Whenever I grout something, I wonder if I've ruined it with this huge mess...but never more than this time with black grout. Yikes! Looks like my car needs some mentos for his dirty mouth!
But when I clean the grout off it's kind of like magic....it looks so different! I especially like the rims on the tires. Time to get the paints back out and get busy.
Slowly coming along....just doing big surfaces and still have a looong way to go, before I'm doing something interesting to watch for Red Carpet weekend.
I'm liking the windshield, though I might be a little high from the adhesive. Yikes!
Pontiac will be have a public art event called "Crusin' the Square" this summer. There will be cars and pick-up trucks created by local artists all around the square. They are just the right size for a photo op for the kids. You can come down May 1st and 2nd for the Red Carpet Corridor Festival and see everybody's cars. And you can watch me work on mine at the new Walldogs Museum on the square. I'm nervous about working in front of people, so be really, really nice to me :)
I'm just getting started, but hopefully by May I will have something a little more interesting for you to watch. Here I'm multi-tasking...painting and talking to my future daughter-in-law about the upcoming wedding.
My back is already appreciating this little cart Joe made to get the car off the ground a little!
And in the spirit of getting off my duff and doing more artwork, here's a page from my sketchbook. I'm working from some of my vacation photos from Hawaii. The mark in the middle is a postmark that I got while I was on the trip. In the future, I'll be sure to tell them I want it over on the edge of the page.
Did you ever paint on rocks as a child? I did. My sisters and I had a fabulous time collecting rocks from the lake and painting them up. I think there are still a few of those rocks floating around the cottage and my parents' house. Last summer we painted rocks with my niece and nephews and the magic is still there.
I've been thinking about inspiration a lot lately. What did I like to do as a child? As a girl I was drawing on everything all the time...not just paper. I knew I'd be in trouble for drawing on say, the furniture, but I knew it was all right to draw on other things....so my mom would open the fridge and see all the eggs had faces, or all the chalk in the junk drawer had little drawings on them, or you might find yourself in the bathroom using TP that had words doodled on the squares.
Ok...so maybe this drawing doesn't count! I did love this little toy I found in a Hilo shop though, and I bought one. I'm weak. It's called a Buddha Board....paint on it using just water, and as it dries, it disappears...and you are ready to start over! Great way to learn to enjoy the process and not obsess. Or so I hear.
We did find that sometimes, despite our determination to slow down and draw, we got carried away with experiencing the island and didn't leave enough time. So, we'd finish up in the evenings or sometimes work from photos we took. The drawing I was working on above is almost done in the pic below:
Jennifer saved bits and pieces of wrappers, napkins and tickets to make postcards to send home. It's a fun way to use all those great little scraps, and would work in your sketchbook too. Here's one all done:
Of course, you already heard about our attempts to draw this waterfall.
We took tons of photos to work from in the evenings and after returning home. I've started working from some since I've been back. We tried to take close ups of buildings and foliage, as well as broad views, and this has helped quite a bit. I did this watercolor from a photo we took earlier in the day.
Somehow, I haven't managed all the blogging I intended to do, but I have been doing a little drawing. This little drawing is from the north end of the Big Island. We stopped for treats in Hawi and discovered the Kava Kafe run by some free spirited folks. I had a great time making this sketch. There are also lots of galleries and neat little places to shop and eat there. Plus, on the way home we parked by the ocean and watched the whales playing. There were so many of them!
And this one is of the lush vegetation, which is one if the things I love about the Hilo side of the island.
One day, my sister, Jennifer and I hiked down to this little waterfall and pool (just outside Hilo) and spent the afternoon trying to capture it on paper. I guess I just didn't have the knack that day, because as hard as I tried I just couldn't capture it....so I pitched the drawing and ....
swam in the little pool instead. Nice deep clear water...and cold!
Jennifer decided she had to have a swim in that pool too. Who can blame us? It's a daydream come true...swimming in a pool at the base of a waterfall in the rain-forest! So I not only ended up with a bad drawing (at least I can count it as practice!), I also ended up with a wonderful memory.
I'm just working on using up more of the pages I filled with written journaling. I usually like to work my own drawing into the pages somehow, but tonight I was just in a cut and paste kind of mood. I think I'm not finished with this yet....
So this is what the river two blocks from our house looks like today. Brrrrr! I like snow, but I love the warmth. So this is what I'm planning now:
Yup, I'm going back. When we were there last year, I knew that someday I wanted to go back to Hawaii and have plenty of time to draw. I know I'm no great artist, but when I draw something, it gets burned into my memory in an entirely different way. Later when I look at that drawing in my sketchbook the moment comes back to me in full. Drawing forces you to slow down and really see what you are looking at, as well as fill your senses with the local sounds, smells, feel the breeze and the sun on your back....or hear the rain, feel the chill....whatever is happening around you.
I was doing the laundry today when I got this in the mail....a couple of Moonlight Chronicles by Dan Price. I ordered these particular ones because they were done while he was touring the Hawaiian Islands on his trike. Perfect reading for the porch hammock this evening.
Some days you got the mojo and some you just don't, but the idea is to draw and post every day in May so here it is.
This is a gorgeous garden in Hilo right on bay. And well used too..we saw a lot of folks out on this beautiful evening.
I sat on the bench on this little red bridge to make my sketch...such a nice way to spend the evening.
While we were walking the garden, we found several little faerie homes! What a nice surprise!
You can see what others are doing every day in may at the flickr group Every Day in May.
My little sketch in progress
My mom working on her sketch.
Mom shows her progress.
