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Maxy Cat

Wednesday, October 27, 2021 0 Oil Pastels No tags Permalink
Maxy Cat

We lost Maxy Cat on Wednesday, October 20, 2021. It is even more devastating than I would have guessed. He touched every bit of of our lives, and it is a silent existence without him. I feel dead inside, like dried autumn leaves.

I put together Halloween bags with candy, pens and stress squishies for the staff members, and a few smaller no-squishy bags for volunteers. It is the one Halloween thing I did this year. I couldn’t manage to sew the skirt. Honestly, I’ll be super-happy to be past November 4th and the Whisker Mixer event for work. If I can just get beyond that, maybe I will be able to start managing the rest of my life. I’m giving myself the grace to do the things I can and make due with the rest. I will send greeting cards for the holidays, but I am not going to be creating my own design this year. I just can’t. We had our first frost this morning. The season is changing.

I haven’t felt like painting or doing much of anything lately. Can’t read. Can’t sew. Can barely crochet, even though I’m meant to be working on a project for a shelter volunteer who needs a special hug blanket. Thank goodness for the mindlessness of TikTok. Between meetings last night, I did get this oil pastel study of a Florida causeway done. The angle on the palm fronds is wrong, but otherwise I’m fairly pleased with it. I’m still learning the medium. I should watch more videos or something. There aren’t a ton of youtube videos on oil pastels for some reason.

Happy Visit

Wednesday, September 29, 2021 0 Living in Michigan, Misc. Blatherings, Oil Pastels, Pastels, Soft Pastels No tags Permalink
happy visit

We had a very happy visit this month, in that Kirsten came for a few days from Portland. Friday we went up to Lansing to clean up the graves. The lavender is still in bloom on the Thorne/Cleary plot in Mt. Hope, and we did some stone scrubbing. There wasn’t much left on the plots in Evergreen, probably because of the lack of rain through most of the summer. We did try the TikTok cleaning tips and got a bit of moss off the stones. We will do more in the spring.

happy visit

After we got back from Lansing, we spent some time with pastels before Bob joined us for dinner. It was fun to just have that quiet time talking and being creative. Mom and Kirsten worked with the oil pastels, while I used the soft pastels. How do you blend with your finger and not rub a hole in it?

happy visit - soft pastels

I used soft pastels for this spring iris image, photo reference from a picture I took in our garden. It was a very happy visit indeed, and I am looking forward to Kirsten returning. Mom is going to continue working on some oil pastel work. I’ve started up a quick water color and gouache, photo reference from a recent cover of Fine Gardening magazine.

It is nearly October. The weather has been lovely, thankfully. I hope it continues all of next month.

Oil Pastels

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 0 Garden, Oil Pastels, Weather Update No tags Permalink
oil pastels seascape

I’ve been spending a little time on oil pastels, and I am so pleased with how the one above turned out. I’m using a Sennelier oil pastel set. They blend beautifully, and there’s something nice about just being able to grab them and get to work on the couch without water and brushes. I did a little quartet of pieces below. I am anxious to do some more painting for sure, especially with the oil pastels. I like the soft pastels, but I haven’t figured out how to blend them without rubbing a hole in my finger tip. There seems to never be enough time to do everything I’d like to do.

oil pastels quartet

Our garden is reaching the end. We have some cherry tomatoes that I’m not sure will ripen. And we’ve had these monstrous cucumbers.

Honestly I don’t even like cucumbers. They are slimy. But I did make three jars of refrigerator pickles and I think they turned out ok. It won’t be long before I start cleaning up the gardens. Some of the asters are still in bloom, but everything else is starting to look kind of dead. The temperatures have been in the 70s during the day and it’s been sunny and lovely out. It seems hard to believe that it’s nearly October already.