Blog Comments.

I like to think that I am a patient woman. Far more patient than I used to be, at least. I am patient with people. That's easy, but when it gets to waiting, not so. However, what has got me going is Google. I like to leave comments on blogs, and I hardly ever leave short notes. I enjoy receiving comments and feedback too. Lately, I have been writing, and when I choose my Google profile and preview the comments.....it's all gone. Not once or twice but practically every time. Sometimes I don't remember to copy my text and then it's totally gone and it's never the same when I write it again.

Mangosteen.

Mangosteen is delicious, no doubt about it. You cut along the circumference of the fruit with a sharp knife, twist it so that the halves come apart and then lift out the sweet, white flesh.
I am still on my quest in finding supplies, but I did find this sketch book with very thin paper and a 16 color box of oil pastels. All in the children's drawing department of Carrefour. Although the drawing doesn't quite merit being posted, I did enjoy using the oil pastels (first time) and they blended really nicely when working from dark to light colors. They will work better on a slightly more toothy paper.

The Jim Thompson House.

I had never heard of him before, but Jim Thompson seems to have been an interesting man. An American, he stayed on in Asia after WWII, and built a home with 6 traditional teak Thai houses. Most of these houses that were dismantled and brought to the capital were at least two centuries old. Thompson was also implemental in reviving the silk weaving craft and started exporting Thai silk abroad.

A mysterious man, who went out for a walk one day in Malaysia and never returned. Nothing was ever heard of him again.

The interior of the house is filled with his collection of Asian antiques.

There is an excellent restaurant and gift shop and it's a good place to meet other tourists for a chat and a moment of quiet in this busy city.

Where is the Thai Dick Blick?

Heliconia magnificus

This morning it was as if a giant's stomach was rumbling; low, ongoing thunder, which ended in a heavy rain shower.
 For someone who lives in the desert a tropical rain shower is a thing of delight. I sat outside for a while, on my veranda, and enjoyed the clattering of the rain. I was going to go out today but with the cosy darkness of a rainy day, I think I will get out the few things I have been able to buy to draw and paint.


On my way to The Jim Thompson house, I saw someone who was clearly a Thai artist and fortunately he spoke some English, because I wanted to know where he got his art supplies. He said MBK, but I am told that that is like a big dollar store. Mind you, I have sometimes found interesting things to use in my artwork at a dollar store.


I have already been able to purchase water color paper, watercolor pencils and colored pencils. My sister in law, who lives here bought me some smooth paper which should work well with the colored pencils.

Today I will use what I have, but I have already read that there is an art supply store in the Old Siam Plaza and a Chinese art supply store in Chinatown (even more interesting). I really like seeing what is available in other countries. Reading quite a few art blogs from over the world, it's amazing what people have available to them locally. In a city like Bangkok, which appears to have everything one might possibly wish for, it seems that art supplies are tucked in the remotest corners. 

I like not taking anything with me, and then seeing what I can find, and what I can make with that.

Floating Market

In spite of being interesting, the floating market is a huge tourist trap. It's all so doubles There are many tourists and people need to make a living but yet we don't buy at these tourist traps. Algodones just over the border from Yuma has become something similar. Since the recession, the vendors have become a nuisance, and the result is that I simply don't buy anything. They are not a nice nuisance, because I know the difference between disrespect and desperation. The last trinket I bought in Algodones was from a newcomer. I had seen something interesting some time before and had to make quite an effort to find the small man from the south of Mexico, as he had moved his location on the side-walk from the popular main drag to a side street. I am assuming that they pay someone for their couple of square yards. When the purchase was made, I was about to walk off, but suddenly turned around to ask something, and saw the man was crossing himself and thanking god for the sale. I walked back to the border thinking how hard it must be to make a living with things no one really needs.

Be prepared at the floating markets in Thailand that the skiff you rent will take you to almost every vendor along the market, and that you have to put on your kind face and say 'no, thank you' many, many times. It was only when Jack said in Thai: 'We live here', that we were spared this. So glad Jack has gotten to lesson 6 already. You aren't out of the heat of it yet though, because there are so many boats milling around, that you have to remember to keep your fingers and anything else that may hang slightly overboard, inside the boat because if nott it will surely get crushed. The old lady handling the boat yells loudly at other handlers, but just as loudly at her human cargo and I tell you, Thai is a musical language, but not when it is shouted and yelled.

