…..every day I do a little bit more with the paintings
When I’m not painting I keep my creativity going with more slow drawings and mark making. Thanks to Amy Maricle for her inspiration.



…using watercolour
Over the holidays our granddaughter from England came for a visit with her parents. When Winnie, our first granddaughter was very young I used to frequently see how much direction she would take when we did art together and I was always surprised at how much she would remember from one visit to the next. As she got older she wanted to be the one giving directions and we had to follow her lead when we did art together.
On this recent trip, Sevin’s parents asked me if I would do watercolour with her. It was a medium that up to this point they hadn’t tried with her. I wasn’t sure if she was old enough but I thought nothing ventured, nothing gained so after spending a week with us and becoming more and more comfortable with us we set up a painting station on the dining room table. Mama and Papa went out for a walk and Sevin and I started the painting process. We taped down the paper and I tried to teach her how to wet the brush and dip it into the paint. She loved making puddles on the paper and seeing how the colours reacted with each other. I talked about how red and blue make purple (two colours she gravitated to the most) and how we should clean the brushes between colours. It didn’t always work but when one painting was done I quickly removed it from the board and taped down a new piece of paper. We did this as least five times.
While we painted, her grandfather came along and joined us. It was a real family affair. After some of the paintings dried I showed Sevin how to add more marks to the painting, using crayons. She has a nice swirl technique that she added to one of the paintings and it ended up being the painting we matted and will probably frame. When her parents returned from their walk they were most impressed with what Sevin had accomplished and I think they may try this when they get back to London.







…putting the wacky back in Wacky Bird Wednesday
Last week was a bad week for the internet and my computer here at home. I thought I was going to have to take my computer in for service because it took forever to upload photos to my posts. As a result a lot of my regular posts didn’t happen at all and I’ve been making up for it this week. For whatever reason everything seems to be working again.
This week I have two wacky birds to share.


….day 4 of Sketchbook Revival with Tamara Laporte
In one of today’s Sketchbook Revival classes we meet Tamara Laporte. I’ve watched some of her classes before but I think this is the first time I’ve completed an assignment. It was a lot of fun and I think I may go back to her site and try some more.
This owl was first sketched with pencil and then watercolour was applied. Along the way marker, ink, pencil and acrylic paint pens were used to add detail.
….on Thursday with a bonus bird for Winnie
Some days I don’t even get out of my pyjamas until noon and I don’t get moving until dinner time. I’m not depressed but I am under a lot of stress. Our daughter and her husband are looking for a house and the buying market is absolutely crazy. I’m not talking about just Toronto but north, east and west of the city the bids are going $100 000 to $175 000 above the asking price. How young people can afford to buy a house these days is beyond me.
I digress. This post is suppose to be about Kevin’s wacky bird for Wednesday. I know it’s Thursday but I think I felt compelled to tell you why I’m so late. This is Armchair Bird.
Earlier in the week, Winnie was down in the dumps. Her mother told us that even the most random thoughts would make her cry. On Tuesday she started to cry when she found out that Pluto is not considered a planet. I know it’s old news but she’s only five. To cheer her up she requested that her papa draw her a bird that looked like a parrot and that it be called Bonkers. So here is Bonkers the Parrot. By the way, it did the trick.
…..I made another painting
In yesterday’s post for Water, Water Everywhere I literally played with water to come up with some photos for the challenge. In doing so I laid down some watercolour on paper and overlapped it with other colours and water to make it run together. When I was done I took the paper that I was laying colour and water onto and decided to add more colour and marks with ink, pencil and paint. Here is what I came up with.
From this……
….to this.
…over the years I’ve played with one-liner portraits with limited success
One liner portraits literally involves drawing a face without lifting the pen off the paper. After doing that I added detail with paint and more mark making. These were a lot of fun to do and are somewhat similar to Picasso’s abstract portraits that made him famous.