Day 4 Something Green

It's now the end of November and to my mind's eye there wasn't much that's still green. Although when I let out the dog to do her thing, I noted the grass was still green, the evergreen trees still green, albeit it more drab.

But, once one started specifically looking for "green," there it popped up hither and yon.

My first thought was to photograph a green GO-signal, but no, too easy. I kept my eyes peeled. Oh, there's something interesting, but it was something I normally would have photographed. I looked for something with a little more reach, stretch.

Not feeling well but still wanting to meet the challenge, I had photographed a green something nearby. Three things green nearby, to be more to the point.

30 Day Photography Challenge

Day 4

Something Green

Day 3 Clouds

Now here's a subject that I neverendingly love to photograph. There never ceases to be something about the sky and clouds to capture, whether stunning and awesome or gentle and dreamy.

Today's clouds over Spokane were few and more of the gentle variety, where they could be seen above the slight autumn haze. I took a couple of different ones and, as it often the case, I simply cannot decide which ONE to use for the challenge. There don't seem to be any attendant rules, nothing that stipulates I cannot use multiple shots. So, that is what I choose to do.

In the first photograph you can just barely make out a slight parhelion in the clouds toward the bottom of the sky. Perhaps with a better camera it might be more distinct.

For the first two photographs, I had to drive to a place where I could find unobstructed sky. It wasn't that far away, just a few blocks. The last photograph shows what I see when I step outside the house; electrical and utility wires everywhere, and generally a jet trail or three.

Day 3
Clouds

Challenge Day 2 What You Wore

I'm not a clothes horse, no fashionista here. So, when I saw today's subject, I choked. Who cares what I wore? But, it's not at all about me, is it? It's simply a photography challenge.

Bite the bullet and get 'er done!

Even though the photography challenge isn't about me, this is what I wore today. I often wear scarves, hence a scarf. I always wear jewelry I've made myself or earrings or a ring made by other artists. I often wear something black.

The scarf in today's photograph was purchased for a buck at a thrift shop here in Spokane, WA. The sterling ring was designed, cast, and finished by Vesta Ward of Southern California. I purchased it from Vesta at the Denwar Show in Costa Mesa, CA right around this time of the year about 25-30 years ago. Vesta Ward is no longer. Denwar Show is no longer. But I still cherish a piece of her legacy.

Day 2

What You Wore

What did I gain from today's photography subject? Stop dreading a subject and just shoot! Distance my feelings of inferiority from the subject for the purpose of the photo shoot. AND, there's more than one way to shoot a subject! Hmmm. This is going to be fun!

What the ... ANOTHER Challenge? Day 1

Yea verily, another challenge.

A Redlands, CA artist friend of mine, Lori Sandstedt, posted to her Facebook page that she was going to participate in a 30 Day Photography Challenge she came across on Pinterest. You can read the blog progress of that challenge at www.littlebennet.com. Lori, on the other hand, three days ahead of me, is posting her daily results on Facebook.

I was looking for another something to write about, and thought this challenge seemed, well, challenging. I've never worked within a framework of a specific subject each day. It should be fun.

Here's the format I lifted from Pinterest. Sorry about the quality, or lack thereof.

Day 1 Self Portrait

I must make mention that I'll do just about anything to keep from having my photograph taken. The camera is not my friend, I am not photogenic. BUT, in the spirit of the challenge, I'll do it.

It wouldn't be a challenge if it weren't challenging, so it's fitting that I'm being pushed to photograph subjects--people-- I wouldn't otherwise be drawn to photograph.

I admire photographers who work with images of people. I own several amazing photographs of people taken by other photographers, because I love the story conveying aspect. I enjoy looking at the person or people, they're in a setting, they're doing something. But I'm daunted by the act of me photographing people. Could it be because I'm too self-conscious, concerned about their approval?

