Alas, poor August, I knew thee well...

"Reflections in Red" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

"Beautifully Bitless" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Welcome back, dear reader!

This is going to be the only post for this week as there have innumerable things that have come up both in getting ready for this week-end’s art show and home life in general. Needless to say, it’s been hectic.

So for this post I’m happy to say that I did get my wolf piece done (and in the nick of time I might add) and have it here for your perusal. First I’ll post the WIP shot:


I had meant to take more pictures but I got carried away as I was working on it and, well...you know how it is once you’re on a roll. At this point I’ve gone in and filled in pretty much the rest of the body and I’ve also started in on the background. I decided to do a gradation for the bg using some of the colours from the wolf itself.**
At this point I’ve just established that I want darks in the upper left and lights to the bottom right. This is really just because of the colouring in the wolf itself so he doesn’t get lost in the bg. I’ve resisted the urge to work on the wolf while doing the bg since sometimes that gets me into more trouble than it’s worth.

** I got some ideas from other folks over at the coloured pencil forum at WetCanvas. If you’re ever in an artistic rut and need ideas/ inspiration or a kick in the keister I highly recommend making your way over there. Lots of helpful creative people and, let’s face it, over 100,000 heads are better than one.


Below is the final piece:


I should note that in real life there isn’t that hard line between the light and mid-tone transition in the bg. I’m not really sure what happened there...maybe my camera doesn’t like me today.
Anyhoo, using my beloved Prisma’s, the bg is comprised of Black, Black Grape, both Warm and Cool Grey 90%, Chestnut and Espresso for the dark area. The mid-tone area was done with Clay Rose, Rosy Beige, Chestnut and Beige Sienna. The lightest area was done with White, both Cool and French Grey 10% and a wee bit of both Putty and Peach Beige.
I went over the wolf itself with Henna, Black and White (for some of the stray hairs), Jasmine, Mahogany Red and Dahlia Purple.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with it and, if I do say so myself, it looks pretty darn spiffy all framed up.

So that’s the post for today. I know I also said that I would have some blogger related news to share and far be it from me to go back on my word.
At some point over the next couple of weeks my blog will be undergoing a bit of a facelift and, with summer coming to an end, I’ll also be returning to my normal posting schedule. The exception to this (that I can tell in the near future) will be at the end of September when I have another week-end show that I’m involved in. I’ll still be doing gardening posts for another few weeks since there’s still much to be done before Fall rolls around and with the weather getting cooler I know I’ll just be itching to get outside.

If you happen to be in the Peterborough/ Fenelon Falls/ Kawartha area this week-end, stop by the Arts Festival to say ‘Hi’ and take a look around at all the fantastic artwork that’s going to be there. Take care, dear reader, and (insert cheesy music here):
“I’ll see yoooou, in September.
See yoooou, when the Summer’s through...”

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Simply Tasty

"Watching the String" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

I just have to breathe a sign of relief, dear reader, since we’ve finally had some substantial rain and the lawn is no longer crunching when I walk on it. Grass should never crunch.

There’s not much to share with you in terms of garden maintenance today. Just keep picking your veggies to keep the plants productive into this last bit of summer and be sure to remove any plants that may have gone “past their prime”. Some of those plants may include cucumber, beans, tomatoes (maybe), early and mid season corn, etc. Basically anything that looks dead. While that may seem obvious it’s worth noting because some folks keep the “dead” plants in the garden, perhaps so they only have to do one big clean-up, but those plants are still pulling nutrients from the soil which is taking away from your plants that are still being productive. So take ‘em out and chuck them off to the side or compost them.

In addition to that littel tidbit, today I’ll share with you a really basic and tasty recipe for a salad that we had last week-end while we were camping. It'll help you use up all those tomatoes and cucumbers that you're starting to get sick of and/ or can't even give away to neighbours at this point... 'cause they're sick of them too.

Our bedroom, kitchen, family room and patio last week-end at Silent Lake.

Tomato Cucumber Salad

2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 large cucumber, diced
2 tbsp. Rice vinegar
1 cup crumbled or shredded feta cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl, cover and let marinate for approx. 2 hours then enjoy!

For a variation, and perhaps depending on what ingredients you have on hand, you can substitute balsamic vinegar for the rice vinegar and use mozzarella cheese in place of the feta. When I made these substitutions I also added some Italian seasoning for flavour and because I have an enormous surplus of cherry tomatoes I used them in place of the “regular” tomatoes.

I’ll be back next week with more art, hopefully the completed wolf piece, and some end of summer blog info. Until then, enjoy your week-end!

