Making Art For Art's Sake

I recently picked up two art supply subscriptions. The first one was Let's Make Art. I get a box every month with watercolor paints, paper and a design created by Sarah Cray, the artist who does the paint along videos. She does live videos and you can watch the prerecorded videos any time. These are the paintings I've done so far.

 The pickup truck was the first one I did. I haven't painted in 30 years! I did a pretty decent job. The bear was the the second one and the dog the third one. I'm in the middle of painting a forest scene and that one is about 2/3 of the way finished (the paintings can usually be done in about an hour. I'm just being lazy about that one). 


The second subscription is Sketchbox. Every month I get a box of mystery art supplies. This time it was a handful of different markers and a small 4x6 tablet of paper. This doesn't come with preset artwork to copy so I had a harder time getting started with this one because 1) I didn't know what I wanted to do and 2) my brain keeps telling me I can't sketch or draw. Clearly, my brain doesn't know what the hell it's talking about. This is what I made with those supplies.

 It was a very limited color pallet - pinks, purples, greens. The green marker is cool-it has a light/medium/dark marker all in one barrel. That's the one I used for the grapes. I'm quite surprised by the variety of things I was able to do with just those colors. 

I have to admit that the middle two (floating island and watermelon) are based on designs Sarah Cray did for the June and July Let's Make Art watercolor boxes are are not my own original ideas. All of these are just small 4x6 sketches so they're quick to make.

Then I got inspired by a photo I took years ago of tulips in the planters around the Main Street train station at Disneyland. Last night I decided to draw that.

This is done with colored pencils. I have lots of those on hand already. It doesn't look exactly like the photo I took, but really, do I want it to? It doesn't need to be photorealistic to convey the idea of tulips growing along an iron fence. I have more photos for reference that are calling to me.







I've done all this artwork over the past two months. Probably more art than I've made in the last two years! And all of it simply for the sake of making art. It's not for sale. It's not for a contest. It's not for a show. It's just about the fun of making art. 


I encourage you to make art and be creative in whatever way YOU are creative. That could be drawing or painting, or it could be baking, sewing, gardening, flower arranging, writing. organizing something or any number of other outlets. There are SO many ways to express our creative side.

Don't let anyone tell you that creativity or art is frivolous or a waste of time. The expression of creativity it vital to our wellbeing and our expression of who we are.

Be creative. And do it just for the joy of doing it! 

Malahide Castle _June 4

Monday, June 4

Today is Ireland's Bank Holiday. It's a lovely, sunny day so everyone is out enjoying their holiday.

I get to go to a REAL castle today! This was one of my few “must do” things for the trip. 
We took a short drive north to Malahide Castle.

We got a great tour guide! He was an older man, with a great sense of humor and knack for drawing tour guests into the scene he was setting in any given room.

It was owned by the Talbot family for almost over 800 years. It's one of the oldest castles in Ireland. It remained in the family until Rose Talbot inherited it from her brother, Milo, and, unable to afford the inheritance tax, sold it to the Irish State and moved to Tasmania.

The family motto is Forte-et-Fidele (Brave and Faithful) and their crest contains a lion and a hound. The lion motif is seen throughout the house, including in the carvings on this table, which our guide told us is the most priceless item in the castle. It is one of the few remaining examples of this type of furniture style (the name of which I don't remember).

Drawing Room

Detail of Molding in Drawing Room Ceiling

I don't recall what this room (above) was for, but the floor design is beautiful. The entire home is full of beautiful wood-furniture, flooring, paneling.

Children's Room

Toys in the Children's Room

A Child's Travel Case

 We were allowed to see three of the bedrooms on the second floor.

Rose Talbot's Room

 The tassel in the center of the canopy over the bed is a pull to unlock the door to the right of the bed so that the Lady of the house didn't have to get out of bed to open the door when the maid brought up her breakfast tray in the morning.

