Friday, October 05, 2007

Charlotte Kidney Foundation Benefit

The Charlotte Kidney Foundation is having a art and wine night to raise money for this great cause. The even called "Art After Dark" will be held Oct 27th. If you are an artist please donate a work of art. If you are an art lover (or a wine lover!) please come out and go home with a great work of art. You can learn more about the event here: http://www.kidney.org/site/208/dark.cfm?ch=208


I donated my Fall Leaves painting to the auction:

Monday, May 14, 2007

another tree id...

I have tried to use some online tree identification sites. It comes up as an Ash, but then the photos don't look like this tree. It formed there stranges big buds, and then the leave stems sort of popped out of the buds. Never seen anything like it, not that I am a big tree expert, but I know most of the common trees around here. I noticed it growing on the edge of our woods behind a honeysuckly vine and some weeds.

The red is where the leaf "bud" was.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Japanese Maple

How embarrassing! I was trying to take a picture of the trunk of the tree and saw a little bit of yellow sticking up out of the dirt. Turned out to be an id tag! sheesh. This little guy is a Acer 'Tamukeyama' Red dissectum.






Still trying to get an id on my Japanese maple. We bought it at the farmer's market. We got a deal on it because it lost it's top branches in a wind storm. They said it was about 12 years old. Right now it's in a south eastern spot to get morning to early afternoon sun, then shade in the late afternoon. I'm in Charlotte, and our late afternoon sun is very strong.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

In the Garden...

This is my little square foot garden I am trying this year. It has two tomatoes, two peppers, onions, peas, squash, and few other veggies. I can't wait to see how my experiment works out!
In the back ground are my two new blueberries (another farmer's market find..much nicer than the ones at home depot.
Dev and I were fortunate enough to find this Japanese maple on sale at our local farmers market. We aren't sure exactly what type it is...or where we are going to put it, but it's beautiful!
About half of our back yard is trees. I would love to plant some wild flowers and plants that attract butterflies along the edge of it. But I am not sure what to plant yet. It definitely needs a little oomph! That's my dog, Schnapps hanging out in front.

This is the stone patio we put in. I re-grouted the stones this spring and laid out a few more stones on the edge that I am going to sink into the grass. The table is our old kitchen table that I cut down the legs on and tiled the top. The trellises will have morning glories and moonflowers later in the season, and the one to the side will have gourds and squash, with a little lettuce / spinach garden in front. I made the little fence for it out of the branches I trimmed of our crab apple trees. Dev says it looks like something from survivor :P


Okay.. I promise I have a painting drawn out and on my drafting table. No really! In the meantime, I have been enjoying our spring weather here in Charlotte, NC.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Paintings that Dance with Light

My sweet husband surprised me a few weeks ago with a wonderful new painting book called Paintings that Dance with Light by Elizabeth Kincaid. Now, I have a whole library of watercolor books, and this one still manage to have tips that I had never heard before! For example, you can use ammonia to thin masking fluid! Who would have thunk :) She has some of the best use of masking that I have ever seen and her paintings do dance with light. I don't know Ms. Kincaid, but I did email her to thank her for that ammonia tip. She was very gracious and sent me a reply telling me her husband was a chemist and he was the one who knew that ammonia would thin frisket. She does have work shops and classes, so if you are in the Seattle area you might want to investigate!

Monday, January 29, 2007

Wow, I haven't posted in ages. PrettyRock.com (the gemology business I run with my husband) had a wonderful Christmas season. I am thrilled it is doing so well, but it doesn't leave much time to paint. I am hoping to get back into the studio soon though! My painting fingers are getting itchy!

I did want to share a place that would love to have hand made cards. Any type of art work will do! It's the starlight foundation and you can read about it here:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/org_detail.jsp?orgid=59365
Even if you just make one card, you will be brightening a child's day. And what a great project to do with your friends or children.

Hopefully I will be back soon with a new painting started. I have had one of morning glories dancing around in my head for weeks now. I need to let it out soon!