Musings Of An Albemarle Gardener

I have to be the most disorganized person in existence!   Goodness!  I have to say the nasty dermatitis on my hands has faded away to just a few blotches, non itchy thank goodness, and am down the last little bits and pieces of prednisone.  I hate taking that stuff.  Oh well, if I hadn't I'm not sure how long this mess would have lingered on.  I think the last stage will be coming soon as I expect a good peeling of the hands.  I feel a bit like a lizard right about now.   Still wearing the goop on my hands and I hate the chance of staining or ruining paper, so have not done much of anything with my painting.

I was jazzed the other day as I had gotten a new brand of watercolors (Graham's black berry honey based) and so I am looking forward to giving them a test drive.  I missed group this week, but did get a batch of value charts done up.  I like the consistency and the colors are more brilliant than what I had been using (Holbein).  Love the layering of washes!   I am going to be moving on from the wilted daisies series I had been playing with.  My daisies have gone beyond the pale, although I will be saving a few dilapidated heads for reference.  I like the way they are discolored and warped and twisted as they have dried out.  Gives some interesting contours and textures and makes them more interesting visually, plus it gives me a chance to play with the pen and ink.  The jury is still out with the watercolors.  I am so out of touch with my artistic side - it has been a good 30 years since I last painted and never with  watercolors.  Its been an interesting and frustrating process and I have to step back and remind myself that it's only been a few months and I have to intersperse my creative time with the reality of dealing with life.  But it is good to escape the mundane for a while and fly.

9 x 12  Past Their Prime

 9 x 12 One More Day

I've also been reading Jeannie Dobie's book, Making Watercolor Sing.  Fabulous.  I love her subject matter and how she uses color to give such luminosity and contrast.  Working with color theory can be tedious, but she makes it exciting.

I found a lovely recipe on Pinterest yesterday while looking for something different to fix for supper.  A sweet potato hash.  Will definitely be trying that out as it is using a smoked paprika, which I fell in love with last summer.