Interlude

Irises*

I'm taking a bit of a blog break so I can visit blogs and work on some new art. I feel a strong pull to go into a new and different direction.

But first, yesterday, as I was deleting photos from my camera, I came across this image of a watercolor flower painting I did several years ago. Even with the flashlight glare, it's a nicer image to welcome you to my blog while I'm away, than the photo of the turkey in the tree that topped my last post, don't you think?
:0)


* some Iris trivia for you:

Irises are wonderful garden plants, since they are relatively easy to grow. They grow well in deserts, in swamps, in the cold far north, and especially in temperate climates. Iris is Greek for "rainbow", and irises come in many colors: blues and purples, whites and yellows, pinks and oranges, browns and reds, and even blacks.

Iris is the Greek Goddess of the Rainbow and the Messenger of Love. Her sacred flower is considered the symbol of communication and messages. Greek men would often plant an iris on the graves of their beloved women as a tribute to the goddess Iris, whose duty it was to take the souls of women to the Elysian fields.

80 degrees and turkeys in trees

This is just a quick unscheduled post to show you something I've never seen before. A turkey high up in a tree!

I was outside with our old Beau-doggy around 6 pm today, when I heard a loud noise that sounded like someone falling off our roof. It turned out to be the flapping of a turkey's wings as he flew up and perched in a tree at least 35 feet up. I didn't know that turkeys could fly, and I certainly have never expected to see one in a tree.


I had seen this handsome bird, with four lady friends, behind our house earlier this afternoon. It's not like we live in the country, either. We live in a regular suburban town, with average-sized lots.

This year we also have a fox with a new litter and at least one huge raccoon in the neighborhood. And I've smelled a skunk. I'm not happy about that skunk! But I'm always amazed at how much wildlife we see in our own backyard, and how certain animals are trying to adapt to living with us humans as we encroach more and more into their territory.

It's been a very strange month here so far anyway, with temperatures in the 80s this week, when we usually still have snow. Things that usually bloom in May are blooming now already. . .

Anyway, did you know that a group of turkeys is called both a "rafter" and a "gang"? I found a wonderful place on the internet where they list the proper term for groups of just about any animal, bird, reptile, fish, etc. you can think of here at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center website. I need to know things like that! Teehee!

Bouncing around

Clematis
watercolor, watercolor pencils, Caran d'Ache
8x10

Here's the last of the 5 watercolor flowers I've been working on. I should really call them water media paintings, since I'm not using only these lovely Windsor and Newton watercolors.


I've also been using Derwent watercolor pencils and Caran d'Ache watercolor crayons again, bouncing around between these three water media at whim. I've found that I really like to switch between painting and drawing to get the result I'm looking for.

(detail)

So now I'm ready to bounce over to something really different. A new idea is brewing, but I don't know exactly what form it will take yet.

Someone else who is bouncing around at times is our old dog Beau. (I wrote about all his health troubles a few posts ago.) Automatically giving him two pain pills a day is helping him quite a bit, but I still don't like the idea of an animal being constantly medicated. He's so smart, though. Because he can't count on his hind legs all the time, he has started to sometimes use them together, rather than one-at-a-time. So when he wants to run a few steps, he actually hops, or bounces, with his hind legs together until he gets his legs going the "right" way.

All I can say is that animals are amazing! Bouncing is working for our old Beau, getting him where he wants to go. Bouncing around seems to be working for me, too.

I'll also be bouncing around the internet in the next week or so, visiting all my favorite blogs. It's been too long since I've taken the time to do that, so I'm really looking forward to it.

"Change
is a bouncing ball
on the circumference of a circle."

~ Kin Hubbard

Authenticity

Crocuses
watercolor, watercolor pencils, Caran d'Ache
8x10
(SOLD)

This is how I've decided I wanted to paint crocuses this time. There are already many others who can paint them to look more authentic. But, I'm trying my best to be authentic to myself in all things these days, so this is how I paint crocuses. Today, anyway. These things can change quickly, when you're listening to your inner self.

I've been thinking about authenticity a great deal this last year or more, but the video I shared in the previous post has really had me thinking about it more than ever. So have all the lovely comments that the last post inspired. Thank you for sharing your ideas about introverts and extroverts and everything in between.

In this world, where everyone seems to want to label everyone else, and where the extremes and extremists get all the attention, I feel we need to be reminded that people and ideas are not only black or white, right or wrong, right or left. Just like no one who is truly mentally healthy can be only an introvert or only an extrovert. Fortunately the vast majority of us fall somewhere along a wonderful spectrum.

spectrum

We are all unique, with our own glorious combination of genes, and ideas, and influences that makes us who we are. I hope we can all start to celebrate who we really are along this spectrum of possibilities, by being as authentic as we can be.

“The privilege of a lifetime
is to become who you truly are.”
~ Carl Jung

I'm an introvert, are you?

Excellent, excellent video.



Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts. . .



Happy weekend to you!

Something new, a thank you, and a question

Bleeding Heart
watercolor and Caran d'Ache
8x10

Just a quick post to show you #3 in my new series of watercolor flower paintings.

I also wanted to thank you, all of you, who commented on the previous 2 posts. Thank you!

I always wonder how best to acknowledge all you lovely people who leave these nice comments, and I'm going to try something different. I noticed that blogs with the comments embedded underneath the posts now are able to reply to each comment individually, right underneath the comment! So I think I'll try that with this post.

Please let me know what you think about this. Do you return to blogs to see if anyone replied to your comment? Are you having problems leaving comments in this new format?

*** Update 3/10: Thanks for the comments! I'm changing the comment form back to the way I had it before. The popup window, without the reply buttons under each comment, seems to work best.

Time flies

Purple coneflower and Monarch butterfly
watercolor and ink
8x10

Another new flower painting, done in watercolor and ink. I used the photo below as a reference, and just noticed I took it in August of 2009. It seems like just a few months ago. . .

A touch of Spring fever

Pansies
watercolor
8x10
(SOLD)

I decided a few days ago to paint some flowers in watercolor again. I painted watercolor flowers for quite a while once before, a few years ago. It's been especially fun this time, because painting with watercolors is so different from painting with acrylics on canvas. I've had to get used to the way watercolors move like they have a mind of their own all over again.

And I have discovered a hidden stash of gorgeous frames I forgot I had! So I've decided they need to be put to good use as soon as possible. More paintings to come!