My Rainbow

Top Photo: Photo of Simba on my drafting table

Bottom: Photo of my drafting table with travel set of Winsor Newton watercolors

I found a cute little test to do, but, like the slide shows, it keeps saying that blogger can't accept my html. I don't know anything about it, so I can't fix it. I wanted to put it on my blog, but can't do it. Don't know what the problem is, and the tech people don't seem to know either. Computers can be so frustrating!
I just did a cut and paste, and maybe you can go to the site and see what it tells about you. There is supposed to be a picture here-a band of colors-but it didn't come out.
Hmmm. I wonder how they knew about my colors-and me!

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet.

(There should be a picture here!)
What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

http://spacefem.com/quizzes/rainbow/

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If you are in the area of Bryan/College Station tomorrow night, I hope that you will make it down to First Friday in downtown Bryan. Lots of artists, musicians, food, and entertainment and even carriage rides. You can go to the Downtown Bryan website to see what all is going on.

Thanks to Cindy Peaslee and Greta Watkins for keeping me updated on downtown activities.

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I actually turned the tv off today! Now that is rare for me. If I am at home, the tv is on. Well, I just turned off all the programs and went to the end of the channels where there is music. I turned on the channel with "Singers", a lot of oldies like Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford, and newer ones like Harry Connick Jr.
My intention was to paint, something kind of playful and experimental, on the order of Martha Marshall's processes while the appropriate music was playing. Well, it's sunset, and I'm still getting painting things together. I did finish the letters on the bank painting, with a toothpick (and it was too large!) and decided that I need to put out some fresh paint before I start painting. Then the cat was sick for a bit, so that required medication and clean up.
Had to look for my reference pictures on the computer, found some scrap materials to use with my painting, then spent hours trying to find where I put my hole puncher. Checked out Facebook and e-mail, and, that has been the day.
It takes me so long to move all my little "burglar alarms" that I set up each night, before I can get to my painting area. I don't have them set up for two legged burglars, but for the 4 legged characters. Cats like to get on my drafting table and look out the window. That would be okay if they wouldn't scratch on things, etc. I think they are learning! They don't like the noise when they jump on my table and cans, etc. start falling. A few shots with a water pistol helped, too.
One of these days, maybe, I will be able to leave my painting things out and the cats will go somewhere else in the house.
I know. Some would say "Get rid of the cats!" But they are family. We are down to Bitsy, age 23 and not doing well due to renal failure, and Simba, age 5 (or is he 6 now?), the king of the house. And an occasional visit from Ike, the big, black cat who came to us the night that Ike, the hurricane, moved in. He's still coming back to visit! Comes in to eat our food, drink water, and nap. Ike doesn't bother anything. It is mainly Simba now who likes to sit on my table, unless Ike is in the house. Then he is like a shadow, staying right behind Ike, not letting the visitor out of his sight. Protecting us, I guess.
I wonder if Ike has a home around here, or if he was dumped. He's a big, solid cat-and absolutely black.
Now, I wonder what I am going to put on the Thing A Day Project site for today. We're supposed to do something creative each day to put on the site. I finally got caught up last night, and thought I would have another painting to put on. But, it isn't done, and, if it were, it would still have to dry before I can scan it. I do have a drawing that I've been working on, but it isn't finished.
I have to remember that they go by Eastern time on that site, and things are supposed to be on there by midnight. I was late a couple of nights because I thought I still had time-not thinking about EST and Central time. No telling what time people in California have to have their work in by! Earlier/Later?

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Thanks to Edie and Maurina, I now know where Dr. Parker lived in Calvert! If you don't remember, he lived by Gladys Casimir. That is coming back to me, now. I guess I never went to his house, so I didn't remember. We all agreed that he was old when we knew him. And that those steps up to the doctors and dentist's offices were scarey to kids. It surely meant that you were going to be hurt or embarrassed!

