Cooking Beans

 I'm behind as usual.  Items on the Hunt list were something used for cooking and vegetable.  Lazy me didn't want to get out the lettuce, the only fresh veggie in the house, unless you count tomatoes.  I also didn't feel like sketching a pan or cooking utensil so..... boring sketches in my mind.

These are for Hunt 167 https://creativespark.art/threads/scavenger-hunt-from-life-167-aug-06-aug-18.8144/  in the Conda Sketchbook whish is about letter paper size and regular paper for drawing.

Number 3 used for cooking - black pepper
Number 4 vegetable - pinto beans

I've been thinking about how good sketching is in learning to draw and help you see things when you sketch from life.  I need to write more about that.  Hope you are sketching and having fun.

We watched the bull riding last night.  It is so different now with the team contests, fireworks, music and comotion.  We were wondering what Gene's brother, Roger, and my brothers, Skinny and Powder, would have thought about that.  I imagine they would be right in the middle of it.  There is big bucks to be made nowadays.  

Here's the Bad Brahma Bull by Chris LeDoux, one of Roger's bull riding friends.  He sings lots of the old songs.

https://youtu.be/XSRI1ZdEB_g?si=xP3tgTT20UsuuyxY

 

Structures

Oh, what a beautiful morning!  Oh, what a beautiful day!  We are having another day of fall, probably gone tomorrow.

I sketched out on the easterly porch which is the back door I guess.  We have the BBQ there.  I sketched in the 9 x 12 inch Canson Mixed Media sketchbook, about 1/3 page with the Micron 03 and added color in my studio.

For Scavenger Hunt from Life 131  https://creativespark.art/threads/scavenger-hunt-from-life-131-sept-24-oct-02.7300/

Number 5 large structure and Number 6 small structure.

Here is the song, Oh, What a Beautiful Morning by Gordon MacRae in Oklahoma, 3 min on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/O5APc0z49wg?si=I-dlBzkbJSLCM4_A

Two for One

Today you get the watercolor challenge for September and a sketch for the Scavenger Hunt from Life.

Yesterday I worked on the water media challenge.  Kay from Big Spring put up the photos.  I picked one of the still life photos.  You know me and photos.  It seemed to be one of the easiest for my watercolor practice.

This is in the Strathmore Bristol sketchbook, 9 x 12 inches.  It is pretty watercolor friendly.  Sue gave me this sketchbook many years ago and I'm finally more than halfway through it.  I used ink to sketch and add a few lines.

Today I sketched in the bedroom in the Ohuhu sketchbook with a Micron 02 and added a touch of watercolor in my studio.

Number 9 fur -  fake fur, a few of my fur toys from Gene over the years.

https://creativespark.art/threads/scavenger-hunt-from-life-82-aug-30-sep-7.5944/

This song was on the TV Instrumental channel.  It will stick in your head beware.  The Music Box Dancer by Frank Mills.

https://youtu.be/ber2CszM0fQ?si=JulyYLyAcOJ8NasY

Pottery Chile Sketches Music

 We made it on Saturday for green chile, lunch at Jimmy John's, the Empty Bowl and a long day.

The University of New Mexico Alumni had a New Mexico green chile sale for charity.  Pick up was at a park.  We timed it to get there, pick up the chile and then have a sandwich at Jimmy John's before the Empty Bowl event.  

We got the chile and iced it down.  Jimmy John's has the best bread for our taste.  I can't eat the bread anymore so I have a lettuce wrap.  Pretty good as "sandwiches" go now. 

The Empty Bowl show was super.  You get a bowl with your ticket and they have auction items.  Libby Koch was the first performer.  She is so personable and has the most beautiful voice and writes great songs.  Hardened and Tempered followed with their ballads of hard and good times.  Suzanna Choffel closed the music with her interesting voice and good songs.  We thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon.  We got to see some friends including Spring and Ellie.  We know Spring via Joanna and music and Ellie via Joanna and baseball and music, too.

I did some quick horrible sketches but I will post them just 'cause.  Hard to sketch at concerts for me.  You will see these don't look much like the singers when you see their pages.  I also didn't take photos ???  

