I’m participating in a two-hour creativity workshop on Zoom today. The focus is on “exploring our art making process,” not learning particular techniques. It’s described “as a time to feed our souls and learn with and from each other.”
To prepare I need to:
Find a piece of clothing or textile with an interesting pattern or texture and bring it to my artmaking space. Assemble a bunch of different drawing tools such as any drawing paper of any size, pen, markers, pastels, colored pencils, watercolor, charcoal…
OK, I’m good on drawing supplies, but a bit stumped on the textile. Maybe I’ll bring my favorite skirt. It’s reversible so it has two cool fabrics to choose from.
I’ve gotten lazy painting things that I didn’t draw myself, so I experimented with a Calla Lily yesterday.
Drawing is hard and can be tedious, but the only way you get better is to practice. Painting is the fun part, in my opinion.
I was mainly trying to draw/paint the flower. The scene behind was me not wanting to waste the paint and paper.
Update:
In the creativity “playshop” (rather than “workshop,” get it?) we looked at a section of our textile, and experimented with it in some way.
I experimented with changing the colors and layering the colors. The shapes were giving me sea creature vibes.
These are the last few pages in my botanicals “Watercolor Workbook” by Sarah Simon, a very thoughtful Christmas gift from my daughter.
It was great because it kept me painting through January and February in this very cold and snowy Winter of the Knee, where we’ve mostly just stayed home. (Part 2 of The Year of the Knee—aka “The Other Knee”—is now scheduled for March 16. 🙄)
I enjoyed inking the pre-printed designs with my new artists pens and learned a few good techniques for painting flowers and foliage. Also, I got a lot of useful color mixing information. Each page preserves my color recipes, which will be convenient for future reference.
Finally, hurray for flowers and plants! I’m bad at growing them, but they’re fun to draw, paint. and photograph.
🌺🌿🌷🌻🌼🪴🌱🌸
“Lady Lily” and her little cat 🐈⬛
Cosmos and Magnolias
This design is called “Plant Lady Besties” 😊
February flowers from BloomsyBox.com
Did you notice that iPhone has hidden “portrait mode” in a new place? I had to Google where to find it.
Almost done with my Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon.
“Lady Monstera” and her little dog 🐶
Berries and Cyprus
I painted the center flower as one big wet boundary, but I think it might’ve looked cooler if painted each petal separately. Would’ve taken longer though!
Garden bouquet. I was trying to paint in the “loose boundaries” style here, but then my husband said the middle flower looked boring so I put some table salt in a few areas.Another anonymous woman from the workbook. She is called “Lady Wisteria.““Lady Banana Plant” is very shy indeed!
Designs from Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon (IG: @themintgardener)
This is the first winter in forever that I’m not going to Florida for at least a week. I’m staying here in the cold with my husband—and his new knee—for the entire winter. And it sure is a cold and snowy one. We have a huge snow bank in our driveway and major icicles hanging off our roof. I’m worried about ice dams causing leaking into the house (so far, so good).
There’s a garden under that huge pile of snow. The plow guy has no other place to put the snow. I hope at least some of the plants survive.
On the bright side: I get to see my granddaughter today 😁 Also, the Patriots are in the Super Bowl, which is a big plus if you’re married to a huge Pats fan. The Super Bowl is on his birthday too. Also, my church is hosting an Emma’s Revolution concert Friday to benefit a local immigrant and refugee justice organization. It’s going to be fun.
Yesterday, I watched some of the congressional testimony from people whose lives have been ruined by ICE, including Renee Good’s two heartbroken brothers. Not a single Republican congressperson attended the hearing. I watched Aliyah Rachman—a woman with a traumatic brain injury—testify to the most horrific capture and treatment by ICE that you could possibly imagine. The conditions in the detention centers are subhuman, with living human beings referred to as “bodies.” Watch her testimony here.
My husband has signed on to get his other knee replaced in mid-March, so that’s going to….in a word…suck.
But back to the bright side: we moved an old treadmill from the unfinished side of the basement to the “nice” side of the basement and it still works fine. So I can “take a walk” even when the weather prevents me from going outside. I’m currently rewatching the entire originalSex and the City series while I’m treadmilling. I’m on Season 3.
I’m getting closer to the end of my watercolor botanicals workbook and I decided I’d like to keep learning in a class with a teacher. Last night I found a class at a different community arts center (even closer to my house than where I took my first watercolors class last fall). There was just one opening left, so I registered. I had hesitated to register earlier, because the class focuses on learning to paint one particular subject, which sounded kind of silly. But last night as I watched All Creatures Great and Small on PBS, I decided that painting “soft, cute and fluffy baby farm animals” might be just what I need in the Winter of 2026.
Peony and wildflowers from my Watercolors Workbook
Thank goodness I found another indoor hobby besides reading and watching TV. Between the freezing cold weather and not traveling due to my husband’s knee, I needed something.
Even though I’m working with someone else’s designs at the moment, I’m definitely learning some stuff from this book/teacher.
Daisies
Kind of a weird design called “Lady Rose”
Mark your calendars: The next mass anti-Trump NO KINGS protest will be March 28, 2026.
Here’s the message from the national leadership of Indivisible:
“Our mobilizations grew from month to month last year, exploding from Hands Off in April (3 million) to the second No Kings Day in October (7 million) — and the regime’s ongoing brutality and authoritarianism in the months since have only convinced more Americans, including many who’ve never attended a protest in their lives, to join their neighbors in the streets. Now we’ve got to keep that momentum growing, with the same creativity and dogged determination.
Everything we’ve done so far, and everything we’ll be doing in the next weeks and months, is the stuff of history. And together, we’ll write the history of how, for the second time in 250 years, we the people defied, and overcame, a tyrant.”
The only thing that’s going to stop this authoritarian/fascist train is US—the people. Minnesota showed us that all people of good conscience (left, right and center) must get involved.
It’s a winter wonderland here in Massachusetts. No sign of the plow guy yet this morning, but the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl – again. Therefore many New Englanders (husband, son…) are in a much better mood than they otherwise would have been. Go Pats!
And some good news: our whiny-ass, murdering, rapist, senile, spray-tanned orange President has announced he’s not going to attend the Super Bowl because he doesn’t like the halftime performer. He’s probably afraid all those Boston and Seattle fans would boo him into oblivion. In any case, Long Live Bad Bunny!
I’m continuing to work my way through “Watercolor Workbook” by Sarah Simon. If interested, she’s on Instagram: @themintgardener. All designs are hers.
Buttercup Wreath I like how the “wet in wet” worked out in the lower yellow flower (upper flower was too dry when I added the darker color). I also like the berries. Author suggested droplets of paint rather than brush strokes.Fiddle Leaf Fig
Unfortunately my paint set doesn’t have one important color for botanicals: Oxide of Chromium. I’m having to make do with Sap and Veridian.
Wildflower Swag This is painted in the so-called “undefined boundaries” style. It’s fun to somewhat ignore boundaries and let the paint and water do what it will.
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