Cabins Aren’t Meant For Flooding : Daily Art Practice
Couch Talk
Another busy week as I was preparing to leave for our yearly anniversary trip. On Thursday morning, we were set to leave as soon as the children went to school and SURPRISE, school was cancelled due to flooding. We have had a lot of heavy rains the past few weeks and the river is the highest it has been in several decades. That delayed our trip by several hours until other arrangements could be made for them. And would you believe they had two days off total? All the roads near the river were completely under water. Thankfully we live at the top of a ridge so water issues are not a problem for us. It doesn’t look like rain is in the forecast for the coming week so hopefully the water will recede before it rains again.
We were able to go on trip and we had a great time despite my catching a head cold. It’s not a lot of fun to be sick away from home. I’ll share our trip in another post as I am still working on my sketches.
Watercolor Shop Front
I am still making my way through my shop front challenge. I am using a Arteza Watercolor Sketchbook, 5.5×5.5-inch watercolor journal to house all these little paintings. It is the perfect little book as I like working in small sizes. I am really excited that the completed book will have 88 completed shopfronts! Only 58 left!
The first shop front is the Prawn Noodle Bar in Singapore. You can see the reference photo HERE. If you want to see some of the delicious food they serve look HERE.
Next, is Retro Crates, another shop in Singapore. They sell old and new vinyl records. My reference photo is HERE.
Watercolor With Me
It has been a while since I worked in my Watercolor With Me in the Forest book but I finally got a few new pages completed.
When I first saw the cabin, I thought it was boring and I considered skipping over it. But due to all the shop fronts I have been doing, it gave me a better idea of what to do when it came to perspective and shadows so when I got to this page, I felt better prepared. I even had fun and used creative license to make this my own. Can you see the way the water bloomed on the front bottom left, making it look like a 2 patches of grass? That was totally unintentional but one of the beauties of working with watercolor.
I find mushrooms beautiful with their domed and spotted caps. I also love eating them so I am not surprised that I enjoy painting them.
Tea Day
I am joining the T ladies, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. Over the weekend I purchased this Teavana Mandarin Mimosa, Herbal Tea tea. I have had it before but I forgot how much I liked it. I usually drink loose leaf tea as I find the quality and flavor better than bagged tea.
Recently though, I have been drinking a lot of bagged tea as it saves time. When I steep the camellia sinensis leaf (black, white or green tea), I always wait 10 minutes before steeping my tea. Water temperature is very important and if the temperature is too high, the tannins in the tea leaf will be released which causes the tea to be bitter. This takes more time than I want to spend right now so I am going through a season of trying out different bagged teas. And you know what, some of them are delicious!
Happy Tea day,
Kate
Hi Kate, so glad you were still able to go on your trip-in low areas here in Missouri there can be allot of flooding-especially those living near rivers. we have had draught conditions here most of the summer so far.
Your paintings are amazing-I love your art-and that is neat to paint them into a book. I need to find time to practice with watercolors-I am no artist but I really want to be able to paint something nice.
I have been looking at that authors watercolor books for inspiration-I should pick up one of those Your teas always sound so delicious too Happy tea day hugs
I especially LOVED the record shop. I see you even included those trash cans. I think it was my favorite this week.
Sorry to read about the flooding in your area setting your time away back for you. I would gladly take some of that rain and a bit of cooler weather, too.
Your tea sounds good, even if it is in a bag. Those bags make great collage fodder at least. Thanks for sharing your gorgeous drawings/colorings, your flood photo, and your tea with us for T this almost Tuesday, Kate. Sorry to read you were sick while you were away.
I was wondering about you and Linda when I heard about the flooding in PA.. I don’t believe you live near Linda, but you know how the news is. They make it sound like the whole state is flooding. Glad your home is high and dry. The pictures I saw of the flooding look horrible. And I can’t say I’ve heard of school cancelled for flooding, although once we did have a no school rain day when we got 20 inches. and they worried about lots of flooding. Glad you were able to get away also. And fun to see more architecture sketches. Have a wonderful T day, and hope your weather stays dry. Hugs-Erika
The pages in the Watercolor with me in the Forest book look lovely. I love what happened with the grass in front of the cabin, it does look like bunches of grass. Beautiful.
Flooding. A stinky mess. But it made my Hubby move to my place in 2007 🙂
Your art is great again!
Said Hubby gave me another challenge, it seems watercolors swim away from me!
Happy T-Day (I still prefer tea over turning on the heating).
Hi Kate, sorry to hear about the flooding, but glad you were still able to get away for a break. Your watercolours are wonderful, you really have talent. Happy T Day, hugs, Valerie
I’m sorry to hear about the flooding, and then you coming down with a head cold while on your vacation. Watercolor paintings are always beautiful.
All the rain we’ve had this Summer has been the pits. Hopefully, we won’t trend with a wet and snowy Winter. The buildings are awesome especially the record shop. Love those blues. Your watercolors are just amazing. Happy T Day
Hi Kate, I’m pleased to hear you still managed to go on your trip despite the awful flooding. Your watercolours are stunning, I hope you are framing them to use in your home.
Happy T Day
Jan
Sorry about the flooding in your area, Kate. I feel bad for the people who have to deal with the clean up and aftermath. Glad you got to go on a trip with your family though.
Love the cabin, the mushrooms, and the shops – your watercolors are always a treat!
Happy T-day! Fab share.
I’m glad you got to go on your trip. Traditions are important, even though they can be difficult to maintain sometimes. I love your mushrooms!
What a beautiful shopfront. I looked at the photo and it is a perfect likeness. You’ll have a lovely book of shopfronts when you finish. Next thing is, you’ll want to visit the locations.
How horrible about the floods. And good that your house is not in the danger zone.
We’re on holiday now and doing walks in the heat.
Looking forward to seeing photos of your trip.
Happy T Day,
Hugs,
Lisca
So glad you still got to go away despite the flooding,co hope you are feeling much better now too! Your paintings are amazing, loving the effects and designs – that looks like such a fun book 😁. Your tea sounds perfect too! Happy T Day wishes! Hugs Jo x
It amazes me how close your sketches are to your reference photos. Love our watercolor, too. That is a brand of tea I had never heard of until I got it as a gift from my secret sister a couple of years ago. I hadn’t ever seen it in a store before, so I have no idea where she got it. But I liked it and even still have the cute container.
I am glad you still got to go on your anniversary trip. How nice to have an annual anniversary trip. Happy T Day.
Ohhh nooooo. So sorry about the flooding. I just love your art. These are amazing. Be safe over there.
Glad you were still able to go on your trip and hope your cold is better soon. I love that little book, it looks so sweet and would probably make a lovely gift. Sorry for my lateness, have a sick kitty. Happy T Day! Elle/EOTC xx
Pleased to read that you still got your break, hope your cold has gone by now.
Love your sketching – we did attempt some while away but not for showing just yet!
Sometimes quick is best, have a good week, Chrisx