Scavenger Hunt from Life 80
https://creativespark.art/threads/scavenger-hunt-from-life-80-aug-14-22.5870/

#14 free space - the singers
#15 curtain - sub the stained glass window behind the singers, the windows were beautiful and so many colors.  Yellow and purple were dominant.

I picked this flat bowl for soup, it is heavier than the plate!  Made by SAG on the bottom.  We have many bowls so I chose the little pitcher for painting or syrup when we have pancakes or waffles.  I usually make syrup.  The plate was so pretty, it was made by Sunset Canyon Pottery.  I "won" it in the auction.   I think they help with the firing of the bowls made by other artists.  The pitcher didn't have any signature.  All three pieces go well together which I hadn't noticed.  Spring is very instrumental in getting the Empty Bowl together.  She made a plate in a fish shape that said "Just for the halibut".  I say that a lot.  It had lots of bids so I just bid on the round plate.  

The Empty Bowl Summer Concert was held at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, 2200 Justin Lane, Austin, TX 78757.  They donate the space, very gracious and helpful.

Libby Koch  https://www.libbykoch.com/

Hardened and Tempered  https://www.hardenedandtempered.com/

Suzanna Choffel  http://suzannachoffel.com/music

We left the house about 1015 am and got back about 630 so no more activity.

Sunday morning we got up and peeled and cleaned the chile.  The Alumni bought the chile through the Central Market and it was roasted that morning.  They overdid the chile a bit and the skin was pretty carbonized.  We mostly just wiped the burned peel off and took out the seeds.  Then I had to wash it to get more of the black off.  Then I stopped and we had breakfast/brunch with the green chile, eggs, sausage, potatoes and homemade tortillas for Gene and HEB Homestyle corn tortillas for me.  Yummy.

I chopped the chile for brunch in the kitchen machine, so I just went ahead and chopped the rest and bagged it and put it in the freezer.  We bought 10 pounds of hot and 10 pounds of mild.  They did not offer medium.  I mixed the hot and mild as I packed it.  At the end I had 3 packs of hot left .. guess I didn't guess too well in the mixed ones.  It is nice to have frozen green chile compared to eating the green chile in the jars.  Maybe the hard work makes it taste better.  It was several hours peeling, cleaning and bagging.  Whew!!

Gene peeling chile on the porch and the finished product!

Music and People of Sorts

We went to music today as I mentioned yesterday.  It was great to see people and get out in the World, New World Deli.  https://neworldeli.com/music   I say people of sorts as I started sketching on my phone  but the lighting was awful and I just got tired after 30 minutes or so.  Decided to just enjoy the music.

Number 6 people - George Ensle and friends, George in the middle.  Norm Ballinger was on the left.  It is his show with George and ?? as guests.  They did a song swap.   This is on my phone with the app, Brushes.  

George Ensle, one of our favorite Austin area singer songwriter.    https://georgeensle.com/

Norm Ballinger    https://normballinger.bandcamp.com/album/possible-world

Great Music Tonight Nichole Wagner

If you get a chance to go to The Bugle Boy in LaGrange, Texas, you should do it.

 Tonight is the great singer/songwriter Nichole Wagner with a full band.  It will be very entertaining.  Full info and tickets here:

  https://thebugleboy.org/events/

 We have seen Nichole a few times.  See ya there!! 

Hunt 37 and Photo

A new Scavenger Hunt from Life started yesterday.  I sketched out on the porch, where else?  Either porch or doctor's office.  I sketched in the big Canson regular paper sketchbook with a Micron 02.  Only about 10 pages to go!!  I've been sketching in it since January 2014.   100 pages and I usually sketch on both sides.

For Scavenger Hunt from Life number 37.

https://creativespark.art/threads/scavenger-hunt-from-life-37-august-26-september-4.4370/#post-74667

Number 1, eyeglasses - Gene's glasses.  He leaves the little strength sticker on the readers so he knows which ones to grab for TV, computer or ???
Number 2, two wheels - the trailer we used for travels.  The wheels are covered and it is on blocks to help save the tires since we aren't using it.

