Coffee And Paint Drips Blog - Page 53 of 79

The Princess’ Visit

Tuesday is my day with the Princess. She’s here and after having her bottle she fell asleep. I know I have said it before, but she is just an amazing thing to look at. I am just so lucky to be able to be such a part of her life. I am blessed.

A while ago, before the Princess was born, I ran into another grandmother with her charge in a stroller at the supermarket. We said hello and started talking about grandchildren in the aisle. She told me she has hers 5 days a week. I said I would probably switch off with the other grandma, at the time I wasn’t really sure what our arrangements would be. This woman had retired from teaching and for her, being home with the baby was lonely. Oh man, not for me!

Being home with this baby is great! She’s a good baby, with rarely a peep from her. I was able to be home with my boys. I was busy as anything, if I had a job I don’t know how I could have handled it. And I need time to do my art. Besides, I like my own company and the quiet of my house. In other words, this is heaven!

Will I get to paint later? Maybe. Unless the baby is awake and feels like playing!

A Quiet Sunday

It’s a quiet Sunday. I usually wait for inspiration and post to the blog on Monday. As I have said before, Monday is a favorite day. Unlike other people, I love Monday. I know, we won’t go there.

Today was kind of like a Monday because everyone was out of the house for a few hours. To me that is bliss. Since I’ve been having alot of fun painting for just 20 minutes I decided to get my little things done around here and then paint! After all, what’s 20 minutes?

The great thing about this little travel set is that it’s right in my path, along with these things I keep painting. I never get tired of the rocks and the shells! I guess they remind me of the summer and the beach. I painted this at around 3PM with plenty of north light from the dining room window.

The teeny travel brush in this photo is my favorite brush! It holds just enough water and has a great point, but it’s not an expensive brush. I might have to investigate some regular size brushes that match the way this one works. And I’m going to need another one of these spiral watercolor pads. For now it does the trick, but I have only two pages left of this one.

I can’t wait to shop for art supplies! With 20 minutes of painting so often I might need more supplies than I plan to get. Fun!

Shell with Seaweed (c)DST 7×10 Watercolor

Friday Photo

Thought for Thursday

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” ~Twyla Tharp

Don’t Paint in the Dark

Where do the days go? It seems I’m awake at dawn and suddenly it’s time to sleep again. What happened in the middle? It’s dark too early now, too.

My days with the Princess are done for this week. As I have some things to do on alternate Thursdays, she’ll be visiting her other grandmother tomorrow. I will definitely miss having her with me. She’s such a comfortable baby, not a complainer at all so she is wonderful to watch her. And she smells really good!

Monday and Friday I have off from sitting with her so those days I try to get my own stuff done. When will I try to have an Artist’s Date? Who knows. Some where in those off days if I plan it right.

Since I’ve been trying to keep up with The Twenty Minute Challenge I think that’s the way to go for now. So while the Princess takes a quick nap, I run to do 20 minutes of watercolor painting.

Yesterday was a day that she was awake for a long while. We looked at dots, which she is fascinated by, talked to each other, had some tummy time, and had lunch together, sort of. Wide awake and alert, there wasn’t much time for me to paint most of the day. After Gorgeous came to take the Princess back home I ran some water in a tub and took out the paints. Just arranged the same items that are hanging around and started painting. Mind you, it was already 4PM! By the time I got going the sun was on it’s way down and I tried to work quickly.

Oh well, I did what I could in the twenty minutes I allotted for painting. Too much water and not enough dry surface so the paints ran. It’s fine. I told myself that it’s the process that counts.

The Princess has left for the day and I decided to return to this painting. Now that it’s dry I tried to clean it up, make it neat, and worth showing. Next time I need to paint earlier in the day because painting in the dark isn’t much fun.

Day Off Friday With Photo

Friday is my day off. I had a lovely three days of babysitting my amazing granddaughter and can’t wait for next week. Of course, I think she is the smartest thing at only 6 weeks old. She is alert as a whip, when she’s not asleep, which is alot of the time. You know, babies need sleep to grow, so that is cool. She’s adorable when she’s asleep. When she’s awake her eyes are wide and steady. She can and wants to raise her head and look around. I don’t remember my kids doing that this young. She’s a voracious milk drinker when she’s hungry, but right in the middle of her feeding she nods off to sleep! Then she’s awake and looking for the rest of that bottle. And her legs keep moving, kicking, pushing with a purpose.

She is very interested in her crib decor here at my house. Who knew polka dots would be fascinating? One side is lime green with dark brown dots, the other side is brown and white herringbone. It’s the dots that makes her excited. She turns her little head to see the herringbone for a few seconds and turns right around to the dots. Her arm extended, those little legs pushing in the air, she’s all into the dots. Her breath quickens and she starts to vocalize at those dots. So I do too!

Am I running off about this princess? I might be.

I think helping to raise a child is a huge responsibility. There is so much to learn about the world and themselves. I am thankful to have the time to devote to her. While feeding her I had Mozart and Frank Sinatra music playing. We looked at shapes and colors. We talked back and forth. I helped her push her legs and flip herself over for a few minutes. We took a walk in the carriage in the lovely fall weather. I walked, she slept.

