Leslie Brasher

En plein air, finally!

2011-06-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to find another artist to go painting outside with me, and last week I discovered that a friend of mine had recently started painting again, and wanted to go paint en plein air. So, last Wednesday three of us went downtown and painted a local landmark, the oak trees at Toomer's Corner. If any of you are aware of the Auburn/Alabama rivalry you probably read about the nut who poisoned the Toomer's Oaks after we beat Alabama last year. He most definitely does not represent Alabama fans, but he claimed to have done it because he loved Alabama and hated Auburn. Crazy!!

Anyway, the poor trees are definitely dying. After having done the painting last week and sold a bunch of prints and notes this past weekend, I read that the university is saying if you want to see the trees while they are still green, you need to come in the next few weeks.

Here is my painting:

I hope to go painting with Jill and Kim again in a couple of weeks! It was great fun.

Fun new sunflower painting!

2010-07-17T21:44:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we visited my parents and sister in Huntsville to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. On Saturday we went to a really interesting hydroponics farm, and got some sunflowers along with all the terrific vegetables. That evening several of us sat around the kitchen table and drew or painted the sunflowers.

Mom gave me some Aquaboard panels, and I opened a pack of the 5"x5" ones to give it a try! Tomorrow I will spray the painting with a fixative but I wanted to go ahead and put up the image now. If it's much different after spraying it I will post again.

New blog layout

2010-06-30T21:48:00.000-05:00

A friend was out of town yesterday and invited us to harvest his garden to keep it producing. We came home with quite a bounty!! Here's just one little bit of it; quite colorful! I put a bunch of squash in the freezer over the weekend from another friend, and today I battered and froze two trays of eggplant, and we sliced, battered and baked another one for supper. Yummy! It was like fried okra but without the grease.

I'm playing with the new Blogger templates. I kind of like this, but please leave me a comment letting me know if you think the background is too distracting. Thanks! :)

Art Shows

2010-03-06T22:25:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been far too long since I updated my blog! I'm just popping in now to give a quick update. This past year has been really busy but good. Most recently, David finished his last season with Upward Basketball last week. My folks came to visit for the weekend and were able to go to his basketball game, then go to the opening of an art show some of my work is hanging in for a few weeks, and they got to see David get baptised on Sunday. Altogether it was a wonderful weekend!

These are the four paintings that I've got hanging in the new Catawampus Gallery in Opelika. They will be hanging for a month.

This is a close up of my favorite one. I love to paint irises!

And this is the best thing that happened last weekend. David was baptised by our youth minister, Greg. It was a terrific weekend!

Fun with birds, and an exciting announcement!

2009-02-13T21:03:00.012-06:00

Claude Maran, our rooster

Wow, I can't believe it's been two months since I've posted! I have got to do better about keeping up with this, because I enjoy it so much.

Over Christmas we built ourselves a new chicken coop and pen that we hope will be safer than anything we've had before. Of course, we let the chickens range during the daytime when we're home, but nothing should get them while they're penned up, anyway.

A couple of weeks ago a friend offered us some of her Americauna chickens. She had to get rid of her stock because she's been doing so much traveling. These are the chickens that lay pastel colored eggs- Easter eggs! We are so excited because the white one (you can see her in the picture above) has laid two blue-green eggs this week!!!

Last week another friend gave us one of her red-faced parrot finches! She had banned this one from her aviary because it was a bully. It's perfectly happy to live by itself, so we are happy to have it! Jon named him Atticus. :) I do think that's it for adding any new animals for a while, though...

Now for the exciting announcement!

(Well, it's exciting to me, anyway...)

I've decided to create a separate blog just for my artwork. I would love it if you would pop on over to my art gallery blog and tell me what you think of it! The address is http://lesliebrasherart.blogspot.com/ and I will be tweaking it in the days to come, I'm sure. I'm also hoping it will inspire me to be more faithful at creating and posting new artwork, without bogging this one down for those of you who aren't interested in seeing the art.

Busy December

2008-12-20T21:35:00.003-06:00

As the title says, it has been a busy December. I was blessed to be in 3 art shows/sales within 5 weeks, and really enjoyed doing that. They kept me hopping to get ready for each! Now I'm looking forward to participating in the Auburn CityFest in April.

Here's a picture of my display at the last show of this year, a couple of weeks ago. I know Jon cut off my head, but what I wanted him to get was the table, anyway. I really like how it looked. :)

Now, I want to close with this picture of the fantastic sunset visible from our back porch 2 nights ago. Wow... this photo doesn't come near to doing it justice! This month, our family celebrates the day the God of this fantastic creation was born a Child in Bethlehem. He came to sacrifice Himself so that we might know Him forever. May you have joy this season, and know the One Who loves you so much.