 

We went to The Bugle Boy last night as planned.  We made it to the end of the show.  It was a long but fun day.  We wore our "Joanna" shirts. Joanna wears her Bugle Boy volunteer shirts and the performers got in the photo with us, Natalie Price and Ben Jones.  Natalie is an excellent songwriter and singer.  Ben is full of fun and played the guitar and piano.  It was a great show, full of energy and laughs and great music.

Stream Joanna Fest

 Looks like Joanna Fest will be streamed on Sunday.  3:00 p.m. Central time until 6:00 p.m. or later.  You can watch if you can't be there.

It's going to be streamed via a couple of places but the two easiest to find are HAAM's YouTube and Facebook pages:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCY6RPpoHxxZiR4LtVmhlodA

https://facebook.com/myhaam

If you've got a Facbook account, that second one may be your best bet.

Joanna is a Saint and Sketch

You may know that Joanna, our oldest daughter is a Saint.  She takes care of us, baseball buddies, professors, musicians and many other friends.  Many of us are up in age and she patiently puts up with us.  She volunteers at The Bugle Boy in La Grange.   She is tech support and more.

She has been supporting live music for many years.  When Covid started she began watching all the Zoom shows by her musician friends and buying more T-shirts, CDs and other merchandise since she couldn't see them live and in person.  If you recall we were supposed to be in lock down for a couple of weeks.  She decided to wear a different T-shirt from her musician friends every day.  As of January 27, 2022, she had worn 372 different shirts.  At the live shows she helps sell merchandise, pass the tip jar and whatever she can to help.

Some of the musicians got together and decided to do something for Joanna.  They made a T-shirt for her.  They knew she wouldn't take anything so they made it a fund raiser for HAAM, health insurance for Austin musicians.  So very cool.

After that they decided to do a show in her honor as well.  Y'all can get a T-shirt (link below) and come to the show as well:

If you can't see the poster, the show is 

Joanna Fest
at Lustre Pearl South
Sunday, February 20, 3 - 6 pm

They had to cut the performers to 20, but more will be in attendance.

Hope you can come meet Joanna and her friends.

We all love Saint Joanna!

Joanna Castillo said:

So, something kind of goofy is happening. Some of my music pals were planning a surprise for me but I found out about it and now it's getting out into the rest of the online world so I'm sharing it with y'all

https://finesoutherngentlemen.com/products/haam-saint-joanna-white

This is basically what I'm going to post to Instagram:

Y’all know about my quaran-t-shirt project, right? A few weeks ago, my pals Miranda Dawn, Chris Hawkes, Erin Ivey, Cam Rogers, and Nicolette Good were talking about it and thought it would be fun if there was a Joanna t-shirt. They recruited Ellie Hammack to work on the design and were going to surprise me with it. I don’t know the specifics of the surprise—I just know they were going to surprise me. They set up a campaign via Fine Southern Gentlemen to print the t-shirt and donate the proceeds to HAAM! A friend of mine saw the design and forwarded the link to me with a “Wow!” comment—having no idea it was supposed to be a surprise. So, now I know and the surprise is over. But, I’m totally blown away by their thoughtfulness AND the fact that they wanted to donate the proceeds to HAAM! And, the design is very cool. It totally made me laugh. So many details. Wow! Ellie said there were many discussions of whether or not my hair should be in a braid or down, etc. Ha! Anyway, I’m amazed and humbled and have been smiling so much since I found out about it. I want to encourage all of you to buy one and support HAAM. It will make my day. It’s in presale with expected shipping the week of Feb. 14. I’ll put the link in my bio and leave it there for a bit. Love me some Miranda, Chris, Erin, Cam, and Nicholette!

 

We always knew that Joanna is special but who knew others would think so!  Love, love, Joanna!

 

Oh, Happy Valentine's Day!  Almost too late.

My Scavenger Hunt from Life 13 sketch:

Number 1 valentine - in the big sketchbook with a Pilot ballpoint pen and red and green with Micron 005

 

Coco the love pup, came with Russell Stover Candy.

 

Sketching Sky

Sketching the sky in real time is not easy.  The clouds change and move very quickly.  It takes some memory strokes which we acquire by practicing, right?

I sat on the porch and sketched in the big book with the Lamy pen.  A pen with a smaller nib would have been better for the sky so it wouldn't compete with the strong lines of the trees.  I rarely use more than one pen in a sketch but it would have certainly helped in this case.  You can use a wider nib for shadows and I do that once in a while.

