A Few More Zinnias...

Just a few more zinnias for you...I think I've got Zinnia Fever!




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Someone splashed these beauties with crimson paint!



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I read today in my Southern Living Everyday Gardener that the more zinnias you pick, the more blooms you get, so I went out and clipped off all the fading ones and picked several to put in my Mom's little "frog" flower bowl...

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Singles, doubles, and everything in between!

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Even "Fairy-Sprinkled" ones...;^)



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A whole row of fun!



The SL book also said that
zinnias love heat and humidity, and can easily withstand drought...

So glad I can accommodate them!

;^)

Still no rain, though it rained all around us today...it just skipped right over us...



It got really cloudy, though, and "missed a real good chance" as my Daddy would always say.



Please keep sending those rainy-day feelings our way!



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One more thing...(no, not another zinnia...) ~ my first tuberose is blooming!



H-e-a-v-e-n-l-y fragrance, if you've never experienced one...just a very heady, intoxicating scent! And, it becomes much more pronounced after dark...

Last year we had Hummingbird Moths visit the tuberoses almost every night...
amazing creatures!



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Okay, this really is the last thing...



A few sources for Zinnia seeds for next year... there are some really interesting ones!



http://www.seedman.com/zinnia.htm

(I like the Benary Giants and Chippendale here...)



http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/zinnias.html

(Check out Queen Lime, Zahara Double Cherry, Envy, and Starlight Rose...Yumm!)



http://www.edenbrothers.com/store/zinnia_seeds.html

(I like the Carousel Mix here...)



I don't think I can wait until next year!...It said 6 weeks from "planting-to-bloom"...and we don't get a killing frost until very late November... (Did we even have one last year?? The petunias that are still blooming from Spring 2011 say "No"...) ~ I think I'm going to have to order from Swallowtail!



Have a great Thursday, everyone!



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Anne

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Zinnias!

Zinnias! This year is my first time ever to plant zinnia seeds...my dear friend Elaine and I saw some gorgeous ones last October at a pumpkin farm in Arkansas, so I put them on my mental "must try" garden-list...I'll have to admit, I wasn't too impressed with them at first...they were kind of straggily-looking for quite a while...

They must love sun and HEAT, though, because now they're robust and blooming profusely...(even without the Miracle Grow...I just gave them some last night, so who knows...it may be "Katie bar the door" in a couple of weeks! I'll keep you posted!) ~ :)

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I set these up out on the front porch yesterday afternoon late, just as the sun was starting to set...you can see that glow on them!

I think this looks like a watercolor (top), don't you?

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SOMEONE needs to do a Rain Dance here...it is SO dry...(I saw our little Missouri Bootheel colored in red for "severe drought" on the national news this morning)...we just can't seem to water enough.

Things are hanging in there, but barely...our tomatoes and squash are still producing amazingly well, though some of the plants look pit-i-ful...

The cotton looks good, however ~ because it's planted around every subdivision and farmer's "holdout" inside the city limits, it's the only crop I've seen. Farmers have to be suffering, too, though.

Almost every day for the past couple of weeks it clouds up and looks like it might rain, but it always passes over...

Soon, hopefully...fingers crossed!

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday! Wish us a rainy one!

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Anne



Linking to Savvy Southern Style's Wow-Us Wednesdays!

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A New Week...

Hope everyone had a good Monday! I have to get back on a normal schedule...I've gotten so used to staying up until the wee hours...it really makes more sense, though, you know? No matter how much sleep I've gotten the night before, I'm not a morning person ~ creatively, especially. I can do simple chores, water flowers, etc. ~ :^) ~ but paint...nah. The longer I'm up (within reason) the more I seem to get done...I've always been like that. Most of the rest of the world just doesn't work that way, though!

Here are another couple of pictures from the Depot show. I promise not to keep this up too long! But, it really did do wonders for my self esteem to manage to get all these paintings finished...it was very nice to see everything framed and in one place...

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Above are the two linocuts of Cyrus and Leo that I forgot to photograph before they were framed...

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I set up the last of the hydrangeas earlier today, thinking I might give the blog a more "summery" look...Leo just wasn't feeling it, though ~ I couldn't get him to get really close to the typewriter and look up at the same time, like the current banner photo...(that one was just a "happy accident", I think...maybe I should just leave it alone!)...

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That's all for tonight...I spent some time setting up a little still-life of some zinnias this afternoon, too ~ I'll show you those tomorrow. :)

Have a great Tuesday, everyone! Where is the summer going??

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Anne

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Arty-Stuff Continued...