This vessel is lined with lead and used as a wine cooler

This was the last room of the tour-The Great Hall. There is a very long table in this room and a balcony on the front side of the home. There is a small door and a small room under the balcony that belonged to a dwarf who worked in the house entertaining the Talbot's guests. Unfortunately, he hung himself and is said to haunt the room. I was actually feeling quite sick at this point in the tour-roasting hot and freezing cold at the same time and wondering when the tour would be finished so I could go outside.  I was checking out the library, which is a small room off to the left. When I started paying attention again to what the tour guide was saying he was talking about people becoming sick in the house while on the tour. The tour guides communicate with one another with earpieces and mircrophones so they can let each other know when a room is clear for the next group to enter. He said that any time he heard of a tour guest being sick in the castle he knew exactly where they would be. He pointed at me and the man next to me and said "you two might want to move about 5 feet in either direction". Once I did, I stopped feeling sick. Weird!

There are two wooden vessels on either side of the fireplace. When I asked about them I was told they were used as wine coolers.

This library was off of the Grand Hall. We weren't allowed to go into it. The wallpaper is made with real gold and, according to the tour guide, is quite spectacular when they sun is shining in the room. The table has amazing marquetry top!

The grounds were amazing—so much space-260 acres!

 There is also a cemetery and the ruins of an old church on the grounds.

 There are a lot of exotic plants, lovely wandering walkways, water features and several green houses.

One of the greenhouses has a butterfly collection.

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And a collection of pitcher plants.

 My favorite garden was the Walled Garden. Unfortunately, the video I took is too big to upload here. That garden is more "wild" than the rest of the manicured gardens on the property.

It was a lovely, ornate home but not anywhere near as gaudy as Hearst Castle in California.

Flowers, Trees, Bugs & Birds

Hiding in plain sight

Kudos to this tree for effort.

Another path (I like paths. I might make a whole book about paths.)

I love variegated flowers. This one is like sunset in a flower.

There were ladybugs everywhere so it wasn't hard to get a good shot.

Water is another favorite subject to shoot.

Don't know what these flowers are but I really like the pods.

Humming birds ARE hard to photograph (not like ladybugs).

All these photos were taken ad Descanso Gardens.

Solitary Purple

Who says you need a whole bouquet to make a pretty picture? Not me!

I can appreciate the whole forest (meadow, landscape, cityscape, etc.) as well as the next person, but I like to look for the little details that get lost or overlooked in the big picture. I tried to catch the little bug buzzing around these flowers, but he was moving too fast and I didn't have a tripod with me.

You know, this daily blog business isn't as easy as it looks. I scanned 3 photos last night and uploaded them to my "blogpix" folder, labeled them with dates, so I'd know which one I was going to pick next, then I went out taking pictures this morning and that "schedule" of photos went right out the window. At the moment I'm more inspired by today's photos than the old one's I scanned last night.

Oh, you'll see the others somewhere along the way. They're still in the folder as back up for when I don't have the time to take new ones or I just don't have the time/energy to look through the 1,000s of photos I've taken over the last 20 or so years for something to write about.

I have discovered that it's much easier to keep up with the "daily" aspect of this blog if I preload a bunch of pictures into that folder. Guess that works for most things in life, planning makes the job go smoother. I should have already known this. I DO already know this. If I was going to do a drawing or a painting I would lay out all the tools I need nearby so I wouldn't have to constantly get up and go get a pencil or a tube of paint while I'm in the middle of working. I guess maybe I thought that since this is "virtual" there wasn't any planning or preparation to do. Silly me!

Well, this blog is doing what I wanted it to to. It is inspiring me to take pictures again. I haven't been out shooting in probably more than two years and now I've been shooting quite a bit and most of it right in my own back yard. Well, not literally in my back yard, but certainly within the scope of my normal day-t0-day travels. Might not spend the whole day doing it, but bits here and there add up and I'm seeing things and places I would ordinarily have missed because I'm really "looking" at what is around me, looking for "the shot". I hope you're enjoying this little tour through my life. I am.

Splashes of Color

Some at work got flowers today. I was inspired to take photos. I like getting close to things to see the fine detail. I think I'll try doing this image in pastels.