Quirky yellow house...

I wish I had noted where this was taken when I saved it some time ago. My guess is Carmel by the Sea but it could be anywhere...storybook style..one would imagine hearing little people humming 'Hi ho, it's off to work we go.' It's not for everyone, but I just love it!

Cell phone drawing pad....Finger nail art done on 2"X 1 3/4" screen

"Picnik Slide Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Oil pastel crayons - Potted Geranium

Completed sketch of geranium in pot...with errors...

Raining Teacups - Last exercise for Raining Umbrellas e-course on creativity - Whimsical

It has been a month of small artistic challenges that has benefited me a great deal.  With Vicki Dvorak of Simply Hue as our leader, and the rest of the gals in the class (13 in all) we met new people, shared our perspectives and interest in art and creating it for  the enjoyment for others as well as ourselves . 

Thank you so much, Vicki, for sparking in me a renewed spirit that is both refreshing and fulfilling, something I've missed for some time now.  I'll be checking back from time to time ;-(

Friendship Exercise

Tea is a symbol and common element of friendship, but more than that it is a wonderful antidote for tired feet after shopping with a friend.  It is good for a weary mind, medicinal purposes and goes especially well with freshly baked scones (with the jam, lemon curd and Devonshire Cream).  Good conversation and laughter can be had as friends pass a leisurely afternoon talking over life dilemmas, the latest news, and trade interesting stories.  Friendships are cultivated further with a generous pot of tea on the table for refills.  This I drew amateurishly today with oil pastel crayons...not sure if I like them very much, and will try sketching with pencils and perhaps getting out the old brush.  I used the photo enhancer from piknik to embellish it a bit.  The splotches are mistakes ;-) More examples of like artwork will spring up here from time to time with some poetry, if I'm inspired.  I am testing the waters with my big toe, creatively.
And soon, I hope to begin the photography...all as hobbies, mind you....

The setting could be anywhere, at home in the kitchen or on a porch, or in a lovely tea room with old tables and chairs, wallpaper with flowers and lace curtained windows overlooking a quaint garden.   Regardless, it is when moments turn into hours,  as if time almost stands still.  Low voices can be heard, but the atmosphere is relaxed. Seasons are celebrated and birthdays remembered each year.  Precious memories are made over and again, with a true friend, or two, or more.  Divine!

Picasso on cell phone..experiment..

Hands by Picasso



More beauty..... ..in the endeavor to select something about babies I also was going to use this print by Picasso that I framed with a silver-toned wood frame some 30 years ago.  Since my cell phone camera is the only one I can use right now, I used the 4 different special effect settings  ( sepia,  glow, fluorescent, and black and white)  and this is what they turned out like, as if you all didn't know already it how it was done.  I am technologically challenged! 

And here we are, almost at the end of our e-course.  It has really been a new and informative and fun experience for me and I've enjoyed meeting all of you talented people!!!

In the morning, oops...it is morning..we will get another exercise to do.  And, hopefully the drawing I did  for the friendship exercise, which I will post soon, is going to be better than the drawing I did of a baby...not an easy thing!  What was the name of Popeye and Olive Oil's little baby???  Well that's what it looked like.;-)   Oh, yes, Sweet Pea!

Beauty

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty."                                                Keats

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."                 Confucius

"People are like stained glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed if there is a light from within."   Elizabeth Kubler Ross
                                                                                                                        

"Beauty is the shadow of God on the universe"                      Gabriela Mistral

"You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, she is beautiful because you love her."       
                                                                            Rogers & Hammerstein

"To me, fair friend you never can be old.  For as you were when first your eye I eyed, such seems your beauty still."                                                                              Shakespeare

At first I tried to draw or sketch a baby for this exercise to be truly creative.  The result did not please me as much as I would have liked.  So I am posting one of my favorite vintage watercolor paintings by Philadelphian Bessie Gutmann in (1876-1960) Certainly there is no shortage of baby photos and art of children to choose from.  It seems to me there is nothing more beautiful than an innocent newborn baby.

Growth, spiritual...