Number 3, sky and Number 4, tree

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/scavenger-hunt-686-july-13-july-21/page/4/ 

We went to live music yesterday.  We saw our friends George Ensle, Greg Whitfield and Greg Lowry.  They were at Kreuz Barbeque in Lockhart, Texas.  https://kreuzmarket.com  That is a huge place.  We arrived about 1250 for the show at 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.  There was a line outside and we were advised it would be at least 20 minutes.  We went in to the area with the music, Gene sat down and I went to get in line for food.  I was probably in line 45 minutes or so as the band was taking a break by the time I got back.  I did get to listen to the music in line.  It was great to see and listen to the music.  Yay....  

By the way, we left after 3 pm and the line still had about 20 people waiting for food.  Amazing.

George Ensle

Greg Whitfield

Greg Lowry, Greg Whitfield and George Ensle

My photo of Greg Lowry was blurred and the videos are too long to put here.  They sang songs from George's new album and some old cover songs by Johnny Cash and others and some gospel since it was Sunday.  Nice selection for a mixed crowd.

George's music is available here

http://www.georgeensle.com/

Greg Whitfield's Alpha songs here

http://www.stairway.org/alphasongs/meetgreg.html

Both are amazing muscians and song writers.  Greg Whitfield does much more than play the Alpha songs but they are so cute and original.  George's songs are true to life tales in music.  Greg Lowry is so good on steel guitar and keyboard and other instruments.  He plays a lot with Byrd and Street our other good music friends.

I'm working on a pastel of Loblolly pines in the neighborhood.  Hopefully finish today or tomorrow.  Check back.

 

 

 

April Challenge

The big book called for a sketch today.  The Southwest and Western forum on wetcanvas has a monthly challenge and I did one quick watercolor for that.  The challenge is to paint from photos provided by the host.  I'm not a cat person, but I liked Kay's cat, Hallie and some beautiful Texas morning glories.

Kay's photos sketched in the coffee table book with a Micron 02 fine line marker/pen.

I'm about out of ink in my sketching pens.  I need to get some.  Maybe Hobby Lobby has some so I don't have to order them.

It is supposed to rain today.  If the evening is good we will go to the Copper Shot to hear/see some live music.  Whoopee!  Rick Wood will be playing stand up bass with Larry Wilson.  http://coppershotdistillery.com/  6 - 8 p.m.

It will be nice to see Rick and Enid (pastel artist/friend) and some other familiar faces.

Cup' a -- on a Coaster and Music Libby Koch

Guess what?  A cup of coffee on a coaster.  We went to Winchester, Texas, with friends yesterday.  Delicious steaks, home made pie, etc. at Murphy's Steakhouse.  eatatmurphys.com   Great to get out and about with someone besides family.  Not knocking family, but nice to talk of other things.  Gene reminded me to sketch my cup on a coaster so it was a really quick sketch.

Number 4, smells good - a good cup of coffee

Libby Koch is performing in Houston .. Live and in Person!!  If you are in Houston you don't want to miss this.  Libby says,

"My first gig back is THIS SATURDAY 4/24 at Eureka Heights Brew Co. This very cool brewery in the Houston Heights is throwing their 5th annual Hootenanny from noon till close with food and beer specials all day. My band, The Dealers, and I will be playing two sets at 2pm and 4pm. I’m so excited to get back on stage and rock with my guys!"

 Libby's website is  https://www.libbykoch.com/

Good stuff!

Sketches and Santa Fe Symphony

 Yesterday we went to the Post Office and to do some other errands.  I was in line for 20 minutes or so and didn't take my phone.  After a while I remembered I had my little sketchbook so I did a sketch with a Pilot ballpoint pen.  From there we went to do errands and decided to get a Whataburger for a late lunch.  They have green chile now, so very good.  I sketched again in the little book while we waited for the burgers.  The place is all orange and white.  There are stripes on the cups and bags.  Very bright!