I am not known for my elegance when getting in and out of small boats. Getting in went well enough, although I eyed the green slush that was supposed to be water, with some trepidation. I then folded my legs into the lotus position because there wasn't more room for legs and the seat was perhaps 5 inches high. Come to that, I took a local bus in Holland in which I couldn't sit straight either and I am not all that tall in the land of giants, which Holland is.

Lotus position didn't last long as my legs started to sleep. With pins and needles, I moved my legs into other more intricate positions. If I could have put them in my neck, I would have, but I can't.

When we reached the jetty, I knew I may have to make a spectacle of myself and I was helped by two men, who each grabbed an arm and started pulling. The helpers were tiny, and I think I could have carried each under an arm and not be any the worse. It was a spectacular spectacle, mind you. Although,I may just give up using small vessels for a while.

Athena's painting.

For those who remember, Yevgenia Watts is painting Athena. I can hardly wait to see the outcome.

Ma-Lee, little Jasmine.

Now that I am sitting here I might as well post this picture I took of a little Thai girl. I am in Thailand now, but I will probably be posting some things on Holland and France in between my adventures in Thailand. I also have some drawings that I made that I shall post soon.
Outside there is a thunderstorm and tropical rain comes clashing down. A perfect day to catch up on correspondence and blogging.

Warm Welcome

The regular readers of my blog will have noticed that I have not posted in quite a while. I am traveling and although I think of my blog regularly and have lots of ideas, I simply haven't found the time, the peace of mind and the quiet I seem to need to write, draw or work on my blog.
I was given a warm welcome in Holland, land of my birth, in more ways than one. The weather was lovely and warm for the time I was there and is highly unsual in April. Living in a desert, as beautiful as that may be, doesn't provide much in the way of color certainly not like in Holland. There was color everywhere, but especially the tulip fields were head turners.

I think we skipped spring this year, and went right on into summer, but I don't want to talk about the weather, because that's a subject for when there is nothing left to say.....and when do I have nothing to talk about?

The Insatiable Tourist.

Old postcard from Egypt.

I must have been 8 or 9 the first time I went to Egypt. I have memories of staying at the Winter Palace in Luxor, where there was always a man sitting outside your door, who would run errands or get fresh drinking water. That made an impression on me, as much as did, riding in a calesh to see the sights.

I am really not as old as Methuselah but the other day I saw the City of Petra on a travel channel and my mouth fell open when I saw the many tourists there. I am beginning to realize that because my traveling started early in life that I visited many placed in the Middle East and Africa, before they were big tourist destinations.

I was in Petra, when the Bedouins still lived there, and all you could buy was a hot Coke and bottled sandscapes.

When I read old travel books, I sometimes wish I could have visited a place all by myself and wander around without a group and guide to be seen. But it is, as it must be, and I am happy that many people can travel and see the wonders of the world because it a wonderful thing to be able to do.

Nevertheless, it is really special if you travel to a destination and find it relatively undiscovered by tourism. To, for example, see the early morning sun rising over Palmyra, from your tent, camping on the grounds of the dilapidated and run down Hotel Zenobia, which is, I see on the web, quite smart now. When I was there it looked more like a deserted train station.

All in all I have whetted my appetite for some travel now, although that generally takes very little, but I am somewhat out of practice besides flying these days, is not a very inviting way to transport yourself, and transport is the right word, in this case. It is no longer is exciting. It used to give me a little thrill to know that I would be flying somewhere, but now I seriously wish that ocean liners still existed. That was a way to travel. Unfortunately though, only for the rich, so if I travelled 70 or 80 years ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to, because I don't think I would have been rich enough. Better be satisfied with what I can do!

Blog anniversary: 3 years!

Feather Maiden Shopping

Last night I went shopping again and this is the result.

I started out with this rather botched photo.

 I am still not entirely sure about all this. I suppose this is why I use my pictures that normally would have been sent to the trash.

In this case, I used the actual photo as the background with brushstrokes and made a collage with a detail of another pow wow picture, on the right.