Flower of The Universe

by klr

Flower of the Universe

breathe deep of fresh air

Traverse and release the ache

and focus elsewhere

Unburden fear and despair

Find your way to the center

Listen and learn for

you will find treasure

Stroll on the beguiling curves

Rest on a hued star

Reach out and believe

gentle voyager that you are

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:puvhttp://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:puv0Ot3XEcMJ:downtheeyrieroad.blogspot.com/2011/07/piritual-growth-by-klr-flower-of.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en0Ot3XEcMJ:downtheeyrieroad.blogspot.com/2011/07/piritual-growth-by-klr-flower-of.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:puv0Ot3XEcMJ:downtheeyrieroad.blogspot.com/2011/07/piritual-growth-by-klr-flower-of.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en

San Juan Capistrano - Exercise on "Joy"

It is the third week of the creativity class offered by Simply Hue blogger Vicki Dvorak and we are to draw, paint, or otherwise show our own idea of the meaning of the word "joy'.  There is a certain revelry, exaltation or gladness one feels when watching these lithesome birds fly.

Every May the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano near San Diego. I did not see them when I took these pictures there in the summer of 2008. However, the last several years swallows have arrived here in Lakewood in June...in my backyard!! I have a creek behind my house and they love to soar with the breeze every morning and evening.   Have you ever tried to film these birds...not easily done! Hundreds play, swoop, and dive toward the water to get a quick drink. For a couple of weeks, they give me so much joy and pleasure as they fly so close to me; it seems they are here for my own private show!!

Change of the Seasons exercise

It was the French Impressionists who first advocated painting en Plein Air, meaning outdoors. With the advent of paint in tubes, their grinding of their own paints halted. Their folding easels and supplies became portable and could be easily taken into the forest or up hillsides.
The outdoors' naturally diffused light and atmosphere allowed them to stand or sit and paint the changing seasons of the landscapes and pastoral settings of the time.  Left to right shows spring to winter.
In the top painting, Winslow Homer, has painted other painters as they, as well, are painting en Plein Air.

Represented artists:  Karen Marguliss, Edmund Tarbell, Wm Richards, Alfred Sisley, Wm Sontag, Albert Rigolot, Glendenning, Barbara Lussier, Marilyn Fairman, Thomas Hill, Joaquin Sorolla, Karen Winters, Caspar Friedriech, Jeanne MacKenzie, Alfred Bricker, Kay Franklin, C. Monet (The Magpie)

Balloon Adventure

.

Woodinville, Wa

"Balloon Ride 2008"

                                                                                                                                                              adventure...

In 2008 my daughter photographed my balloon flight from below and I took pictures from the basket. It was an adventure from the middle of my bucket list. Ordinarily afraid of heights this didn't bother me. I felt safe. This post is for the exercise on "adventure" we were asked to do in the Raining Umbrellas e-course in its first week. However it took awhile to get the slide show going...

Mini Umbrellas

photo by irenesuchocki

Written by klr

Slightly blurred images float

in the amber light

Like small triumphs of the heart

ascending upright

   The conclave of spirits glides,

blindly they careen

One dusty pink afternoon

wings of seraphim

  Sentinels of the future,

choir of silent bells

Like fanciful waves of thoughts

heard only by angels

Notebook assignment

As you can see I started other projects that I didn't finish.  This was not easy as I'm so used to my pad and paper and pen and not the computer for this sort of thing.  It helped me to be creative every day, so it served its purpose well. ;-)

Exercise for the word "wisdom"

One of the most beautiful and wise writings of our times.
This exercise calls for more creativity on my part, but this is the first thing that came to mind on this topic. 
I also thought of the "wise" owl image and the  distinguished Oliver Wendell Holmes and other Supreme Court Justices who are  charged with making wise decisions.  Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin come to mind...

An Exercise in "Creativity"

Expressing one's self in any art form is creating, be it ballet, splashing paint on a large canvas or baking a beautiful, original cake.  It takes talent to grow dahlias for show; it requires creativity to put that talent into play by following one's impulses and ideas and putting them in motion. It may require study, but it begins with intuition or one's creative "muse".  Living each day with an open eye, open ear, and an open mind to one's surroundings and being in tune with what comes naturally to our hearts is the key.  Moreover, whatever medium one chooses to pursue, I believe the motive is innate in us and a very spiritual thing.

I chose to show a little project I've been meaning to do for some time.  It will require some tweaking because I could not find some of the elements I wanted to include because they are tucked away in a drawer or box somewhere.  The shadow box is in memory of my grandmother, Louise.  It displays socks with a dainty embroidered pattern she wore as a girl that you may need to zoom in on to get a better view.  She is five years old in the picture. Her mother saved those same lovely curls of hers in a box, also tucked away with other memorabilia.  Louise never went to college but was an avid reader. She told stories of growing up on a small farm in Indiana, Pennsylvania, marrying the coca-cola delivery man she met while working at a soda fountain, and working in the shipyards during the war.