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments and encouragement! I will answer each one, and will visit the blogs of those who have "no reply" status in the next few days!

Here is the last watercolor ~ "mixed media" actually ~ it's the quickie one I did outdoors a couple of months ago, using those Swiss Caran D'ache crayons over watercolor...I added some super-sparkly Holbein Metallic Gold Gouache to it, and called it "Gilded Tuberose".  It was at the very last minute and I had an extra mat and frame, so I decided to put it in, as well.  Speaking of tuberoses, mine from last year all came out (a first for me, usually I forget and leave them outside until they freeze...our winter was so warm this past year, though, I don't think it would have mattered!) ~ anyway, I have lots of buds (some just about to bloom) but they are about a month early, and also a lot smaller than usual. I'm thinking this has to do with my not using Miracle Grow weekly like I normally do...:(...I'd been out, and too harried to remember to get more. I just got a big container of it yesterday, though, and although it's probably too late for it to affect the tuberoses (they bloom all at once and then they're done, but still so worth it ~ next year I'm going to get more bulbs and experiment with staggering the planting), I'm sure everything else will appreciate it...I didn't realize what a big difference it makes until this year!

Okay, that's the end of my Miracle Grow commercial...think they'd want to hire me?

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Last summer I got a sale catalog from Daniel Smith Art Supply, and on the cover was the coolest image of some goldfinches at a birdbath, surrounded by flowers; very bold, graphic black outlines and intense colors ~ I loved it! I was familiar with linoleum printing, but had never seen it tinted with watercolor like this one was...

I knew I wanted to try it, but put it on the "back burner"...every once in a while I would run across the catalog and think about ordering supplies to try it, but just kept putting it off.

Finally, with the show coming up, I thought it would be a fun way to make prints to share and put in my empty Etsy shop, so I got everything I needed...

and I was hooked!



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"Beloved" is a statue in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

  In retrospect, I probably should have picked a simpler image for my first attempt at carving a linoblock, but I was pleased with the way she turned out.

You carve the image in reverse ~ (I uploaded my photo to Befunky (free photo-editing site) and reversed it; not really essential, though, unless you are doing an image that has wording or numbers ~ then I used the "Cartoonizer" effect to simplify the shapes ); I experimented with several different techniques for getting the image on the linoblock (YouTube has everything...), including having laser copies made at a print shop and using acrylic matte medium under the copy (the paper was supposed to then be dampened on the back and rubbed off, leaving just the laser-ink image on the block...umm...no) and acetone over the copy...very messy, and not great really bad results ~ I ended up just drawing right on the block with a pencil, and then going over it with a fine point Sharpie).



 You could also transfer the photo with plain old graphite/transfer paper!

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Here is the carved linoblock of the band stand in Malone Park here in Sikeston; I've used a brayer (ink roller) and printer's ink to ink the surface. I bought a baren (the Speedball handled disc, above right), but honestly didn't need to ~ the heavy wooden spoon does the trick! See the heavy glass tray I'm using for the ink? In a former life it was a microwave tray; $2 at Goodwill!

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I placed the paper over the inked image, and burnished it on the back with the wooden spoon.

I misted the paper just slightly with water, as that helps the ink "grab" it (I'm using heavy, smooth (hot-pressed) watercolor paper) ~ it stays put really well (though you still want to keep a hand on it), and you can see from the slight embossing of the paper on the back if you've gotten all the image ... you can lift up a corner, holding the paper in place with your other hand, to make sure you've gotten it all, too.

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Ta-da! There's the inked print (above) ~ after it dries, I will tint it with watercolor. Actually a very low-tech printing process!

 
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My last 4 pieces are all black and white photography, all statuary from Soldier's Rest Cemetery in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

 

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That's it!

Tomorrow I'll show some photos from the show (I want to make sure it's okay with the other two ladies first), and I also have lots of kitty-pics to share!

Have a wonderful week!

Anne

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I'm Back!

Whew...what a busy 6 weeks!...I didn't mean to be gone so long, but I did get a lot of painting done, and managed to get seventeen pieces finished for the show! Thank you to everyone who continued to check on me...I did try to glance at my e-mail every few days, but I think that's the longest "computer break" I've had since we first got Internet...:)...I have such a one-track mind, I don't know how some people juggle so many different things in their lives....

I have so many things to share about the animals and gardening and art and stuff, but for tonight I'll just show you the paintings from the show (I am 1/3 of "Creativity x 3")...

Here goes! (I actually got so busy, I forgot to take photos of two of the pieces before taking them to be framed (thank you again, Marilyn, for all your wonderful framing help)...but they were linocuts, so I will be printing and tinting more, and can photograph them then.)

