It's Nice To Unwind

Well, I have to say that my trip was a much needed one and the weather was fantastic for almost the entire trip with the exception of this past week-end. That said, it certainly didn’t dampen (Hardy- har, get it? ‘Dampen’? Yeah, that was a really bad pun) the trip on the way back to Boston to visit my brother.

I got some awesome pictures and thanks to all the hiking we did up and down mountains my leg muscles are screaming bloody murder at me. What more could one ask for in a vacation? Not much, I suspect.

Autumn ACEO WIP
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

While in Boston we made a trip to the Dick Blick store which I affectionately referred to as my trip to “Mecca”. I picked myself up a set of 36 Coloursofts and have yet to stop drooling over using them. I had already purchased some open stock pencils to test them out and after drooling sufficiently over them decided it was high time to pick up a proper set.
In New Hampshire I bought a few things, including a bumper sticker that says “My Australian Shepherd is smarter than your Honor Student”... mainly because it’s true. I don’t normally adorn my vehicle with stickers because when they eventually have to come off they leave that sticky goo behind that requires sandblasting to remove but this sticker was one that allowed me to be smug without having to open my mouth... and that, dear reader, is a most excellent thing.

I also got to pet a moose:

Just call me Dr. Doolittle

Yup, that’s right... a moose!

Okay, it’s actually a wooden moose and I suspect that with my recent encounters of the wildlife kind that I wouldn’t be too keen on walking up to, let alone petting, an animal that could take my head off in one clean sweep. They’re cool from a distance though...


So that’s the ‘Readers Digest’ version of my trip. There was a lot more fun and excitement, including seeing a well dressed man in a Mercedes picking his nose, and I have oodles of pictures that have potential as art material. Most importantly I have great memories and got the rest I needed to fire up the old burners again for doing more art.

My battalion of coloured pencils and I have some work to do... ;)

Bon Voyage

"The Autumn Barn" ACEO
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Welcome back, dear reader!

I just wanted to give you a heads up that this will be the last post for about 2 weeks as the Other Half and I are heading off to New Hampshire in a couple of days for a week-long vacation with a stop in Boston on the way back to visit my brother.

We’ve been looking forward to this trip for some time now and I can’t think of a better time of year to visit a state like New Hampshire (we’re staying in North Conway if you want to get particular) so we can enjoy the scenery and weather. We’ve got lots of outdoor activities planned and I’ve cleared off the memory card for my camera and picked up another card just for good measure because I plan on taking oodles of pictures.

So, with that in mind if you’ll be so kind as to excuse me I’ve got more chores than I care to count that need to get done before we’re off on our big adventure. Until our return, keep on art-ing!

Where the Wild Things Are

What was it I said in a previous post? The fun (or was it weirdness?) never ends for an artist living on a farm? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was something like that...

What also never ends when living on a farm with woodlands is the endless sightings of wildlife and close encounters of the heart-pounding kind. However, this time there were no mylar balloons involved, I’m happy to say.

"The Last Bale" ACEO
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Let me preface this post by saying that I love wildlife and getting up close to an animal, particularly one that you wouldn’t normally be able to, is exciting and educational as long as you exercise caution and don’t do something stupid like try to pick its nose. That said, when the animal itself takes the liberty of coming closer to you with very little hesitation it can be a bit nerve wracking to say the least and that educational experience can quickly turn into an event that results in one having to change one’s pants... if you get my meaning. So here’s where my tale begins...


On Monday morning Rosebud and I were out walking in the woods as we normally do. We made our way back into the hardwoods and as we were rounding the corner to head back I heard some rustling over the fenceline. I looked over and through the trees I saw a tawny coloured animal and I remember thinking to myself: “Oh look! A baby deer! Awww, isn’t that adora... wait. That’s not a deer...”
It looked at me and I realized I was looking at a coyote, a rather large coyote, with a rabbit hanging out of it’s mouth. Yum.

"Arctic Gaze"
8x10, coloured pencil on Mi- Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

It was at this point that Rosebud also saw the coyote and decided that it might be a good idea to chase it at which point I yelled at her resulting in her stopping, the coyote running and then her wanting to go after it again.

Apparently this coyote was hell bent on getting to the other side of the property because it back-tracked, hopped over the fence line towards us, went back over again when Rosebud went after it again (which is odd because she’s about half the size of the coyote) and then finally just when we thought it had high-tailed it out of there it crossed about 6 feet in front of us. And again... Rosebud went after it. I, in turn, went after Rosebud yelling her name and to “... get your fuzzy little hiney back here! That doggie isn’t for playing with!!”



After our exciting excursion through the woods the rest of the day was, at best, uneventful if not simply downright dull. Since then we haven't seen anymore coyotes although we have heard them and just earlier this morning the radio reported that a black bear had been spotted a few towns over from us.

Yup, the fun and excitement never ends...

Mmmm, eggplant!

Hi there, dear reader!

Autumn is creeping up on us and if it ever stops raining for longer than 24 hours it would be great to go out and enjoy the colours and crisper weather. That said, Autumn also means that it's time to start cleaning up the garden and make use of the abundance of produce that comes from that clean-up (and no, I'm not sick of zucchini... yet.)

"When Summer Meets Autumn" ACEO
Copyright Rita Woodburne

This year I grew eggplant and, to be perfectly honest, for the better part of the summer I didn't think I was going to get anything from the plants because of the cool, wet weather and also because due to my back injury a lot of my planting took place about a month behind schedule. Eggplant takes a bit longer to grow than most veggies and it looooves warm, humid weather so this Summer it fell short of a lot of the requirements for successful growing. However, much to my surprise towards the end of August I noticed that there were little eggplants popping up all over the place and last week we enjoyed the first of those little eggplants.