With love from our family to yours!
Leslie

Pears, pears and more pears!

2008-11-20T08:38:00.000-06:00

First, I need to correct something I said in my last blog post. Our new rooster and hens were given to us by our FRIEND, who also happens to be Jon's boss. :) The friendship has gone on much longer than the working relationship, however!

Our neighbors have a pear tree that has produced abundantly this year. They have been very generous with the fruit, and we all worked together to make pear honey a few weeks ago. While we had all these wonderful pears around I decided to do a couple of fun paintings with some of them as models. I also had some long, slender mats my mom had given me, so I painted these to fit the mats.

I'm going to be in another art show this weekend. This time it's a Christmas sale featuring a lot of local artists and craftsmen. I participated in the first one last year and had a lot of fun! It will be tomorrow (Friday) from 4 to 8pm, and Saturday from 10 to 5pm, at the Jan Dempsey Art Center in Auburn. Please come out and do your Christmas shopping, and come by to say hello to me!!

Eggs!!! Camping and Art

2008-11-06T18:33:00.001-06:00

Out of the 11 small Barred Rock chickens we got for David's birthday, all but 3 were killed by a pack of dogs two weeks after we got them. Sigh. So, the following week Jon's boss gave us an adult rooster, and sent 2 older hens along with him. They were no longer laying eggs, he said.

This Saturday, the small brown hen laid an egg!!! Then another on Monday, another on Tuesday, and a 4th today! We are surprised and thrilled. So was the former owner, who was really shocked. :)

The last weekend in October we went camping with a group of friends we've known for years, most of them, anyway. New ones, too! The campground was Roosevelt State Park in Georgia, next to Callaway Gardens. So, we spent Sunday afternoon at Callaway. We enjoyed the whole weekend! It was beautiful weather- beautiful!!

Our tent and campsite:

After leaving the butterfly house we saw a Great Grey Heron as we were driving over the bridge, heading to the Raptor Show.

At the Raptor Show they were demonstrating the owls! They were so cool. After the show the handler stayed up front with this adorable Screech Owl!

While we were at the campground relaxing, I began a set of small paintings that I ended up really liking as a single unit!

I'd like to invite any of you who live in the area to come do a little early Christmas shopping on Saturday. I'm participating in Shop It!, a fundraiser for Youth For Christ's teen moms program. A portion of all sales will go to them, and there will be a lot of vendors there, like Mary Kay, Tupperware, and Southern Home. It is from 9 to 2 at the Auburn Chamber of Commerce building, which is at Glendean shopping center in front of Hastings. Please come out! I'll be there, and painting to draw a crowd. :) We'll have to see what kind of crowd I'll draw- maybe I should try juggling or something! Anyway, it should be fun and for a good cause. I hope to see you there!

New Artwork and New Chickens

2008-10-02T20:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I have let several months go by without posting! It's been pretty busy, but I have managed to get a few small paintings finished that I'm pretty happy with.

First, here's a picture of our sweet, silly chickens chillin' on the swing about a month ago:

About a week after I took that picture something got into their pen and killed every single one of those chickens. They were due to start laying eggs sometime this month and were most certainly pets for us. We were really crushed to find them all dead that Sunday morning! Gosh, it was sad.

A few days later, our neighbor gave us some new chickens for David's birthday! They are now about six weeks old. They are Barred Rock chickens, which are one of the few varieties of chickens that you can tell what gender they are by their color when they are tiny. We have ten hens (pullets) and one rooster (cockerel).

A couple of months ago, the friend who gave us our first chickens gave me a photo of one of their roosters- the father of several of ours. I really enjoyed doing this little painting from that photo- what a beautiful rooster!

Several weeks ago, David and I went to the northern part of the state and spent some time there with my parents. Jon was sick and had to stay here! One day while we were there, we went down to the river and let David swim. The rest of us sat in chairs by the water and chatted, and I painted this little painting of a boathouse across the river. I loved doing this painting and am really happy with it!

A couple of weeks ago, I did this little painting based on a photo I took several months ago of some flowers in a flower show. I can't remember what they were, and I've changed them quite a bit. I love the colors in this!

I hope the next few weeks will be a bit more relaxed; I hope to do some more painting. I have to say, though, that I have painted quite a bit more this year than I realized! It has been a blessing.

Have a wonderful October!

Deer, pickles and a bunny

2008-07-16T22:18:00.000-05:00

Deer in the back yard on Saturday! If you look carefully at the last one, you'll see six deer running out of the yard. :)

Last week we made pickles with cucumbers from our garden, added to those our neighbor gave us!! YUM!!

