Coming Along Nicely

Yet another renegade pansy jumps the line and plants itself just outside the flower bed...

Seeing as today is the last day of May I’d like to give you an update on the plants that are growing so far. As you may or may not remember I’ve already planted potatoes, peas, onions, tomatoes, carrots, beets and parsnips. I have to admit that I don’t know how well the carrots are going to do because there’s only a handful of them that have come up so far and I’ve caught the dogs running through the garden as well as all three cats rolling around in the garden in the spot where I planted the carrots. Clearly they all have issues with carrots.

Below I’ve included pics of some of the plants so far in their growth. Hopefully this will give you an idea as to how well your own plants are growing:


The tomatoes are still small but we’ve had some decent periods of rain over the past week and the overnight temps are staying warmer so they should grow quite a bit over the next 2-3 weeks.


The peas are growing very well and will need to be trellised soon to prevent them from toppling over and blocking out the carrots. I’ll probably just use a really basic set-up of some sticks and twine, nothing fancy.


The beets are coming along nicely and I’ll need to thin them out soon. When I planted them I put 2 seeds in each spot (you never know when you’ll get a bad one in the bunch) so I’m glad to see that they’re all coming up.


Finally the potatoes. These little guys took their sweet time coming up and I suspect that although the soil itself was warm enough, the daytime temps weren’t quite warm enough for them to get growing. Now that we’ve warmed up a bit more they’ve come up quickly and I have to say that potato plants are one of the nicer looking veggie plants, especially when they go to flower. I’ll be sure to take some pictures when they do so you can see what I mean.

The onions are still growing, but most of it is taking place underground now, so I can’t really take a picture of that and the parsnips have come up but are still quite small so I’ll get a picture if them when they’ve gotten a bit bigger.

If you’re wondering what you should be doing now with your veggies my answer is: nothing really. Keep picking out any weeds you find (make sure you pull out the roots too) and be sure to keep them watered. Other than that just let them grow. We’re not into weather (yet) that would be causing diseases to develop nor serious bug infestations so just by maintaining your beds and staying on top of caring for your plants you’re doing everything you can. If you’ve planted something like peas that need to be trellised I would recommend doing that now before the plants get too big and if your soil has poor nutrient levels I would give your plants a good watering with fish emulsion or manure tea on one day and that’s it. Some people dole out recipe’s for cookies, cakes and casseroles but if you need a “recipe” for manure tea just email me and I can pass it along to you.

I’ve also planted my cucumbers and sweet corn this week. I have a love/ hate relationship with the whole corn growing process. For years now I’ve been trying to get a decent crop of corn and every single year something “gets it”. First it was various birds, then it was ants and then some mystery bug and last year I suspect that raccoons and blue-jays were both in on the mass corn destruction. What can I say, I grow tasty vegetables.
This year I’m going (try) to be smart and cover my corn plants...with barbed wire. No, no, I’m just kidding, but I am going to put some type of covering on it. I suspect that my biggest problem will be the raccoons because they have no fear and a paper bag over the corn itself certainly isn’t going to deter them from taking it so I’ll need to think of something sturdy and ingenious.

On that note I’ll sign off so I can try and get ahold of NASA or military engineers to develop some type of Corn Protection and Containment System.

Revelations

Your chance to yell orders at me and crack the whip
as I create an ACEO just for you can be bid on here.

"The Look (Bill)" ACEO- SOLD- Copyright Rita Woodburne

As an artist, I’m afforded a lot of “alone” time. As I sit and doodle away in my studio I’m also afforded a great deal of time to think about things. Some things are serious, such as how to take better care of our earth and how to improve myself as an individual. On the flip side some things are trivial or nonsensical, such as what type of potato accompaniment I should serve with dinner tonight or what time of day would be most entertaining to give Bill, my demented cat, a whole whack of catnip. I call these extended periods of thought my ‘Revelations from the Drawing Board’. I will now share a select group of my ponderings with you, dear reader:

- You will run out of _____ (pick essential colour of choice) just before completing a commission that is due that day.

- The dog and/ or cat will throw up on the carpet just before company comes over...and it will stink to high Heaven.

- You will have one frequently used art tool that is small and will constantly get misplaced. You will put it in a specific place and say to yourself ‘I’ll put it here so I can remember where it is.’ and the next time you need to use it you’ll forget where that specific place is.

- (this is more for me) I will stick my foot in mouth at least once a day...I have yet to let myself down on this one which is good because I do so love reliability. :)

- You will pick a specific day of the week to get the ever increasing number of outdoor chores done and when that day comes it will rain all day.

- You will indulge yourself by eating some type of high-calorie, fatty, decadent food. You will then forget to wash your hands and proceed to touch a part of your artwork that needed to remain light but now never will because it’s stained by cooking grease.

- At some point you will step in dog doody when wearing sandals or flip-flops, no matter how carefully you scour the ground to avoid it. I call these unexpected deposits ‘land- mines’.

-Eraser shavings, although unsightly, make excellent traction control on a smooth floor. This is especially true when you’re wearing those comfy, but very slippery, chenille socks.

