Floral Wicker, the Guggenheim, and fall(ing) leaves

Guggenheim Museum visitors

Floral Wicker is the code phrase The Husband and I use when one of us, usually me, mishears something.  It started when Judy, Mary, The Husband and I were in Belize.  One of us said something, Judy thought we said “Floral Wicker” and we all collapsed laughing.

Well now the joke’s on me because I’m hearing more and more “Floral Wicker”. The Husband and I were driving yesterday and I heard the radio guy say Paul McCartney declared bankruptcy.  I yelled at the radio “Paul McCartney is a billionaire, how can he be bankrupt?”   The Husband told me it was Bacardi, not Paul McCartney that declared bankruptcy.  We laughed and laughed. Now today, I tried to look up Bacardi and bankruptcy and nothing, so maybe the joke was on the both of us.  And I still don’t know who they were talking about.  Jeez!

Here are some more leaves, this time in fall colors.  I know the calendar says it’s autumn, but it’s still hot.  Ugh!

I finally finished the Guggenheim which I started here.  It didn’t come out the way I thought it would.  Insert sad emoticon here.

Falling leaves watercolor and a story from my brother who does not read my blog

Falling leaves – watercolor on 9″x12″ 140# Arches coldpress

My brother who does not read my blog emailed me the story below.   He spends HOURS in his car commuting to and from his job each day and has seen many bizarre things while driving (sitting) in traffic on the LIE, the Cross Bronx Parking lot Expressway, the George Washington Bridge and many of the other terrible NYC roads.  My brother is one of the funniest people I know and is extremely talented and creative.  He really should be writing books or screenplays or TV shows.   Hey, anyone out there need a writer for a movie?   I got a guy for you.

So I’m sitting in traffic on the Harlem river drive rolling up towards the George Washington bridge.  I look over and the guy next to me is playing a trumpet in his car.

A trumpet?   That’s ODD I think.   Coincidentally I had my slide trombone with me so we engaged in an impromptu jam session.  Until traffic starting moving again, naturally.

The above painting was a fun experiment using leaves my friend Patricia collected in Connecticut and negative painting.   We painted with Joan Iaconnetti who I’ve mentioned before who is a wonderful teacher and painter of an underground/subway series which I love.  http://www.joaniaconetti.blogspot.com/  We chatted, laughed, ate organic apples from the farmers market, followed by yummy chocolate chip cookies.   We laid the leaves out in a pleasing design to get an idea as to how we wanted the image to look.   We then removed all the leaves but the first one and painted around the edges of the leaf.  We continued to do this with leaf after leaf.  We also made sure to go back and soften any hard edges we didn’t want.   Finally we went back while a leaf section was still wet to drop in some additional color around the edges of the leaves.   I had so much fun with this I will do a second one using an autumn color scheme.  Stay tuned.

Easter bunny rap & spring botanical negative painting

Ginkgo leaves 9″ x 12″ on 140# Arches cold press

Blue Shadows 9″ x 12″ on 140# Arches cold press

I walked onto 5th Ave yesterday and WOW!  The trees all have white flowers on them.  Yippee, it’s Spring.   I can’t wait to see the cherry blossoms this year. In the meantime, Happy Easter.  Don’t eat too much chocolate. like I’ve already done.

I used  leaves to create the two images above.  I came up with a composition that I liked, and then painted a light wash around the first leaf. I then added a second and a third (both in leaves and washes).

According to my brother (who won’t read my blog) it’s not Easter until he sends me this:

It makes me laugh every year.  Enjoy.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpT1vGpo5H8

From the D train to Depends in 30 years…

Three Daisies – approx. 10″ x 8 1/2 ” on 140# Arches paper

Thirty years ago (or so) Jim and I would meet on the D train at DeKalb Ave at 11:30 pm to go disco dancing all night long. Now all we can talk about are the prescriptions we take and all the ailments we  have.  Jim has experienced hearing loss due to a very severe ear infection so now we mostly e-mail since our telephone conversations are laced with HUH? and WHAT? and go something like this:

Carol: Look at that light flicker.

Jim: You want to buy some FLORAL WICKER?

Carol: WHAT?

Jim: HUH?

I’ve read about scientists who invented a mosquito buzzing sound that only teens could hear, to keep them away from loitering in front of buildings.  (My crabby old acquaintance  Mr. Mills might be interested in looking into this to keep those damned teens off his lawn.)  Of course, this invention then got turned around and was made into a ring tone only teens could hear and teachers couldn’t thereby allowing those damned teens to hear their phones ring in class when, in fact, cell phones were banned in class.  Those wily, healthy, good hearing having teens!  Grrrr!

The three daisies above were painted using glazing and negative painting techniques.  I first painted the paper with some light blues and reds leaving some white in the paper.  I drew the flowers, and  then glazed the background darkening the area under the petals.  After letting it dry, I wet some of the paper again and went back and hit a few spots with some darks to spark it up.