Also in the display are a cameo bracelet, a little pillow with an "L" on it, a broach, a hairpin, and a church remembrance.  She loved collecting bells, pictures of old missions and covered bridges.  So I will add those items when I locate them.  She was the most Christian woman I have ever known.  It's a small tribute put together in a kind of rush,  as there is still another assignment I need to finish.

A home is a "Home"?

This exercise from Vicki Dvorak of Simply Hue about what the word "home" signifies to us had me looking in the thesaurus:  We know a home can be anywhere or anything where your heart is and where one dwells. It could be a mansion, a cabin, castle, apartment, condo, or a cave.  Homes are also known as abodes, habitats, a nest, and to some of us older gals, a "pad" or the "digs".  It could also be a state of mind and spirit.

By definition I like that it is a place that feels familiar, intimate, restful, easy and a refuge.  My picture collage was easy to do, but I wanted to convey what I think makes a home a "home" and would be some must haves. Singling out only a few, these are what I chose.  And, in the center is a painting of where we all might feel we want to be if we are sick...at home, in bed.

                      *  A garden gate, a path to the door, a window box
                      *  An farmer's sink and, as my grandmother used to say, a rooster in the
                          kitchen brings good luck.
                      *  A large cabinet in the dining room, a hot cup of tea.
                      *  A comfy sofa and a place for heirlooms
                      *  Bookshelves
                      *  A fireplace
                      *  A bedroom that opens to a garden court and a window to the sea
                      *  Candlelight and a welcoming bathroom
                      *  A door to a secret garden
                               ..........and music to fill the air

http://raining-umbrellas.blogspot.com/

One's own studio or office...

The discussion prompt yesterday was about studios and how we would design one that would express our originality.  Well, I commented on this, as every time I see this movie I pause it to better see this soft place with hushed tones.  This is the only photo I could find of the set in the movie "Somethings Gotta Give" with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson from where she writes her plays.  In the daytime, the window view is of sand dunes and the ocean.  The desk is long, however not very practical, I admit.  There are no bookshelves. To me, it's the setting, just off the bedroom, so one could hurry and take notes when a dream or idea wakes you and needs recording.  I loved all the photos that Vicki put on the lesson as examples and would probably go for the one with the piece of wood attached to the wall and clipboards, notes, and art covering the wall. I may take a picture yet of my office, as it is a good space, but cluttered now and not ready for show.  And now back to this week's projects and to see what my fellow classmates are up to ;-)

Second exercise for Raining Umbrellas - "Fashion"

For the next exercise through Simply Hue artist/teacher Vicki and her Raining Umbrellas e-course, we are to describe what interests us about any aspect of the world of fashion.  Fashion is not one of my fortes, but I love clothes and admire several designers.  But I've always been fascinated by hats.  There are thousands of kinds from the Easter bonnet to cloches of the 1920's, cowboy hats, Kentucky Derby hats, hats depending on one's profession, Victorian ladies' hats, the raspberry beret and fedoras...to the English hats recently seen worn at Kate Middleton's wedding.  I chose only a few here.  Don't forget Aretha Franklin with her giant bow hat.  What ever else enters into choosing a hat for oneself, it has a lot to do with who we are inside as well as on the outside.  I definitely could not wear certain hats, and some people look great in any hat.  Then there is the figurative kind...as in "a person of many hats".  What hat suits you? I'm thinking of garden hats, a pirate's hat and a hat with a real chicken on it.  Yes, I saw it at the Ruffles and Rust sale last month in Snohomish, WA!  Now to work on this week's last assignment due tomorrow.   I could be up late again as it is beyond the thinking stage, past the drafting stage, but certainly not ready to post.  It's a little frustrating because I am so green at this blogging.  How to get one thing from here to there via the computer is more than posting only pictures, which is easy.  However, I am having fun learning and there is no pressure!!

Recipe for Creativity....First assignment for Raining Umbrellas...

 This is a remake of the actual first assignment...I tried to retrieve it from the belly of the internet, or its cache, but had no luck...so this is as I remember it although there might be a minor difference or two..thanks for your patience and for stopping by again...