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Well, I've lost the light, and tomorrow is another day. I'm going to try to get into the paint again tomorrow. I do alright with sketching at night, but I sort of need some sunlight to paint, these days. Sometimes I can't tell if I am using blue or black, beige or lavender, etc., except in sunlight. I took a "drumstick" ice cream cone out of the freezer this afternoon, and thought it had a funny taste to it. Maybe a little orange extract in it? Wondered why they would change these treats that have been around forever. I thought it might be like so many things today where they are trying to change recipes to make things healthier and cheaper. I went into the kitchen with my ice cream when Chris needed an ice pack for his ankle. I was so surprised that the ice cream under the chocolate coating was---green! It turned out that the package of drumsticks has assorted flavors in it! I didn't know there was anything but vanilla! I think I had mint, and I'm really not that fond of mint. Too late. I had to go on and eat it.

That ice cream looked white, to me-and that was by the window where I paint!

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On Clementine and Wyatt, Tim, and Wild Bill

Cowboy Dancing

5" x 7"

ink

Yesterday could have been something like tv heaven if you love the movie, "My Darling Clementine". I must have watched it about 6 times! Now, I am crazy about Tim Holt, still, and good old cowboy shows, but I have to admit that I was wishing that they would have another good show on after about the 3rd time. They did have "Alias Jesse James" with Bob Hope on a few times too. I recorded both shows for a time when there isn't anything else on to watch, so I didn't really need to see them over and over.

There was one more show on that was good and that was "The Plainsman and the Lady" with Wild Bill Elliott. (Did anyone else ever think, in years gone by, that "Wild Bill" reminded them a lot of our Calvert Elliott-the man who became sheriff? I admit that I was a bit too scared to look at the man and study him enough to see if there was any real resemblance. )

I think that we had quite a few people in town who looked like movie stars. All the ladies, dressed up in their suits with their perfect hair and lipstick, back in the 30s and 40s could rival the movie stars. And some of the men looked like cowboy stars.

As I watched "My Darling Clementine" yesterday, I thought that I should draw from the action. I had already sketched Wyatt Earp dancing with Clementine at church when the movie was on earlier in January. That filled my sketchbook, so I'm back to copy paper for sketching until I get a satisfactory sketchbook. (I talked earlier of buying one, but I don't like the paper.) I wasn't really in the mood for drawing, though, with sneezing and runny eyes. So, I just "piddled" at the computer, for most of the day.

There are some movies that I could watch over and over. "My Darling Clementine" is one of them. (I confess that I am ready for a new show today, though.) I've also grown attached to "The Horse Soldiers", "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", and the two James Garner westerns, "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "Support Your Local Gunfighter". It seems like the more I watch them, the more I want to see them. And I always see something that I missed before.

Tim Holt wasn't the big star in "My Darling Clementine", and I didn't like that he had a beard at the beginning of the movie, as did most of the other men. After all, they had been herding cattle!

In some scenes, he sounded like he had a cold. I wondered if it could be from all the dust on location. In the past, after he was killed off, I wasn't so interested in the rest of the movie. I guess I have grown up some and now I watch the whole movie.

Tim gave me some encouragement, although, of course, he never knew it. During this period, Tim had some kind of "thing" on his left cheek. In later movies, it was gone, so I guess he had it removed.

I had a cyst come up on my left cheek when I was about in the 2nd grade. It was a big ugly thing, all purple, yellow, green, blue. Of course, it looked really huge, to me. I remember that I didn't want to see myself in a mirror or even as a reflection in the bathtub faucet. I would sit backward in the bathtub so I wouldn't have to look at that colorful blemish.

As we were about to start 3rd grade, the family took me to several doctors. I guess they feard it might be a tumor or cancer. Local doctors referred us to a specialist in Houston. The whole family went, and they all looked worried. I couldn't figure out why. The "thing" didn't hurt. It was just ugly, I thought. But I was scared of what a doctor might do to me.

This doctor took me in his examining room, with Daddy, pinched my face really hard, and announced "It's a cyst". He quickly held out his hand and said, "$50, please!"

