Red bud leaves in autumn – watercolor in sketchbook
Where have I been? asked no one. I haven’t posted since July.
Why? Two words.
SWING STATE.
Since I’ve previously only lived in NYC, which is decidedly democratic, the experience of living in a swing state with the non-stop barrage of political ads left me in a fetal position and under the covers. And now that the campaign is over I can share an experience or two with you.
As a result of a car accident, The Husband has symptoms of something called meniere’s disease which can cause temporary deafness in one ear. As I sat on the sofa watching TV one night and he at the dining room table listening to the TV, I noticed him shaking his head and rubbing his ear. He kept losing his hearing and couldn’t figue out why the meniere’s was so bad that night. Finally he realized that I was was muting the TV every time a political ad came on. He thought his meniere’s was really bad that night and he couldn’t figure out why his hearing kept coming and going!
NYC urban sketching – PPW and Carroll Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
My friend’s husband, John, has lived here for over 20 years but never became a citizen. He finally became one this year and was so exited to cast his vote for president for the first time. In an ironic turn of events, he got home that night to discover he got his first Jury Duty notice.
The top watercolor was done in a sketchbook for a class I’m taking called Nature’s Notebook. We hear lectures on plants and then draw and paint everything flora.
The building was done in a sketchbook with the NYC Urban Sketchers in Brooklyn, NY. They are a wonderful group and if you’re in NYC check them out. Anyone can meet up with them and all levels are welcome.
Finally I recently tried oil sticks. A little different than oil pastels. They are fun to work with and dry within a few days. They are made by an artist named Paul DeMarrais.\, http://www.pauldemarrais.com/westminster/index.html
Back to my fetal position for the next 4 years. Thanks for reading.
33 comments
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November 16, 2016 at 9:33 am
colorpencil2014
I could not help myself and grinning a little in the way you told your stories. I am sorry too for your husbands condition and your friends disappointment with his citizenship…but you do have a funny way of telling a story. glad to see you back, your art is wonderful! Cheers, Johanna
November 16, 2016 at 9:34 am
jotsfromasmallapt
Sharing a Linus-blanket with friends helps….along with coffee, chocolate and…chutzpah. Count me.
November 16, 2016 at 9:35 am
Nicola
Fetal position under duvet but with a laptop so you can still occasionally blog I hope? Your posts always make me smile 🙂
November 16, 2016 at 9:39 am
kk2n777
It’s good to see you back on the blog again. Even though I have seen your work on Instagram, it is nice to read your narrative. You always make me laugh. The TV-muting on Matt is almost as bad as rearranging the furniture for Helen Keller…. 🙂
All your artwork are excellent. How was it working with oil stick? How many colors did you start with? Can you mix on canvas? How fast does it dry so you can add a fresh color on top without mixing? So many question for a new medium….
Looking forward to seeing you soon. Have a great Thanksgiving!
November 16, 2016 at 9:49 am
Jodi
Carol – Your beautiful art and words have been missed. No matter who is president – we always have the power within us to make our own beauty – and you sure do!!! And I have to say, poor hubby for you getting him so confused – LOL!
November 16, 2016 at 9:52 am
Sketching on Whidbey Island
I agree. It will take a while to remove yourself from the shock of this horrible election. Good fortune for you to be able to escape into your paintings and share them with your blog viewers and supporters. Oil sticks are fun and less messy than oils out of the tube. They do take longer to dry though.
November 16, 2016 at 9:59 am
Bex
I am new here at your blog. Your stories were wonderful… sorry about his Meniere’s though, my best friend has it and it’s not fun. But the story about muting the TV was so funny, as I do it all the time too here! Recently, my remote that controls volume broke and I had to go all week without it and not being able to mute some things on TV was hell for me!
As for the jury duty story… it just figures!
November 16, 2016 at 10:02 am
Cathyann Burgess
Geesh! And I thought I would be the first to welcome you back as, ahem, I did ask where you were, thinking “cripes, has she left them thar hills for NYC.? So glad to see your fun posts and artwork, Carol. We will paint our cares away!
November 16, 2016 at 10:11 am
carringtonpbrown
Glad to see your post!
November 16, 2016 at 10:25 am
Nicola McLean
Good to have you back, I was wondering where you’d disappeared to. We experienced the joys of the campaign trail while on our rt 66 road trip – most of the states we passed through were definitely republican, we didn’t see one Hillary sign in anyone’s garden until we reached California! & as for Fox news and that man Hannity – I’ve never seen such outrageous bias! At least the BBC pretends to be impartial! Anyway I’m glad you’re still alive and painting and maybe Trump will surprise us all and actually make America great again (just before he starts WWlll).
November 16, 2016 at 11:08 am
suzannelorge
Carol, you are hysterical and so talented. Glad you are back. Suzanne
Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone
November 16, 2016 at 12:26 pm
Susan Feniak
Happy to see you here Carol! I do hope you can stay up right for awhile as hiding away and being in the fetal position never did anyone much good. 😉 Loving your art and stories. Cheers!
November 16, 2016 at 12:50 pm
Mary
Great to see you back Carol – beautiful work! Awesome that you tried oil pastels and first time out, love the river scene!!
November 16, 2016 at 1:10 pm
zuzala
many in fetal positions here in NY as well. sigh. it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Thank goodness art is such an escape!
November 16, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Pat
Glad to see your post. Thanks for coming out and distracting us for a brief moment. You never fail to make me smile. Take care.