Re-visiting

"Punky" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Today I’m going to re-visit a piece I started awhile back. It’s of a wolf and I’m hoping to get it done by this week-end because next week-end I’m off to another art fair, the Kawartha Arts Festival. I have another wolf piece and I didn’t want it to be lonely up on my display panel so I figured this piece would be the perfect accompaniment!

When I last left it I was at this stage:


I had meant to take some more WIP pics of it but forgot so this is the point I’m at now:



Here are some close-ups of the mouth and eye:



I’ve stuck to a fairly simple palette of Black Grape, Black Cherry, White, Black, Indigo, Beige Sienna, Henna, Cool Grey 10% & 20% and Nectar. I suspect that when I get closer to completion I’ll throw in some other contrasting colours just for variety.
This is very much open to comments and crits and if anyone out there has any suggestions for the background I’d love to hear them because, quite frankly, I’m at a loss.

That’s all for today and I’ll be back on Friday for another gardening post. Until then, take care and keep on art-ing!

Remember when...

"Welcoming Committee" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

So today’s gardening post is going to be a mish-mash of things. Let’s take care of the working aspect of it first, shall we?

It’s finally rolled around... the impending end of summer. Sure, there’s still two weeks left in August but let’s face it, between those last minute summer parties, getting kids ready for school (and what parent can’t wait for that), finishing up summer outdoor renos and just enjoying those last few lazy, hazy days the time will fly by and before we know it the cooler weather will be setting in and all thoughts of gardening will fall by the wayside until next year. What that means is that it’s time to start harvesting those veggies that you can store: potatoes, garlic, onions, etc if you haven’t already started.

For this part I’ll just address the potatoes as they’re a task unto themselves. You’ll need a decent spade/ shovel, a bucket (or several depending on how many potatoes you’ve grown) and a stiff brush. The process of getting the potatoes ready for storing is fairly simple and even if you’ve only grown a few plants just to have some home grown potatoes the process is the same.
Pick a day when it’s cooler and preferably slightly to completely overcast (but no rain). Get your buckets ready and start digging! Make sure to dig about 8-12 inches around the original plant as the potatoes like to spread out a bit and be sure to dig deep, about 1- 1 ½ ft down. Lift the soil and use your hands to shake the potatoes loose from the soil and put them in a bucket. Do this with each plant and if you happen to find any potato seeds be sure to set them aside for use next year.

After you’ve dug out all your potatoes you’ll need to go through and brush all the dirt off with a good stiff brush, taking care not to damage the skin of the potato. Also, if you’ve grown a large crop and find any discoloured, slightly over-ripe potatoes you must get rid of them. If you’ve ever heard the saying “One bad apple spoils the whole damn bunch” I can very much assure you that the same applies to potatoes.
If you’ve grown a very large crop I’m going to assume you have a cool, dry, dark place to store them (like a cold cellar) and if you’ve just grown a small crop storing them in a drawer will suffice. The last part of it? Enjoy those potatoes knowing that you grew them yourself! :)

Now for a little trip down vegetable memory lane. Perhaps you remember waaaay back to Spring to the little tomato seedling I introduced you to. It was small and rinky-dink looking. In fact, it looked like this:


Now, as I mentioned back then, looking at this sorry little thing it could be hard to believe that something that small could produce anything. However, I vowed it would and that I would post what that wee little plant could grow. You can see what sprouted from it below:


Pretty neat, huh? The thing with these tomatoes (they're a beefsteak variety) they're all this big which I find surprising because we really didn't have a lot of rain this summer and I was pretty sparse with my watering. A little TLC with your veggies can go a long way!

Now, last but not least, a recipe. This is the recipe that was supposed to be for last week so instead I'll be sharing it with you now. This will be for a single serving but it can be easily amended for more.


Stuffed Zucchini

1 zucchini
brown rice
1/4 of an onion, diced
3-4 mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup shredded swiss cheese (or mozzarella as a substitute)

Preheat oven to 350

While oven is pre-heating prepare a single serving of brown rice.

While rice is cooking cut the top off of the zucchini and then slice lengthwise and scoop out innards. Place emptied zucchini onto a cookie sheet, open cavity side up, and set the innards aside in a bowl.

Brush the emptied zucchini lightly with olive oil

In fry pan over medium heat cook the onion and mushrooms (I use margarine to cook them but you can use oil as well) until tender, onions should be nicely browned. When done cooking add to the zucchini innards and mix well.

When rice is done, add to the zucchini, onion and mushroom mixture, stirring together well. Divide mixture in half and add to the zucchini "bowls" on the cookie sheet.

Once each "bowl" is filled with mixture, pat down gently and sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Yum!

