I love YouTube – there is so much there! I’ve posted a few videos there on sumi-e, but making them is more work than I want to do. If you want to know about something, chances are you will find it there. As I really try to put forth effort in improving my abilities to watercolor like an artist, not a 2-year-old, I go there all the time. Today, when I was trying to paint white space, the notion hit me: do snow! And I found an artist whose videos and style I enjoy: Peter Sheeler. Catch him on YouTube here.
Category: Blitherings
Cinnabon
Nothing like the power of the crop tool in your photo processing software. This is a pretty bad sketch, but it was part of a lot of sketches done at the local mall. On the original page it is all lost in space, but with a square crop, it turned out okay – just okay – but much more presentable.
This morning, I met up with a friend and we went up to one of my favorite local places, the botanical garden a few miles from my house. Before you knew it, 2.5 hours had passed, filled with sketching, painting, chit-chat, and coffee. Not a bad way to spend a sunny morning!
The 8th Day
Today we went to see how the sky looked after 8 days of wildfires in our area. Earlier, the smoke was piled high into the sky, looking like an atom bomb had exploded nearby – a mushroom-shaped cloud on the horizon. The air is brown and hazy. Now, the wind has picked up, again with 60-80 mph gusts, and the clouds have flattened out. This is the view from behind the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, looking west toward the cities of Ventura and further into Santa Barbara County where the coastal town of Carpinteria is being threatened. While my in-laws are now home, friends elsewhere are in danger. We await our turn . . . we have been lucky so far.
Strange Week
Altogether, this has been a strange week. The air is filled with ash and smoke throughout the area surrounding me, but we are a small oasis which is (currently) not hit by the voracious wildfires burning throughout Southern California and air filled with ash and particulate matter. We have had our share, but nothing like most of our locale.
I live in Ventura County, and the Thomas Fire forced my in-laws to flee, with very little and a lot to lose, in the middle of the night. That was last Monday when they showed up on our doorstep at 1:00 a.m. Today they left after driving to their home town, lucky to find their house standing, the evacuation order rescinded, and ash covering everything. The ongoing winds have moved the soot and ash, along with the fires, further east and west and out to sea. Others have not been so lucky. Blocks of houses are no longer there. While the Santa Ana winds have moved out the sooty air, they are still roaring around, sometimes up to 60-80 miles per hour. Not pleasant, I assure you, in either cold or hot weather (today we had 80F – fake news – there is no global warming).
We are so glad to have been able to take in my in-laws. They were gracious and pleasant, and we actually had a lot of fun, even if their sleeping conditions were air mattresses on the floor and an old twin bed in the office my husband works from. I guess it is sort of like a hurricane party – clustering together for comfort and safety and riding out the storm outside. At some point, we may have to call upon them if our area goes up in smoke, because almost all of California has been suffering from a massive years-long drought. We have too many trees on our property, but it costs thousands to take them all out at once, so we are sort of stuck – maybe take a few out at a time. Having visitors is a bit disruptive of daily life patterns but reminds us of how important family and friends and community are.
Fire
Last night a fire started about 25 miles from where we live, in the dry mountains between Santa Paula and Ventura in California. At 1 a.m. my in-laws showed up. They may lose their home. It is not pretty out there. Most importantly, they are safe.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 