Blind Contour Friday - Week 4

Welcome to Blind Contour Friday! I hope you all broke out your pens and paper and played along this week, or that you'll play sometime before next Friday. All you have to do is create your own blind contour drawing, post it on your blog and leave your name and a link to your post in the Mr. Linky there at the bottom of this post.

If you're having trouble thinking of something to draw, you can check this great list of ideas and just pick one. Relax, pick up your pen and S L O W down while you observe what you are drawing carefully.

Please make sure you link your post back here so we can spread the word and add more and more players. If you use Twitter or Facebook, feel free to post it there, as well!

*************************

Obviously, I still haven't cleaned the scanner...

This is a blind contour drawing of my youngest son's stuffed dog, Snapper. WOW, those soft edges are difficult to follow. I seemed to do much better when I tried to follow individual hairs on the right side.

*************************************

In other news - reviews are mixed regarding this commenting system - I'm going to try to see if I can make it easier, but if I can't, I'll be going back to the plain old Blogger comments. I appreciate all your help in reviewing it for me.

The main thing that is bothering me about it right now, is that it isn't immediately evident that you can use it without registering for Disqus, and that you can use your Google ID to sign in so that there is a link to your blog (you should be able to do that via the Open ID option.)

I'm going to give another day or two, but if I can't resolve those issues, I'm axing it...

**************************************************

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Etsy Excavations

Still digging up some artists for you over at Etsy...I hope you're all enjoying this series. I know I am!

********************************

Today, we're talking with Candace Squire, wanderer turned artist, currently living in Austin, Texas. Candace paints hauntingly simple and serene landscapes in oils and watercolors. She sells her work at her Etsy shop, shanti shanty.

Tell us a little about your story - how did you get started painting?

i started painting (like most) when i was a very little girl. i like to dream that i've been a painter in former lives, for me this is a good explanation of why i have always found the smell of the art rooms so intoxicating. i was very fortunate to have had an incredible art teacher in high school. he was a professional watercolorist and an inspiration. my life has taken many twists and turns as an adult, and none of them have involved art school, so the instruction i received from him is just that much more valuable to me.

What's the story behind your shop name?

"shanti" is a sanskrit word meaning peace. i am an enthusiastic yogini and i chose this word as a focus for my shop to remind myself of what i am seeking through my art. i believe these small creations, filled with love and color and dreams and wonder, are a piece of my own puzzle to come to a place of peace in my life.

What is your creative process like?

i have a sketchbook that goes everywhere with me. i try to scribble in it at least once a day even if it is only for a few minutes during a fresh air break at work. my watercolors are always set up at the dining room table for easy access. when i have the time to paint with oils, i turn up the music on the record player as loud as i think the neighbors will tolerate, and dance around my workspace palette knife in hand. somehow some of the paint makes it to the canvas. the whole ritual of it, getting my whole body into it, helps me relax and nudge the perfectionist in me to the side.

Where do you get your inspiration?

places i've been, in real life or in dreams. i am always seeking to bring the lands in my dreams to life on canvas. i also have a fascination with trees. i admire their strength and stillness. their quiet lives. i have favorites, best tree friends, that i paint and draw and meditate on often. my family is also a well of inspiration for me in so many ways.

You have oils and watercolors in your Etsy shop - do you prefer one over the other, and if so, why?

i go through phases...the watercolors offer me instant gratification. since my studio space is also the guest bedroom (and also the storage room for all of my partner's music equipment) it requires more preparation to set up the space for my oil paints, so i will paint furiously with oils for several weeks and then put everything up to dry for a couple months and so on. oil paints are very special for me. and there is no substitute.

Have you dabbled in other media?

oh YES! one of my favorite mediums is clay. especially wheel throwing. i love everything about it and hope to soon be able to afford to rent some space in a pottery studio. i also am in the middle of about a hundred craft projects ranging from knit socks to origami lanterns.