For Scavenger Hunt 659

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/scavenger-hunt-659-dec-09-dec-17/

Number 1 activity - Mailing a package
Number 2 in - we were 'in' Whataburger

I sketched these today in the big book with the Lamy pen.
Number 3 coat
Number 4 boot
Number 5 scarf - substituted hat
Number 6 gloves

*****  **  *****  **  *****

I received an invitation from our friend Joel Becktell  https://www.joelbecktell.com/   to listen and watch a concert in Santa Fe on Sunday, December 13.  He is a master cellist and very entertaining.  The ticket is $20 and available for you to  watch for a month.  It is professionally done and in a beautiful setting in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assísí.  Virtual tour here on their site.   https://cbsfa.org/89    Be sure and check it out, you will enjoy the music and a visit to New Mexico.  Christmas Treasures

https://santafesymphony.org/event/christmas-treasures-2/

Joel is also painting now.  When he gets his website up, I will point you in that direction.  This is very exciting for me.  We met in Magdalena, New Mexico, many years ago at one of the Old Timers Reunion shows.

Joel has some fun things including hints on playing the cello on youtube and beautiful music!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=joel+becktell

Under Crisp Pastel Sketch

The Scavenger Hunts often have odd items, but we have fun interpreting them in our own items and ideas.  I played in the dust again today for my sketch.  

For Scavenger Hunt 650

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/scavenger-hunt-650-sept-28-oct-06/

Number 4, crisp - a Honey Crisp Apple, they are so big and juicy but crispy.  A favorite of Gene.
Number 5, under - the colander under the apple

Apples are my fall back item.  Always a favorite to paint.  The redder the better for me, like a Delicious Apple.  The Honey Crisp was all we had here at the moment.

As always, it is good to eat the models.

Oh, did you read John Weiss' blog post for the weekend?  It is titled "How to Restore your Spirit".  He talks about how disconnected we have become from each other and how we are separating and cannot find middle ground.  He puts such a good light and positive feel on things.  I always feel better after reading his posts and seeing his drawings or paintings.

https://johnpweiss.com/blog/161244/how-to-restore-your-spirit

And here is a good song along the same lines by our good friends Tommy Byrd and Kathy Street, Byrd and Street.  It is a fun rendition and with Greg Whitfield on guitar, even better.  Higher Ground

https://youtu.be/AToSfQyX7AE

Back to Basics, Sketch

I really need to get back to basics and pay more attention to my sketching.  I've been very lackadaisical* in my efforts.  I should do a pencil sketch for size before I put on ink in the big book, after all it will be there forever, right?

For Scavenger Hunt 620, Mary is hosting.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1476639

#2, older than 10 years - Some horse shoeing tools that my dad used.  The pinchers should be longer, they are about 18 inches long and the knife/hoof cleaner is about 10 inches long.  You could pretend they were in separate sketches.

The tools survived the fire as they are iron.  Gene uses the pinchers, no we don't have horses.  I think he uses them to pull nails and other gripping uses.

*Using this old word, lackadaisical, reminded me of our music time on Sunday.  We went to a wonderful house concert with George Ensle and Todd Hoke performing.  They are amazing on their own as song writers and singers and together they are pure entertainment.  Todd Hoke lives in North Carolina now so we can't see him often.  All song writers are better in person as you get to hear the stories of how and why.

George and Todd didn't sing any songs together, it was a song swap.  At one point Todd jumped up and went quickly up the stairs.  "Where you been?" George asked.  I needed a prop or something he said, I couldn't stand it any more.  He had some sort of rattle to put on his foot to give a tambourine sound.  A while later in the show George disappeared during one of Todd's songs.  "Where you been, George?"  "Ah, I had to go out and get my valise."  Todd had never heard that word and had to ask about it.  Wonder if we will get a new song from that?  Maybe that is why lackadaisical came to mind.

You can hear some snippets of the concert on Joanna's Instagram page.
https://www.instagram.com/jojolemon/
You can hear all sorts of music on Joanna's Instagram.  She goes to lots of live music.

Pastel Painting .. Oops!

I painted two pastel paintings yesterday.  Not on purpose.  The Southwest Western Forum on wetcanvas has a monthly painting challenge which I've mentioned here before.   I was the host for August.  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1469172  Another painting besides the rooster and hens should be forthcoming, right?  Something inspired me to combine the photo of the aspens and the adobe wall.

