Author: virginiacmccoy

I have been making some changes, but it appears that I will need to make even more changes. I understand that this blog is not worth the trouble to follow it, so please do not feel bad about not wanting to do what it takes to see my art. There are international laws that apply to my blog and I am not willing to be bothered by them, so I am thinking of putting a password on my blog. Does anyone have any opinion on whether they would bother to use a password if I instituted one? Basically, the laws make me institute things, which I don’t really totally understand, in my blog. I have to accommodate foreign countries and their unique laws. The most recent one is Brazil’s privacy laws. I have about had enough. I am not a big company with a website department who can keep track of this stuff. I have been ignoring it all, but the pressure is building and I think I will make my website password protected so that I can choose who gets onto my website. It is rather sad that I have to do it, but I can’t think of any other way. Any ideas or thoughts? I think I will wait a week to see if anyone responds and then I will put a password on the site. If you would like the password, please let me know. If no-one wants to be bothered, maybe I should just take down the website. I have been thinking of that option, anyway. LOL! Most of the people who visit my website are from China, anyway, and they are probably stealing my art to put on t-shirts and tote bags. Bummer… LOL!

So, I have been working with watercolors and here are a few recent pieces:

Well, on to other projects. There is always something new to do. Thanks for looking. I hope you enjoy my art.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. — Isaiah 40:8

I got my new watercolor supplies and I am afraid to use the new, expensive paper. LOL! So, I have been painting in my sketchbook and on my old paper. I know. Just use it already! I will. Soon.

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! — Psalm 95:1

This is from a photo of The Old Dock Restaurant in Essex, New York. The reference photo was graciously supplied by another photographer. It is not mine, but I have had it for a couple of years, wanting to paint it and afraid to. So, I finally got up a little bit of gumption and tried it in watercolor.

I soaked and stretched the paper and then learned my first lesson in paper quality. I have very cheap paper made with wood pulp, which does not hold up well to water. Why “watercolor” paper is made that doesn’t hold up well to water is because of cost. Good watercolor paper is not cheap and I now have some on order. It is made with 100% cotton and it is in very large sheets, which I will have to cut down to whatever size I want. I can’t wait to try it. It was a little frustrating using this paper. But, I think it worked out for my first good size, relatively complicated picture. As I was stapling it to the frame, I got frustrated, because it was tearing. I finally got it done, but didn’t know how it would work, once dry. It worked well, considering. It was tight as a drum, which is how it should be. The real problem was working with water on the surface. It pilled up and layers of paper came away. The colors did not work well, either, because I didn’t spend a lot of money on those, either. So, cheap paper and cheap paints made it a little difficult. I have good paper, good paints, and a good palette on the way. Now, I will have only myself to blame for bad watercolor art. LOL! This is supposed to be a night picture. I used masking fluid for the lights and reflections, which was another problem with the paper. It ripped when I removed it. You can’t see it, unless you look closely at the original, however. So, all in all, I like it.

There is a moment in every day when it is difficult to see clearly: evening time. Light and darkness blend, and nothing is completely clear nor completely dark.  — Unknown

Well, I finally did it. I have been thinking about it for a couple of years. LOL! Such angst… This is in my sketchbook, 9×12 140 lb. watercolor paper. This is from a photo taken a couple of years ago.

If you know me, does it look like me? I think it looks much better than me. But, hey! That’s okay!

I have been playing with watercolors and making lots of messes. Here are a few of the better messes.

And the following is the other side of the page from my self-portrait.

Self-deceit is a most damaging trait. The remedy, for an artist, is to paint a self-portrait! — Scott Kahn

Every time I try to use watercolors, I get frustrated and vow never to touch them, again. And then… Yes, I try them, again. I love the look of watercolors and I have the hardest time using them to get the look that I want. Well, I did it, again. I watched a video and got inspired and dusted off the watercolors, searched all over and found my watercolor paper, searched all over and did NOT find my good watercolor palettes, and got started. I was talking to my mom on the phone while starting painting and when I gave out my first exclamation of frustration, she said, “That didn’t take long.” LOL!

I am reading Lark Rise to Candleford, a trilogy by Flora Thompson, and it is not really a story with a plot, but a long and detailed description of life, times, methods, ways of living, people, games, traditions, work, countryside, etc. It took a while to get into it, but after a while it got interesting. You can sort of put together a story as you read. It is a very long book and I am about halfway through it. It was originally published as three stories called Lark Rise, Over To Candleford, and Candleford Green. It is loosely autobiographical about a small village in rural agricultural England during the late victorian era. Very interesting.

At the same time, I am working my way through the audio version of The Mayflower: The Families, The Voyage, and The Founding of America by Rebecca Fraser. The reader is a little mechanical with inflections in the wrong places and, although the author appears to be sympathetic to all the people in the story, the reader does not. It may just be her style of reading. Otherwise, the book is very good. I am surprised that, in this day of rampant history revisions for particular agendas, this book appears to have no agenda and seems, to me, anyway, to report the facts. I like it and am a little more than halfway through it.

