This and That

After the calendar, I decided to search for more candies and interesting labels. Do you know how hard it is to find interesting candies in regular grocery stores and c-stores. I finally found an import store. The lady bugs are chocolate, not sure where from. The milk n honees and mars are from Italy. The lobster candy looks like from Russia and I am most curious about what kind of candy that will turn out to be! The bananko also looks Russian. Loved the herding cats label and it is from South Africa. I hope you enjoy.

Every Day in May

May has been an incredibly boring month at work. Evidence of this can be seen in this desk calender. Pen and ink and watercolor completed while sitting at my desk at work. Surprisingly, the last three days have been busy and this month may be saved after all. This is not exactly every day in May. I started late, as a challenge from a coworker, and I have obviously finished early. It has been a lot of fun. It has given me ideas for future paintings and has entertained coworkers and customers.

Pears yet Again

Some more pears from last fall. I have been painting daily. I just do not have anything to post yet. I have an every day in May that I have been working on. I will post that in a few days. That has led to some spin offs that I have not completed yet. Does any of this make sense? Sorry. The upcoming posts will be too big for the scanner so I will need to figure out how to take some decent photos. More to learn!

Venezia

I once entered a contest with this watercolor. I won third place and an artbook. That is my claim to fame. Ha!

Pelicans

I am officially declaring this past week as the most boring work week of my life!!!!

These pelicans found their way to my business cards(The backside). They are from a photo I took while on vacation to Florida. My photo does not show much detail because of the strong back light. Must do more to figure out my camera! These are a couple of the things I did to keep from going crazy.

Stay tuned for every day in May that I am doing on my desk calender at work.

Too Big for the scanner

My apologies about the quality of this scan. I just finished this painting and it won't fit on the scanner unless I bend it or cut it and I am not going there. Trust me, it looks a lot better in real life. This is on Cartiera Magnani hot pressed watercolor paper with pen and ink and watercolor.

Pen and Ink

This is one that I did in my journal. I am fascinated by capitals. They are really fun to draw.

Block Party

I decided to try out the blocks this week. It was so much fun, I have carried it over to my desk calender. I will try and post a picture of it at the end of the month. This one includes Lemonheads, Clearwater beach, Creme Savers, Sunflower, Burt's Bees, Tamarind Candy from the Thai restaurant, my idea of lizard skin and the uniball Signo .18 that I did the drawings with. I like this pen as it does not bleed when you add the watercolors.

Vacation Pears

These pears came right off the breakfast buffet at the Embassy Suites in Tampa Florida. I liked the personality that these guys have.

The First of the Pears

This was the first of many pears. This was painted quite some time ago. I tend to stick to things that I have success with. I have liked pears as an ongoing theme.

Daredevils

I thought that this would make an interesting piece. I went out and bought three of the large size daredevil fishing lures. They were much larger than the ones I actually used when I was a kid.

Tabasco

This one started my hot sauce collection and my pepper growing. I got tired of always buying peppers for my still life's, so I have been growing them ever since. I also have a decent collection of hot sauce bottles. My "masterpiece" has been drawn for some time now. Never got a round to painting it. It has about 20 hot sauce bottles in it. Someday!

Pierre Cardin Gloves, circa 1962

I took these gloves to work with me one day. I got to thinking about them and their history. I have had these gloves for 44 years. I received them for a Christmas present when I was eight. They were big on me then and they are small on me now. The reason for the gift was the sensitivity of my hands to the cold. The October before Christmas I was carving a Halloween pumpkin. The very last cut on the pumpkin my slimy hand slid across the blade of the knife. Long story short, I cut the nerves and tendons on the two smallest fingers of my right hand. Three and a half hour surgery to put my fingers back together. I still have wires holding my tendons together. So my fingers became very sensitive to the cold. After reading my journal entry about this painting my wife bought me a new pair of gloves for Christmas this past December. My fingers did not grow as big as my other fingers and I do not have full movement in them. I do have full feeling though. The sensitivity to cold has lessened over the years. I am glad that surgeons were able to put this humpty dumpty back together again.

Clearwater Beach

What a wonderful day at the beach on Monday. This picture says it all for me!

Donna's Treasures

We spent a wonderful day at Clearwater Beach. Very relaxing. A beautiful beach with very fine white sand. Some fun shells to collect and good friends to keep us company. We also took an excursion on the Sea Screamer out into the Gulf. Finally found some Dolphins that had a good time in our wake. Saw a couple of dozen jumps within fifteen feet of the boat. Very cool. It was a great day in Tampa.