In reality that is not a very common combination.  Most of the homes in the high country are log cabins or at least lumber and rock combinations with very sloped roofs for the snow.  I have seen a few of the new ones with stucco on the house and some adobe looking walls.  It was fun to combine them to see the result.

I had a tablet of Sennelier Pastel Card which is 9.5 by 12.5 inches.  I didn't notice that or I would have trimmed it to 9 x 12 inches to fit a standard frame.  I can still trim it, but would have been easier to do that first.  It could also be framed with a mat around it, but that isn't to my liking.

I taped the paper to a piece of foam core.  (My YouTube on how to do this, less than 2 minutes https://youtu.be/W-xufjiRhtM )

The paper was a sort of dark mustard color so I decided to do an under painting for the sky in the painting.  When you use an under painting, you don't have to use so much pastel to cover the paper or board surface. Plus you can get nice effects with under painting.

I put on some blue pastel and sprayed it with my water bottle.  So far so good.  Then I got the paintbrush and started to smooth the pastel to cover the paper.  There comes the "Oops"!!  It had been so long since I painted on that paper that I had forgotten it is a vegetable based paper and the sanded part just wiped off leaving white paper.  Uh oh.  I had forgotten that the water would soften the surface.  It does say on the cover that the paper is for "dry" media.

You can see how the surface wiped off.  Sorry for the dirt background, needed to take the photo in the sun .. getting late, notice the shadow.

I turned the surface upside down and marked off a 5 x 7 area and painted a small painting of geraniums for a gift for a neighbor here in Angel Fire.  Great idea.  I took photos and then trimmed it with my paper cutter.  Later I went to move the little painting and dropped it face down on the garage floor.  The second "Oops"!  The highlights and final strokes just fell off.  I won't be buying that paper again.  It is years old.  I love Sennelier pastels.  They are soft and beautiful colors.  The half stick boxes are very reasonable priced.  They do have a hard one or two sometimes, but a real bargain on price overall. 

Angel Geraniums

7 x 5 inches on Sennelier Pastel card

I used another sheet of the Sennelier pastel card for the second painting.  It worked fine with pastel on the dry paper.  I wouldn't use it with a mat as the pastel would tend to fall off if bumped.  I will trim and frame against the glass when it is framed.

Questa Wall

12 x 9 inches on Sennelier Pastel card

*** ** *** ** ***

As promised, some photos of the trip to Cimarron from Angel Fire:

Eagle Nest Lake and beautiful clouds.

Views near the Pallisades Sill.  You can read about that and see more photos from a 2014 post:  https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/hunt-373-sketches-photos-cimarron.html

A double rainbow on the way.

Arriving in Cimarron.  We did encounter some rain on the way down the canyon.

 The entrance to the St. James Hotel.

I believe the rooster on this hutch is a real stuffed rooster.  Yuck!  You know me and chicken.

A real stuffed longhorn.  About half a yuck!  It was right over our table.  I'm pretty sure this wasn't part of the dining room originally.

We will be going back to the St. James on September 6.  Our good friends, Tommy Byrd and Kathy Street will be preforming.  Maybe you will be there, too?

Byrd and Street  http://www.byrdandstreet.com/calendar.html

They will be in New Mexico for about a week.  I'm sure you would enjoy one of their shows.  Have fun!

More of Hunt 599

The other day we went to get some groceries and I attempted the umbrellas outside while Gene did the shopping for more of Scavenger Hunt 599.  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1469880

I struggled with the tables and benches.  I could see the top of the table and the top of all the benches but  my angles kept putting part of the benches out of sight under the table.  Don't know why I couldn't see it.  I came home and did the tables on my iPad and finally got it but didn't save the sketch.  Too frustrated.  I'll post it anyway for my journal......

Number 4, umbrella - this is out of order as well as I kept leaving the sketchbook in the car.  It is in the small book with a Micron 02 or Prismacolor 05.  Not sure what I had with me.  Didn't write it on the sketch.  Sigh....

Number 7, top shelf - over the cabinets in the kitchen.  Micron 02 in the travel sketchbook.

Number 8, glass - the frosted glass on the ceiling fixture over the island in the kitchen.  Iron trees.

