Goodness, Weekend Again?

Hay fever this year has been bad. Common consensus is, normal medication doesn't work. It's been dry and windy most days. Sometimes my brain tells me I don't feed it enough oxygen. And yet, I'm not cutting out dairy nor coffee this year so perhaps it's a little self-inflicted. And I decided not to question why it is thus this year.

In spite of that, I've also been trying to garden some. I have a wee area I can show you  - I grew dahlias from seeds two summers ago and put the bulbs/tubular into the ground that autumn. They bloomed well last season, and I stuck the dried flower heads into the ground. I can't remember how many plants I had, so I don't know if the flower heads had many seeds in them, but I counted at least three new plants. I also bought two more packets to fill the gap. We'll see how it goes. Do you see what I mean by the dryness, though; the tomato-and-basil patch was drenched Thursday night. There are, suffice it to say, areas so bad if I were weeding, you wouldn't be able to see me. I've half a mind to photograph them now so after I've cleared the way I can show you before and after pics. Maybe not.

I have been weaving the first of the two-faced twill pieces, and not liking it one bit. It's boring, because it's just two-faced twill; you see the squares from a distance, but there's nothing to discover while wearing/handling it. I could have made the insides of the square more interesting. Used the blocks more intelligently. Something!  It's an expensive mistake.

Drawing was interesting. I'd forgotten how much I love willow charcoal - so gentle, so fickle, so organic. I took up post in the corner of the classroom hoping I might get a back view, as if I almost don't belong in class but am just looking in. I love this model but/and (un)fortunately she is so experienced there is never really a "back" view with her. Still, I didn't like the view I had, so did a little dance within my roughly-1-square-meter, and found this view.

If you're right handed, as I am, you're supposed to stand on the left of the easel; to get this view, I had to stand on the right of the easel, so I did most of the drawing with my left hand. So, I drew, rubbed, drew, erased, and on and on, and soon both my hands were covered in charcoal, and everything started blending. I couldn't completely erase any part, and I couldn't darken some parts any more. Which suited me fine because this model is shaped like a wood nymph/fairy, svelte but muscular, not big but shapely small muscles.

The front of her body was drenched in the midday sun. Normally Ronette recommends we put in dark background to highlight the... errr... light; I never liked that technique and I wasn't going to do it yesterday. I like the wood nymph evaporating into the light and all I could hear was the flutter of her wings.

I enjoyed drawing this. I couldn't step back to check the proportion; she's thinner and the leg/arm angle is wrong, but all things considered, I think it was accidentally beautifully blended.

The rest of the afternoon I ran errands and checked out stationary shops (or sections within bookshops as we no longer have an art supply shop unless we go to Richmond, 20 min away, inside a picture frame shop,) for ideas for Weaver to Weaver. I didn't need anything, but wanted ideas, different uses of tools and materials I already have, or color and textural combinations. Without going overly Christmassy or scrapbooky. (I'm not so anti-Christmas as I am totally-anti-commercialization of a religious holiday AND of organized religion. I prefer Thanksgiving or Japanese New Years of family, food, and hanging out.)

See, when I propose these... things, I don't have any idea what I'm going to do. This week I came up with one idea that needed... paint!  Me and paint, not a good combination. I now have three ideas and a couple of idea-seeds. I have a warm feeling of weavers' un-Christmas stockings!

Sign-up is due the end of Sunday your local time. I hope a few more of you join us.