The final one I will share occurred to me just the other day as I was taking a break from a commission I was working on. I paused and took a gander out the window at the folks out enjoying the warm, sunny weather. It was in this instance that it hit me:

- Men, no matter how good their physical conditioning, should never ever wear shiny spandex bike shorts.


I thank you for letting me share with you some of my Revelations from the Drawing Board.

Go forth...and bid!

"Schnauzer Squint" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Another new week, dear reader, and I have to say that the show over the week-end was a success both for myself and for the Tyendinaga Library who had some generous donations to help keep the library up and running. Never underestimate the power of a community based fundraiser, especially when it comes to promoting literacy and education!

So, on that happy little note I must admit that I have a slew of work that I need to get taken care of this week both art related and not. Today’s post is short but I highly encourage you to pop over to my eBay tonight as I’ll be putting up an auction for a custom ACEO pet/ animal portrait. If that’s not your cup of tea there’s also a bunch of other ACEO’s I have up for auction right now...so you can always bid on one of those (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

No, really...go now and bid on something! ;)

I'm melting...

Friday again and it’s hotter than all bejeezus... for May, that is. I must admit, dear reader, that I’m actually very tired today and because of the impending thunderstorm I have a brutal headache. I also have to get ready for another show this week-end, Sunday to be exact, and I still have yet to decide which pieces I’ll be taking with me.
So, on that note of “Hi, my name is Rita and I’m a tired, disorganized artist.” I leave you with this ACEO that is currently up for bidding on my eBay and the other piece which was an experiment with watercolour pencils on Colourfix pastel paper and then layered with my beloved Prisma’s over top. I did it as part of the 'Spring Flower Challenge' in the coloured pencil forum over at WetCanvas! Quite frankly, I’m rather pleased with the whole darn thing and, therefore, pleased with myself. Enjoy your week-end!

"Deep in the Jungle" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

"Inspired"- 5x7, watercolour pencils and coloured pencil on Colourfix
Copyright Rita Woodburne
SOLD

'Flowers' you say?

Okay, so up to this point I’ve talked about gardening in the most commonly thought of format, that is, in a bed. However, some of you may not have the space or time to dig up half your lawn and fill it with veggies, but you still want veggies. Alas, what to do? Well, go out and get yourself some planters!

That’s right, now you don’t have an excuse not to garden and you can grow veggies that are just as tasty as the ones that are grown in a bed. So, first thing first, get yourself a planter. Any kind will do but unless you happen to be Superman or Popeye I highly recommend the plain old plastic variety because they’re cheap, durable and are lighter making them easier to clean out at the end of the season. You can grow just about anything in a planter that you would in a garden bed including tomatoes, bush cucumbers, bush beans, peppers, eggplant, squash, pole beans, etc. Also, if you’re going to grow some type of vining plant (like pole beans) do yourself a favour and invest in some bamboo poles or the plants will grow wildly out of control and wrap around everything they can, like your grandmother who fell asleep in the patio chair next to the planter. Nothing’s worse than having to untangle aged relatives from a vegetable with ambitions of world domination.

I'm not growing any veggies in planters this year (at least not yet ;) ) so for this portion I’m going to be planting flowers. The same planting process applies to veggies and I’ll make notes along the way of anything that may be different. Let’s get started...



As you can see, I’ve filled my planter with some composted manure, about half way full. If you’re growing veggies I would probably increase the amount of composted matter to 2/3 because veggies are heavier feeders than flowers. I’ve then added a layer (about 2 inches deep) of potting soil with vermiculite.


In the above shot I’ve shown a close up of the potting soil and the little white chunks, those are vermiculite in case you were wondering what the heck I was talking about. As mentioned in a previous gardening post, vermiculite is a common organic additive that is put in potting soils to help them retain moisture longer. It's there to help cut down on the frequency with which you’ll have to water your planters.


In the picture above I’ve added a layer of enriched topsoil (although any topsoil will do) over top of the potting soil just to fill er’ up. Be sure not to fill your pot right to the top as at some point, probably after about 3-4 weeks of your plants growing, you’ll have to top up your soil around the base of the plants for added stability. Shown below are the flowers I'll be planting (which will be divided between 2 pots):


For those that were wondering, the flowers I’ll be planting are draecena (I know I’ve spelled that wrong) spikes, Blue Moon petunias and variegated Swedish ivy. The spikes are a centrepiece, the petunias are my filler and the Swedish ivy is my cascading plant which all makes up for a nice little decorative planter.


Above you can see the final product. Sure, it looks sparse now but in a few weeks it’ll start to fill out and before I know it I’ll be wishing I hadn’t planted so much in the planter. When that happens I’ll be sure to take another picture to show you just what I mean...I get carried away sometimes.

Anyhoo, so that’s Planter Gardening 101. Like I said, it’s basically the same thing for veggies with the exception that I would most likely add more composted manure to make sure that there are enough nutrients in the soil. Also, be sure to water your planters twice a day. This is especially important for veggies to make sure that the veggies themselves grow nice and plump. After all, nobody wants to eat a sorry looking tomato.

