Zelma Cinnamon

Zelma Cinnamon is in a slump. She is giving away a painting to help her to feel better. Go to her blog and post a comment for a chance to win. She is very good.
http://zelmacinnamon.blogspot.com/2011/01/winters-slump-red-hot-give-away.html

Sunrise

Cheltenham Beach Sunrise

In October we went back to New Zealand for an all to brief visit. This is the sunrise, taken from the balcony of the flat we were staying in. As I sit here this morning with about 4 inches of beautiful white snow, I really miss the beach.

2010

Well the time has passed for setting New Year's Resolutions - which I don't do anyway - but it is never to late to look at my goals for the year. Many of us have heard that sharing your goals with someone else is a great way to help you become more accountable. So in an attempt to help me with really focusing on my goals this year I have decided to list three of them here. A couple of these deal with my love of creating jewelry and art and one deals with my love of horses and riding. So here goes:
1. Update my blogs at least every 2 weeks
2. Attend at least 1 class or workshop this year in metalsmithing (preferably not an on-line class)
3. Ride my first Dressage test with Sheri - I have to get over the fear of riding in front of strangers.

Hopefully this will help me stay motivated. I will keep everyone updated.

It has been a long time since I posted here. The artistic jaunt continues on a daily basis although the focus of the art has changed somewhat. I am still drawing everyday but spend much more time working with metal. I have returned to my first love of making jewelry.

There is something very satisfying about hammering, pounding, twisting, sawing, and (my personal favorite) heating metal and have it transform from a simple sheet or piece of wire into a beautiful piece of jewelry.

Antelope Canyon

Light Shaft taken by DH

Very shortly after moving to Ariona I saw a photograph of this wonderful canyon. I inquired about it and learned that is was Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ. I have wanted to go there ever since. So the first week of July, while the girls were off visiting Oma, DH and I took a wonderful trip up to Page and then over to the Grand Canyon. The drive was amazing through the Painted Desert. We really didn't know what to expect in Page. Since our purpose for going was to do a photographer's tour of Antelope Canyon we didn't look into much else. Page is next to Lake Powell, the 2nd largest man-made lake in the country. Lak Powell is surrounded by huge canyon walls and is incredible beautiful.We took a tour of the upper Antelope canyon which is where these wonderful pictures were taken.

Thru a slot a canyon wall

Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon, which is a canyon which is basically a very narrow cave with a crack in the ceiling. That is the best way I know of to describe it. Some of the "rooms" are a bit larger and in some places your shoulders are almost touching the walls. At certain times the light creates these spectacular colors. I had always assumed that the colors I saw in photographs were due to special filters and such, but no this is the way God made it.

Main entrance after "good light" was gone

Canyon continues on to left around a corner

Everything I had read about taking photographs inside the canyon was proven wrong when I got there. Supposedly, pictures taken with a point and shoot camera don’t ever come out. You must use a SLR to get any decent picutes. Well, I got out the trusty Nikon 35mm, purchased new film, dusted of f the tripod and set off into the canyon. Meanwhile, DH took the little Kodak point and shoot digital just to take a few shots. Needless to say we know that the point and shoot works as all these photos were taken with that camera.

Looking up at "ceiling"

I need to finish up the last roll of 35mm before I get them developed and we will see which ones come out better. But I honestly can't imagine that they will come out much better than these. Just because sometimes we like to keep track of these things DH took the first photo and I took the others. Althought I must admit he took quite a few really good ones.

In order to go into the canyon you must have a guide. So if you are going to be in the Page,AZ area definitely look up http://www.antelopecanyon.com/ to book a tour.

Noses

EDM challenge 65 - draw your nose. This challenge came at the perfect time for me. I have been struggling over the past couple of weeks trying to figure out noses and not having very much success. They always come out looking like pig noses. While I was at the dentist I found this magazine that had wonderful noses in it. I didn't have my sketchbook with me at the time but, I knew I would be back that afternoon since both girls had appointments. While Miss A got her teeth cleaned I did the first three. The one on the bottom right was done the next day from a different magazine.


Inspired by my little success with noses I proceeded to doodle while watching TV with the girls that evening. This is what came out of that - "look Ma, no pig nose". Tia come over to be petted so I held her face for a couple of minutes to try to do a quick sketch of her nose. These were done with my daughter's gel pen which doesn't flow very well. Miss V asked who I was drawing hence the comment "Who Nose" on the page.

Hands

EDM challenge 10 -Draw your hand. A couple of quick hand drawings. I find it very interesting as I look back through my sketchbooks from the past few months. I feel like I have taken 2 steps forward and 1 giant step back. Maybe it is because I am trying to get faster and looser. I have been trying not to agonize over every little detail. At the same time I am feeling more confident and comfortable with my drawing ability.

Feet

EDM challenge 23 - draw your foot. I have been trying to do more blind contour drawings. These were done very early the other morning. I was trying not to wake DH or the girls. All but one are BC. My feet may be strange looking but not this strange. As strange as they may appear these are some of the best blind contours I've ever done. At least you can tell these are feet of some type. Well, I will continue to practice and hopefully get better.

Carrots and Radishes

EDM challenge 12 - draw what you ate for dinner. I was not up to the challenge of drawing a complete salad so I just drew a couple of the vegetables that went into it. I added a little color with watercolor pencils. (once again this paper is not designed for any water and you can see shadows of the buckling). Miss V did and excellent job with dinner and the salad was wonderful.

Candles (a grouping)

EDM challenge 61 was to draw a grouping of 2 or more similar objects. I decided to draw these candles. This was also a personal challenge for me because I gave myself a time limit (no more than four hours). I know there are many people that are able to make beautiful drawing very quickly but I am very slow and can actually spend days on something like this trying to get it perfect. I know that drawing gets easier and faster (not that speed is the goal) the more you practice, but sometimes I think it is good to give yourself a limited amount of time to finish something. Well, it isn't perfect but I do feel pretty good about it. A couple of months ago I never would have attempted to do this.