The Wedding Gift

 Our grandson, Patrick, had planned to get married next weekend. 'Save the Date' postcards were sent out many months ago. Then we were hit with a pandemic. Patrick and Grace, his fiancee, had to postpone their ceremony. They sent out "Unsave the Date" postcards. I must admit, I have never received one of those before!

Rather than postpone for a year...or however long it would be before it was safe to have a gathering, they decided to just get married. On a Thursday a couple weeks ago, they found a beautiful park and exchanged rings with just their parents present. 

The next day they came to our house and had lunch with us. That Saturday they had a Zoom reception for about 40 family members! 

Actually, the zoom call was fun. We were able to 'meet' so many of Grace's family who were literally all over the world. The call was at 2:00pm our time. With time zone differences, some of the 'guests' were having breakfast or lunch. A few had to get up at 4:00am, others were having dinner on Sunday! It was a lovely shared experience and certainly 'made lemonade' out of COVID 19 lemons!

But, back to the gift. 

A week or so after they sent out the Unsave the Date postcard, we received two small wineglasses in the mail. 

 

There was a note about the reception and that we could raise these glasses (with the champagne that they had brought to us) for several toasts while we were zooming.

Since they had postponed the wedding, we had not given much thought to a wedding gift... and here we were about to celebrate! I needed to paint something personal for them.

I decided to pick up on the 'we do'. The other obvious theme for me was that they are both musicians. Patrick is an accomplished harpsichordist and Grace is an amazing vocal artist. 

Preliminary sketches help me to visualize ideas and to see how they can be developed. 

First thought...

Expanded to "we do...make beautiful music together"

Maybe add a music staff...names and date?  It's getting too much....

Tried to make the glasses smaller... eh...

got rid of the glasses and played around with the staff...

Then I had this hokey idea that if I was going to paint a staff, I could copy real music. I searched around for something appropriate...  A few more sketches experimenting with some color....ta da!

After I took this photo I added the little heart that was on the glasses. (Forgot to take a final photo)

For those of you who can read music, you know the mystery tune... Yes, of course, Grace and Patrick knew right away!

July - Sketch a day

I just realized that I got so caught up in all the dogs - Dog days of summer, I guess  - that I forgot to post my sketches from July.  We are now well into August so I had to go back and find them.

There are days that I have to make myself sit down and sketch...and other times when I want to skip ahead and do several. After all this time, I am giving myself permission to do what feels right...without guilt! If I get caught up in something else, it's OK - I'll get to it tomorrow and probably enjoy it even more.

Inserted after writing - after I finished writing all this and dropping in the images, I went to "Preview" to check before I published. For some reason several of the images do not directly line up with the text. In this area, I am technically challenged - as a friend of mine says..."Way above my pay grade!" So, I beg forgiveness and urge you to please read on..

As before, I tried to make up reasons how the sketches on each page might be related... here we go...

Summer or Winter...I added 'Ice' and thought of cold drinks in the summer. Ice in winter is definitely an igloo!

Flat and Waiting - I chose 'flat' on a music staff...I suppose I could sing flatly while I am waiting.

Chess and Necklace - I am working hard here...maybe a person could wear a necklace while playing chess.

Moth and Butterfly - more similar than different. When I looked for images, I found an amazing array of beauty in both categories.

                           

Mum and Dad - Well, I guess these are obvious go-togethers, but I never called my mother 'Mum' so I went with Chrysanthe-mum. I love the child had holding Dad's hand.

Ticket and Mushroom - Probably nothing here...but I could make up a story about going to a mushroom farm and having to buy a ticket to get in...

Rose and Balance - I see nothing here to go together! All I can say is that I really enjoyed drawing both of these sketches!

Hammer and Do Not Cross - Hmmm, maybe this is a construction zone and there is a piece of large equipment (not shown) that is in the way. Or, if you dare to cross this line, I'll hit you with a hammer...

Experiment and Vote - I loved drawing the experiment...I could imagine anything. The vote thing is a 'hot' issue right now with an election coming up in November. I definitely don't want VOTE to be an experiment!

Crown and Pie - The crown certainly represents royalty... hmm, maybe it takes me back to "Sing a song of sixpence" although there are NO blackbirds baked in this pie to set before a king!

Greyhound and Ferris Wheel - A fast, skinny dog and a wheel that stands vertically and spins around... really? What about 'entertainment'? There are dog races that people attend (although there are also people who are offended by this and work hard to protect the dogs) and carnivals with all sorts of rides.

Pyramid and Standing Stones - Certainly all made our of stones carefully fit together.

Stepping Stones and Puddle - I was wishing the standing stones and stepping stones were on the same page...but, not so. The stepping stones are the walk through the garden. The puddle calls for a little boy whose mother probably wished there were stepping stones so he didn't get soaked. But, come on, that's what little boys do!

Piranha and In the Forest - A mean, biting fish (although colorful) and an inviting path through a cool forest do not go together! Sometimes it's better to not try to make things work...

Black Cat and Itchy - There are people who are allergic to cats of any color! 

Sneeze - It's a bad time to sneeze or cough right now in the ongoing lockdown from COVID 19. I almost didn't even want to draw a sneeze!

That's it for July! Another fun month of some challenging drawings. More surprises coming up in August.

Izzy - or 'Withie, part 2'

This is a follow-up to my last post about Withie, the dog that a friend of mine re-homed. Not sure that is a real word, but for me, it means that my friend found a new home for her four legged companion. 

The family that Withie is now living with, had a labradoodle, named Izzy. She died a few months ago. I offered to paint a portrait of Izzy if they would send me some pictures of her.

I began on a light green pastel paper. The first step is putting in blocks of darks and lights. 

Next I had to try to find the right colors! I was a little anxious about this because I had never met the dog and it seems to me that everybody's computer/printer makes the colors different. There were dozens of shades of brown, beige, orange... I threw in some gray and some purples.

In most of the dog paintings I have previously done, the dog had a black nose... not Izzy... it seemed white, gray, pink, purple... and a little off center! And then, there were those yellow/orange eyes!

I did a lot of tweaking, trying to get the nose right and attempting to get the look of soft, curly hair.

I had fun playing with her collar... and then put in some background. Thinking I was almost done, I left it for a day or so. When I came back to it and looked closely... her left eye was up higher than her right! I got out a bristle brush and wiped the eye off... trying it again...

Doing a painting is a little like trying to get all the legs of a table the same length or redecorating a house...you make one adjustment and then find that there are other things that need doing!

More tweaking here and there...  At some point, I just need to call it done! I know if I don't sign it and put it behind glass, I will want to keep touching it...

Here she is!

I delivered the painting this morning. There is a part of me that just wanted to get my hands into her hair. She looks soft and is just begging to be petted!