It Doesn't Take Much

"Warm Arabian Knight" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

"A Babe from Boston" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Seeing as this is a short week, dear reader, I’m going to indulge myself in a bit of frivolity this time ‘round rather than get into anything artsy. Don’t hyperventilate, though, there’s still going to be a gardening post tomorrow...let’s not get too crazy now.

Although most people, including yours truly, have a distinct distaste for telemarketers there are times when it’s important to remember that these are folks that are just trying to make a buck and get ahead in this crazy world. More importantly they’re slaving away at a job that they’d probably rather not have. So, from time to time, I like to have fun with them and hopefully bring a smile to their otherwise hum-drum and dreary day. It’s something you can do too, so without further ado and in the spirit of cheering up people I present to you:

Ways to Have Fun With Telemarketers

- When they call to sell you life insurance tell them you don’t have a life.

- When they call and start prattling on endlessly interrupt them by saying something along the lines of: “Did you hear that?” Then pause dramatically and yell into the phone: “The voices!!” and hang up.

- If they ask you the question: “Can I interest you in (insert your useless product of choice)?” Respond by saying: “No, but can I buy any children you may have?”

- If you choose to listen to their sales pitch and wait until they come up for air, take that pause in the conversation to start your own. For instance, start your conversation by saying something intriguing like “That sounds really interesting but I’d like to tell you about the big poop my dog/ cat/ horse/ parakeet, etc. took this morning. It started like this...” and continue from there.

- If they call to sell you some type of cell phone service with “unlimited range, great reception, blah, blah, blah...” tell them that although it sounds very tempting, you already get pretty good reception from the Mothership.

Lastly...
- If you’re fortunate to be constantly mistaken for a teen-ager over the phone (like myself), when a telemarketer calls and asks to speak with your parents adopt a really twangy Southern accent and say: “I’m sorry, they’re not here, but you can speak to my Uncle-Grandpa if ya’ like.”

It doesn’t take much to make one person’s day a little bit brighter.

Friday's a good day for Onion

Friday is here and, as promised, I’m going to finish up Onion’s ACEO today. So let’s get to it, shall we?


As you can see above I’ve gone over my darks and lights and, as I mentioned before, I went over the background with Warm Grey 90% to give it some more drama. I’ve also put in more of her markings with Dark Umber and Warm Grey 90% at the darkest points (like under her chin) and emphasized the highlights more. As for her eyes, I went around them (she was in need of some eyeliner) with both Dark Umber and a touch of Black and I’ve also added some highlighting with French Grey 10%. I’ve gone over more of her body with the Mineral Orange and Burnt Ochre to make it richer looking since her coat is, in fact, quite a rich orange. I may even get wild and wacky and throw in some Pumpkin Orange and, dare I say it, Henna.
I should mention the table now since it’s pretty much complete. I went over the entire surface with Cool Grey 30% then I added both Cool Grey 50% and 70% (more of the 50% though) to the dark areas and for the lightest area I used, you guessed it, Cool Grey 10% and a touch of White. Easy stuff!


So above is the final product. There was quite a bit more Burnt Ochre added to the left side of her body as well as on top of her head. I darkened the left ear and I also used some Warm Grey 70% on her mouth on the dark side to play up the shadows. I wasn’t pleased with the darks on the left side so I went over it veeeery lightly with Cool Grey 90% and Black. There were some areas where my mid-tones weren’t sitting right with me, such as her forehead and the bridge of her nose, so I added in some Yellow Ochre. Wouldn't ya know it, I did get wild and wacky and threw in some Pumpkin Orange, Henna and Black Grape (where did that come from??)
To finish off the background I used my Indigo Blue and starting in the background and did quick strokes into Onion’s coat. After using the Indigo Blue I did the same thing with Cool Grey 90% using light strokes. This helped to reduce the halo-ing that was happening between her and the background. I didn’t get rid of it completely but I’m okay with that because, when viewed at a distance, it works.

For it only being my second attempt at putting Onion into art I’m pleased with the results. In looking back over the various stages I can think of a few things that I would’ve done a bit differently but that’s part of the learning process, isn’t it? For those that are interested Onion will be up for auction on Sunday night on my eBay.


Before I sign off for the week-end I wanted to wish Canucks a happy Victoria Day long week-end and also, with it being the long week-end and all, I’ll be taking the time off and resume posting again on Tuesday or Wednesday. For any Canucks that are living somewhere other than Canada I’ll have a beer on your behalf, and speaking of beer I encourage you to check out this blog that was passed onto me. This gal, Meg Lyman, does artwork of octopuses (octupi??), zombie giraffe's and she also does beer reviews, can it get much better than that? I think not.
As well, in the spirit of folks that will be starting home renos both indoor and out this week-end I’m also going to direct you to the blog of my dear friend Kristina and her boyfriend Ryan who have undertaken a rather large home project...like, re-doing their entire house.
Both these people can consider themselves tagged. Any other takers? ;)

Hyenas and earthworms

This is it, dear reader, the big gardening week-end is coming up here in Southern Ontario. I was out grocery shopping yesterday and at the garden centre set up in the parking lot people were clamouring over one another like a pack of hyenas to get the last tray of ...(fill it in with your annual flower of choice).
Where you are the big gardening week-end may have already come and gone or you may still have to wait another week or two. So what can we talk about this week? Well, I think that in the spirit of mass planting that will probably be taking place this week-end (here in zone 5b) I’ll touch on planting flowers in your veggie garden to help get the most from it and about dangers that are still possible at this point in the season.