We went back to our doctors in Marlin and they arranged for surgery. I didn't want to have an operation, but I didn't want the cyst, either. I went to the first day or two of 3rd grade, then took out to have the surgery. I didn't want to go back to school because now I had a big bandage, then a scar on my cheek instead of a colorful cyst.

Mama, of course, forced me to go back.

I went for the Veronica Lake look with my hair. Mama would braid it in the morning, and I would pull my hair loose and use a little hair comb to comb my hair over one side of my face, like the famous hair style of the movies. I felt a bit safe, hiding behind my hair. It took me many years to feel comfortable with short hair that revealed my scar. In later years, it looked more like a dimple, but I know that scar is there.

It helped that Tim also had that spot on his face, although I never could see a scar where the place had been. Maybe it was makeup or plastic surgery. Anyway, it helped to know that someone else had the same thing, and that person was even on movie screens, enlarged a lot.

"My Darling Clementine", and other b&w movies, are good examples to look at if you want to study values for drawing and painting. Dramatic lighting and scenes.

Since I watch so many old movies, my youngest grandson asked me, one day, "Grandma, when did the world change from black and white to color?"

I'm still laughing. I never would have thought of that, even as a child. Of course, we didn't have a lot of color movies back then, either. Those were really special things.

In my little gesture type of sketch above, I used a Pitt pen on 64# Canson sketching paper.

It shows Marshall Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) dancing with Clementine (and, I'm sorry, but I don't recall the actress' name). Wyatt is holding the lady's wrap as they dance, possibly a polka. Clementine had on a straw hat with a ring of flowers around the crown. There were alternating white and dark flowers in the decoration, along with a ribbon that flowed at the back. Her blouse had matching ribbon on the sleeves and at the neck. I imagined that she had on a powder blue, long skirt. I don't know why I thought that, since it was in black and white!

There were lots of good images for drawing in that movie, but I liked the way that Clementine's skirt and the ribbon on her hat flowed, and the lines of Wyatt lifting his knee high, with his body straight, as they danced.

One change I need to make is to add Wyatt's coat. I have him dancing in his shirt, but, I realized yesterday that he should have on his suit coat. I was trying to get in the line of his back, hips, legs, and head and didn't think of adding the coat before the scene changed, at the time I was sketching.

Some other actors in the movie were Ward Bond, Victor Mature, and John Ireland. There were others who are very familiar, but I can't think of their names. Of course, John Ford directed.

"Stagecoach" is another western with Tim that I always watch, and was another John Ford movie, starring John Wayne. More images to practice.

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I'll have to see what else is going to be on tv tonight while the Super Bowl is on. I'm not in the mood for drawing football players. The cable went off to the tv in the den this afternoon and nothing seemed to make it come back on. It wouldn't change channels last night and we discovered that the batteries were dead in the remote-we thought. But, later, it started working. Now, it was working, then changed to snow and static. Calls to the cable company didn't help. They said they could come out Tuesday to look at it! So, it looks like we won't have our usual Super Bowl party in the den. We can watch things in our bedrooms, though.

I don't know any of the teams or any of the players, so I'm really not interested. I could do some gesture drawings, but I have other things I would rather do.

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Congratulations!

Wishing Kathryn the best on her retirement!

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Brazos Valley Art League meeting at noon tomorrow, Art Center in College Station.

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I signed up for a new list for February called "A Thing A Day". The idea is for participants to create one new thing a day during February-a picture, a cake, a recipe, sculpture, anything creative. Then post it on the site. It started as a university project for grad students a couple of years ago. Deadline to sign up was last night at midnight.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it, though. It takes me so long to post things! And I have quite a few other things going. We'll see what happens.

Too many new tricks for this "old dog" to learn.

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Be sure to check out my sidebar for things that are going on, and to look at various sites.

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and sign my Guest Book, if you haven't already.

Another "new discovery" is Facebook. That's very interesting. I've found so many people that I haven't seen in a long time.

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We may need to do a rain dance or something. It's getting too dry, and with wind, and dry cold fronts, that makes for fire danger.

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