Saturday in Riverparks

Saturday was another beautiful day so we went to the park.  Here is my bike loaded with essentials, lunch and art supplies.

Here is my travelling watercolor kit with brushes, brush pens, kleenex, blotter, tape, mask, sharpener, erasers and even a small container of salt.  The small cigar tin is my paint kit.

When open my little cigar tin looks like this, all the paints I need plus sponge and white watercolor crayon for when I need a touch of opaque white.

Here is the quick sketch of Mack I did while we were there.  The drawing is black Pitt pen embelished with some watercolor washes.  This was our last day of Springlike temps, tomorrow we are expecting snow.

Keystone Dam Area

On Friday we had a high temperature of the low 70's and we celebrated by going for a short hike in the Keystone Dam area.  It has been years since we have been on this trail and I had forgotten how beautiful it is there.  I sat and did this sketch while Mack went back to the car to get extra camera batteries.  We had a wonderful time and both took some great pictures.

View of the Arkansas from Bixby Bridge

Here is my second oil painting of a scene I pass when I walk the Bixby Trail.  I have seen it in every season and this is mid October.  We have had a very dry fall and winter here.  Even though I did not paint this outside it is a view I know well and I have sketched frequently in this area in pencil, pen and watercolor. Oil on board 6x8".

SketchCrawl at the Tulsa Zoo

Mack and I went to the Tulsa Zoo yesterday to participate in the international sketchcrawl. Of course he had the camera and I had the sketchbook.  It was about 11:30 am when we arrived and cold but at least it was not crowded.  We started with the Chimps and worked our way through the exhibits.  Here are some of the first sketches I did.

The Collared Peccary's were the best models of the day. Of course they were settled in for a long winters nap at the time.  About 2pm it was time for coffee, lunch at the zoo, a  few tweeks to the previous sketches and more coffee.

Then we headed to the Rainforest exhibit where it is very warm.

Inside, I did some more sketches

The Black Cayman was a good model too.  It was just as I was finishing the Lion Monkey that they reminded us it was almost time for the zoo to close at 5pm so we started hiking back to the car.  A sketchcrawl is great fun and I would reccomend giving it a try.

Just a Dusting of White

Here is my first oil painting in many years. Started Plein Air ( if you can call my front porch Plein Air) and finished in the studio. We had just a light snow here- the kind I like no icy roads or loss of power. I hope this is first of many more because I need to paint right now.  I am also starting out the new year  by taking some classes at the Virtual Art Academy on line and enjoying them while learning and refreashing my skills.