The Guts of my Sketchbook.

 When the tempature dips down into the single digits, we consider it very cold. I know that the north thinks we are thin skinned but we also spend our summers in 110+ weather. The real extreme was the change Monday in the 70's and Friday in the singles. Cattle still must be fed and ice chopped for water.

Back in the warmth of the day I will go back to talking about my sketchbook. If you did not catch the first round here it is. We have all heard if looking a planner is like looking a brain. This is my planner, organizer, sketch area and so on. 

I have a Google calendar where I put appointments and such. I print out that weeks and write my to do list on it. This is my brain for the week for me to track the whole family.

Inside is also some of my doodles. This is the one I worked on for weeks during church. I can not sit and listen. When I draw I remember what was told. These drawings help me remember what I was learning.

These are also my stamps. When teaching kids I stay on my toes about changing it up. We made rubber stamps and these were a few of them.

A pocket is a must. From handouts to bills. I keep everything here. If you are interested I would show a few different pockets for sketchbook later. 

Of course some paintings. I worked with family on a church project and made a slide show backgrounds.

I am a big writer. Paper is my life. I have to feel the pen across the paper. All my list and notes just do not work on a tablet. So I journal, list and plan in this book as well. This is where all my dreams and hopes are wrote into actions.

I also cut up some watercolor paper. The good arches and put it in here. Then I create value sketches of my next artwork. Please feel free to ask questions. I love to share.

Here is some of my artist brain at work.

Another work I would like to share is the Christmas Bulbs on eBay. 

Looking at the Sketchbook

 

Many artist have trouble looking to find a sketchbook that works for them. I am no different. Being a farmers wife makes my needs more of a plein air artist than a studio artist. I work from the truck many times a month. So I will show you my life, brain and everything else.

My sketchbook is home made. Not something new to me. I have made sketchbooks for years. I love controlling the look and use of the book. I like to choose the paper I put in them.  Maybe I am a control freak but I need something that works.

My latest creation is more of a three ring binder approach. I like this because I can lighten the load of paper I carry and save the work and notes that I made somewhere else. I add paper as needed and take out old stuff to put in a storage binder as needed. The covers are Masonite or hardboard. I recycle an old college project to use them. They hold up to the elements, and my daughter Calamity Jane. It also makes drawing in the truck nice to have a hard surface to work with. I have used this while walking across the hay bales and making notes.

Over the next blog I will show you the guts of my sketchbook.
Check out my eBay Christmas Ornaments.

Farming Myths

 

I thought today that I would clear up some of the myths that I hear about farming.   These myths come from childhood books or creative imaginations.

1. What types of animals do you have. As in the books we all read as a child when people here you are a farmer they expect you to have goats, sheep, pigs, cows, and chickens. For the farms that I have been raised on we raise cattle. When I was a little girl, Poppy had chickens but the coyotes had lunch and we lost our chickens.
2. All cows are milk cows. Well all cows produce milk for their babies. Dairy cows just produce so much we get the extra to drink. The type of cattle we raise is mainly for meat. Your steaks, roast, and hamburgers come from what we grow.
3. We only farm. In the area that I live in we have a day job and farm is the retirement plan or the after work job. Understand in some areas farms can support the family. This clay soil is not the case. 
4. We live on the farm. Grandma lives on the farm. We all live close to help with the work but we live about 15 miles away from my families farm and my husband's family farm. 
5. Name our animals. When people think of a herd of cattle they think you name them all. Well yes the pets of the group you do but in general no. My show cows I showed in high school are named. The first few cows my husband got from his grandpa are named. The rest go by the number on their eartag or if they are in the way sometimes a not so nice type of name.
6. All the horned cattle our bulls.  I was with a grown woman the other day.  As we passed by a pasture she tell her child look honey all the horned animal are boy cows.   NO. Horns are just like hair. All cows, bulls and calves can have a variety of kinds. Calves have small bumps that will grow. Now just like our hair can be all colors depending on our genes. Cattle can have genes that do not grow horns, grow short fat ones, or, like longhorns, grow 10 foot horns.
7. Baby calves should be petted. Even my farmer daughter tells me "It's so cute lets pet it" Baby calves are cute but only from afar. You see calves can head butt you, and kick you very hard. This is to protect them from predators in the country. The other reason not to pet, she is usually with in a hundred feet, weighing a thousand pounds and can out run you any day. Mama. Just like any good mom she does not want anyone hurting her baby. You look like a threat. Now the petting zoos have babies that I pet. Yes, these are bottle calves. These babies think you are their kind because for some reason Mama cow could not take care of them. They understand that you touching them is part of them getting food and it is like a dog more than a calf when they become bottle calve. Believe me one of mine bottle calves followed me in the house one time. My mom was not amused. So in the end petting zoo or bottle calves are friends. A calf laying in the pasture is trouble.

