and that's august

Welcome dear viewers, on this last day of August, unusually balmy with a gentle breeze and wispy clouds on this late summer afternoon. I hope you've been well and have taken time to figuratively, if not literally, stop and smell the flowers. It all goes so soon.

Wally continues to be very busy at work, and I continue my quiet days at home with the cats. They put me through the moves each morning as I will soon describe, but now they are both passed out as cats are wont to do, enjoying their naps with fresh air from the windows wafting through.

One day last week...

Muji was awake one afternoon and caught sight of something fluttering, most likely a leaf.

My pretty boy makes a pretty picture

Babu was on hand waiting his turn in the window.

On another day, Babu was "stalking" a sparrow- through the window screen.

Oblivious, the little bird  fluttered and preened on the railing after a splash in the bird bath.

This morning I caught a rare sight of my two companions sitting together.

Babu is usually the one who doesn't stay still except when he's asleep, but this morning they were waiting for "seconds" in the kitchen.

Actually, it's just Babu who wants seconds. Muji hasn't finished firsts.

This is the new routine as I try to wean Muji off of his demands for his beloved kibble before he's finished his tinned therapeutic food.

Babu has elected himself clean-up committee. 

This includes cleaning up Muji's plate before Muji has finished.

This keeps me on my toes as Babu is already a touch overweight and that tinned food is expensive.

That doesn't stop Babu from kitten mewing plaintively for my attention to his appetite.

As long as I stay on top of them (and myself for I must not soften up to their demands) things are under control.

 Muji didn't finish his breakfast this morning.

And Babu can't understand why I lifted Muji's plate.

Lots to show you, this piece is done in coloured pencils with a few dabs of white paint pen.

Experimenting with a all my different black pencils, the one that came out the darkest was,

surprisingly, my 55 year old Laurentian coloured pencil- another allusion to the better quality available in the past.

After watching some videos about printmakers, I found myself intrigued, once again, by the new retro palette in somewhat earthy pastels. I themed this picture using some animal symbols of love and did a variation on Botticelli's Venus. Sketched in grahite mechanical pencil, I went over the lines with extra fine Pitt pen, then coloured in with Jane Davenport coloured pencils, or as she calls them, "magic wands." The surround is washi tape.

It's back to school season in the stores and I found myself in front of a display of school supplies pondering the value of Crayola coloured pencils. I found a 100 pack for $12!  That's outrageous. So I bought them.  This is what I did in place of a swatch test, using as many colours in the pack as I could. I then, like a crazy woman, proceeded to colour in all the negative spaces in black Pitt pen with some coloured pencil blends down the middle. More washi tape, these are by Tim Holtz, went on the border.

Continuing to experiment with the Crayola coloured pencils I began to scribble first one...

and then a second abstract. I worked them from every which way and am pleased with the balance I found in design by doing that.

Last night I began making these little "C' shapes, again trying to use an ever-changing variety of colours from the Crayola pack.  This morning, I carried on, eventually summoning the courage to draw the rabbit in a Pitt brush pen and then continued colouring it in with the Crayola coloured pencils.

Here's a little footnote: I was surprised to see that the label on the box spelled "Coloured" with a "u". I see now that these, as well as "All Crayola Art Materials are Nontoxic". Crayola is now a Hallmark company. My pencils were made in Brazil and imported by Crayola Canada out of Lindsay, Ontario. I found this news comforting somehow... ethical comfort.

peace on earth