Tall Tales from Kansas

I will take one just like it for our trip next summer

Today I sewed a strip of trim inside my Bavaria journal and called it done.

Here it is.  The good, the bad, the ugly, the hilarious, and the unforgettable.  A real time capsule of our time in Germany.

My sister made the journal for herself, and then (lucky for me!!!!!) decided she wanted a different format and gifted it to me.  Oh happy day.

It may be my favorite of all my travel journals to date.  To work in on the trip, I mean.   I love them all equally once they are completed.  

The size was perfect.

Small and uncomplicated.

With pages for sketching and painting.  

Sister had done some collage work in advance.  Which was so nice.  

And, plenty of room for recording all the important events.  

The accordion shape was great to work with.  

I could lay it out flat and also work on several pages at a time if I wanted to.  

I have said this before, but it bears repeating... if you don't have someone you can travel with that likes to draw blind and semi-blind contour drawings, you are missing out.  

It also helps if they say, "I think I'll paint a mountain scene" and you can say "oh me too".  Your two drawings will not look alike.  That's ok.  

If you go to Wallgau, I hope you attempt to draw the church, as well as the mountains.  It imprinted them in my brain in a way the camera never could.    

We went to the Franz Marc museum one day, and promptly came home and applied all that we had seen there.  Each to the best of our abilities.  You can't ask for more than that.  

This teeny yellow car really had 2 tail lights, but I only had room for one, you understand how that can happen I am sure. 

My map of Germany.  Not accurate.  Extremely fun to draw and paint all the same. 

Sister and I in our "house-dresses" on the balcony in Wallgau.  

The end.  Thank you sister for making this journal for me.  I will take one just like it for our trip next summer.   

pantsuits, can in fact, be considered dressy enough to wear to a formal affair

Today, during FaceTime Sketchtime with my sister, I drew Hillary and The Donald.  I don't know why.  It seemed like a good idea at the start.

While we worked, we discussed important topics, like can a pantsuit be considered formal attire and what are important criteria that should be taken into account when thinking about where to retire?

Hillary, I don't know why your eyes got too big, your teeth got crooked, or your neck came out too wide.  But I still like you.  I will draw you again.  You may come out looking more like yourself on the second attempt.  Anything is possible.  

I ended the session with a study in pumpkins and gourds while sister drew corn?  In a jar?  You'll have to ask her about that. 

 P.S.  We came to the conclusion that pantsuits, can in fact, be considered dressy enough to wear to a formal affair.  You can count on the Moss sisters to provide good fashion tips. 

when your name is carol, and you have just painted your first piece of cherry pie, you think there is nothing you can't do

I have been bitten by the gouache bug.  Bit HARD.  You can probably tell.  Seeing as I have done show and tell 4 times in the last 7 posts, and prior to that there had been no show and no tell for quite some time because there had been no painting. 

I have moved on from cake, beets, donuts, and peppers, to fruits.  More specifically cherries and bananas.  Not together.  Not yet.  This is my first attempt at cherry pie. 

I started out with practice drawing ahead of time.  Thanks sister for that invaluable little piece of advice.  It helps me to figure out in advance which ways lines should go to give a slightly proper perspective.  

Then I painted out the pie and threw on some paint until I was semi satisfied, then added just a bit more.  Because I thought I should. 

 

Once that was done I walked into the kitchen and spotted the banana.  When your name is Carol, and you have just painted your first piece of cherry pie, you think there is nothing you can't do.   So the banana it was. 

Again there was practice sketching, then I drew the banana "for real" with a micron pen and painted the background first and then painted in the banana.

When Chris came home from work I told him I was probably going to do a whole series of fruits and have them framed to go in the dining room.  He was extremely enthusiastic about the idea.   He may have jumped up and down and did a fist pump even. 

the donut and yellow pepper escapade: a melodrama in two acts

Since I was feeling reasonably satisfied with my mastery of gouache after painting the golden beet the other day, I decided to boldly proceed to the deceptively simple donut.  Step 1 - go to "Munchers" and buy some donuts.  That was the easy part.

What followed was a bit more, shall we say, complex.

It wasn't really hard, but there are subtle nuances to capturing the true essence of a donut that are elusive. 

Never one to give up, and recalling that my sister recommends telling yourself you will paint more donuts and the one you are currently working on does not have to be a masterpiece, I started another.  I had bought 2 at the bakery after all. 

This one started out a bit easier but things quickly turned hilarious when I thought to add the shadow.  They did not improve when I dropped the black brush pen I was writing with onto the page.  Oh well. 

Still, I persevered.   I moved on to the yellow pepper.  I decided to do some practice sketching before I began my "also not going to be a masterpiece" rendering of it.  I approached it from multiple angles in this session.  What could it hurt?

I was more satisfied with the way this turned out.   Which of course gives me the feeling that just maybe a piece of cherry pie might be in my immediate future.    

in the morning you think you can

Unfortunately I did not make it to the farmers market this morning because it was raining.  A lot.  Which left me at odds for what to do on a Saturday morning. 

I decided to go to the community mercantile for produce and flowers, and there I found the most beautiful golden beets.  Along with a few other necessities.

Before I let myself get caught up in any monkey business that would keep me from painting the golden beets.  I went upstairs.  Laid out a beet.  Drew a basic shape with gouache.  Swished things around in my palette until I had just the right shade of orange.  And did not let myself stop.

Then, for better or worse I decided the shadows were needed.  Followed by the decision to give it a blue background, and finally a label.

This is what happens, when you watch your sister paint pieces of PIE before you go to bed.   All night long you dream about painting, and in the morning you think you can.   So you try. 

in exactly thirteen days

Chris alerted me to the ad in the paper the other morning announcing that sweet corn is for sale at Bismark gardens.  That means we are going on Saturday.  Which means I went downstairs to the freezer yesterday to be sure I had used all the bags I froze to eat over the winter.   Which I of course had not.  Do you do that too?  Save a few bags for the very end of the winter and then forget about them? 

Not a problem.  I was hungry for a nice pot of corn chowder and I happened to have every single thing on hand to make it. 

This is a lighter version of a corn chowder, perfect for summer.  No bacon, no cream, no cheese.  It's big on flavor and has a great crunchy texture. 

Fifty six minutes after I started I had 6 jars of soup prepared and my mess cleaned up.

Which is good because then I went upstairs to do a little painting.  Which I haven't done for awhile. 

I decided to forgo anything simple and head right for the cakes.  Specifically a lemon chiffon cake with strawberry jam filling. 

I sure hope we can find us a piece of cake just like this in Stockholm.  When we are there.  In exactly thirteen days.  At which time I will be getting lots of practice painting.   I am enjoying the heck out of watching my sister's videos from class.  She makes painting look so easy.  Which it is not.  She also makes it look like a whole lot of fun.  Which it absolutely is.  No matter the outcome.