Watercolor prints (sale)

[Jersey Girl]

Here's a thing I wanted to show because maybe someone might could use the product idea. I had these old rusty bells I bought from a thrift store years ago. I used a product called Rub n' Buff where you just rub or paint it on with a brush (I killed a small paint brush for this) then literally rub and buff it. It puts on kind of a waxy coating but it dries. This color was Antique Gold. I restrung them on jute twine and I really like how they brightened up.

That's pretty good, right?

I saw the product being used on youtube where they'd do it on old thrifted brass candlesticks, light fixtures, and wood picture frames to get a vintage look. A small amount goes a long way. The only place I could find it local was Hobby Lobby.

Before:



After:

[Jersey Girl]

That's how bad my painting is. I had a photograph of real live Lupines to go off of and they still don't look like flippin' Lupines!

You wanna know something? My wife and I just got done talking about how we’re going to sow lupines this next year. And this is thanks to you posting your pictures. Like, we literally just got done talking about our strategy for successfully growing them next year (I’ve never got them to grow and I gave up). So, when we see lupines in our yard next Spring I’ll think about Jersey Girl over in Colorado trying her hand at art.

- Doc

Oh that's really good! That's about all we have growing wild on the property now on account of the drought conditions. The pines didn't even produce cones the past two years. I used to be able to collect buckets of them in fall and it just kills me because you know, I'm always noodling around with something here and...no cones!

I've never tried growing Lupines but I'm assuming your climate is at least similar to ours? I'm at 7600ft here at the house. I hope they come up for you and grow like crazy!

Then you can try painting them...and post the pics!

Seriously, you guys probably think you know me pretty well. That took a lot for me to post pics of those.

[canpakes]

You could've easily crushed me like a bug.

We can work ‘crush like a bug’ into this topic. : )

https://www.instructables.com/Make-Pain ... _page=true

[Jersey Girl]

You could've easily crushed me like a bug.

We can work ‘crush like a bug’ into this topic. : )

https://www.instructables.com/Make-Pain ... _page=true

Oh noes!

I've painted with trout. That's pretty close!

[canpakes]

That's how bad my painting is. I had a photograph of real live Lupines to go off of and they still don't look like flippin' Lupines!

Actually, the leaf structure should have tipped me off. You’ve painted the plant accurately!

[canpakes]

That's about all we have growing wild on the property now on account of the drought conditions. The pines didn't even produce cones the past two years. I used to be able to collect buckets of them in fall and it just kills me because you know, I'm always noodling around with something here and...no cones!

That reminds me … one of our neighbors has a massive cottonwood tree, which - to the irritation of half the street - puts out a crazy enough amount of ‘cotton’ each spring to make our own yard look as if it just got a skim coat of snow. I don’t mind it as it’s attractive in its own way and disappears with one good rainstorm, but this last spring … nothing at all. No flowers, not a stitch of fluff. It’s as if the tree knew that the rains wouldn’t be there for the seeds (and they weren’t).

I've never tried growing Lupines but I'm assuming your climate is at least similar to ours? I'm at 7600ft here at the house. I hope they come up for you and grow like crazy!

Like yourself, we’re experimenting with what plants work. We’re in zone 6a, so I’m also testing marginal ‘desert’ plants like agave and nolina. Some of the compact and standard forms of agave parryi do OK in winter within this zone. For something that you’d normally see in a drier climate, they actually pair well with a lot of finer-foliage flowering plants, especially deeper green/purple mixes.

Pic below shows them with purple lantana, from our yard in AZ. That lantana wouldn’t last 5 minutes after the temps hit freezing, but the agave is good ‘til near 0 degrees, as long as it doesn’t keep wet.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

That’s gorgeous. I love agaves. I sometimes think about how we’d go about ‘lushing up’ a desert landscape if we lived in AZ (we almost landed in AZ after I retired since we spent so much time at Ft. Huachuca and had extended family there). I don’t know if you can have too many agaves in AZ. Do you have trees in your yard? I love palos verdes and would’ve probably over planted them if it were up to me. If you feel like sharing more plant pics I’m super into it.

- Doc

[canpakes]

That’s gorgeous. I love agaves. I sometimes think about how we’d go about ‘lushing up’ a desert landscape if we lived in AZ (we almost landed in AZ after I retired since we spent so much time at Ft. Huachuca and had extended family there). I don’t know if you can have too many agaves in AZ. Do you have trees in your yard? I love palos verdes and would’ve probably over planted them if it were up to me. If you feel like sharing more plant pics I’m super into it.

- Doc

We happily overplanted trees in our yard and most were Palo verdes. That springtime cloud of blooms is fantastic, and then it overlaps into the ironwood bloom, with their pale purple flowers, for sweeps of color across the hills in late spring … if there was enough winter rain.

I’m betting that you’ve noticed that desert plants grow with a sort of haphazard disorganization, but I like that ‘not so manicured’ look. This is a corner of our AZ front yard, with desert marigold stealing the scene:



Once the palo verde bloom, they’ll stay in color for at least a month.



Another great feature of desert plants is that their wild variation of form and scale can be taken advantage of to create little points of interest between the larger stuff. This is a mamillaria cactus at the base of one of the palo verdes. You could probably cup this little thing in your hands.



You can even decorate an agave for Christmas. One of our little ones did this to a couple of them one year …. : D

[canpakes]

Jersey Girl, not to derail, but have you ever tried batik? I have no idea what it’s all about; I just know that I’ve run across examples of batik paintings that I’d snap up in a second if I was always carrying wads of cash with me (or had the space to hang them …).

There are huge variations in the style, but I’m a fan of the more subtle color approaches, for landscapes.

Oh no, I've never done Batik. That's a resist isn't it? I don't know how it's done. I've done Adinkra prints but that's just transfer prints and I'm sure I didn't do it the way they're done in Africa. Just on cloth with handmade blocks.

Jersey Girl, I found the images I’d stuffed away of two batik paintings from a local (AZ) artist. I wish that I could find her name. This is talent that I could only hope to have. They’re beautiful, at least to my eye.

[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