Watercolor prints (sale)

[canpakes]

Dude! Your yard is awesome. You’re canpakes Oudolf from now on. You have an excellent eye for yardening - you even have ocotillos tucked in there. Those pv’s look fantastic. Thanks for sharing. Maybe in the Spring if you have some interesting blooms consider sharing. 🏜

- Doc

Too late for that. Remember, we left that house behind a few years back when we moved to Utah.

That’s why I’m experimenting with desert plants in our new Zone 6. I’m going to work some of those unique structural forms in with the flora of our new area. I think that it could be quite an interesting mix. Utah is half-desert anyway, and it’s only getting drier, so we’re going to have some fun with that.

[canpakes]

Our intent is to make it into a Piet Oudalf creation. Something like this:

By the way, Doc, I’ll have you to thank for some future inspiration with the UT yard. I don’t remember ever hearing about Piet Ouldof (and I have to hang my head in shame for that, considering that I should have picked up on him during my school years), and his style aligns perfectly with what we like … so, thank you for adding another excellent source of ideas and information to our planning.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Dude! Your yard is awesome. You’re canpakes Oudolf from now on. You have an excellent eye for yardening - you even have ocotillos tucked in there. Those pv’s look fantastic. Thanks for sharing. Maybe in the Spring if you have some interesting blooms consider sharing. 🏜

- Doc

Too late for that. Remember, we left that house behind a few years back when we moved to Utah.

That’s why I’m experimenting with desert plants in our new Zone 6. I’m going to work some of those unique structural forms in with the flora of our new area. I think that it could be quite an interesting mix. Utah is half-desert anyway, and it’s only getting drier, so we’re going to have some fun with that.

Sorry about that, I should’ve been more attentive. Whatever the case may be, your AZ yarden was the tits. This guy out of Tucson caught my attention years ago, and here’s an update with his rain capture yarden philosophy if you’re interested:

https://youtu.be/uYmgYF-mQfI

Ref desert planting in Utah I think it’s very doable. I saw a few yards that leaned into it with high desert cacti, joshua trees, sages, and some cold-hardy agaves. I want to say they mixed in some tough perennial flowers, succulents, and ground covers, too.

eta: this is one of the homes that did it near me:



‘Joshua Tree’ home is a few blocks away, but the rest of their yard looks like garbage so I’m not posting a pic. Man, I wish I could remember where I saw the desertscape homes in SLC, a couple of them were really well done

My biggest regret from my time in SLC was that I didn’t drop my park strip down below curb level about 6-8” to capture the natural rain and snow mix. I mean, it was still pretty, but I felt like I could’ve halved my supplemental watering had I just done that. Oh, well. Lessons learned.

And thanks with regard to P.O. - I’ve watched everything I could on the man. He’s really remarkable.

- Doc

[canpakes]

This guy out of Tucson caught my attention years ago, and here’s an update with his rain capture yarden philosophy if you’re interested:

https://youtu.be/uYmgYF-mQfI

Rain capture … a completely smart idea.

We actually set up the drainage for the AZ home to do this. We built mild swales with some deeper areas that held pools of rainwater, some several feet across and a foot deep when full, in some areas. The backyard overflow drained into the front, and into more swales. Those meandered past the trees, ending at a small raised overflow cut at the sidewalk/driveway. This let water stay in the yard for a few hours to a day after a quick monsoon downpour, with the trees taking advantage of that extended drinking time. Where the overflow water spilled out, it meandered over a few small boulders surrounded by flowers. It all worked out quite well, and after the first year, we never had to water the trees in the front, unless we had gone a couple of months without rain.

There’s no chance to do that in the Utah property; we’re on a steep enough slope to make that impossible without some major excavation. So we’re going to add plants according to how which areas have best to worst water retention, which will let us add xeriscape-typical choices to the most deficient areas. That lets us work with the characteristics of the property rather than trying to ‘fix’ its natural tendencies.

