Ginger Mints

Another of the candy collection that did not make it to the calendar. It is in a small Moleskine watercolor sketch book. I drew with a uniball signo.18 and painted with a niji waterbrush. I am using the waterbrush and like them a lot. The drawing is a bit off, but that is what happens when I draw with a pen. Live with the mistakes! I did this one at work today.

Mad Croc

I have been tagged and feel a bit like this Croc...just kidding! Just one of the left over candies from the calendar projects.

Here are the rules: 1-post these rules2-each person tagged must post 8 random(... hopefully interesting) facts about themselves3-tags should write a blogpost of these facts4- at the end of the post 8 more bloggers are tagged and named5-go to their blog and leave a comment telling them they're tagged. So, here I go.

1. I once set a goal to run a marathon before the year ended. Due to an injury I missed the organized Marathon. To hit my goal I decided to run the marathon on my treadmill. I set it for slightly uphill and went a little farther than 26.2 and ran without stopping! 4 hours and 37 minutes. I also lost no weight between the training and the marathon! Not fair!
2. Funnest vacation ever was a bicycle trip in 1995. My wife and I bicycled across Italy. It was hard to come home. If you are going to bike across a country, pick a small country like Italy!
3. I have a hard head(In more ways than one!). When I was six, my brother and i were playing in a new home that was under construction. I ended up falling from the main floor to the basement, head first. I landed on the corner of a brick. A pretty nasty cut from above my eye to the top of my head. I think it really gave my parents a pretty good scare!
4. As a new artist I joined the watercolor society. They had a week long paintout with a nationally famous artist. "teacher of the year". Paid my fee and took a week off work. All plein aire painting and I really struggled. The teacher gave me about 2 minutes worth of her time for the whole week. at the end of every day we had a critique. all critique and no positive for me. The last day I chose to paint for leaves rather than the creek and forest scene. turned out well. It is framed and hangs in my house today. I still think it is a good painting! Well, slammed again! It was years before I could pick up a paint brush. I am glad that is in the past. I have greatly appreciated every one's positive and encouraging feedback! You all are awesome!!
5. I think that I have more art supplies and journals than I can use in a lifetime!
6. I am a saver! I dread ever having to move! It is amazing how much stuff you can amass!
7. Since Jr. high I have always been fascinated by pens. I now have quite a collection of fountain pens both vintage and modern, I am still not sure that I have found that "perfect" pen!
8. Oops, forgot #8! I can't figure out how to post on EDM Superblog! Any takers on trying to clue me in?

Well there is my Quirky list. Anyone want to be tagged?

Kookaburra

I saw a picture of this Kookaburra on flickr explore. I loved the photo and asked permission to paint it. A big thanks to Ian Sanderson for the great photo and his generosity. This was great fun to paint. Kookaburra's are one of my favorite birds. Nothing quite like a gang of these out on your fence or clothes line, anouncing to the world that they are alive and well! One of the things that I miss most about Australia!!

Today's Sunflower

A quick painting today. Trying something a little different. This was drawn in ink and painted with Winsor and daniel smith watercolors in a small watercolorMoleskine.

Some Like it Hot

Another older watercolor. Some of my favorite hot sauce bottles.

One of my older watercolors. This was in my first really active phase of my art. Somewhere along the line it took a long break! I hope that this time around it will stick. I will probably post a couple more of my older ones.

Old Valve Handle

Not sure what to actually call this. I foud it years ago when I was a kid. I always thought it was kind of cool looking and hung on to it. What can I say, I am a saver ( except when it comes to money)!