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This beautiful iris (no painting could ever truly do it justice) is from the garden of some friends' late Grandmother, Mrs. Ruby Oliver..."Miss Ruby" ~ "Maw" ~ had the most spectacular irises that I have ever laid eyes on ~ they must have really thrived in her love for them!  Each flower seemed to be more beautiful than the one before it, and I have literally hundreds of photos from her magnificent garden...

 I would take pictures and more pictures of a certain iris, and start to go on to the next...but then I would see how the sun filtered through the petals ("standards" ~ the upright ones ~ and "falls", I've learned) of the one I was trying to walk away from, and I would be right back taking more photos from a different angle...

If you just glanced at my file of photos of the irises you would think I had many, many duplicates, but each is a little different...and I couldn't bear to delete any, so finally my daughter Katie put them all on a disc for me...I could do a whole show with just Miss Ruby's irises...(that's an idea for next spring)!

(Thank you again to Miss Ruby's family for letting me photograph her garden...♥)

Oh, see the Iris's little admirer? ...I love to put a little "whimsy" in each painting, either in the actual art, or in the title!

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This painting started out to be just a regular watercolor still-life, then one thing led to another and it told me it wanted to be a "Mixed-Media Collage" like the Stargazer Lilies I did ("Hot August Night")...so, I had a lot of fun collaging on bits and pieces from vintage sheet music (supplied by daughter Katie) as well as more leaves and hydrangea petals cut from separate sheets of watercolor paper that I painted with glazes of acrylics in pinks and purples and greens...

I've found that while easier in the sense that anything can be changed...layer upon layer can be added...collage is much more time-consuming than a regular watercolor!

(Can you find the little firefly that's come inside to rest on this arrangement? I had to add one to this painting, too, after reading about the dwindling number of the flashy little fellows...)

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This was my first attempt at painting silver and super-shiny surfaces!

 The cup and saucer is my favorite from my Grandma Launius's collection, and besides being really reflective, it also had an iridescent glaze...it was a challenge, but fun!
And of course, lace is always a favorite...it looks so difficult, but really is the easiest thing in the world...you just paint the little "negative" spaces, and if you happen to make some funny shapes, no one is the wiser!

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Here again is the first painting I did for the show; "Hot August Night"...this one also began as a regular watercolor floral, then I decided I really didn't like how the lower left-hand corner was going...I didn't plan my drawing all that well before starting to paint (sometimes I just can't help myself and jump right in!)...sooo, after "sleeping on" what to do, I decided that I would make it a collage ~ something I had only done once (in watercolor) years ago. I found a little French almanac from 1877~ just a falling-apart little pamphlet, nothing really historic or anything ~ and decided to incorporate it. You know how almanacs have advice and remedies?...This one did, too, and even with my limited French-101-drop-out-ability I could figure out that it had "cure-alls" for insomnia, "melancholy", malaria, dementia...;^)...and so on...

The color of the lilies was so "hot" that by then I already had the title in mind, and the big gold moon and the droning cicadas just sort of fell into place (they really can make one a little crazy by mid-August...and they've already started ~ early this year!

(Oh, the shadows? (Remember, it didn't start out to be night-time...) Moon-glow! Or a really bright street light.)

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"Flim-Flam Flamingo" was the name of a book I had when I was little...and it just came to me after I'd started painting these fine fellows!

 A couple of weeks ago we were watching something on Animal Planet about flamingoes, and right then I decided I had to paint them...I didn't have to make up any "whimsy" this time...I think these beautiful creatures are the absolute embodiment of it!

(I'm going to add them to "Beverly's Pink Saturday" and call it a night...I will finish showing you the rest Sunday afternoon!)

To be
continued!...




(Also linking to Cathy's 1929 Charmer's weekly Sunday party, and Savvy Southern Style's Wow-Us Wednesday!)

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Happy Weekend!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

I am steadily painting for the upcoming show, and have truly missed blogging ~

 I had to participate in "Pink Saturday", though, and I definitely have something PINK to show you...

First, I want to apologize to all who have left me comments and messages that I have yet to respond to...for days I have not been on the computer AT ALL...not even for a minute; (not to check e-mail, not to check the bank balance, no Facebook ~ nothing, nada, ZILCH) which is a "first" in a very long while!

 I used to be a much faster painter...with increased acceptance of boo-boos and such, it seems I am so much S-L-O-W-E-R getting the actual painting done...