Pow Wow photography

Cropped, not shopped. I mainly used a 55-200mm lens at the pow wow, which eliminates the background nicely. I like using this lens when doing portraits too.

Strong Hearts Pow Wow

I have been going to Pow Wows in the years that I have lived in the SouthWest and find it endlessly fascinating. A few years ago, I was there with a 7 year-old friend. The lady sitting next to me said that she was Havapai, and asked what my young companion was. Without thinking, I said, "He's a cutie-pie". She looked me in the eyes for a moment, and then we both started laughing.

Pow Wow Shopping

Often in photography, a background can make or break an otherwise good picture. It is the same when collaging or painting. Recently, backgrounds have been my focus, whether making them on paper, Yupo or in Photoshop. This photo didn't have a very distracting background, but I worked on it  a little anyway with 'brushes' and then 'smudged' the subject, which brought out the light on his profile.

Pow Wow photography

Children always make good subjects. They can be totally oblivious of their surroundings when playing. 

Shopping again

Dishes not done. Nothing for lunch. Appointment at 2 and it's 12:48. But I am happier with my Photoshop efforts. My own photo made at the Sedona Pow Wow, a neutral background in beige/tan, and brushes. Getting a little closer to where I want to be. 

I have always liked this photo, but the wall was distracting, although not as distracting as a pole growing out of someone's head in a otherwise good shot.
Photoshop is a nice way of using photos that didn't make the mark for whatever reason - my mark, that is. 

Dragonfly on Ice

It all seems to take place at the same time here in the desert. The days are warmer, warm enough for shorts again, the local pow wow takes place, hundreds of vintage cars roll in (nothing to do with the pow wow), and the migratory bird shoot is on (nothing to do with guns). I am going to make the most of it.


The above is a black and white picture I took, with a macro lens, of a very dead dragonfly, which I had put on ice for a background. In Photoshop, I added a frame and a part of the poem 'Fragility' by Kale Beaudry. 

Blogging

I see a lot of blogs. I love reading them. Whether it's about art, craft, techniques, photography, dogs, cooking, you name it, I love it. Then at times, you start wondering why you visit certain ones more often than others. I am speaking solely for myself when I say 'people'. It's the person behind the blog that captures you, not the knitted mittens, but what they say about those mittens.

If you blog about one particular subject, then you are going to attract the demographic that is interested in that topic. This doesn't make it easier on bloggers, like me, who like so many things and I always go back to why I started to blog in the first place when I wonder why I do it at all.

I live far away from my family and many of my friends. In a way I thought they would enjoy seeing what I was up to. You know, the way you show a visiting friend your latest sketch or mittens, for that matter. Some visit regularly but some have never seen it. I forget that there are people who haven't been pounding away at a computer for years, the way I have. They are perfectly happy that they are able to email and have no further interest, and that is fine.

So, in short, I write the blog for myself, and if I can share with someone, then that is an extra perk. (It's like keeping a photo album, that you only show to visitors).

My brother once said to me, when I indicated that I wasn't interested in computers all too much, that I would be smart if I did a couple of courses, because computers were not going to go away.

They didn't, and they guided me to the BLOG, and to the pleasure of blogging.

These are the things (I think) I have learned along the way:

1. Blogging is a lonely business, therefore comments and reactions are fun and you make new friends by commenting.

2. Be yourself in your blog and post your own work, or link back if it is by someone else.

3. There is a blog etiquette. People appreciate your comments; they often email you, and if you become a follower of their blog, they often follow yours. 

4. Blog frequently but not too frequently. Three blogs a week is what I go for, besides you need time to think and come up with something original.

5. Make it clear in a post what it's about. Don't upload a mixed bag of things. The reader soon moves on if it gets confusing. Rambling doesn't work well either. Don't make your blogs too long (like this one is sure to be).

6. Join a group of like-minded souls. Place a button on your blog, so others can find it. My hits went up from around 50 to around 100 a day in the last months since I joined two groups.

7. Never be afraid to comment. I have received lovely chatty emails from some of my Blog-Idols, making it even more fun to follow their blog.

8. A no-brainer is to always be polite on a blog, not to discuss anyone else, unless it's in glowing colors and do not whine.