Now I don't know a lot of eggplant recipes and I'm contemplating trying to make baba ganoush but in the interim (and because there was only 1 eggplant that was ripe at the time) I figured I'd try out an appetizer/ side dish with the one that I had. It was super easy and if you like eggplant or want to try it out here's a recipe you may enjoy:

Eggplant & Tomato "Sandwiches"

1 eggplant, sliced into 8 1/4" pieces
1 tomato, cut into 4 slices
4 slices (or rounds if available) of mozzarella or provolone cheese
1 tbsp basil (or fresh basil leaves if available)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


Pre-heat BBQ on lowest setting.

Take 4 slices of eggplant and lightly brush 1 side with olive oil. Place tomato slice, sprinkle of basil (or 2 fresh basil leaves), slice of cheese on top of each eggplant and season with salt and pepper. Place another eggplant slice on top and secure with a toothpick.

Brush top of eggplant "sandwich" with olive oil and place on grill. Flip carefully after 10 minutes and brush other side with olive oil. Cook another 5-10 minutes, remove from BBQ and enjoy!



These were really easy to make and even the Other Half, who isn't a big fan of eggplant and tries to avoid eating tomatoes because they upset his stomach, hoovered his back and asked if there were more.
Depending on how hot your BBQ runs you may want to keep an eye on them and if you don't have a BBQ I suspect they would turn out just as well in the oven but, again, you'd have to keep an eye on them to make sure they didn't burn and all the cheese doesn't melt out.

So there you have it. Some art and a recipe!

I enjoy eggplant and I'm glad I wound up getting some from the plants even if they are smaller than usual. My next food-related project: Operation Baba Ganoush.

Transmission over.

Pastelbord loves me... it loves me not.

Ah the joys of Pastelbord, it’s a nice support, it doesn’t require glass for framing, it comes in a variety of coloured grounds to save artists some of the value work and, really, who wouldn’t feel just a little hoity- toity drawing on something that’s made with ground marble. I mean it just sounds fancy.

That said, the stuff is driving me nuts. My love/ hate relationship with this particular support is going on much longer than I had hoped. Take, for instance, my first few experiences working with Colourfix. At first I really didn’t care for it at all and then after doing a few pieces on it I’ve not only fallen in love with working on it but I daresay I’ve become horribly addicted to working on it (although not for everything). Colourfix grew on me much the way that nice little vine- type plants like Morning Glories grow on trellises. Pastelbord, on the other hand, is growing on me in the same way that mold grows on bread that’s gotten too old.

My biggest qualms with it are that I’m an artist that works in sections rather than from left to right or top to bottom. This means that at any given time I may need to rest my arm or hand over a section of my work and with Pastelbord I find that when I do this I’m lifting off not just a small portion of my work but a whole clump of it in a puffy coloured pencil cloud. It’s ticking me off to say the least. I’m also finding that, unlike Colourfix, I can get quite a few layers down but not oodles of layers. Oh, and by the way, here’s where my Scottsdale rider is so far:

Scottsdale Western Rider
11x14, coloured pencil on Pastelbord
Copyright Rita Woodburne

With all my frustration with Pastelbord you’d think I’d have given up already but alas, not so. Why? Because I’m really, and I mean really, stubborn. That and after having several pieces of glass break en route to art fairs I’m really keen on being able to frame something without glass. I hate that shuffling, scratching, clinking noise that you get when unpacking art that has broken glass.


So here’s my appeal to artists that use Pastelbord on a regular basis:
How do you get around pigment lifting off the surface aside from being really, really careful? Fixative? Mylar/ vellum sheet? Voodoo magic? .... or are you just really, really careful? Also, is there a trick to getting lots and lots of layers down the same way you can with Colourfix?

I feel like I’m missing something here, some kind of trick to working on it and like I mentioned before, I’m stubborn so I’m not about to give up anytime soon.

Happy Labour Day!

Happy September, dear reader!!

As I mentioned in my previous post I intended to be lazy. Quite lazy, in fact, since this is the last real ‘Hurrah’ of Summer before weeping children head back to school and the population in general in my neck of the woods starts getting ready for the on-set of cooler weather. (Must stack firewood, must stack firewood...)


I have spent my ‘laziness’ being rather productive, relatively speaking, in creating art and starting some new pieces, finishing off older ones and coming up with new ides for “works-to-be”. One piece was of a fox kit that I posted earlier in one of its beginning stages as you can see below:

Fox Kit, WIP
8x10, coloured pencil on Colourfix
Copyright Rita Woodburne

And here is where that piece is now:

Fox Kit, WIP
8x10, coloured pencil on Colourfix
Copyright Rita Woodburne

There’s still some work to be done on it yet, that’s for sure, but I feel pretty good about where it’s going and I suspect that I’ll be able to wrap it up this week.

Another piece I’ve started is this one:

Scottsdale Western rider
11x14, coloured pencil on Pastelbord
Copyright Rita Woodburne

It’s (obviously) in a very rudimentary stage at this point and it’s featuring a rider and her horse from the Scottsdale Arabian Show that took place back in February this year. It was a really nice pose and I had to chuckle to myself because the Arab looked so Quarter horse-y in all the Western gear, the only thing that really gave him away was that he didn’t have that tell-tale QH rump on him. This piece is on pastelbord and since this post is long enough already I’d like to leave my next post to talk about the love/ hate relationship I’ve developed with this surface and make my plea to other artists that are using this surface.


So there you have it. Regular readers will know, Autumn is my favourite time of year, not just because of the colours, which tend to be just scrumptious I might add, but also because this time of year always seems to feel like a “New Year”. So stay tuned because I suspect that with a bit more free time on my hands and the prospect of me returning to my original intents with my art that some interesting things are sure to come.... :D