I am also slowly reading and savoring Edith Schaeffer’s Hidden Art of Homemaking, again. I love this book. Everyone in a household who is able to read ought to read this book: man, woman, or child. Art is everywhere, because God, the Creator of the universe, is the first Artist. As beings made in His image, we are creators, also. We should be creating beauty with our lives. Oh, so good! Get it and read it. I don’t know if it is in audio, but it would be wonderful if it was and Edith was reading it. It is too late for her to read it, but maybe one of her daughters…

If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation. — Edith Schaeffer

This is from life in oils, on an approximately 12×16 piece of board (I cannot remember what you call it, it is like heavy pressed cardboard…) that I glued some muslin fabric on and applied two coats of oil ground on top of.  It made a nice smooth surface.  I can’t tell the difference between it and acrylic paint when applying my oils on top of it.  Anyway, on to the artwork, which took me about a week and a half, because of waiting for it to dry several times to continue painting.  I have had this pitcher for a few years. I bought it at a thrift store for the express purpose of painting it. Finally… LOL!

Now, I am going to eat that orange!

I have been reading. Surprising, isn’t it? LOL! Well, I read the book True Grit, which was made into a movie with John Wayne, Glen Campbell, and Kim Darby. I’m sure you have all seen the movie. It stuck pretty well to the book, except for the end. The end is very different. I highly recommend that you get the book. It was an audio book and was read by Donna Tartt. She was the perfect one to read it. So good!

I also read In The Heart of the Rockies by G. A. Henty as recommended by one of my beloved brothers. This was my first venture into Henty’s books, which are adventure books for boys, written in the Victorian times. I must confess that I was not looking to be entertained much, but it was so good, I couldn’t put it down without thinking about when I could get back to it. I got it on my kindle reader for free from Project Gutenberg. I will be reading the next one that was recommended to me, soon.

I read A River Runs Through It, which was made into a movie with Robert Redford. I think I saw the movie, but I don’t remember. The book, which is a little raw, has a lot about fly fishing. So interesting. I have never been fly fishing and probably never will, but I love to see someone who knows what they are doing in the very act. And, I love the flies and other stuff associated with it. I could see me buying a lot of the stuff and never catching a fish. LOL! Good book, but not for children.

Another one, is Help the Poor Struggler. The name of the book is the name of a pub. This book is a murder mystery set in England and it is a gripper with a very surprising ending. At least it was surprising to me. I thought I knew who had done it so many times and I never even got close.

I am in the process, right now, of reading a book of short stories called The Mammoth Book of Men O’War. It is stories of sailing ships during wars. Very exciting. Just today, I was engaged in a brief and glorious encounter with the french in defense of the China Fleet, which was merchant ships engaged in the spice trade. Whew! I was worn out after that one. LOL!

There are other books on my list, but I can’t remember them all right now. I will try to include a few in each post. If you want more info on any of the books, just ask. If you want to buy some art, please ask that, too.

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This is a living history interpreter in Williamsburg.  (Photo reference courtesy of David O’Dell). She is a spinster, which is a person who spins yarn on a drop spindle or a spinning wheel.  It is done on velour paper with big fat soft pastels.  I get rather stressed when I cannot make fine details and make more of a likeness, but after it was all done and I hid the reference photo, I liked it.  It is 10×12.

---

I refer to myself as a spinster, because I love to spin yarn on my lovely old Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. And, yes, I am married: for almost forty years, now. Thank you, very much. — Virginia C. McCoy

Today has been a bad day, what with breeches in security and card fraud that I am having to deal with, but when I looked at this photo of my finished painting, I felt a little better. It is not wonderful and it won’t be hanging in the Louvre, but I like it and it makes me feel good.

Oils on 11×14 stretched canvas, done from life.

I am working on another still life with an orange in it. I like oranges. We have been eating a lot of oranges and grapefruits, lately.

Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.  — Anita Bryant    

I have toned my canvas for several paintings that I have done, but the last two, plus the one I am working on now, I have not. I now understand why it is done. At least for me, it is very difficult to cover the white of the canvas with the paint that I am using for the painting. It takes a lot of paint and a lot of medium to get it to spread well enough to fill in all the nooks and crannies of the canvas and get that white covered. But, when you tone a canvas with a color that will work well with the finished painting, if you miss some spots, they are not very visible. In fact, the color of the toned canvas can work so well with the end picture that it actually enhances it. But, when I am in a hurry to get started on a picture and I don’t have a canvas, toned and dry and ready, I will use the white one and regret it. So, this morning, I decided to tone a few and hope they dry soon. I mixed alizarin crimson, phthalo blue, and azo yellow to make a nice neutral brown, added some flake white replacement, some solvent free gel, and some gamsol and painted it on. I wonder if I am the only one to have a toned canvas and think to myself, “Oh! That is so pretty! I hate to think of painting on it and messing it up…” LOL! I love the color and the texture. Toby, however, thinks it is all boring and he wants to go outside and play with the rabbits and the cats who are taking over the neighborhood.

Below is the painting I am working on right now. I am struggling with it: the bowl, the fabric, everything. I am determined to keep going and not give up. Yet… I need to work on my patience, anyway…

I am glad that I have a studio companion. Or two. Sometimes, the cat will come down and bother me. LOL! It is nice to be noticed…

“You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, ‘Wow, you’re right! I never would’ve thought of that!’” — Dave Barry

This is a still life that I set up in my nifty shadow box. It is oils on a 16×20 stretched canvas. I used naphthol red, phthalo blue, sap green, yellow ochre, windsor yellow, indian red, and titanium white with Gamblin’s solvent free gel and some linseed oil. Light is so hard to control…

My still-life painting has more to do with light and shadow than with the objects themselves. — William C. Wright