Sitting still

From our last trek up Mount Baldy.



The weekend before, I bunged up my ankle (the bad one), and decided that perhaps hiking on uneven, loose rocks so soon wouldn't be such a good idea. J went for his hike, and I hung out at the visitor center at Mount Baldy, where they have a bit of an exhibit trail with historic dwellings...



And a campfire pit (no fire, though).



The weather was a little chilly that weekend; tough to twirl my brush to get the bristles to be nice and pointy, to get in nice clean thin lines. J and I decided that I'll need to get fingerless gloves, so I can keep my hands warm, and still paint as the weather cools more and more.

This watercolor is the first in my watercolor moleskine notebook. You know how things are, when the blank page stares at you, daring you to make that first mark? Better make it a good one. So, the same applies to a nice, new, clean sketchbook. You want that first page to be something really good. So you never start in on it, because you want to wait until something so great inspires you to paint wonderful things worthy of that new notebook.

I finally got tired of trying to do watercolor paintings on the regular sketchbook. I'd tried pre-treating a page each with water and alcohol (rubbing, not the Heineken variety). You might notice in the painting of Jan's kitchen, that there are white blotches. The ivory color actually lifted off, and the page texture got all scratchy - ick! So, I'm not going to force that issue anymore; I'll sketch in the sketchbook and paint in the paintbook. And besides, the watercolor paper really takes the paint the way you want it to. Why keep fighting it?

Getty Villa photos

This one is just a preview ...

Here's the link to the images from

the Getty Villa!

Jan's kitchen

Complete with the mysterious, floating, humongous mango.
Things that make you go, "Hmmmm". :)

Hey there!

This is a watercolor painting from about, mmm, a year and a half or two ago. Actually, this is the first watercolor painting I did, at a workshop. It was a blast! There's something very zen about how you have to let the paint, water and paper just do their thing ... I really would like to take more classes ...

Okay, so here's what I'm thinking ...

(you, sitting there in the back of the room, you should be thinking, "Uh oh")

Between now and the end of the year, we should do this:

We should all reach out across the blogosphere and say, "Hey there!" I read requests from bloggers that their readers (repeat, occasional or even chance), post a comment to just check in. Some people have really great readers that have become an extended support system. Some people ... just the sound of crickets chirping. [Sigh]

I figure, you know, the holidays are coming up, and it's a friendly kind of thing to do. Between now and the end of the year, why don't we all post at least one comment to each of the blogs we visit, just to say, "Hey! Thanks!"

The feedback and support people get from their blogs, it's really inspiring. I mean, it can be and, in many cases by intent, is a pretty anonymous task, which is okay. Sometimes, maybe it's better to be cathartic without getting the response. But, for me, well, it's nice to see who I'm reaching, maybe by the glow of your moniter, way out, who knows where. Otherwise, you know, it's like I'm just talking to myself, and, let's be real: I do plenty of that when I'm stuck in traffi- ...

Oh wait. Was I talking out loud there? I meant to just think it. Whoops. [snicker]

Anyway, there are these little dots all over the world that I see on my ClustrMaps map. I wish I knew how you found me. Drop me a line. I wish I could have that holiday Open House, with all those cookies Joy and I meant to bake last year ... so you could stay for a bit, mix and mingle, and have some nummies.

(Tony's thinking, "Ohhhh, nummies")

I'm going to go off and let all the people I visit .. know that I visit them, and to just say "Hey". Wish I could drop off some cookies for them, too.

... But do say Hello, won't you? :)

Dusty boots

After a few days of early morning fog, we got a nice clear morning that lured us out early. I went further uphill than normal, but still got to sit a bit to capture a few more trees... A nice break from all the driving and technology; and an excellent excuse to pig out on Chinese food afterwards.
Mmmm.



Here's a photo of the scene.

Oh wow

My original post got bunged up. [sigh]
I think this is what it originally was.



Make sure to watch Part Two, too.