I’ve mentioned previously that while I’m no flower gardener I do at least have some success growing those flowers that are beneficial to my veggie garden. Some of these include sunflowers, pansies, marigolds, daisies and the like. If you want to incorporate these flowers into your veggie garden now is the time to do it. These flowers attract beneficial insects to your garden that will kill off predator bugs and, in turn, keep your crops healthy. One of my favourite flowers to grow is marigolds because they don’t spread to the point of choking out your veggies and they attract a lot of different “good” bugs. My other favourite is sunflowers because not only do they attract good bugs, when the flower starts to go to seed they also attract birds who eat bugs as well. As for my sunflowers that have made a return appearance here’s where they are now in their growth:


This week-end, although I won’t be planting too many veggies, I will be transplanting these little guys to their new home. As an illustration on how to safely move plants (flowers or veggies) that have already started growing I’ll do a little demo with one of the sunflowers. First decide where you’d like to move your plant and make sure that the soil has been turned over. All that requires is digging a hole and breaking up any soil that’s particularly clumpy. You may want to move your flowers to a planter and in that case the same thing applies, just make sure that you have enough soil to set the flower/ veggie in and leave enough room to top up the soil around the plant afterwards.
After that’s been decided, you can dig out your plant. Now, depending on the size of your plant this may require anything from a small hand spade to a full blown ‘use your foot to get it in the ground’ kinda spade. In this case, we just need the hand sized one. Dig out around your plant about 1-2 inches and as deep as you can go.


I can’t stress this enough that it’s important to handle your plants gently and to make sure that you get as much of the root system as possible. With this in mind you’ll also want to make sure that you dig up some of the soil with your plant so it doesn’t get shocked when you move it to the new location. This is more applicable if you’re moving the plant from a garden to planter or vice versa. Below you can see the dug out sunflower and it’s roots (and an earthworm!):


Then, plant it in it’s new home and that’s it. After transplanting make sure you water it to encourage the roots to set in their new home. Yes, dear reader, it’s really that simple. See? A happy sunflower sits in it’s new home below:



So now that you’re getting itching to plant things I should make you aware of the hazards of planting early in the season. The obvious concern is the weather. It can still get frosty out and nothing ticks off a baby plant more than getting frostbite or pegged by hail. Heck, that would get most any species upset. So maybe you can start plating this week-end or next (or maybe you’ve got things in the ground already) but are concerned about aforementioned meteorological calamities. An easy fix to this is to invest in some type of cover for your plants either in the form of a dome cover or sleeve. These items, which can be purchased at most gardening centres, include long plastic domes or Walls-o-water. In previous years I’ve used walls-o-water and they’ve proven to be very handy at protecting young plants from adverse winds and keeping them warm when the nighttime temps drop close to freezing. If you have the money to spend on these (and they’re well worth it) they run about $7-$9 and come in a one-size- fits-all sleeve. They’re a bit tricky to set up so it helps if you have an extra set of hands helping as you’re filling up the compartments with water.
If you want to keep your gardening budget to a minimum you can also use 2L pop bottles cut in half or a cardboard milk carton, again, cut in half. Using the end that has an opening, to let the air circulate, just place them over your plant and push them into the soil about 1" or so for stability. With that you’ll have a home-made plant cover!
After transplanting they may suffer from bouts of sun scald or wind burn but providing none of these are too severe your plants should adapt well to their new home and be growing like crazy in no time.

So there you have it, an easy guide to moving plants around and what you’ll need to keep an eye on for your transplants when they do finally make their way to the garden. If the weather is co-operative where you are this week-end, dear reader, I encourage you to get out there and get your hands in the dirt!

And an Onion Makes Three

Welcome back, dear reader! So now that the excitement of Bill is over, and because I need the practice, I’ve decided to do another WIP of an ACEO this time of our newly acquired barn cat, Onion. I’ve only done one other work featuring Onion so you’ll have to bear with me on this one since it’ll only be my second time drawing her.
Little background on Onion: She came to us around early February and I found her hiding/ living in the hay mow of our barn. The only reason I knew she was there was because 1- she sounded like a herd of elephants running through the roof and 2- her ‘meow’ is shrill...and very loud. I’m not really sure how old she is but I suspect she’s pretty young and she has no fear of other animals, particularly dogs whom she loves to go and rub up against, much to the utter confusion of the dogs. Our other barn cat, Sushi, would sooner lick a frozen metal pole rather than cuddle up with a dog.
However, like Sushi, Onion is also long-haired...a trait I was looking to avoid in our next barn cat (Sushi is about 14 years old and will be “retiring” to live I the house this winter). Me, being a sucker for rescuing animals, decided that I would just have to live with another long-haired barn cat and so Onion was taken in. She’s been a loyal little weirdo (think, if Sushi is Moe, Bill is Larry and that makes Onion Curley) and as such, has fit into our little animal menagerie quite nicely. Without further ado, let’s get to her second feature in an ACEO:


So as you can see I’ve just done my line drawing and laid on a few colours. To be specific I’ve used White, French Grey 10%, Black (in the eyes), Pink (for the nose) and Goldenrod. I’ve also used Dark Umber in the darkest areas of her coat. Unlike the ACEO I did of Bill, the photo I have to work from is good for this one. The problem? My printer is running out of ink and I can’t get any more until next week so the printout is crappy. This has forced me to work form both the printout for detail and from my monitor for colour. *Sigh* The excessive work us artists must endure...


Here’s stage two. As you can see I’ve done a fair bit more. I put in my bg at this point because it’s such a small space and in my ref photo it’s actually just back space. For the sake of complimentaries I decided to keep it dark by using Indigo Blue and I’ll probably go over that with Black or one of the 90% greys. I’ve gone and marked in more of the highlights on her as well as some of her facial markings. For the markings I’ve used Sepia and on the highlights I’ve used mostly French Grey 10% and some White and I’ve gone over a few of her really orange-y areas with Mineral Orange.
I’ve also started on here eyes which you can see in the close-up below:


Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Rita...what's with her eyes? Have you gone mad?” The answer is an emphatic “Yes” but that has nothing to do with what I’ve done for her eyes. You see (get it, ‘eyes’...‘see’...okay, bad pun) the shadows I’m working with in this particular piece are pretty dramatic and while her obviously different eye shading doesn’t make much sense now it will in the grand scheme of things. For her eyes I’ve used both Jade and Celadon Green (more Jade tho) as well as Sky Blue Light for the catch-light. For the darkest parts of the eyes I used Dark Green because it was the darkest, coolest green I could use without getting into the blues. In this close up you can also see that I’ve added a touch of Raspberry to her nose on the dark side.

So that’s the start of an Onion. This ties in nicely to my gardening post for tomorrow because I’ve named my cat after a vegetable. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love it when an unintentional plan comes together.

I've...been tagged!

It would seem, dear reader, that over the week-end I was tagged by Australian artist Susan Borgas. Far be it from me to turn down an opportunity to play along and with that in mind I’m going to go ahead and fulfill my tagging obligation.
The rules of being tagged state that I have to let you folks out in bloggerville 7 things about me that you don’t know and then at the end of this post provide you with the names of seven other people whose blogs I’ve tagged. Sound like fun? Sure it is, let’s get started:

1- Although some folks already know this (out of necessity), I’m epileptic. My parents found out when I was knee high to a grasshopper and while the form of epilepsy I had, Petit Mal, was supposed to disappear by the time I hit puberty I guess my body wanted to throw everyone for a loop and instead it developed further causing me to have Grand Mal seizures. Go Grand(big) or go home, I say.
While having this condition really hasn’t hindered me greatly in any way there are some things that I’ll never be able to do such as scuba dive, bungee jump, sky dive or fulfill my life long dream of driving a big rig. I also try to make a point of telling people that I have epilepsy in case I do have a seizure so they’ll call 9-1-1 instead of thinking that I’m doing some horrible rendition of a break-dancing routine.

2- Like Susan, I have a fear of spiders. Although I’ve never clobbered the Other Half in the middle of the night when dreaming about them, there was one instance when I was half-asleep and one scurried across my head in the middle of the night. I immediately woke up flailing my arms wildly and I spent the rest of the night sitting up in the living room with a blanket around me darting my eyes from one corner of the room to the other lest the 8-legged beasts attack me unsuspectingly .

3- I have tattoos. They’re in strategically located areas so if I need to make myself presentable to Conservative folks or elderly people that think a female with tattoos is a sign of the Apocalypse, I can. I’ve also been offered jobs on several occasions to do tattoo work and while it is very tempting, at this point in time I have too much on my plate, although my work adorns several people already.

4- In relation to number 3, one of my tattoos is particularly profound and special to me. I got the tattoo after I “returned” to doing art and it’s a very simple piece of the last line drawing I did before I went on my hiatus from art many years ago. I won’t say much more than that other than there’s a very important date drawn in with the tattoo.

5- I’m a first generation Canadian. Both my parents are immigrants with my Dad being from Belfast, Ireland and my Mom, although she’s Latvian, was born in Argentina. I’ve been to Ireland and one day I’d love to go to Latvia and Argentina but I would never trade living in Canada for anything in the world, this country is my home.

6- I love studying Medieval and World War Two history. I’m not really sure why and, quite frankly, some things are just best left unquestioned.

