disappointment she’d be… She couldn’t bear to think of hurting them.
So many things to take into account… but the bottom line was it was her choice. It was a women’s right to choose. Her body, her decision. She shouldn’t let the expectations of her parents, Paul or the town, influence her decision.
It was hers to make.
She closed the laptop on the page entitled ‘Unwanted pregnancy: things to consider when deciding whether to keep or terminate a pregnancy’. She could hear her mother in the kitchen, making breakfast. The smell of bacon filled the air and she felt a wave of nausea. She wanted to throw up, not from morning sickness, but because she knew what she had to do.
I can’t believe I haven’t shared this on my blog!!! I posted it on Instagram and Facebook but totally forgot to share it here… how could I do such a thing?
Its been a busy time and there is always so much on my mind, I think my brain is just overloaded. The renovation, being there for mom, worrying about finances and decisions about my future, my dreams vs reality, and my art and the need to find ways to make it work for me financially as well as emotionally.
So much to think about, but perhaps that’s a post for another day. Right now, its just an explanation how something as simple as sharing something I love as much as this can slip my mind!
So, without further ado, here is ‘cat on a chair’…
This is a large piece, almost a meter high, much bigger than anything I’ve ever attempted before in acrylic. I’m not currently on Paros, so can’t give exact measurements. I used a recycled canvas of some kitch island art destined for the trash, which unfortunately had some tactile elements, so the first thing I did was to eliminate that texture by covering the surface with vintage book pages.
This achieved two things – it covered the previous work and provided me with a textured background which suited the crumbly plaster wall I intended to paint. Plus it added in a mixed media element which also played into the recycled aspect of my work.
In some areas of the painting I allowed the type to show through because I like the effect.
In other areas I used the texture of the book pages to create the feeling of a weathered old wall, showing cracks and chunks of missing plaster.
In other parts, I worked to create the patina of an old wall, with the faded colour and accumulated grime of years.
In order to create the texture of the wall, I used paint, water, a sponge and anything I felt would give me the effect I was after.
For the chair and the cat, I had to add more detail and form, so I used a brush as well as a palette knife. Its nowhere near the kind of detail I normally put in my work (despite spending years combating my tendency towards perfect imitation of life) and I am really pleased with the result. I’ve always admired artists who can paint something so real without actually describing it in detail. The impression of detail is enough, our mind fills in the rest.
You can see brush strokes, palette knife marks in areas. So unlike most of my work where I tend to blend more, leaving fewer visible marks.
This is the first in a series I am working on using similar techniques and experimenting with ways to prepare a surface and apply paint. I will share another finished piece soon.
I’m really enjoying working this way. Its so different from my small watercolours on marble or even my pastel animal portraits. Its like a challenge to be more of what I can be… like maybe even a REAL artist.
You know what they say – when the cats away the mice will play. Or, in this case, when Zefi is away construction comes to a screeching halt.
However, a few things were done while I was away. Lets remember the hallway as it was:
And as it is now;
This section of the floor will be tiled the same as the bathroom, and a dividing wall will go up to split the house into 2 apartments. You can’t see it, but the ceiling is half pulled down too, in order to get to the electrical cables.
This will be the new electrical panel for apartment 1.
This is the bathroom before –
And this is the bathroom now…
This was the dining area before –
This is the dining area now…
At least the other side is starting to take shape with a nice big wardobe.
Here is the fireplace with a dumb waiter for firewood and the dining area to the left –
Here is is now, with room for narrow shelves to the left and the bedroom wall.
The bar was removed here, and the door to the kitchen and glass brick eyesore was blocked in to make space for a kitchen.
That’s it.
More destruction at this stage than actual construction. However, I know you have to make a mess to make something good, so I’m not worried. Not about the mess… I am worried about timing though.
And I’m constantly worried about whether I’m doing the right thing or not… is it better to invest money into this house in order to have a rental income, or would I have been better off to sell it and use the money to invest in whatever on Paros since that’s where growth is…
Too late now I guess. I’ve committed to this. I will have an income from here to take the stress of having to get a REAL job in order to survive, and I can always sell in the future if it comes to it.
I apologise for the crappy images… they look much better on my phone… Hopefully it’s my monitor that’s out of wack and they look more clearer and crisper on yours!
This is one of my newly finished projects – a mix of pastel and acrylic on a piece of board. I quite like the result of mixing the two mediums and the feel of applying them to a board I prepared with some chalk paint as background.
Something simple and fun. This one is not large, about 32 x 20 cm. It was an experiment to see how the surface will work. And its worked out pretty good so I have more pieces I will paint in the future. I may even have a go at some watercolour on the chalk paint background to see how that works.
For now it’s only had a coat of fixative, but I will give it a coat of matt varnish to seal it. Then I have to figure out the best way to add a hook or wire to the back so it can be hung on a wall.
Thats all I have to say for now. I have to prepare for my return to Athens tomorrow… tidy the house a bit so I don’t return to a mess (though at least its my mess and I know I’m the only one responsible for it!), pack my bag, then just make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. I have clothes and another pair of Blundstone boots in Athens, so I really don’t need to take much with me. Just me, Lainee, my phone and tablet and all the chargers.
I’m already missing my own space and my projects in progress, but I must go see how the renovation is going and make sure it’s going to be finished sooner than later.
junk4joy 