I occasionally add some Italian seasoning as well to the zucchini, onion and mushroom mixture before I add it to the zucchini bowls but you can add any seasoning you like.


So that's the gardening post for today. Later today after the Other Half gets home from work we're off camping for the week-end with some friends. I've been looking forward to this little trip all Summer and just taking a break from the day to day routine. So, on that note I'll sign off for the week-end as I still have some last minute packing and tidying up to do.

Enjoy your week-end!!

A Series of Accidents

"The Surveyor" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

First and foremost, let me toot my own horn and say "Happy 200th post to me!!" Okay, just had to get that out of my system.

So today I have more to share on my colour project. Last week I mentioned that I had an accident. No, not that kind of accident, it was a fixative related accident...although even that sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it?
I completed an ACEO and, as usual, I took it into the basement to spray it with fixative to protect the little darling. I sprayed and went off to do some chores while it dried. When I came back, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the areas I had done with the Raspberry Prismacolour had turned rather *ahem* bright. I suppose that if I were a regular user of Raspberry I would’ve discovered this trait much sooner, but it’s only been since I started my colour project and applying colour much more strongly that I’ve discovered certain colours are at odds with being protected by fixative. You can see the effects of it in the ACEO below:

"High Stepping" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

I’m pretty sure you can guess which parts were affected by the fixative.
That said, I have to say that with my project in mind I’m rather pleased by the happy little accident. The punchy colour adds something to it that I wouldn’t have intentionally done anyway. I mean, yes, I intentionally added Raspberry to the piece but I was adding it subtly and it blended into the surrounding colours. Maybe the fixative was trying to tell me something...

There are also a couple more pieces I have to share going back to the “main” part of my project. With these two I used the pastels and Prisma’s (although they were done mainly in pastel) and for these two I decided not to touch the background at all and just leave it “as is”. I find that after I get through most of the subject I start agonizing over the background and ultimately I feel it’s detracting from my completing the main subject to my liking. So, enough of my babble, here they are:

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Copyright Rita Woodburne

These two are waaaay loose for me, but for the most part I like the colour I have going on in these two. However, these two don’t look the same as they did when I completed them, again, it was a fixative accident. The fixative actually lifted some of the pastel off the paper and it dulled some of the colours completely. Since this happened I had to go back over both pieces and correct them and fill some of the colour back in. I like these two, but not as much as pre-fixative application. As usual, these two are more than open to comments and crits.

So that’s been my artsy- fartsy experiences over the past week. I’ve learned that fixative can be a temperamental beast and I’ve also learned that loosening up will not cause me to explode or burst into flames...always a good thing in my books.

I’ll be back on Friday with another gardening post, more recipes, more tips and an update on where your garden should be now that summer is winding down. Check back then!

Well, they're both green...

"Demi"- 4x6, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Private Commission
Copyright Rita Woodburne
Contact me for more information about having a commission done!

"Easy Going" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Okay, so I was going to post a recipe that provides yet another use for summer squash but instead I have another recipe to share that involves (drum roll please)...chocolate and cucumber!
That’s right, thanks to Regula Scheifele who passed this recipe along to me, I can now share with you a use for all those excess cucumbers and chocolate (get your pen and paper, Meg! :) ).

The background behind the chocolate cucumber muffin is that the use of cucumber was quite by accident as the original recipe called for, you may have guessed, zucchini. The woman that prepared this recipe grabbed a cucumber by accident and much to her surprise it actually worked. Now, since cucumbers contain much more water than zucchini she did amend the recipe to account for that (nobody likes a soggy muffin) by draining the cucumber. I’m not really sure how one would go about doing that but I suspect that much of the water would come out when you grate/ chop the cucumber and then you could pat it dry??
She also mentioned that when making this recipe again she would use the zucchini because she liked the texture and it was more flavourful than the cucumber. That said, in the event that there weren’t any zucchini on hand she certainly wouldn’t hesitate to use a cucumber instead.

So, without further ado, the combination I never fathomed could happen:


Chocolate Cucumber Muffins (aka- Bonnie’s Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from the White Lace Inn)

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 400 deg.

Mix together:
1 c. Brown Sugar
1 c. White Sugar
3 c. Flour
3 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
3 oz. Grated Hershey Bar
1 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Nuts (Optional)

Mix Separately and then add to dry ingredients:
3 Eggs, beaten
3 tsp. Vanilla
1 Cup Oil
2-1/2 Cups Grated Zucchini or Cucumber (remember to drain excess water from cucumber)

Fill Muffin Cups about 3/4 full
Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes
Makes approximately 26 - 28 Muffins

Now, I haven’t actually tried this recipe yet (maybe a “project” for this week-end?) so as far as adjusting the cucumber content goes I’ll have to provide an update on that. Conversely, if anyone else tries this if you could drop me a line and let me know how it worked it would be much appreciated! :)

So, enjoy your week-end, dear reader, and be sure to check back again next week when I’ll have even more work relating to my colour project. Toodles!