7- Finally, I’ve seen every single episode of “Leave It To Beaver”...about 5 times. It’s very embarrassing to admit and at the same time I share this like a demented badge of honour. I can even recall the tune to the theme song and portions of the voice over during the intro “...and Jerry Mathers as The Beaver.” (Music) Do, do, duh, do-do-do. Duh, do-do, do-do, dooo da-do. Due to this over-exposure to the Ward, June, Wally and The Beav’ it’s caused me to use words like “jeepers”, “golly”, “nifty” and “swell” as part of my day- to- day vocabulary.
It’s all very sad, really...

So there you have it, 7 things you probably didn’t know about me.

Gosh, most of the people I would’ve tagged have been tagged already so that leaves me in the lurch. Tell ya what, if you’re reading this and you’d like to be tagged then just e-mail me or leave a comment directing people to your blog...we’d all like to read up about you!

Completed Bill

So finally Bill is done...or rather the ACEO of Bill is done. Bill himself is currently out on a killing spree. Ah, it must be Spring...



Above you can see the final result. I went back over the entire piece and darkened my darks by adding in Indigo Blue and Black. On some of the edges of the dark areas I added in a bit of Black Cherry again. In around his nose and mouth I added in Goldenrod, Jasmine and for punches of colour there’s also some Raspberry and Kelp Green. I’ve also added the Kelp Green to the spaces between his eyes and ears (his eyebrows? Do cats have eyebrows??) and a touch here and there to his back. For the highlighted areas I just went over it lightly with Cool Grey 20%.
For the wee bit of shadow beneath him I just used Cool Grey 50% and 70% as well as a light covering of Blue Slate. There wasn’t much else to do with it because it’s a shadow on a white bed, it shouldn’t be complicated. After that I went over it with the White and made sure that everything blended together.

So that’s it for this ACEO and it'll be up for auction on eBay tonight.
I got gobs of pictures at the show this week-end so I should have enough horse reference material for at least a little while. The Other Half got some doozy shots of this one black horse that was on edge the entire time, prancing around and calling to just about every horse he walked past...it was great! So, if you’ll excuse me, I have some more art to do!

Not MIA This Time...

Welcome back, dear reader. So the Bill ACEO is going to become a three-parter because the battery on my camera is dead and needs charging and because this is the only free time I have to post today the rest of it will have to wait until Monday. So for the tiny update on my ACEO:


I've added Bronze all over the face and in parts of the body. I've also gone over the darkest parts of his markings with black and the slightly lighter parts with Dark Brown. Since I was itching to use some more ping-y (that's a technical term dontcha know) colour I threw in some Light Cerulean Blue on the highlights and it's at this point that I must admit that currently I'm completely infatuated with adding Black Cherry to my darks. I just love the richness I get from using it and it really gives warmth to the areas that you add it to.
To give more shape and emphasis to his face I've added more Yellow Ochre and I've also thrown in Goldenrod and Jasmine. With this particular picture I'm not too concerned with going for drama with dark shadows and bright lights partly because I don't really feel that this one needs it and also because, as mentioned before, my ref pic was so darn icky.

So that's where I have to leave this one for today since I couldn't pull the last picture off in time. I know, the suspense will kill you over the week-end but just think of what you'll have to look forward to on Monday!

So, because it's Friday I'd like to end off the week on a happy-go-lucky note. I'd like to remind you, dear reader, of the Equine Expo I'll be at tomorrow. There's gong to be oodles of demonstrations and vendors as well as, you guessed it, horses. You can find out more info at the Uxbridge Horseman's Association website which can be found here. Drop by and say 'Hi'.. heck, you can even buy some of my art!

For all the Mom's out there that work their hineys off to make sure that children are fed, clothed, safe and cared for I hope you have a great Mother's Day. Enjoy your week-end!

They're coming...

"Face Full of Onion" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

It's gardening day, dear reader, and today's post is going to be an update on the progress of peas and onions and I'm going to touch on the subject of hardening off. Pull your head out of the gutter...it's not what you think.

So below I've posted a couple of pictures of the onions and peas I planted not too long ago and where they are now.



Just growing away they are! However, I had to go out and get more pea seeds because either I planted some too deep or some animal came and dug them out of the ground because there are a few distinct gaps in my rows. Also, much to my surprise, the beets I planted have already started sprouting up out of the soil. That's a bit faster then they would normally come up but that's okay because it just means they'll be ready to eat sooner!

So about this whole hardening off business...
Transplants will need to go through a hardening off process prior to being planted in the garden. Now, the "official" planting time here in Southern Ontario is next week-end, the Victoria Day long week-end. This is the time that it's assumed we're far enough into the warm weather that it's unlikely that we'll having another killing frost. Killing frost or not, transplants have been living in the lap of luxury in your home or greenhouse and are unfamiliar with the elements. In order to get them used to weather you should dedicate about a week or two prior to planting to getting them accustomed to things like sun, wind, temperature changes, etc. This is the act of hardening off your plants.