9. I get the most hits on my blog from Google Images, 'Paper cuts', so I just head paper cut posts headers as 'Paper Cut'. 30% of my hits come from Paper Cuts Images. I don't know where people find my stories but 'Poppies, Poppies will put them to sleep', has a little reader base all of its own as do some of my other little essays, which lately, I having been keeping as short as I can - less is more, sort of thing.

10. The more active you are as a blogger, blog reader and commenter the more your reader-base will grow. 

....and know when to stop.

The above image was made with a black and white photo I made at a Pow Wow and using 'brushes' in Photoshop. I am on a learning curve.

Listening to: "Belgrave Square" by Anne Perry.  

 

The 12th mystery in the beloved Inspector and Charlotte Pitt Victorian mystery series. When a moneylender named William Weems is murdered, there is discreet rejoicing among those whose meager earnings he devoured. But the plot thickens when Inspector Pitt finds a list of London's distinguished gentlemen in Weems' office.

Not quite into it.

The Okavango

The Okavango Delta is a place of beauty. Tucked away in the heart of Botswana, it is a sanctuary for birds and wildlife. We traveled to the island, where we would set up camp, in mokoros; hollowed out tree trunks which are punted through the shallow waters of the delta, keeping a leery eye out for hippopotamus. If we were thirsty we would dip a cup over the side of the canoe, and drank deeply, having been told that the water was pure.

Cape buffalo looked up as we passed by, water dripping from their mouths and elephants cautiously watched us, sniffing the air with their trunks.  It was exciting as well as very idyllic.

After we had set up camp under a Sausage tree that would occasionally drop an enormous torpedo-like pod to the ground, the men in the group went down to the water to fill the jerrycans, while we, women, watched.

A fisherman stood thigh-deep in the shallows, while he fanned out his hand-made net and threw it into the darkening waters. All was well with the world. But wait, what is that I see? What do the weights of his net resemble? Batteries, large flashlight batteries! I waded out to take a closer look and saw that the batteries had holes drilled right through to attach them to the net. In my mind's eye I could see the cadmium oozing out into the pure waters of the Okavango, that I had drunk so deeply and without a care.

That night, as I made my last stop behind a bush, I watched closely to see if my pee didn't glow in the dark, but was distracted by another enormous sausage whizzing past my ear to drop to the ground with a thud and hastily made my way back to my tent by the light beaming from my eyes.

I am cleaning out memorabilia, and found some wonderful old postcards that my family had sent each other while they lived in Africa. I used a card by C. Barry to draw this wonderful wise woman. I drew with pen and nib and Indian Ink without setting up a sketch first. Wanted to see if I could sketch without an eraser.

Odosketch

My early morning Sunday ritual is going through my favorite blogs with tea or hot cocoa (or Diet Coke, depending on the weather) and if at all possible, a pain au chocolat or something similar. How About Orange mentioned Odosketch and I went to look. I just drew something really quickly, but for the true sketchers of this world, this might be quite enjoyable. Your sketch will come out better than mine, because I uploaded mine, as I couldn't find where it was embedded.

This well-preserved woman sat at a table in the restaurant where I had dinner last night, eating almost nothing.

Painted Yupo background

This is what happened to the Yupo background I made earlier. The colors were so hot that it begged for something cold, so I added a steely eyed geisha, who, looking at her now, has Stephen Fry's chin. Not that this bothers me, because SF is one of my favorite people. I also used a stamp that I made sometime ago out of Mastercarve.

Yupo Experiment 1

For some time I have been trying to tame the beast called Yupo, a synthetic water resistant paper; an alternative for traditional art papers. With only whip and chair to protect me, Yupo still keeps snarling and will not do what I want. 

This weekend I started on a series of experiments to enable me to understand this 100% polypropylene paper, with which some people make such beautiful work. 
You either love Yupo, or hate it, and I think that this depends on how you have worked in the past. Watercolor paper absorbs water, Yupo resists it, and the pigment lies on top of the Yupo after the water has evaporated. This to most, is a new way of working.


All I did with Yupo this weekend, was experiment with backgrounds and different textures.