We’ve abandoned irrigation in our park strip (it only partially worked anyway), removed the grass and started adding in drought-hardy plants a few years back. It blows up with blooms in the springtime. : )

[Jersey Girl]

Wow! I am loving all the photos on this little secret sharing thread that this has turned into! The gardening images are so beautiful and instructive! We're in zone 5a or 5b. It varies in this little town of ours. Starting in late Jan-Feb the gardeners will start growing from seed...in their basements. You should see the set ups they come up with! Shelving, lights on timers, foil tenting, and even fans to simulate wind. I have never gone that route. It seems like a lot of work and care, knowing that one perfectly aimed hail storm and forgetting to put hail cloth covers on if you're not home, can take it out if you're not careful. I grow in Earth Boxes under hail cloth that is on 24/7. Summer before last, hail got my Day Lilies to the max. I had those forever, too!

One thing that does grow well here in terms of flowers are Cosmos. They are annuals but if grown from seed, they reseed themselves, at least ours do. And...the deer don't bother with them. I usually plant them on front of the chimney because it juts up 2.5 stories and the Cosmos easily grow 6ft in that location so it gets to be kind of showy. This past summer I devoted myself to planting deer resistant plants...mainly purple cat mint and lavender in the front flower bed. Didn't plant the back shady flower bed because a Mama deer chose it for her nap time getaway-from-the-kids spot so I let her have it. Marigolds in what is now a vintage wheel barrow (because we are apparently vintage, too), and I keep trying to please the pollinators. They seemed to love the cat mint this year and the deer purely hated it!

No idea if any of it will survive over winter. We'll see. It was fun and it worked.

Anyone who peeps in here, please post pics of what you make and grow! It's so inspiring to see what people do when they're not hacking away at aggravating political topics.

I would love to see your gardens, photography, stuff you make, refinish, DIY projects, craft artsy things, whatever you got...put it right here for us please!

[canpakes]

One thing that does grow well here in terms of flowers are Cosmos. They are annuals but if grown from seed, they reseed themselves, at least ours do. And...the deer don't bother with them.

I tried starting white cosmos from seed this year, and got a half-dozen seedlings to plant under the aspen. Nice flowers, and lacy foliage - and, like you said, deer seem to ignore them, though you probably get more deer visiting your yard on any given day than we’d see in a month. I’d like to try them again this spring.

One other thing that I wanted to mention about the gold-rubbed bells that you posted earlier … the finish brings out a ‘cast’ appearance to the metal, making them look more robust. I like it.

[honorentheos]

Have you experimented with resist or color-shifting dyes yet?

The print you’re purchasing looks as if it may use resists to create those crisp snowflake profiles.

I'm sure huckleberry or Morley would know for sure, but I'm about 99% sure the snowflakes and crisp white edges were the result of liquid mask. I've used it and, when I saw JGs pic, it reminded me of it's usefulness. There are watercolor purists who view using it as cheating. And as best as my amateur experience can tell the alternative is to use paper wetting around dry edges to produce crisp white edges the "right" way. Maybe. I don't know, I just use mask fluid.

[honorentheos]

I can't believe I'm doing this. I know I've posted crafty things in the past that I've made but showing these is super hard for me. It actually makes me feel sick. I'm not joking.

Hi Jersey Girl,

I love your paint studies. What stands out is your attention to what you are seeing, the structure of it, and your color choices are nice.

I was taught a little exercise a bit like playing scales on an instrument. It's based on watercolors having two media "dials" with which to work. One being how thick or thin the paint is, and the other is how wet or dry the paper is. The exercise involves taping a paper and creating a gradation of wetness on one side, with the wetter paper to the bottom up to fully dry at the top, and the other half being wetted to what one would normally paint on. Then, using one color on a palette, laying out thinned dabs with a range of consistencies ranging from heavy cream, milk, skim milk, and tea (if you can visualize those). The exercise involved painting brush strokes of each consistency over each wetted section of paper to develop a vocabulary with the paint. I feel it really helped me progress and it's kinda fun.

Anyways nice work and thanks for sharing!

