Thursday Photo Challenge - Vision - Squirrel in My Window
Topic: Thursday Photo Challenge
Its Thursday again. That doesn't mean I will try this challenge every week but when I heard of this week's challenge - Vision, (window, eyes, camera, telescope, etc.) - this squirrel coming into my house through the open window came to mind. This encounter took place last spring. The 'fire escape' out there no longer exists. It was torn down last summer to be replaced in the near future with a deck that is to double as a fire escape. In the meantime, 6 months later, the fire escape, which had needed replacing because it was not up to code, is still made of air. And if there were to be a fire - could I rely on this vision?

Watercolor Class Lesson for St. Patrick's Day
For watercolor class the week ending in St. Patrick's Day we explored combinations of landscapes and greens.

Landscape roughs

Loose landscapes exploring greens

Quickly rough out four thumbnails and create compositions of interesting landmass shapes. You can use an Irish landscape for inspiration. Use only two values, dark and light. For the last thumbnail create a value reversal of one of the other designs.

Now to play with green. Brainstorm a list of names for various green hues and/or green pigments.* Brainstorm a list of ways to create green - hue and/or pigment mixes. The possible list is infinite I would guess. Choose four color plans, using just 2-3 colors for mixing greens. Choose one of your thumbnails and paint it (interpret it) in four versions as per the color plans you chose. If you want to keep track of your experiments, record the color plans underneath each version or on the back.

*Hue is the color we see, whether in a rainbow or a physical object - we have lots of names to describe colors. Pigment is the substance a paint or coloring agent is made of and can be described by name and/or chemical formula.

I'll put the kids paintings up soon.

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 12:01 AM EST

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Spring Daffodils

Daffodils in Blue Glass

Daffodils in Blue Bottle I

Daffodils in Blue Bottle II

Daffodils in Blue Bottle III

This week I brought in some of my daffodil paintings for my group of homeschoolers to work from. We started with some structural drawings of daffodils to get a feel for the different positions of the flower heads. (You'll find those after the coloring page link below.)

Coloring page of daffodils and birds

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To My Lily
Topic: Life

I found her 14 years ago in Brooklyn,NY. I had to have put to sleep last Friday. She was always a kitten.

Thursday Photo Challenge - Nature
Topic: Art

Visiting my favorite blog, OutsideIn, tonight, I learned of the Thursday Photo Challenge, topic - Nature. Vicki, who with her family is going through quite a challenge of another nature, posted a photo that is an homage to her parents' relationship with nature. To me it brought up the question of 'can there really be a line between Nature and non-Nature?' or, 'what really does Nature mean?', or, just what is a Nature photogragh? To take a photo with Nature as the subject we use a camera. A photo of a Nature subject, by its very existence means the presence of a mechanical object (that took the photo). Well you get the picture.

I visited the challenge site and looked up some of the photos. And so decided to participate as well. This was the first photo of a 'Nature' subject that I came across fishing through my photo folders. I think this river is called Back River and it is in Friendship, Maine. I believe the tide was coming in. At lowtide clamdiggers can be seen in the mudflats stooped over their baskets raking up any clams they can find. This past summer was a desparate summer for the clamdiggers (who earn much of their living this way) because many of Maine's clam flats were closed due to Red Tide, a toxic algae that strikes periodically.