Looking For Art?

"Warming Up" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

"The Courtship (Study)" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Welcome back, dear reader!

So I guess you’re looking for art, yes? Well, you’re in luck, I have some. More specifically, I have art relating to my colour project.
For those that might just be joining the program my colour project is quite simple: I’ve resolved to do a series of works, using horses as the subject, as a means of exploring colour and incorporating more of it into my work. The idea with this project is to use the colour boldly and loosely using both coloured pencil (my beloved Prismacolour’s) as well as soft pastels, in this case CarbOthello’s.

I have two pieces that were posted previously and with this post I offer up two more that are more than open to comments and critiques by you, dear reader. Don’t worry, I have thick skin when it comes to this kind of thing, let ‘er rip.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Again, these are purely experimental and as I do one after another I can honestly say that I feel I’m making progress. In fact, I’ve already noticed that what I’m learning is being applied to one of my favourite works to do, ACEO’s! In the two posted above that I currently have up for auction in my eBay I’ve incorporated colour in a different way than I normally would have and, much more to my delight, I’m beginning to understand how to use it in regards to my style and working habits which was the whole point of doing this.

I still feel that I have to work on my use of colour more as I’ve found that sometimes it’s a success and sometimes... well... not so much. I’ve also discovered that some colours react to spray fixative in a most unexpected way (this is new to me, but I’m sure not new to others). One such instance occurred with another ACEO I completed recently and needless to say it was an accident, but fortunately a happy one.

I’m finding this experiment/ exploration an awful lot of fun and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get to that “ah-ha” moment or at the very least get the inkling that I’m almost there. Back to the drawing board and the wild and wacky colours!

Vegetables Harbouring Aliens

"King of the Snapdragons" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

So what the heck is a Patty Pan squash? Well, I asked myself the same questions about 4 years ago and much to my delight the answer is that it’s a rather delicious little summer squash that resembles an alien space craft. Yup. An alien space craft. See? Here’s the Patty Pan squash on it’s own:




Now here’s the Patty Pan squash in the context that I understand it:

"Take me to your leader!"

Not really a big stretch of the imagination, is it? The odd thing is that I felt perfectly comfortable wasting one of the squashes to express myself because these things are worse for breeding than zucchini. I know, I know, you wouldn’t think it’s possible but trust me, even one plant is too much for one person.

They’re a very easy veggie to grow and if you like zucchini you’ll more than likely enjoy these little yellow treats. I find them to be more flavourful than zucchini and the flesh is softer. They’re best enjoyed when they’re small (about 11/2 inches in diameter) but be cautioned that once you start picking them they’ll start growing in abundance.
Even if you don’t wind up eating them all they make excellent decorations for Autumn floral arrangement (yes, they’ll continue growing that far into the season) or alien space crafts.

So, how can they be enjoyed? They’re great to boil up and eat on their own or stuffed with some type of rice or meat filling. Next week I’ll share a filling recipe that can be used for both zucchini and patty pans but this week I’ll post a basic recipe that uses patty pans, zucchini, onions (red or Spanish), peppers and, if you happen to have them, eggplant. So, without further ado:

Roasted Vegetables

2 patty pand squash, cut into pieces
1 zucchini, cut into pieces
1/2- 1 eggplant cut into pieces
1 red pepper, cut into pieces
1 small red onion, diced
2 tbsp olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 425. Place veggies in bowl and toss with olive oil to coat. Spread veggies out on baking sheet and season with salt & pepper to taste. Bake in pre-heated oven for approx 20 minutes.
Remove veggies from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes. In another bowl (or the same bowl you had the veggies and olive oil) put in 1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar and your seasoning of choice (I use Italian seasoning). Put veggies in bowl and toss to coat with vinegar and seasoning.

That's it. Really, it's that simple and tastes fantastic!! I usually double the recipe and have some left over because it tastes pretty darn good when it's cold too.
If you want to turn in into a more substantial meal you can add cooked chopped chicken to the veggies when you toss them with the vinegar and seasoning as well as mini bocconcini (or whole bocconcini cut in half). I'm getting hungry.

So that's it for this week, dear reader. It friday, extremely hot and here in Canuck land it's a long week-end. Next week I'll be back with more of my colour project and some more artwork that I've been doing as well as the gardening post with yet another way to use summer squash because, as any gardener knows, you always grow more than you need.

Have a great week-end!!