ETA: on reread, I should clarify that by side I mean divide the paper into left and right.

[Jersey Girl]

Hi Jersey Girl,

I love your paint studies. What stands out is your attention to what you are seeing, the structure of it, and your color choices are nice.

I was taught a little exercise a bit like playing scales on an instrument. It's based on watercolors having two media "dials" with which to work. One being how thick or thin the paint is, and the other is how wet or dry the paper is. The exercise involves taping a paper and creating a gradation of wetness on one side, with the wetter paper to the bottom up to fully dry at the top, and the other half being wetted to what one would normally paint on. Then, using one color on a palette, laying out thinned dabs with a range of consistencies ranging from heavy cream, milk, skim milk, and tea (if you can visualize those). The exercise involved painting brush strokes of each consistency over each wetted section of paper to develop a vocabulary with the paint. I feel it really helped me progress and it's kinda fun.

Anyways nice work and thanks for sharing!

ETA: on reread, I should clarify that by side I mean divide the paper into left and right.

I will try that exercise, honor. What kind of paints do you think I should be using? Mine are wait...I'll pull them out...Daler Rowney in small tubes. I would've gotten them on AMZ or at Walmart. Not sure. Something like 24 colors in the set. I don't like them but that could be because I'm new at using them. I use a clear plastic deviled egg tray for a palette or a small white glass palette if using only a few colors. I mix in water with a pipette and if I want to use them the next day, I cover them or let them dry out and reconstitute. I'm sure I am doing it wrong. I hear that Hobby Lobby is the best place for artist materials around here.

I have concentrated liquid water colors from a teacher supply house that I've used for years at home and in class. But even the concentrate isn't to my liking for painting on watercolor paper. I can do a few effects type things with it, but I feel like I have no control over the paint because it's watery (does that sound crazy?). None of the images I posted were done with those.

I normally use half sheets so the sizing of the flower:stems is off on account of the small area. I try to concentrate on one aspect at a time to see what I can do. I always do a water wash on the paper. I think in the very beginning I painted on dry paper.

Thanks for your instructive comments. I quite clearly don't know what I'm doing. I pull them out on a snowy day and muck around with them. I feel like the best approach for me as an individual is to see what the paints can do, how the brushes interact with the paint...and try. I spatter over them because I like the way it looks.

I can craft almost anything using any type of application and materials. I can do all kinds of hand arts including various types of hook and needle work. I'm confident about those things. Watercolor painting uncharted territory for me. I don't know what I'm doing. I just DO it and see what happens.

I would like to be able to do three things with it. Paint the Pines and Aspens, and I'd like to be able to take my brush markers with me on a trip and paint a small travel portfolio of what I see. I brought it all with me and never used them when I was traveling. I might be better off taking a camera!

[Jersey Girl]

One thing that does grow well here in terms of flowers are Cosmos. They are annuals but if grown from seed, they reseed themselves, at least ours do. And...the deer don't bother with them.

I tried starting white cosmos from seed this year, and got a half-dozen seedlings to plant under the aspen. Nice flowers, and lacy foliage - and, like you said, deer seem to ignore them, though you probably get more deer visiting your yard on any given day than we’d see in a month. I’d like to try them again this spring.

One other thing that I wanted to mention about the gold-rubbed bells that you posted earlier … the finish brings out a ‘cast’ appearance to the metal, making them look more robust. I like it.

Yes, deer are on the property almost every single day. Right now we're treated to the sight of the bucks going after the females for nefarious purposes. But...that's where the babies come from in spring which is really cause for celebration around here. So fun to watch them wobble around and grow!

Anyway, that Rub n' Buff did exactly what I saw it do on the youtube channels. I saw the folks using it on camera and was skeptical until I tried it. I think it was $6 at Hobby Lobby. I figured I had nothing to lose with the bells. Now I'm looking around for other metal pieces to use it on. I have some wrought iron decor so I'll try that next. Kind of nice to give something a new life. I have a hunch this stuff is addictive.