For 2-3 days take your transplants outside and place them in an area that is sheltered but will have similar conditions as your garden. During these few days you should only leave them outside for about 1-2 hours at the most. If the days are overcast and there's little or no wind you can leave them out longer, say 3-4 hours, and then bring them in. On days 4-5 you can extend their time outside by a few more hours. If your overnight temps are staying fairly mild you can actually leave them in the house during the day and just let them out at night which works well for getting them accustomed to temperature changes. Over the last few days try and get them out as much as possible so by the time you go to plant them they'll be hardy and healthy.

During the first few days of hardening off when you bring your plants in they might be droopy and, quite frankly, they may look sickly. This is most likely due to water loss and if you just give them a bit of water they'll perk right up after an hour or two. Also, try to avoid starting the hardening off process on a very sunny or windy day...or both. Any young plants can become damaged very easily by wind or sun burn so it's important to take care with them.

So that's it for today. Until tomorrow!

Once, twice, three times a bad picture

Welcome back, dear reader! So, as promised, today I'm going to post the first half of a WIP of another ACEO I've been working on of my dog trapped in a cat's body, Bill.

For this particular one I had a few tricky little things to work with, the main one being the fact that it was a crappy ref picture that I was using. I vow that one day I will actually learn how to use my camera properly...but it won't be today. To add to the mix of things not working my favour, he was backlit in the picture and the colours in his coat (in the ref pic) were very off. So, combine those three things together and you've got one heck of a bad picture, but it was a good angle and you can't go wrong with cats for subject matter. I'll spare you having to look at the ref picture I was using and instead we'll skip right to the artwork:


So here it is in all it's beginning ugliness. It's my beloved Prisma's on Mi-Teintes (some sandy colour...I think it was called "Fawn"...or maybe it was "Sand"...) I've basically just marked in the areas that need to be defined so I don't get lost along the way. Now Bill is a plain ol' Tabby so for the main portion of his body and face I use Bronze and for the yellow-ish patches on his nose and around his mouth I use Yellow Ochre. I've marked in his striping and tail tip with Warm Grey 90% and I've used Black for his eyes and whisker spots. Also, just for giggles I've put in some Dark Brown on his ears. Around the eyes and along the ear line I've used Cream.
For those that are interested I'm one of those people that works the whole piece as I go. I've tried working in sections but it just doesn't work for me because the end result comes up looking "broken" and in order for me to keep the entire piece consistent I need to work it all at once. You need to find what works best for your own style and working habits.


For the second part I've added in the lights around him and I've also marked in more of his stripes and added more base colours to his coat. Now, I'm not a big fan of doing gobs of layering but for this one I'm going to do a bit more than I usually do because of the excellent ref shot I'm working from. I've used Slate Grey in some areas to make them a bit cooler in tone and as I get closer to finishing it off I'll go over it with some other cooler colour to make it pop a bit more and get the effect I'm going for. I've used French Grey 50% for some of my mid-tones and I've mixed it in with some of the Bronze in certain areas like the spots where the stripes transition form light to dark (and vice versa).
I've left the area under his tail, face and part of his paw untouched because that's where there's going to be some shadowing between him and his bed.

So that's it for today and I'll have the rest of it on Friday providing I don't leave my camera in some random, mobile location again. Tomorrow it's gardening time!

MIA- One camera

"The Wanderer" 11x14, coloured pencil on pastelboard

$300.00, please contact artist to purchase.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Welcome to the start of a new week, dear reader. I don't know what your week is going to consist of but mine is going to be spent working my hiney off so I can get ready for my first show this week end. I'm looking forward to this one because it's being held in the town I used to work near and there's going to be horses galore there...it doesn't get much better than that!

Today I was going to do a WIP post for some ACEO's I've been working on but in my higglety-pigglety state of mind this past week-end I seem to have forgotten my camera in my truck and the Other Half took said vehicle to work today. Therefore, I have nothing and I'll simply look at this as a blessing in disguise since it's now going to force me to get work done in preparation for this week-end.

See? I love it when an unintentional plan comes together.

Back on Wednesday with art...really!

Catch that!!

"Cool Runnings" ACEO can be bid on here.

Happy Friday, dear reader! This week-end in the Quinte region it’s Walleye World Week-end and the fishing masses from Canada and the U.S. have started flocking in to catch “the big one”. It’s a catch and release event and I must admit that, although I haven’t had the chance to go fishing in about 4 years, I absolutely love fishing! Walleye in particular are fun to catch because they’re an evil looking fish...the kind of fish you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. They have, as the name implies, an opaque wall eye, have razor sharp teeth and when they get ticked- off their dorsal pops up and looks like a mohawk. You half expect them to pull a Robert DeNiro: “You...lookin’ at me? You...lookin’ at me?” Then they punch you in the face.

Okay, I made that last part up (they lack fingers and an opposable thumb), but they’re a mean looking fish...trust me. Anyway, this event brings in lots of tourists to our fair little region and makes driving in Belleville a living Hell, even more so than usual. So, for any local readers I suggest that you make your trips to the bank, grocery store, gardening centre, etc today before the masses really start cluttering up the roads. Oh, and for all you Walleye catching hopefuls, although this was taken a few years back, maybe this will give you something to aim for...


5.2 pounds baby!! Bob Izumi...look out!!!

Out with one, in with another...

