UT Baseball Suspended

The weather played havoc with baseball last night. Not many baseball games in the Big 12 even got started, the Horns almost, just almost, finished the game last night. It was suspended in the ninth with 2 on, 2 outs and the batter at 2 - 1. Horns were ahead, 7 - 2 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders when the big lights went out! You can read the real scoop on Joanna's page and the official page has the formal version and a photo of Travis.

Back to the Disch at 2 p.m. today for the finish of this game and the next game in the series. Wow. And no photos. Darn.

Sketchpad Warrior

As I have not been posting and have been reading other blogs I thought you might like to see what is on the easel of Kristopher Battles, Sketchpad Warrior. He is creating a really big canvas and showing the work in progress. Very interesting work as a Marine Corps artist.

I'm also preparing our income tax forms, so not much sketching or painting for me. There is a baseball game tonight as well. Hook-em!

Magdalena Church, Acrylic Painting

I finished the painting of the church in Magdalena for my mother-in-law, Frances, ninety years old. It is a house warming present for her new apartment in assisted living. What a change for her, she will miss the church in Magdalena where she has attended mass most of her life. The church was never finished and this part was to be the basement. It hasn't changed too much in all the years. New windows, roof and paint over time. It still has the pews that Frances' father built. Frances also took care of the statues and has repaired and painted them several times. She played the organ on Sundays for many years.

She has lived alone for over thirty years. What will it be like living in the apartment? She has her own apartment, but will dine and be in the same building with many more of her peers .. strangers. Whew. Hopefully they will soon be friends. :)

The church is painted in acrylics on board painted and prepared with gesso. It is 8 x 10 inches. It is from photos I took in December of 2006 I think.

Fine Art America

I signed up on a new web site for artists, fineartamerica.com . It is very interesting and easy to follow .. a good way for people that are looking for art, to find artists by location, name, media, and more. They list your events as well. They have gallery listings separate from artists listings. It is free and the artist or gallery has control of their own page. My friend, Regina, signed up as well. At the moment we are first on the general "artists" link. You can see how many times the paintings have been viewed and from where. Interesting and I hope people start to find art to buy that way. One of the pastelists I chat with on wetcanvas.com, Katherine Taylor Green, is there as well.

My page on the site is here and pointed to below in my links. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Hey, I just looked and my "Adobe House" is on the front page. Cool. Well, I looked again and one of Regina 's paintings was on the front. Obviously they rotate. Hmmm.

Sketch, Tulip and Bowl

Sketches for the Scavenger Hunt. #10 a flower up close and personal - sketches are to be from life, but we have zero live flowers in my house or garden so I used a photo I took of some potted tulips in Magdalena last Easter. They were red and white. #11 a bowl of something - a wooden bowl full of red and black dry beans and two smaller bowls, used for playing cards as markers. The small bowls appear to be floating, I didn't notice until I took the photo. These were done with the Micron 05 pen in the Blank Book. About thirty minutes total.



I also started an 8 x 10 acrylic painting of the church in Magdalena. A house warming gift for my mother-in-law. I will get a snapshot tomorrow. Painting with acrylics is a bit like sketching, I don't enjoy it much, but it is so convenient that I keep trying to like it. :) You can't really blend like oil paints and it dries darker than when you apply it. If you let it dry between layers that is pretty effective. It is fairly transparent so layering can be a form of blending. So, I'm practicing and learning to adapt.

I bought a few tubes of Liquetex acrylics that are thicker and should hold the brush strokes more like thick oil paint. I have not tried them yet .. another day I will experiment and let you know how they behave.