Last Night

After having spent all day yesterday cleaning and organizing my studio space, It was wonderful to sit down at my nice clean desk and do some work. I poured a cup of tea and tuned into A Prairie Home Companion.

It's my favorite thing to listen to while I work, my dad always listened to it on his shortwave radio when I was little while as he worked into the wee hours of the night, and I could often hear it from my bedroom, so there's something nostalgic about the show. It's the only thing that seems appropriate after 10 pm! (and I'm so spoiled to be able to listen whenever I want, thanks to the Internet streaming! That's an option dad never had, I think he actually may have based his work hours around the show!)
It also has a strange way of making you hungry, with all the singing about powdered milk biscuits and rhubarb pie...;)

After all my carving was finished, I decided to doodle up some quick illustrations in my favorite color combination. I decided to make a set of four, which I might make some prints of for my shop.

I drew the flower first, and then the bird. Then decided a bug and some mushrooms might be fun. None of these things really go together other than the fact that they're all "nature". The colors all sort of bring them together though.

Also, I forgot to post these last week, just a couple of watercolors I did while at camp. A bird, and a silly little group of owls that is supposed to be sort of a parody to my Dad and the youth group. (dad is a minister). The youth aren't really specific to anyone in particular, the youth group is always full of odd characters though so I just played with it. It was more fun than anything. We were sitting at the table in the mess hall during a rainy afternoon, and people kept coming up with suggestions. Mark told me I needed to make one with fangs...Lindi suggested one with horned rimmed glasses...(we were kinda bored, due to the rain)

Last but not least, I've found a solution to my watercolor woes. One of the sets I have is really bad for shifting. The little pans will slide all to one end (in their plastic pots) and every time I open it I have to put them all back again. (I carry the sets around in my back pack, so they do get shifted quite a bit).

Well NO MORE! I bought some "zots" last time we went to Michael's, and voila, life is simpler. I stuck a little sticky dot on the bottom of each pan and now they stay put. If I really need to pop one out, I still can. It's just a lot harder, which is fine. I have the colors memorized, and don't need to refill them THAT often:)

Top, Winsor and Newton Cotman compact studio set.

Bottom,

Winsor and Newton Cotman half pan studio set, 45 pans.