November 16, 2016 at 3:08 pm
RHCarpenter
Oh, I feel bad that I didn’t contact you or comment that you had not been around!!! Guess I was in the same boat. I was having migraines all through September and October that kept me off my game and then the election stuff and now…finally migraine free this month. But I do find it a scary sign of the times that people who voted for Clinton are being told to “stop whining” from those who weren’t the least bit upset when Trump was constantly whining about the media, all Republicans who didn’t back him, the Electoral Collage, Muslims, Mexicans, and everyone else who didn’t jump right on the merry-go-round early. And I love that top piece with the leaves = beautiful. I hope you are safe and sound in NC with the wildfires and that your hubby can deal with the Meniere’s as I heard it can be very bad at times but that it does come and go (not unlike the mute button on the t.v.).
November 16, 2016 at 3:58 pm
Lauren G.
I swear I was thinking of you the other day, and wondering why I hadn’t seen your posts lately. My paranoid side concocted all kind of weird delusions that I had been taken off your blog list for some grave unknown transgression on my part. So naturally relieved. But I’m sorry to hear about your husband – though it is a funny story. And as far as the election is concerned, I’ve had no choice for the sake of my babies and marriage but take a media break for a little bit. I might be one of those sheltered white (transplanted yankee) liberals that SNL made fun of, but so be it! Everyone needs a brief mourning. Miss you!
November 16, 2016 at 4:52 pm
outsideauthority
Hi Carol. You were missed – I kept checking back from time to time! Nice to see people are emerging after the user shock last week.
November 16, 2016 at 6:09 pm
Sand Salt Moon
Carol, I like your tongue-in-cheek humor. But I do hope to see you keep posting more again. You were missed!
November 16, 2016 at 6:52 pm
Li_B (@lifesastitch)
I read that the Cdn immigration site crashed the night of the election. I was glad to be smack in the middle of the Atlantic during that time. Very scary times for North America. And the world.
November 16, 2016 at 10:56 pm
candy7
Welcome back! As usual, I laughed right out loud at you and the mute button. Out here in the Wild, Wild, West, we had the ads and the telephone polls. Yikes!
Very nice little watercolor and I like both the sketch and the oil stick landscape.
November 17, 2016 at 1:50 pm
elenacaravela
Now AFTER, the election, you could pick up some part time work as a tv muter -whenever our new president appears. I’d hire you! 🙂
November 17, 2016 at 11:04 pm
Padmaja Madhu
Your sense of humour is just unbeatable! Put a smile on my face. The oil sticks work looks fabulous, fetal position is ok for the next 4years, but do cone up with more such works.
Now I am not sure if I will be able to meet you at all… may be after 4years?😃
November 18, 2016 at 6:02 am
Sadami
Hi, Carol, your leaves are so beautiful! The post makes me laugh and think of social issues. Here in Australia, we have the similar topics. Enjoy your drawing and painting! Take care not to catch a cold. We’re in the summer. Best wishes, Sadami
November 18, 2016 at 6:11 pm
tomsimard
Carol, wonderful work as always.
The weather on election day was great, and it didn’t take me but 5 minutes to get done with voting so I left in a rather upbeat mood, which changed later in the evening when it became clear that the unimaginable was going to take. The next day was a sort of numbness.
November 19, 2016 at 8:43 am
June Malone
Carol, your entertaining words and wonderfully painted/drawn pictures are the perfect antidote to that monstrous creature winning the election. The severity of what could occur in the next four years is only starting to sink in for me as I originally thought it was just a horrible joke, but I can’t find anything to laugh at now.
The oil stick painting is fascinating – it looks as if you’ve been using oils all your life. Watercolour is my favourite medium and your leaves are beautifully painted. People may think they’d be easy to paint but having tried myself, I can attest that they are not.
November 20, 2016 at 8:46 pm
Joan Tavolott
You are too funny! I miss seeing you post more often. I love the story about your hubby…not that he has a problem with his hearing, but that you kept muting the tv and he thought it was his hearing. I like the results you got with the oil sticks…another material I have never tried.
November 23, 2016 at 6:50 pm
frankeber
great to see you again! Still can’t believe you left ‘the City’…actually, I can. too many people, too much traffic, bla bla….I don’t think you missed much, except that now America may be great again! Can’t wait. BTW, that is one of the main reasons not to be citizen for me also: jury duty letters. That’s the first thing they’ll send you! Heck, they even send them to me now!
November 25, 2016 at 3:38 pm
Barry Coombs
A very nice selection of work considering how difficult it is to draw and paint from the fetal position. Our friends from Michigan visited last weekend and I think they wanted to extend their stay for four years. As for your neighbours to the north…many of us are feeling a bit like Austria in 1933 ( but you’ve probably heard that one already).
December 21, 2016 at 3:29 am
giocka
Your leaves are eye-catching!! Then I read your post, and loved it too. Firt time around here, but not the last.
December 26, 2016 at 9:50 pm
candy7
íUn prospero año nuevo, Carol! ¿Dónde estás? Are you guys still taking Spanish classes? I re-read this post and laughed again! Hope you post again soon. I miss you.
January 5, 2017 at 5:48 am
kutukamus
I did [ask]. I’ve never heard of that ‘disease’. Can’t help but smile about your turning the sound on/off and his mistakenly thinking it as hearing coming and going.. 🙂 I hope things get better, though. Really.
February 10, 2017 at 10:07 am
Sketchuniverse
Dear Carol, the sketch of buildings is simply so greArt.😮 I’m amazing how your works are growing with giant steps.😮 Congrats my old friend 💜💜💜