I used to drive myself crazy, being such a perfectionist and SO picky with what I was painting; now, not so much ~ however, this particular painting had a corner that was just NOT working...everything else was transparent (watercolor) and going well, but one corner (which I had not drawn anything in, really ~ I was just kind of winging it, but it was leaves, so I didn't think I could mess those up...(I did).

...To make a long story short, I totally changed colors a couple of times and it just got heavier and heavier looking.

 It didn't look like it belonged with the rest of the painting.

 Pickiness re-surfaced, and I was ready to throw it away; then I had an idea ~ collage might save it.

And collage it I did.

 I'd recently bought a little French pamphlet from 1877 on eBay ~ (an almanac, not really a piece of history that would be missed if I tore it up) ~ thinking I would use parts of it in a painting of the stack of cups I photographed earlier this spring...it would work with this! The pink of the lilies was so intense; HOT pink, really, that I got the phrase "Hot August Night" in my head...and it got me to thinking what a hot August night in Southeast Missouri would be like...(sans AC) ~ I had already painted in a firefly (I'd recently read that fireflies were disappearing from some areas, and have been kind of on a firefly-kick; check this site out ~

https://www.mos.org/fireflywatch/about_firefly_watch

 What else?... CICADAS...by mid-August here they start their droning by noon (earlier on they're only sounding off in the evening, and it sounds pretty cool, for a while) ~ getting louder and louder, enough to drive a person a little batty ~ so along with the watercolor-painted cicadas collaged on, I put in text from the almanac that had to do with cures for insomnia...melancholy...the phases of the moon, and so on.

 I also put in a big golden moon, painted with Lumiere acrylics...

 I had fun.

SO ~ all that said, I will show you the finally finished painting that was visible in my photo of my painting space last weekend...

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Here is the detail of the firefly...(we signed up to log our firefly-sighting...only one so far in our yard this year! (That we've seen; for this Museum of Science survey you only look for 10 minutes or so once a week.)

So sad if this little beacon-of-summer does disappear...

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Have a great Sunday, everyone, and upcoming week !

I'll be in the basement painting if anyone needs me ~ (just yell really loud) ~ ;^)

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Anne



Linking to Beverly's Pink Saturday

and

My 1929 Charmer's Sunday's Best

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Saturday Doings...

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Here is my photo for "Pink Saturday"...my first Zinnia (from seed)!



I was so excited!



 My friend Elaine and I saw HUGE ones last fall at a a pumpkin/gourd place in Arkansas...



I knew I wanted to plant some this year, for sure...



It's going to be a while before mine look like those we saw, though...;^)

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  It started out as a yawny kind of day... I don't really want to go paint... I'd rather play with the kitties...   ♥

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"Play with me, Mom...get the feather-toy..."



How could I refuse?

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Mom, there's a moth on the ceiling!



Someone needs to put it outside...



If it comes down here, I'll have to eat it...

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Here's Tallulah ~ "Woo" ~ she loves those little foil-ball kitty toys...there's no telling how many of them are under the couch...

I write about her, but I don't take many photos, as she is just not

a "poser" like the boys are. She's always running; flying up the stairs and down the stairs, hoping Leo or Cyrus will chase her and play.

Sometimes they do. Not as much as she'd like, though..

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Sometimes I think I need another little girl kitten for her to play with...

I've been pretty good, though. My Crazy Cat Lady tendencies are under control right now ~

But I could fall off the wagon at any time...:^)

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"Woo"

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It seemed like a good idea to procrastinate about painting a little while longer, so I went out to the herb garden and got some fresh catnip....Ummmm!

We had a little Kitty Party.

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Okay, back to work...I don't know why I put it off; I really am happiest when I'm "in the zone" painting...I wonder why we "put off" happiness?



Surely I'm not the only one...



Some of you have asked how the paintings are progressing, and you can see a little here. My little saucers with an individual paint color or two allow me to go back and forth between the two paintings (although they have a lot of colors in common), without worrying about having to switch colors around in the big palette.





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Okay, one last litte bit of PROCRASTINATING...



I've had these beautiful deep blue and purple hydrangeas in my Mom's little crock for almost a week, now...



I was going to set up another still-life, but I just never did...



I thought I at least needed to try and photograph them before they completely gave out...



But of course, I immediately had "Kitty Help"...



Tallulah was fascinated with something deep inside the bouquet...the water?



Who knows...



She's not going to leave them alone for me to take a picture, though...



"Talk to the tail!" Tallulah says...

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Now Cyrus has to get in on it...



I've given up...;^)



I need to paint.



Hope everyone is having a great weekend, "allowing" yourselves happiness!



Anne



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