Showing posts with label pen and ink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pen and ink. Show all posts

Monday, March 02, 2020

Just For Fun Art

Love this quote by Douglas Malloch so I did a drawing . 8 1/2" x 11" pen, watercolour
it was given as a christmas gift

playing around with Origami... little turtle... 
fun and sure takes some fiddling to get those folds.. need more practice

a host of whimsical beings in my sketchbook, 8 1/2" x 11" , pen and watercolour

doing my paperwork practice... origami kangaroo from brown paper.
and an occasional game of chess, man, do I need practice to remember how each character can move

And...my tattoo artist son, Max, working on a huge fantastical Wolf charcoal drawing. 
He is never without an art making instrument in his hand

Hope you are all doing some enjoyable creative pastimes and letting it carry your imagination away.
Cheers, from Desideratum

Friday, November 16, 2018

Living in The Studio


A shot of the end of our kitchen.. we use it more like a studio, being as the house is so small... Everything is stacked up to the ceiling.   Brought one of the kerosene lamps out just in case the power goes out... I want to be ready... but right now I am enjoying the light being reflected off the snow.. altho I am not crazy about snow, by any means.


We had our first fire of the season back on Oct. 11. felt really good too.. had a little fire on most every day since.
 It has become cold very early this year... feels like we are going into our next Ice Age right before our eyes. 


Had the 2 cds. of firewood stacked outside and drying since early summer.. this is the wood for next year. mostly maple... we have this years wood already dried and stored inside.. we always dry our wood a year ahead if we possibly can... That is the woodshed John built last summer... sure is nice to have a real woodshed now instead of the Hobbit hut we had the first year here. that year it was stacked outside with snow piled all around it and John had to dig down to it every time we needed some.. looked like he was crawling into a igloo to get it on his hands and knees.. was not fun... good exercise tho, if one wanted to look at it in a positive way.


This stack of 2 cds was put away in the woodshed at the end of October.. that is late for us but it was not an especially good drying year. but John had it covered with two old sheets of tin roofing which let the air thru and kept it pretty well dry... all in now!!


Been playing around in my sketchbook this year during our sabbatical.


Oatmeal Brown Bread with raisins, sunflower seeds and flax... Love having time to make bread for us all.. it has been so many years since I have bought bread from a store, I can't remember. I always make 2 batches at a time and divide each batch in 2.. makes it easier to store and keeps it fresh as I put the other 3 in the freezer and then I don't have to make bread for a few days.


in the side field the milkweed is gently spreading its seeds... little parachutes flying everywhere.


Planted the garlic on Oct.22... later than last year.. was waiting for the ground to dry up a bit as it was a rainy Oct.  ...managed to plant over 100 cloves, double what I put in last year .. had to sacrifice them from the crop I grew this year.. sure hope they grow. 


to finish up I covered them with a thick layer of straw.  


I store them in a net bag I crocheted last winter.. this type is called Music and they are the best tasting garlic I ever had.. got the original bulbs from a garlic farmer not far outside Fredericton.


The birds are liking the sunflower seeds in the feeder outside my studio window.  We used another old piece of tin roofing to make a roof for the feeder, to give the birds a little shelter while they treat us with their beauty.. usually a big fat gray squirrel is sitting in there.. 


The snow is coming down out there right now and amounting to quite a bit. 


Still making a few earrings or posting some designs that have come to light after searching around in the backs of the jewelry storage cabinet... 


These sold in minutes on our FaceBook page soon after I posted them.


"Square Spiral" earrings, solid copper, antiqued with sterling shepherd  earwire... approx 7/8" across and 1 1/4" long. $25. pr.




"A little Medieval"... hammered shaped Sterling with African Turquoise... approx. 2" long .. handmade at Desideratum studio. $25. pr. 


If interested in any of our earrings please send us a message on our right sidebar. 

Well looks like winter has come early.. Hope everyone has a cozy place to curl up and stay warm.. till next time, Cheers, Gwen at Desideratum Art and Jewelry



Saturday, October 17, 2015

Ginger Cat


"Ginger Cat" ...pen and watercolour, in my sketchbook
Research says for every 4 male ginger cats there is only one female ginger cat... it has to do with the genes... the orange color is produced due to the presence of the pigment "pheomelanin", which produces fur colors in the range of red to cream.
 This pigment is also found in human hair with these colorations.

Desideratum Art and Jewelry studio, New Brunswick, Canada

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Cat # 7 and a New Pair of Embellishments


Earrings from the Desideratum Art Jewelry "Embellishments"  series.

Sketch of fluffy cat from my sketchbook ... pen, ink, watercolour washes, approx. 6" x 8"

A few interestings things about Cat's Eyes:
 A cat's eye is about 6 times more sensitive to light than our own.  They cannot literally see in the dark but they can see when it is too dark for us to see.  Their eye has a pupil that can open wide to let in all available light, including starlight and they have a special light reflecting layer behind the retina, that works as an image intensifier for night vision.  But it takes time, up to an hour, for a cat's eye to adjust completely from daylight to nightlight... it can worry a cat that is suddenly put out of a well lit home at night...  an outside light helps their eyes adjust. 

The lens of a cat's eye has a fixed focal length, like a camera... objects between 6' and 20' are the clearest... anything closer than 30" is probably blurred. It is thought, their peripheral field of view is better than right straight ahead.

A special feature of cat vision is the way the smallest flicker of movement catches their attention and they see these tiny movements best in low light conditions and hardly at all in bright light.
Colour does not seem to be very important to cats.
 
  Sterling Silver and Copper with a mix of mauve and blue-green glass and african turquoise, semi-precious stones.

 Segments are linked together with jump rings, so there is lots of movement.

One of a Kind... not to be reproduced.. although I can make a somewhat similar pair with different coloured stones at an individuals request... and it will be One of a Kind too..

  4" from top of earwire to bottom of earring.


 If interested in ordering, they are identified as Embellishent D #1.
Price $50.


...created by me at Desideratum Art and Jewelry studio, St. Martins, New Brunswick

*oh I just have to add this cool and unusual sunrise spread across the Bay of Fundy from yesterday morning ... of course it was way more amazing in real life... quite a perk after the gray days we had.  Cheers All!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Insect Studies


 or
"Tis the Season... and I Don't Mean Christmas!'

Cicada

Termite
Butterfly
Beetle
Phylum, Class, Order
Mosquito
Mayfly
Earwig
Caddisfly
Bumble Bee
Bug
House Fly
Flea
Hessian Fly
Grasshopper
Midge
Deer Fly
Fire Fly
Wasp Ant Bee
Dragon Fly
Stone Fly

Black Fly
Damsel Fly
Dobson Fly

I find Insects exceedingly interesting... especially in terms of drawing.. the good, the bad and the ugly.
...their structures, wings, antennae, eyes, legs, every part of them... pretty amazing...  so many tiny distinct parts.... like little patterns.....so much variety...

I mean, imagine if there were this many varieties of Human Beings.... Just Imagine... 
 but NO, there's only One of us.. all the same under the skin....  
when you think of it that way there is probably much more chance of survival for insects than for us human beings, as one deadly virus could wipe all of us out because we are only one species.

Insects have a definite advantage in the long run.
.. but till then, the birds, frogs and snakes can eat all the bad ones they want.

approx. 9" x 12", pen, ink, wash, brush in my sketchbook.
Gwen Buchanan, Desideratum Art and Jewelry Studio, New Brunswick, Canada