I am sure I missed a few but this is a good start for clearing the farm air. (It doesn't always smell like a rose) Well with the sun up time is ticking.

Visit my eBay page to Bid on a Christmas Ornament.

Playing in the snow

We worked Saturday to get all the animals fed knowing this was coming. So when Sunday came my girl had to get out in it. She had so much fun playing in the snow. She played with the tractors, slide down the slide, and threw snow balls.

Even the barn did not keep all the snow out. The old Model A showed its winter style. In true Oklahoma fashion it will all disappear by Wednesday.

While the snow blew outside I am working on a new painting. The hair is a challenge but the calf iss just so cute. No it is not near done but I do keep busy. God bless.

Click Here to Check out My Christmas Ornaments I painted

Playing in the wheat

 

She begged her daddy to let her play in the seed wheat that we were cleaning out of the grain drills. Finally after about 5 minutes he agreed. She was playing having a blast. I opened the back hatch to be able to watch her while I worked. We had been working for about ten minutes when we heard a blood curling scream. She was scampering out of the truck. About the time we head to see the fuss a small mouse runs across the open hatch. She was so scared she would not even go and get her shoes. Daddy had to.

Slowing down following a tractor

We had to take the big tractor to get worked on. When you get to travel 25mph for an hour you have two options wish you could hurry up or enjoy the scenery. The leaves were changing and the day was gorgeous.

You can see the colors changing as the old tractor smokes like a freight train. 

The old pump jacks just looked really neat.   

This old homestead is really a place I may come back to and photo again it has such a look about it. Strong and steady. 

Well Next time you can take the chance to see what is around at a slower pace.  God Bless

Finishing the painting of a Model A

 We worked from dawn til dusk and beyond on this last day of class. I added the green wash in before lunch.

While it was still damp, I added my rust colors into it to add the old feel. It then started getting dark and time was flying faster than a witch on All Saints day morning. So I skipped my picture taking to get'er done attitude. I do love this work, even if it is on paper. 

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Changing Palletes

The wheat is beginning to become fuzz on the plowed field. It is reaching upward and casting a slight green tent to the red clay. Though it is not all planted the growth of the first half is a welcome sight and the rain that came is the blessing we needed to get the second half of the wheat in.

While we wait patiently I have been working on paintings and preparing boards. Since my life involves painting at school, home, the farm and where ever I can carve out a few minutes. My supplies must travel. The old pallette I had was a great start up but it did not last. The hinge broke and it became like traveling with a fragile vase. Scared it was going to shatter and leave me stranded with nothing to work on.

So I splerged on a new one. This one is metal and is hopefully up for the task of going places. It is more compact and has square cups instead of slanting areas for the paint. The slanting areas just helped to mix the paint for me as I traveled around the dirt roads.

Time will tell if my treasure is worth it but a girls gotta paint, any chance she gets.

Hope to see ya'll at the Chili Cook off in McLoud Oklahoma.

God Bless.

Finish Painting a Patriotic Tractor

Last weekend I was able to visit the big town of Chickasha home of the fighting chickens. I met some amazing people. The day was pretty and the people that came through my booth were very pleasant. It was fun.

I added some more layers onto the Patriotic painting and got the background and under-layers painted.

Then I glazed it.

Last but not least I pulled all the mask off and then soften the stark white left behind.

When I put it on Facebook, someone asked to buy it within the hour. That just tells me that America is going strong and Tractors still hold a spot in many peoples heart.

Painting myself Patriotic

Well if you have read my last blog than you know we have 72 piles of ashes to feed. (Smile) The good news is the insurance check is already here and we are about to scatter the ashes and re-stack the remaining hay. The Silver lining is that not one other bale combusted which means we did not loose anymore hay. The picture is from last week as I plowed. 

We were working at getting wheat in the field which means that I spent my time in the other tractor preparing the soil. Saturday it rained and we had one field planted. My hubby was happy.

 Sunday we worked cows. We gave them a shot to prevent disease, like the flu shot. They also got new earrings or numbered tags that tell us which cow is which. 80 black cows are hard to tell apart especially in the dark.

I have stole a little time away to paint this week. I am working on a patriotic painting that I took at 4th of July parade. It just said what I needed right now. The people will pull together and get something accomplished.

May God bless you in all your celebrations and trials.

FIRE

You have seen the post of us cutting and bailing hay this year and my daughter playing while her daddy stacked it.

This morning we awoke to a panicked call from Dustin's cousin. The neighbor on his way to work saw one stack of hay on fire. To say the least she had a reason to panic.