Number 9, egg carton and Number 10 pepper - in the large watercolor sketchbook with watercolor, Pitt brush pen, Zig 05 and Rollerball white.  The half carton if for hardboiled eggs so we can tell which are which.

We hope to go to Cimarron this afternoon to see it the Hotel St. James is still a good steak place and we haven't been there this year.  It has a lot of history and is supposed to be haunted.  Pretty scenery if the sun is out I hope to take photos.

We will go there again when Joanna comes to see our friends Byrd and Street.  www.byrdandstreet.com on September 6.  About the hotel and restaurant on their website  http://www.exstjames.com

Another Hunt 589

You know I love blue and painting blue glass.  I was tempted to get out the pastels, but ....

For Scavenger Hunt 589  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1466491

I must be nearing the point of being halfway through the big coffee table sketchbook so decided to do the blue glass there.  I used a Prismacolor 03 to sketch and colored pencils to finish it off.

Number 1, yellow - wildfowers
Number 2, blue - wine glass

Gene and I went for another walk by the lakes/ponds.  I took my small travel sketchbook to see how it went.  We sat at the picnic tables by the playground.

Number 3, multi colors in the same item - this playground equipment is mostly tied together except for the teeter-toter board.

On the way back I found a dragon fly that had long fluffy tips off its wings.  It was black and white.

There were several of them.  One landed for a couple of minutes on one of the wildflowers.  Interesting and pretty.

We have been able to sit on the porch in the mornings and evenings.  We have seen some fireflies, lightening bugs, lately.  We haven't had many around here but it is fun to see a few.  It reminds me of Byrd and Street music.  You can listen to "Lightening Bugs" on their music page  http://byrdandstreet.com/music.html    Scroll down to the album,  Then and Now, to listen.  You should listen (and buy) more of their songs, you will love them.  Check out their schedule to listen in person.

Glowing Pastel Sketch and Music Notes and Photos

Yep, I wiped the paper off again.  It could be cleaner, I could have wet it and removed more pastel.  The surface is good for sketching as it is not glaring white or whatever it was.  I'm thinking it must have been beige.  It is a bit intimidating to touch a blank canvas, especially a white one for some reason.  Painting or sketching on to a colored surface gives the artist a bit of freedom.

This sketch is for Scavenger Hunt 576
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1461504

Number 1, Glowing - my little Texas bear sitting on the lamp on my desk.  I put him there last baseball season and he is still there for this year.  Yikes!

The piece of paper, it is Colourfix sanded paper, 12 x 0 inches with a border.  A few shadow images are there.  Looks like apple, banana and calf.

Here is a photo of the "real" bear.

I didn't post photos from our last two music shows. 

We saw George Ensle  http://georgeensle.com/ and Greg Whitfield http://gregwhitfield.net/  here in Bastrop at Neighbors last Friday night.  It was a really good show.  George is the singer/song writer that wrote Gene's birthday song, Larger Thank Life.  Greg performed at our house with Byrd and Street.  http://byrdandstreet.com/

Sunday we went to the Devil's Backbone Saloon in Fisher, Texas, about 10 miles west of San Marcos.  A super show with Susan Gibson https://www.susangibson.com/  and Friends.  Susan performed and then had veterans from Soldiers, Songs and Voices perform.  https://www.soldiersongsandvoices.com/
In the first photo you see Dustin Welch and his wife that started the Soldiers, Songs and Voices in Texas.  Such a great thing.  Any veteran can go to the sessions and learn to play an instrument.  Guitars are furnished free and the sessions are free.  The songs they write can be sad but they are from the heart and meaningful.

Terri Hendrix  https://www.terrihendrix.com/ is in the second photo with Susan.  They are good friends and their performance together is very fun and special.

You can hear some snippets on my Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/jocastart1/?hl=en

On Joanna's Instagram she has snippets from these musicians and many, many more.
https://www.instagram.com/jojolemon/?hl=en

And while you are on Instagram, check out some of Larry Castillo's photos.
https://www.instagram.com/larrycastillophotography/?hl=en

Don't forget to come back for another sketch or painting or other news here.  :-)

More music and sketches on previous posts:
https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Music