I remember once being asked as a favor to photograph a friend for an artist bio she had to put together. I drove her completely bonkers with my slow, cautious endeavor to provide her with a photo. She ended up not using it--thank goodness--because it was too real, not at all flattering. I didn't use complimentary lighting to advantage, I didn't have the right composition, wrong, wrong, wrong. It was a mess.

So, perhaps I should to take more shots of people. I'll have to give this more thought. I will say I took the above self-portrait about 20 different times with my iPhone, rejecting all but this one. I found something disturbing about all of them, but this one I can sort of live with.

That's a point I'll make, too. All of the photographs I'm using for this 30 Day Photograph Challenge will be through my phone camera.

Autumn Leaves on a Windy Day Painting

A painting today.

I tend to look down when I walk along the sidewalk, always have. I see such interesting things. It used to embarrass my young sons because one never knew when I'd spy something incredible and have to stop and take a photograph of it ... pieces of gum, shoe imprints, rain ghosts of dusty leaves, odd tickets, candy wrappers. One just never knew. They could never prepare for the moment when their mother would abruptly stop, stoop, and shoot a photograph.

I'm glad they can laugh about it now, and that it has become the family point of pride in their artist mother. Wait! How did I get off on this tangent? Oh yes, I remember now.

Last week I was walking west on Garland and I noticed pretty little yellow and green leaves on branches that had fallen to the sidewalk in the brisk wind. My sister Melba commented they might be from some kind of locust tree. There were other leaves, too. I also went this week to a Japanese garden in Spokane and there were pine needles strewn all over the place along with more windblown leaves. I liked the wild randomness of it.

Working from photographs I--yes--stooped to take, I came up with this painting. The background is red (Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Umber) because the leaves looked so bright and pretty against the red bricks along the sidewalk. I have used windy brush strokes that I hope convey motion and not mish mash.

Windy Day Leaves
8" x 10" Acrylic on Canvas Board

Just another day in the life ...

Nope. No painting today. I did repair and paint a little vintage bookend, but that's for a different blog than this.

However, in downloading my trip photos from my camera for file, I somehow came across a photograph I took in 2012 of a dandelion. Yes, a humble dandelion blossom gone to seed. I then played around with a Film Grain effect and came up with this photograph.

And so, why, you might ask, did I blog about this photograph? I have no reason whatsoever. Other than I've been blogging daily for the month of September, and it's a nice habit to have gotten into.

That being stated, I'm going to see how long I can keep up with the blogging with paintings or with photographs. They won't all be du jour but I hope you'll enjoy seeing them nonetheless.

Last Day of the September 2013 Painting Challenge

Hooray! Today is the final day of my personal challenge to create a painting a day for my birth month of September.

I've wanted to do more three dimensional work, so why not start today? I've white washed a weathered old piece of wood 12" x 12" x 2". I randomly struck black nails at the bottom, although they're all within a pre-determined space ... doesn't look like it, though, does it? I didn't want them to be uniformly spaced. With a broad brush, I painted three vertical white acrylic strokes, added 4 black nails at the corners and wired across the top and the bottom with a thin black wire. I wanted to achieve an off-balanced balance. Hmmm.

In any case, I had fun. The old wood kept sucking up the white paint, but I liked the resulting weathered look. Fun! Done!

Today JKay Borland and I hung a dozen of my paintings, along with her ten paintings at Reflections Kaffee Haus and Eatery on Wall and Riverside in Spokane, Washington.  These paintings in the photograph are on the entry wall. We also displayed on two other walls in the eatery. Our styles seemed to complement the other, and we got it to work in spite of having to use pre-existing nails in the wall--appreciated the opportunity to display even if spacing of the work was a little cattywampus.

These puppies will remain on display for the month of October. My first showing in Spokane!

My small mixed media "Red" in the center
and acrylic "Seaweed" at the upper right.

Reflections Kaffee Haus & Eatery
618 W Riverside Ave, Spokane WA
Open 7:30 a.. to 4:00 p.m.

www.reflectionskaffeehaus.com