poinsettia

Poinsettia

watercolor

5.5 x 7.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

Getting into the holiday spirit with this painting of a poinsettia blossom. I was captivated by the leaves in the sunlight creating an almost abstract design of light and dark. As I completed the painting I decided to use this image for our greeting cards this year. After some comparison shopping I choose to go with Zazzle for printing the cards. I like that I can customize the cards with printed messages. And since I was doing all of that, I also made this image available for cards for purchase from Zazzle. You can click the link here or the one over on the side bar. Are you ready for the holidays?

Merry Merry

Our holiday cards are finished and will be on their way in a day or two. This year all three of us took part in creating our cards. It was a fun family project. So here is the whole step-by-step process we did to make our works of holiday mail art.

First kiddo applied watercolor to paper in random color washes. You can see she enjoyed this part, paint splatters everywhere! You also get a peek of our kitchen/dining/project/school table with the world map and clear plastic cover.

Next we sprinkled salt onto the wet watercolor washes and watched the magic happen.

Then hubby carved potatoes to make stamps. After brushing the salt off the dried watercolors we cut them into the sizes we needed for our cards.

They were then stamped with hubby's holiday potato stamp designs.

Embellishments were added, letter stamps, silver and gold markers were used, buttons and bows. Each piece was then adhered to the front of a blank greeting card.

And it's a holly jolly season. Merry Merry to you!

Winter Solstice

Holiday GreetingsHere is the view from our deck this morning. A bit of snow on branches and rhododendron leaves, fog swallowing the surrounding hillsides. As I look out my window now, the fog has moved in even thicker and everything has turned shades of gray. A perfect landscape for a Winter's Solstice eve. That last drawing inward before the earth marks it's turn again toward the sun, bringing back the light, a turning of the wheel of the year.

I've been thinking about that, the winter solstice and the sun making it's return, and the whole idea of expansion, a moving outward after a time of drawing in. (Just so you can follow along with the weird way my mind works, click on the links for your homework reading.) I remember a song we sang in elementary school choir for Christmas concerts, Do You Hear What I Hear?. You know the one, a sappy holiday tune but the concept fascinated me as a kid. It starts small and moves outward. The wind tells the lamb, the lamb tells the shepherd boy, the shepherd boy tells the king, and the king tells the people everywhere, 'pray for peace'. If only it were so simple. What if everyone, everywhere did stop what they were doing, for just one moment, and said a prayer for peace, perhaps all at the same moment? What might happen?

Pumpkin Pie Memories

The EDM challenge this week was very appropriately to draw a favorite food. So here is my EDM challenge #146, Ken's Pumpkin Pie, done in graphite in my sketch book.
The challenge for me with this was was more about choosing what to draw and then finding the time in between preparing for the holiday and enjoying the holiday to make a sketch. But I did manage to get in this sketch before the pie was completely gone. I chose the pumpkin pie not only because our friend, Ken, makes delicious pies, but also because of the associations I have with pie and our friendship with Ken. We have been celebrating Thanksgiving with him for many years now. Making a pie has become a ritual as one of his contributions to the feast. It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving at our house without Ken and one of his wonderful pies!

Another ritual we have is to go out the day after Thanksgiving and select our Christmas/Yule tree from a local Christmas tree farm. No matter what the weather, this must be done. We trudge around in the cold among hundreds of fraser firs looking for the perfect tree to take home. Every year we are fooled by the size. The trees always look much smaller growing in the field than in the corner of our living room. This year was no exception. It was bitter cold. And the tree we picked is huge. Huge. And then there is the issue of our springer spaniel, Sammie. Also known as He Who Cannot Be Trusted. Last year as a puppy he spent his time in a crate when we were away from the house. Then this past summer he let us know in no uncertain terms, that he really didn't want to be in a crate when we were away. Now we have a ten foot tree in the living room where He Who Cannot Be Trusted has easy access any time he wants. Our plan, and it's the best we have come up with so far, is to place the very dreaded canister vacuum as a barrier around the tree when we go out. Sammie is very afraid of the vacuum cleaner. It just might work. I'll let you know.

Autumn Equinox

Yesterday was the Autumn Equinox, a turning point in the year. Can you feel it? Although our days here are still warm the nights are now crisp, the geese fly noisily overhead and touches of red and yellow brush the trees. A time of turning inward.

No picture of mine to share, but these two sites are very cool,
Earth As Art
Earth Calendar

Enjoy!
Happy Autumn!