One less hour of sleep last night…
for a later sunset…
Yep! I’ll take it!
Yippee for Daylight Savings Time and Springing Forward!
(A quick watercolor sunset done on Arches 140 lb hot press)
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Painting
Trees
Practicing painting trees….
while waiting for leaves
to fill the bare branches
and brighten the landscape.
Spring is beckoning.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Shake Your Tail Feathers
Shake your tail feathers!
It’s #DrawABirdDay again with my WordPress friends.
This little wren is shaking it’s tail feathers in honor of Spring approaching, as am I!
This is a very simple 5-minute “study” of sorts in brush strokes using my BRANDY NEW Rekab 320S #2 squirrel hair brush! Oh what a glorious, lovely brush it is! This brush came on the recommendation of Debi Riley as her “go-to” brush, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, the only place I could find it was in an art store halfway across the world in Australia (where Debi happens to live), called Art Scene.
So order it I did, and then I waited, and waited, and waited. Patience is not one of my virtues. It really only took about ten (loooooooooong) days. I practically hugged Cliff, our mailman, when he brought it last week. Between my excitement and Charlie’s leaping out to see him, Cliff got the greeting of the prodigal son. He laughed about my paint brush coming from the other side of the world and my excitement over it, and he spent a minute or two giving Charlie some pets and scratches and a morsel or two of his lunch pretzels (yep – Charlie has weasled his way into Cliff’s heart too!).
I can’t wait to have more time to play with this lovely, wonderful brush, but I am traveling this week for work, so it must wait. What I was trying to do, however, with this, was to be very deliberate with my brush strokes and create an impressionistic version of a wren. I love the freedom with this brush to create swooshes and thick washes as well as the tiniest of lines like the feet and beak and even a small dot of an eye. One brush for every stroke, line, dot, and splash! Swoon!
Wishing you the simple joys today – like the chirping of a bird…
Springtime weather…
or small gifts like a paintbrush brought by the mailman from the other side of the world…
or nibbles of pretzels and ear scratches from a thoughtful mailman to a loving dog.
Cherish the moments!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
What’s NEW at McKinneyX2Designs?
I’m excited to share some of the new things Colleen and I have been creating for our new Etsy shop! We are having so much fun with this, and we are pleased to have had over 25 sales already in our first month!
To show our appreciation to our friends here at LifeinBetween, we want to offer a little gift to you. If you refer someone to our shop who makes a purchase, we would like to thank them AND YOU with a free card of their and your choice. Each of you can choose one of any of the cards offered in our ETSY shop for FREE! (Simply have your friend let us know when they order that they came here from LifeinBetween and mention your name.)
Have fun perusing the photo gallery of our newest Spring things.
You can visit our shop here: McKinneyx2Designs on ETSY and follow us on Facebook and Instagram too if you like.
Happy Spring Thinking!
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Yum
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Our nest
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Live Simply
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Kitchen
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Just Be You
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- Original Watercolor Iris
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Home
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- Giraffe Button Art
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Family
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Create
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Easter Bunny Brown
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- Rustic Reclaimed Pallet Sign: Easter Bunny Pink
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- Original Watercolor Impressionist Landscape 5×7 Matted to 8×10
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- Original Watercolor Bunny 5 x 7 matted to 8×10
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- Original Watercolor Daffodils 5×7 matted to 8×10
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- Abstract Watercolor Print Cards Boxed set of 4
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- Watercolor Print Iris Cards Boxed Set of 4
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- Watercolor Print Winnie the Pooh Children’s Cards – Boxed set of 4
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- Watercolor Print SPRING Set Note Cards Boxed set of 4
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- Watercolor Print Around the Pond Note Cards Boxed set of 4
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Impressionist Landscape
Spring one day –
Winter the next.
Impressionistic landscape
62 degrees at dinner –
26 degrees at breakfast.
Impressionistic feelings
March in like a Lamb –
Out like a Lion?