I love your painting, Landlines, for its simplicity and quiet energy - which of your own paintings is your favorite, and what do you think it says about you?

hmm...i think right now it is dreamscape: the color palette is just right for me at the moment and it is one that just flowed out of me it seems. i am constantly struggling against my desire for everything i make to be "perfect" and every moment i am creating without that looming over me is a small victory. i paint to free myself.

I like to end the interview with a list of your favorites:

Who is your favorite artist?

there are so many...but at the top is vincent van gogh. my dream is to go to his museum in amsterdam one day. there is a short film by the director akira kurosawa called "crows" in which he meets vincent van gogh in the fields and then proceeds to walk through some of his paintings. i turn it on when i need some inspiration. it's a brilliant film.

What is your favorite thing to listen to while you paint?

always something dreamy and psychedelic. usually cocorosie, os mutantes, portishead, joanna newsom, radiohead...or the classics: the kinks, beatles, queen, david bowie, willie nelson. i have a broad taste in music and always need something energetic. otherwise i tend to just sit back and watch my paintings rather than actually paint them. my partner is a musician, and when he and his guitar keep me company i am happiest.

What is your favorite paint color...the one you seem to grab every time?

i love all shades of blue and green. there is always one of each on my palette.

What is your favorite book and/or author?

if i pick one it has to be poet rainer maria rilke. he's rescued me in some hard times and always inspires me. but also anaïs nin, raymond carver, rumi...

*******************************

Thanks Candace!

Comments?

I'm trying out a new commenting platform, and would love your feedback on it...

You should be able to leave a comment using your blogger, facebook or twitter id. I'm trying it mainly because I like the idea of threaded comments, and blogger doesn't have those...

Is it a pain in the arse?

Does it work just fine?

Comment, and let me know!

****EDIT: Let me know in the comment section if you are able to comment by using your facebook or twitter id, or blogger/OpenID without registering with Disqus...if you CAN'T and don't want to register with Disqus, please send me an email, instead, and let me know that...I'm still trying to find out if this is easier or harder...there are other options, too - THANKS!!*****

It's very possible that this is just another way to procrastinate...it is November, after all...

Oh, look! Shiny green boots!

Bokeh, Baby...

I've become crazily enamored with bokeh, lately - I love trying to see just how sharp I can get the foreground, while pushing the effect in the background - this photo really shows it off, I think, with the sharp pine needles in the foreground juxtaposed against the yellow leaves behind it.

I'd love to have some deep, philosophical comparison to go along with it, but I'd just be trying too hard, and I'm feeling decidedly lazy lately. I think it's the time-change. I wanted to go to bed an hour ago.

So - hey - I know - why don't all you lovely readers leave me some cool comments about what bokeh says to you. I know there's something deep there...some completely Zen thing that is embedded in the photo.

I need me some Zen, people.

NaNoWhat?

It's November 2. Have you started writing yet?

I have. But it's not what I expected, and it's kind of freaking me out.

And that's all I'm going to say about it.

Dang.

Shadow Shot Subway

Holy smokes, I love this iPhone app...

For more spectacular shadow shots, visit HeyHarriet! and click on the links!

More Halloween Hijinx

The boys' outfits...completed. D was Ben 10, and J was Spock. Spock's hair was my knitting project for the week. Junebug's hair is very blonde, and completely non-Vulcan, so we had to come up with another solution. I had a pattern for a Hallowig, and I modified it heavily to have sweet Spockish sideburns. I tried to get one finished for myself, but just couldn't quite get it finished - the modification of Spock's hair took up too much time.

I was so close, though...just needed to finish the top. I'll have it for next year, I guess.

But for this year - this was my Halloween costume.

I love my new lime-green galoshes.

Hope you and your goblins had a great time...

p.s. these pictures were taken with my new iphone app, QuadCamera. Way cool fun, peeps.

Howl-o-ween

I'll be back with costume pictures later - and with the Halloween knitting project - assuming I actually finish it before tricks and treats commence.

And I finally posted my version of this week's topic at Lens Us Together. Nothing like waiting until the last minute....