And during one of her naps I sat at the dining room table for twenty minutes to paint while Mozart played. I had already set up a still life of the usual objects of late: rocks, leaves and apple. As I had pulled out the tomato plants from the garden and culled the small green tomatoes, I added one to the mix. Twenty minutes was enough to keep me in the painting mode. Twenty minutes and I was done.

I can’t wait until this baby can hold a paint brush!

Thought for Thursday

“Your sons weren’t made to like you. That’s what grandchildren are for.” ~Jane Smiley

Day With The Princess

Day #1 is over. Well, it’s been over for a couple hours, but I just had the chance to post here now. In fact, I’m writing this post on my iPad because I’m too lazy to go to the computer.

Needless to say I had an amazing day with my infant granddaughter here at my house. I felt terrible for Gorgeous, she returned to her job, so I took photos of the Princess with my cell phone and sent them to her. It’s hard to leave that little bundle of cute baby and go to work, but things are what they are these days.

However, the luck is all mine! I get the chance to be with that adorable munchie most of the day and I loved every moment of it. The to-do list, errands, chores and painting can wait for another day. Right now is the most important time of this short period called infancy. Babies are babies for only so long so we need to make the most of it.

My mom stayed at home when we were kids. My grandmother lived with us, but when she wasn’t at work she took care of us. Built in babysitting. As both parents work now, grandmothers are in high demand, and many of them are working too. Me, the artist, I’m at home. I never thought I would be so happy to step into this wonderful opportunity. Do you know that in some parts of the world it’s not cool to be a young-ish grandma and watch the babies? That’s just not cool to me.

Son#1 brought the Princess in the morning. I gave her the bottle, changed her diapers, put her down for a nap and pretty much looked at her in amazement. This infant is my baby’s baby! It’s like a dream. Where did the time go? How is it possible?

Want to know what the best part about this job is? I get to do it all over again tomorrow!

Equipment is Essential

Every job has it’s essential tools. As artists, we must have implements that help us do our job. The right brushes or pencils, paints of all sorts, surfaces and surroundings, allow us to be somewhat successful at what we do. We can get along with substandard equipment, but for how long?

What do I mean by substandard? I know I can get along very well with non-professional equipment if I just think about the process of creating art. Will I be thrilled with the result is another story. As I go along this art journey I’ve learned that having the better supplies makes the journey easier. Knowledge is power, as they say these days. I know I should have signed up for those iMac classes when I purchased this computer, as an example, because using it wouldn’t have been such an uphill climb.

Same thing with art supplies. Except that sometimes we can over indulge and end up going overboard. Like those watercolor paints I bought a while back. I always used tried and true Windsor & Newton paints or Grumbacher. The colors were what I expected in these companies, but I was lured to MaimeriBlu and now I’m not so happy with them. Through the wonderful blog commenters I have stepped up to a better watercolor surface though. Now I’m very happy using Arches papers. I’m learning.

The down side is that now I have plenty of MaimeriBlu paints and I would rather paint from my teeny travel set of Windsor & Newton half pans. I love how the former paints look on the paper, but the latter colors are exactly what I expect. Alizarin Crimson in MaimeriBlue is not the same hue or strength as in the other company’s paints. Okay, so I’ll just have to live with it for now.

Which leads me to my new venture. Tomorrow is Day One and I think I have the equipment I need. Take a look at this:

This is the carriage I used when Son #1 was a baby. Twenty eight years ago there was no sparing any expense for that precious newborn. Remember Perego carriages? Who uses this kind of thing today? Nobody! I used it for a while with Son #2 and then that was it, we went to those little umbrella strollers. This carriage is a classic! It’s practically brand new the way I kept it covered up and put away. I wish my mother could have kept my carriage. Now that was a piece of equipment. It was so big that my mother would go food shopping with my sister in it and have room for bags of groceries. You can’t find those anymore, but I kept this one.

Tuesday is the day. Our princess will be with me a few days a week and with her other grandmother a few days a week so Gorgeous can return to her job. The weeks flew by and things are what they are.
If the weather is good we’ll be taking a nice walk. I’ve got the equipment!

Shaking up the Week-Friday Photos and More

After I posted to this blog on Wednesday I decided to try to upload these photos once more before I hung it up. Voila! One of the photos of the painting I did popped up. Go figure. The second wouldn’t upload again. Maybe by the end of this post it will work. So I’m writing this Friday Photos post to take advantage of the uploading.

Can you tell I’m painting on the dining room table? Yes, that’s been the spot for the 20 minutes paintings. The light is good from the large window and casts great shadows on the subjects. And it’s close to the kitchen! I’ve been getting to the painting late in the afternoon which cuts into cooking time. People around here need to eat!

The studio in the basement is okay, but the hydrangea painting is down there and I just don’t want to look at it for a while. My large watercolor palette is there too, but I’m having too much fun with the travel set, even though it’s supposed to be for painting on the go. Good thing I purchased plenty of half pans of Windsor & Newton paints on sale because I’m going to run out soon. The large palette is filled with the MaimeriBlu paints. Something about the colors with those paints, but if I really should use them. Next time.