Impressionistic life
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
5×7 watercolor on 140 lb. cold press shizen professional grade rough texture rag watercolor paper.
Leapin’ Leap Day
Happy Leap Day!
What are you going to do with your extra 24 hours this year?
Leap in!
Do something you love…
be with people you love…
spread some love!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Spring Splashing
A few days ago, our little corner of the world was covered in snow and ice. This weekend, however, the temperatures rose to near 60 degrees and the sun shone brightly.
It was a little crazy for mid-February when we typically experience some of our coldest, snowiest weather, but we sure enjoyed it.
On Sunday morning, Charlie and I took a nice four-mile walk with our buddy, Tracy. We visited Kitty, and we splashed through some puddles of melted snow and ice.
After breakfast and a few chores, I spent a relaxing afternoon splashing paint at the kitchen table with the sun streaming in.
I painted this bunny that reminds me of Spring and Easter and babies and renewal.
I painted another fun little piece that will be a gift for an upcoming baby shower, and a couple other things before packing up the paint and making dinner.
What a great way to spend a day. Thinking Spring. Enjoying warmth and sunshine. Doing the things I love….
at life in between.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Dreaming of Spring
Sometimes in the cold and slush,
the starkness and the blustery winds of Winter…
I dream of the warmth and beauty,
the colors and the gentle breezes of Spring.
After a few long, cold, busy wintry days, it was nice to relax and loosen up and dream of blue and purple irises that will bloom in Spring…
and splash paint on paper
bringing them to life
with glimmers of hope
and the promise of renewal.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
A Valentine Landscape
Landscapes in watercolor painting are a new challenge for me!
To date, my largest watercolors have been 5 x 7, and I’ve dabbled in trying to recreate the amazing abstract landscape art of Debi Riley in small card-sized pieces, but I really wanted to surprise hubby with an original landscape piece from me for Valentine’s Day this year.
No pressure!! Right?!
Sheesh! I had no idea what a challenge it was going to be!
Every evening after he went to bed for about a week, I tried again and again and again. I started by watching some great tutorials by Shari Blaukopf on Craftsy. She does gorgeous landscape sketches in pen, ink and watercolor. I’m not the best at sketching…. Yet! But I did learn a few pointers from Sheri about plein art and sketching. The best thing I learned, however, was about some brushes she recommended that made such a difference in my painting! The Raphael Squirrel Mop and Escoda Versatil are my first experience with professional brushes. Oh the way the mop holds and spreads water and the precision point of the Escoda! Up until now, I struggled with cheaper brushes not holding water enough to carry across a larger piece of paper or the flexibility of a large brush with a point to do large washes as well as small details. Shari also has a blog called The Sketchbook where she posts art every day from her hometown in Montreal.
I also watched some Youtube videos, and tried some landscapes from various artists there. I especially enjoy watching Alan Owen, an artist from the UK with over 70 years of painting under his belt who shares so generously of his talent.
This was my best attempt (in 11″ x 14″), and though it is extremely far from what I intended, he loved it! Phew! I guess that is why they say love is blind. Actually it is why love is so sweet. He thinks it ranks up with some beautiful art he took me to see at a local exhibit in Cranberry. I know it isn’t. I know exactly what I’ve done wrong and want to improve. I know what it took to produce some of the masterpieces we saw at that exhibit. But to his sweet eyes, he saw art, he saw beauty, and I love him for it.
Maybe next year I can replace it with a better one, but this year, my Valentine said “This is just what I would like our backyard to look like!” And if we squint really, really, REALLY hard, we can imagine that our little stream and woods do! (wink wink!)
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
A Parliament of Owls in Watercolor
It’s #DrawABirdDay with my WordPress artist blogging friends, which we celebrate on the 8th of every month.
I had fun yesterday watercolor painting a parliament of whimsical owls. (Did you know a “group” of owls is called a parliament?)
A little search on Pinterest provided some inspiration of ideas that I combined to create these little cuties.
I think these will make fun greeting or note cards.
Hoots & Tweets and Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
the creative life in between 