Welcome back, dear reader. Even though I’ve done a lot of gardening activity in the past week I’ll try to keep this as concise and “Reader’s Digest” as possible. Today I’m going to talk about how to plant teeny weeny seeds, what you need to know about fertilizers and what I found growing in my veggie garden.

So now that the temps are staying at or above 15 celsius (60 fahrenheit) and, with a few exceptions here and there, the overnight temps aren’t dropping below freezing it’s safe to plant a few more things. More specifically I’ve gone and planted my carrots and beets. I could’ve planted the beets a week or two ago because like the potatoes, parsnips, etc. beets are a hardy veggie and will tolerate light frosts and cooler temperatures. The carrots are fairly hardy as well but they do prefer warmer soil temperatures and since their germination period is so long having fairly consistent soil temps prevents interruptions in the germination. On the subject of carrots this is where the planting of teeny weeny seeds comes into play. The picture below is of carrot seeds.



Small, aren’t they? Now there’s lots of doo-dads and thingamajigs that have been invented to help gardeners plant small seeds. I don’t have money to spend on those tools but if you have poor eyesight, shaky hands and some coin to drop on such a tool I highly recommend purchasing one. Since I don’t have one I rely on the only other method I know of planting them which is basically just dropping them in a straight line. With smaller seeds one of the easiest ways of “planting” them is by laying them on top of the soil and then watering them in.

With subsequent waterings the seeds will work themselves into the soil and before you know it (in about 21 days) little carrot tops will be sprouting. If you opt for the tool-less planting method you’ll probably have to thin the carrots out as they start growing so they don’t get pushed out of the soil from over-crowding. This can be done for any teeny-weeny seeds, veggie and flower alike. Some places sell seed strips which is exactly what it sounds like. Seeds are secured in a biodegradable strip and have already been spaced out so no thinning is required when they do start growing.

So what about fertilizers? I’m mentioning this because in this particular geographical area (zone 5b) our “official” planting time is coming up in about 3 weeks, maybe sooner. This means that those warm weather loving plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumber, etc. can go into their new home in the veggie garden. If you’ve started them as transplants you might be considering starting them on a fertilizer/ plant food program to get those root systems nice and strong because they’ll need it to help adjust to the garden and pull nutrients from the soil. There are lots of plant foods out there and if you’re wanting to strengthen the roots you need to pick the right one. Most fertilizers/ food have 3 numbers listed on the box or container to indicate the ratios of nitrogen, phospherous and potassium that are in it. Below I have pictured a box of Clematis and Vine food so you can see what it is you’re looking for:



An easy way to remember what these numbers mean, without actually remembering which one is which, is by associating the numbers with 'up, down and all around'. That is, the first number affects the upper part of the plant, the second number affects the roots of the plant and the third number affects the overall plant. So, with a root stimulator you’d be looking for a fertilizer with a higher middle number. As another example, most flower fertilizers have a higher first number because you want the flower part of the plant to get the most from the fertilizer.
As a caution with fertilizers/ foods, even with the organic varieties you can go overboard and wind up burning your plants out. Be sure to follow the directions on the container closely and if you really want to play it safe use even less than what the instructions recommend.

Finally, what did I find in my garden? Well, thanks to the help of my Grandmother, the renegade pansies got moved to a new home as you can see below.



No more flowers in the veggie garden, right? Wrong. This morning as I was heading out to the barn I glanced into the garden and guess what I saw? These little fellows had sprouted up:



In case you’re wondering, they’re sunflower seedlings. I try to have a small sunflower patch in my veggie garden because they attract beneficial insects and birds to the garden and while I thought the finches and blue jays had picked my sunflowers clean I guess they left a few seeds behind (to save me some work, perhaps?) I’ll let these little fellows get bigger and then I’ll move them to another spot in the garden so they’re not scattered about.

So that’s it for today, dear dirt-digging reader. Next week I imagine things will have started sprouting so until then get planting!

Cows, raisins n' cookies

"Window View" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

I have to admit, dear reader, that I’m not really sure what to post about today because I’ve basically been running myself silly with doing art, giving the dog a bath (she was getting pretty ripe), gardening, finishing up the outdoor sign for my Studio and getting ready for my first show of the season which takes place next week-end.
It’s funny how all of the sudden when a particular event gets closer you realize how unorganized you are...or at least that’s the way it works with me. Do I have enough business cards? How will I arrange my art displays? Should I bring one table or two? Do I have flyers for upcoming events that I can give to people? What’s the weather forecast and how many times will it change between now and the actual event? What if I forget to put on pants? Why do I really not like raisins? Was that a cow that just wandered past the front yard? Yes, all this and more is swirling around my over-crowded brain.

So, at the risk of my head spontaneously combusting as I sit here I will get back to those things that must get done and rest assured that I’ll be back tomorrow with, you guessed it, another post about gardening. It’s also the Other Half’s birthday today so I’m trying to get the house tidied up and get some cookies baked for him because even of you don’t like cookies just about everyone likes coming home to a house that smells like cookies. Until tomorrow!