Category: Workshop Art and Craft

Thursday, October 10, 2024 The “P” Birds

~ Foodiness ~ 7 Comments

Said the puffin to the penguin
You’ve got a lot of nerve
You waddle around pretending –
We know you’re not a bird!

Said the penguin to the puffin,
Oh goodness, just my luck –
I’ve met an orange-footed fop
Who thinks he is a duck.

Said the pelican to the penguin
Don’t mind this little puffin
He’s lacking in self confidence,
His ego needs some stuffin’

Said the puffin to the pelican
Oh look! A beak with wings!
You could rent that big mouth out
For critters to store their things.

Said the peacock to the pelican
Why bother with this ruffian?
Don’t you know better than
To trade insults with a puffian?

Said the puffin to the peacock
Look whose talking now?
A bird with eyes on his feathers
Is uglier than a cow!

Said the peacock to the puffin
Let’s settle this like birds
We’ll show off what we’ve got
And not rely on words

So the puffin flapped his feet
The penguin wore his tux
The peacock spread his tail
Which was so very deluxe

But the pelican was more clever
He made a wise decision
He opened his mouth wide
And swallowed them with precision.

I’ll probably swallow this post up tomorrow with precision.

Thursday, August 25, 2022 The Dancing Peacock

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

I recently came across the oil painting I did as a wedding gift for my sister and her husband back in the day. It wasn’t as awful as I remembered, so there’s that. But it’s definitely up there with Weird Gifts. I think it’s safe to say that I was marching to the beat of my own drum. Since I mentioned it on a previous blog post, I thought it only fair to share it with you. (See The Puffin Post)

The best part is the way the peacock is dancing through the tall grasses, perhaps a wedding dance. His feathers are out, so you’ve gotta figure there’s at least peacock romance in the air.

My first and last oil painting, circa 1979.

I’m deleting this after doing the peacock dance in the tall grasses in the morning.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Encourage Chickadees

~ Foodiness ~ 5 Comments

I mentioned on this blog that I wanted to do more knitting in 2021 and received a commission right away to work on two pairs of mittens for a friend of mine who donates them to an afterschool program for kids. This coincides nicely with my desire to use up my yarn stash, so I plucked a handsome little skein of yarn out and got the needles going.

I was sailing along smoothly until I realized that I had read the instructions wrong, starting the thumb a full three inches above the cuff. You’d think I might have noticed this as an error, but I didn’t think about it until I was way up on the hand and had a thought that either this mitten was going to have to be for someone of very unusual hand anatomy or I had to “tink” those 3 inches off the mitten. (Note: tink is knit spelled backwards – a knitting friend of mine introduced me to that charming way of referring to the process of unknitting.). I wish I’d thought to take a photo of that monstrosity, but you’ll just have to imagine it.

Progress was made.

One down, three to go! I’ll use a different yarn for the next pair, though.

In other artsy news, I had a dream recently in which someone was giving a series of 2-word imperatives. The only one I remembered when I woke up was “encourage chickadees.” Strange, I know. I’m not sure what this means, but one thing was clear: this must not be ignored.

Can t-shirts and mugs with this motto be far behind? It’s probably going to become all the rage and you guys can say that you were here at the beginning.

There you have it – Watercolor Wednesday!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning, whilst encouraging the wee little chickadees in our yard. They must really need it.

January 27, 2020 Puffin Post

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

I think it’s time for the puffin post (should I call this a puffin piece?). At the beginning of the year, I decided to enroll in a course of my own making, called “Learning How to Draw Real Animals by Looking at Real Photos of Them.” This was to correct my lazy tendency to try to draw things from memory. When my sister got married, I was in college and decided that what she and her new husband really needed was an oil painting of a peacock done by yours truly. That’s wrong on so many levels, it’s hard to know where to start.

First of all, I’d never EVER painted using oils. With the careless abandon of youth, I forged ahead. Second of all, I didn’t even bother to look at a photograph of a peacock. I just fudged my way through it and came up with something that I’m not sure anyone would have been able to identify as a peacock, although I think it did look like a bird of some sort. Thirdly, nobody needs this kind of item as a wedding gift. At least it was a small painting. Fourthly, I’m sure it presented quite a social conundrum for them as to how and where to display this little monstrosity when I was visiting so as to reassure me that it was appreciated. As I recall, they found a little space on a wall between their refrigerator and some other large item – more space than it deserved, actually.

And so it has continued. When I want to draw something I haven’t wanted to hamper myself with the details. My speciality is stick figures, but this doesn’t tend to work well for animals. You may ask why I’m even bothering with this. Go ahead and ask. I don’t have an answer.

I started with owls and after a few weeks of that, moved onto puffins, penguins and pelicans. Here’s the puffin page:

I have no idea where to go with all of this, but it was worth it all just to find out that a baby puffin is called a puffling. Come on, you’ve gotta admit – that’s pretty darn cute.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

April 25, 2018 The Right Sort of Bird

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

Full disclosure: this is my copy of something I found on Pinterest, a way to practice watercolor painting.

Edmund: “But have you realized what we’re doing?”

“What?” Said Peter, lowering his voice to a whisper.

“We’re following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know which side that bird is on? Why shouldn’t it be leading us into a trap?”

“That’s a nasty idea. Still – a robin, you know. They’re good birds in all the stories I’ve ever read. I’m sure a robin wouldn’t be on the wrong side.”

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

I’m just as sure that this bird wouldn’t be on the wrong side and wish I had a story to tell you about it.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

April 23, 2018 Stay Long…

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

Having trouble with my arm (tendinitis – I’ve had it for 7 years), which makes typing painful, so I’m going to keep the chatter short this week and post on here some of my instagram posts from this year. I was experimenting with simple watercolor paintings or primitive sketches along with pithy commentary. I didn’t make up the “stay long, talk much, laugh often” part – but it came to me after I painted the cheery little house. Hospitality goals.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.