* I used regular table salt, and I haven't brushed it off yet.
* This is Winsor & Newton Designer's Goache in yellow and pink.
* I added a couple of drops of rubbing alcohol on the paper before letting it dry.
* Somehow I am reminded of my Sunday breakfast.
* Overall: the colors remained vibrant. I think that once I remove the salt, it may affect the colors, dulling them somewhat.

I wet the Yupo before applying any pigments, then used Dr Martin, and let them run. I might have used too much ink, and in this case I moved the paper about until I got a pleasing mix and applied plastic wrap. It took a long time to dry, and even though I had 'molded' interesting lines in the plastic wrap, I still find this a little flat.
* The most interesting part in this, is the line from top to bottom because I couldn't curb my impatience and took a peek.
* All in all, a little too dark for my taste and a bit muddy due to the inks mixing a lot or too much even.
* I see an 'eye looking back at me.

Back to the gouache. Lighter on the touch. Water first on the Yupo; mixed paint to a liquid creamy consistency, and a drop or two of rubbing alcohol.
* Some areas still too dark, to my liking, with nothing very interesting going on. Used some brown ink in this, which in some areas had a nice effect.

Monochrome, on wet Yupo using the tipping and dripping technique with gouache. This 'complex' technique brings out your inner child. I used two pieces of plastic wrap, just because I fumbled with the tearing of it, and ended up with 2 small pieces. One on the top and one on the bottom, leaving a strip uncovered, where I added a few small drops of rubbing alcohol which created a little stream of planets.

One last experiment, which I think worked well. This is a messy little painting, that I used to try out several things, but the one that worked well was using wax crayons to outline your drawing, instead of pencil. All the white on the cups was done with a white wax crayon. I liked the effect. Yevgenia Watts mentions this in her Youtube tutorial.


I looked at the work of several artists who use Yupo very successfully and produce wonderful paintings on it.

Here is a short list of some names:

Ursula Rodrigues - shown on ArtCafe.net (sorry, didn't copy the links. Too busy Yupo-ing) ursularodrigues.com.
D.D. Gadjanski at ddgadjanski.ca
Yevgenia Watts at watercoloredhands.wordpress.com
Judy (can't find a last name) at dedraad.blogspot.com
and others.


I am by no means finished with Yupo, in spite of the snarls.

Collage.

I started out drawing a bird with my brown Micron 01 pen. I had intended to keep work in my little 'art' book in sepia and earthy tones. Just seemed to be the thing, but once again color won. While working on the bird I started finding it very boring, although I did try to move away from drawing a bird from the side. Then, you know how it goes, I pasted in some postage stamps because the pages are 5" by 8", and don't allow for anything very large, and from there I grabbed a magazine and color started seeping into the work and it turned out into a little collage. I cut out half of the bird, so that its wing came free from the paper, which in my eyes, gives the impression that it is breaking free from the collage.

EDM Challenge 125 - draw a bird.

Listened to a nice little historic mystery while doing this:  
Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced and down-on-his-luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to seek his fortune in an inclement outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia. His arrival in Deva (more commonly known today as Chester, England) does little to improve his mood, and after a 36-hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner. Now he has a new problem: a slave who won't talk and can't cook, and drags trouble in her wake. Before he knows it, Ruso is caught in the middle of an investigation into the deaths of prostitutes working out of the local bar. A few years earlier, after he rescued Emperor Trajan from an earthquake in Antioch, Ruso seemed headed for glory: now he's living among heathens in a vermin-infested bachelor pad and must summon all his forensic knowledge to find a killer who may be after him next. Who are the true barbarians, the conquered or the conquerors? It's up to Ruso (certainly the most likeable sleuth to come out of the Roman Empire) to discover the truth. With a gift for comic timing and historic detail, Ruth Downie has conjured an ancient world as raucous and real as our own. 


.....and Audible.com is letting you download an Elizabeth Peters' book for FREE. If you like mysteries  then you will like this easy to listen to and humorous mystery book set in Egypt in Victorian times.

Just in case the picture I posted made you cross-eyed, I am posting one that was taken a little further away. 

My photo came in first.

My picture of Athena came in first in Yevgenia Watts' "Blirthday Contest". 

How cool is that?

 

......and the cactus flowers came in third. 

I will be receiving the originals of the paintings. 

Have a look at the artist's blog to see her work.  

http://watercoloredhands.wordpress.com/