squwetchy Apart from the small paint splatter accident mid way thru, my #watercolour #flower painting homework for week two turned out better than I’d expected. to be honest, I didn’t really like this picture when he showed it to us last night and the results that he got were a little flat and uninspired for my own personal tastes, which has less to do with the artistic quality and more to do with the lesson that was being forwarded in our second class. I tried to duplicate the results as best as I could, and then soften the background a little bit more than he had in his original piece, which was a fairly abrupt matte black. Watercolour flowers week 2 homework used about fifty bucks* worth of yellow paint but the results seem worth it. *tho not really

8r4d A spring delay left Milton out in the snow. #buggyland

8r4d We’ve got some challenging pieces this year, including a couple where only half the #orchestra plays, so rehearsal has been a bit weird. Sometimes the brass plays by themselves while the #violin and string contingent waits, and sometimes it’s vice versa.

castironguy For a change of scenery I opted to make a batch of #sourdough bagels this week instead of the usual loaves of bread. It didn’t hurt that in s batch of spices we got recently from one of those school fundraising things there was a pack of Everything Bagel seasoning. The house smells delicious!

8r4d Just a #spring day at the dog park.

pixelazy The #sky just as we finished our Thursday evening run last night.

8r4d I set out this morning to see just how long it would take to walk from my front door to #westedmontonmall on foot. That’s one heck of a long #walk. Nearly 12k and two and a half hours later, crossing the river, finding bridges across a couple major roads, climbing the Wolf Willow stairs, finding the school where I did my student teaching two decades ago and generally walking a lot, I stepped thru the doors of the mall. I think I earned a lunch out.

pixelazy I decided to go for a long #walk today instead of a long bike ride and I wound up in the valley trails where #spring is showing signs of reappearance in the form of tree buds and various insects. #insect #spider #macro

squwetchy Sometimes I run my paintings thru an AI filter to see if the algorithm and smoothing of some of the details improves it. Oddly enough there is something to be learned from this that helps me see colours and tonal elements more clearly. It’s like putting your writing thru a grammar checker so you can see where the run-on sentences are. The flaws stand out and you can see what you did wrong for next time. #flower #filter

8r4d For all of last year I didn’t even take my #bike out once. I tell you why that is other than we spent a lot of time on vacation and busy with marathon training so in the end, I barely took the bike off the rack let alone actually getting it out into the trails. Literally I did not take it out even once. So in order to remedy that in 2024 I made sure to do a nice long trail ride even before April ended and got my bike tuned up and out and about in the neighbourhood for a 17 km ride this afternoon.

squwetchy Take two: This is the second attempt, my “homework” attempt at the same #flower image as my last post from my #watercolour course night one.

pixelazy I am taking a #flower painting course this spring so this feed is destined to become a collection of flower reference photos.

squwetchy It has been almost a year since I took a #watercolour class at the local recreation centre. Last spring I took a course from a local teacher on painting Canadian landscapes in watercolours which taught me a whole bunch of new techniques and ideas for improving my personal sketching and painting. This spring, I signed up for a second course by the same teacher, but this time our focus is #flower painting in watercolour. we are encouraged to document the process each class by taking photos of the various stages of the artwork as we paint it as a group, but our instructor insisted obviously that none of those pictures that would hint or give away course materials be posted anywhere so while you will see a number of finished Paintings as a progress through the course over the next few weeks the closest I can give you to show some of the background is a picture like this of me documenting the colour I used to mix for one particular stage, which I don’t think gives much away.

pixelazy I was feeling photographic down at Terwillegar Park this morning. Enjoy this collection of random artsy photos.

8r4d Our morning #walk was full of interesting shadows.

8r4dsfeets My shoes this month are a pair of old recycled runners from a few years ago, but they are good enough for long morning #walk through the dog park on a quiet Tuesday morning. It may be #spring but there is still ice on the river. #rivervalley

adventuredog This little dog always seems to be a few steps behind. With it being #spring We’ve taken our morning walk to the local dog park where she can be off leash. That’s great and all but I spend most of my days shouting at her to keep up as she sniffs and wanders and occupies herself at her leisure.

adventuredog well, sure the rules are there for a reason, but they really count when the sign is on the ground and the sun is in the air? we went for #spring #walk turned into a photo expedition.

8r4dsfeets I like big bolts and I cannot lie… #rivervalley #walk

8r4dsfeets Lurking above the whale at #westedmontonmall

8r4d Mission Fail: My trip to the mall for #art supplies for my class which starts tomorrow hit a snag. I walked in to my trusty locale for inexpensive paints and behold the doors were shuttered and the bay dark. The cultural wasteland that is this city got another degree barren. Of course I spent an hour wandering in #westedmontonmall because y’know gas prices and why not. Tho for a Monday morning I don’t know what i was expecting. It’s dead as anything here.

8r4d It’s one of those things that often escapes or attention in a busy busy world, and tho you might feel that my life of quasi-middling retirement cannot possibly be busy busy, I do find myself needing to pause every once in a while and reflect on the good moments and #smallthings that warm up my still chilly days. Like when I walked over to starbucks for my two hours of morning writing today and was thankful that I wasn’t in this portapotty when the wind caught it, but also when I ordered a grande #coffee but they gave me a venti by accident so that my daily chapter was fuelled by discounted (but still overpriced) caffeine. Like I said, it’s the small things…

8r4d Around the park for some windy running play.

8r4d We did a trip to Canmore in March for spring break, tho the weather was decidedly still winterish. One of our hikes took us on a meandering stroll up and around the mountain trail past the golf course. #backposting