When my hubby got to the farm half of the hay was in flames. He did pull out about 60 bales and saved them. The sheriff's deputies were nice enough to block off the road and let him just run back and forth across the road to get them out of the way. The local volunteer fire department tried to wet the rest of the bales and contain the fire to help my hubby have time to get the bales out of harms way.

Insurance will pay for the hay and we have enough in other stacks to feed all winter. The only gripe is that we literally watched our hard work go up in smoke.

Thankfully to the Sheriff and volunteer fire department we did not loose all 122 in that stack. 

Oh it all started because one hay bale was a little too wet. The fire marshal told my hubby that it takes 6 weeks for hay to combust. We always thought a week or two would be out of danger. Well it has been 6 weeks and 4 days.


Just another week on the farm right? God Bless

Looking for my next painting

I was flipping through old pictures to find some good artwork. I always say to take tons of pictures. Thought I would share a few from many years ago.

                    Here is my hubby when he was younger with his favorite dog. Sam was smart and helped put cows in, could get through a hot wire and road on the back of a truck at crazy speeds. The old dog looked like a coyote though and once or twice coyote hunters almost let their hunting dogs out on him.  We miss him but in his old age he ran out in front of a car. It killed him instantly.

          The picture of the truck window when brother and I went mudding. I needed pictures to start art that college semester and he took me though the fields so I could get some. I asked "You think dad will notice?" talking about his truck as we put up the fence. "Naw, work is distracting him now." Brother told me. We look up and across the road our cattle herd sticks its head up over the fence and jumps the fence into the neighbors wheat field. We had to call dad to help up get them back in the pasture. We didn't get in trouble but he did notice what we had done that afternoon.

This is a cool picture of my hubby's equipment. I am going to have to ask what you call it again. I think it is so neat looking. My hubby calls me crazy but says it works well when pulled behind the tractor to break up the ground.  This is it the next painting.

Have a good week and God Bless.

Hay stacking and Painting a Model T

Well hay is bailed and plowing begins but that means time is not slowing down. The hay must be stacked and counted and the fence built around the new hay stacks. My daughter loves to run the bails when we can. She is about two rows away from my husband stacking them. With all this going on I did sneak a painting into the middle of life.

Of course you know me I start with my aquafix and my mask and lay my painting out. 

This has a few steps in here. I added the rust red and used a dark umber for the shadows in the car. I used a non transparent color for the glaze this time. Since I did that I thinned it down a WHOLE lot. I also painted ultramarine for the dark areas. It gives a richer color than just Payne's Gray.

I added my glaze of Payne's Gray and a light color in the background. Also a little in the shine of the chrome.

I know this is a big jump but I painted without having a camera around. Rule to learn. 

Value rule. 1. Air is lightest. 2. flat areas are 2nd lightest. 3. Slanted areas are third value. While your vertical areas have the darker values in them.

Praise God in his sanctuary;

    praise him in his mighty heavens.
 Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Psalms 150:1-2

Drawing out a Model T

 I just thought you would like a glimpse into the good times of farming. Well maybe not good times but precious for sure. This little boy is having trouble getting milk so we have him and his cow up to help them along. This is a cousin and my little girl feeding him a bottle. Hopefully the cow will be able to nurse him soon.

Well back to the drawing board. I like to work up two sketches at a time. It keeps me motivated and I feel comfortable with the idea of having the what next question answered. Also when I mix up aquafix I can paint both at once. I also mask them on the same time to. Less clean up.

 The model T is my first to be completed. I like the layout and the aquafix done. I will show you as it develops.


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God Bless.

Working on Landscapes

Hay has keep us going til all times of the day. My husband has broke almost all the belts on the baler and lots of other parts. This has been a rough hay season. Since it has he has asked me to cut hay with a pull behind swather. No problem; until I ran the swather into the back of his flat bed truck. Oops! Well am I fired? NO I just get to practice more.

Since I have been in the field this week I have not got anything on eBay and time is short..er than normal. So I have started worked on a few small landscapes. These are 5 X 7 and in progress.

On this first one, I am not done, but I worked wet into wet. I started by using clean water and just washing the whole sky in it. Then I started adding my dark colors all while the paint was wet. Last I added my warm colors in the same way. I need to add the land and may be a few highlights but it is mostly done.

On the next painting I did it much different. I started with the lighter colors. The yellow and oranges were added first.

Using the same color I outlined the lower cloud.

While that dried I wet the farthest area in my picture and laid a LIGHT wash of purple at top and orange at bottom.

 Then I worked on the clouds with ultramarine blue and purple. Trying to stay away from my wet warm colors I worked around everything.

With that to wet I went to my 3rd painting and add the sky. Wetting the paper I added a cerulean blue, purple and Payne's gray. My goal was to leave a little white to imply clouds.

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