Monday the three of us went for a walk on the land behind our garden. We came upon a rabbit before the walk opened up to a beautiful view of a field. What a beautiful world we live in!

David found an overlooked zuchini. Wow, look at the size of that! :)

We've decided to let him have his own blog and he created his first post today. Please visit and let him know what you think. And if you know how I can change the profile on his and still keep it connected to this blog, please let me know!

http://snakeman-david.blogspot.com/

Recent Artwork

2008-06-24T19:30:00.001-05:00

I haven't posted much artwork lately, but I have been painting. Two of the most recent ones are gifts to the two people who responded to my "Pay it Forward" post, and I wanted to finish them both before I posted them. I intend to put them in the mail this week. :)

The dogwood painting is for my high school friend Mona Helen in California. She said she misses the dogwoods the most, so I'm sending her some of her own!

The pansies are for a fellow artist, Deborah, in Michigan. I have to apologize to each of these ladies for taking such a long time to get these to them. I haven't forgotten but life has gotten in the way!

I've done a couple of fun sketches completely different from my usual style, and they were fun. :)

A couple of months ago I picked the white iris and just had the urge to do something different! A few weeks later a friend and her kids came over, and we walked across the street to the lake. The children fished and Marie and I visited while I did this rough sketch of the lake. I didn't have the courage to put the children in it. Maybe next time!

I did this one last week after finishing the pansies, and I love it! It's different, too, but it was a lot of fun.

Last Friday I participated in Summer Night, an outdoor art evening in our local downtown area. Quite a few artists had their artwork on display and for sale, and many stores remained open extra hours. I saw lots of folks I haven't seen in a while, and enjoyed myself very much!

Garden Update

2008-06-08T21:14:00.001-05:00

Two interesting things happened this week (without pictures): 1. We had a black racer (snake) dash off across the yard one afternoon while we were sitting under a pecan tree and reading. It must have gotten impatient waiting on us and decided to head out! It was under the tree and we didn't see it until it started heading towards the woods. 2. Friday, David and I were reading under that same tree and saw a turle laying eggs in a flat spot under a crepe myrtle next to the house! What a surprise. Interesting to watch, too.

Well, I promised some garden pictures, and so here they are! They aren't terrific because I took them early afternoon. They are too bright. I hope you enjoy them anyway!

First, in the last several days we've seen a ton of beautiful May Pops, also called Passion Flower, in the field around the garden. I haven't seen these in years!!!

Here's a baby canteloupe, one of several that have started developing. I have never grown one all the way to an edible size, so I'm pretty excited to watch this get bigger! It is about softball size right now, but the rest are coming along behind.

This is a watermelon, one of several also about softball size. I've never grown a full-size watermelon, either! I'm eagerly checking on the melons daily, praying they survive and we'll get to enjoy them!

I also planted sunflowers at David's request. They are a small variety and a pretty lemon yellow. All that greenery around them is tomato plants with lots of little baby tomatoes.

Here's one of our chickens, getting bigger all the time!

Here's a picture of some apples growing on the tree I walk under on the way to the garden. I absolutely LOVE apples and am having a hard time refraining from picking these already. I love little green apples...

These are what I've picked in the last couple of days. We've already made pesto 3 times with basil from the garden, and have eaten some squash and cucumbers in salad. How wonderful!! We feel so very blessed.

May in the country

2008-05-28T21:50:00.001-05:00

We've had a busy, happy May. What a blessing! The weather has been so wonderful that we've spent almost all day every day outside. We've eaten our meals and done school outside, trying to take advantage of every moment before it's too hot. I think it soon will be!

Anyway, here are a few pictures to show you what we've been up to. First, we observed a squirrel behaving very strangely several days in a row. David found the skull of a fox (or something small like that) a while back, and it was out in the yard. We noticed that it kept showing up in different places in the yard, and finally saw a squirrel picking it up and trying to carry it!! He would move it a few feet and get run off by another squirrel. We saw him do this for several days. We were floored. Turns out to have a simple explanation, according to our neighbor and landlord. Squirrels nibble bone for the calcium! Well. I have certainly learned a lot in the few months we've been here in the country! I'm loving it, too.

We've also got our garden growing well and are quite hopeful about it. I'll take pictures for the next update so as not to overwhelm you with too many in this one.

Our neighbors' chicken had babies! They are adorable, and she brought them into our yard this week. The distant shot is in the neighbor's yard, and the close shot is looking out our kitchen window.

We've also seen quite a few pairs of Summer Tanagers that seem to be nesting in our yard. The only other time I've ever seen them was at the bird banding held down at Ft. Morgan, so we've really been enjoying that! I've had some good views, but not while I've had the camera with me, of course...

On Memorial Day we visited friends who had baby goats born that day! We got to hold baby goats and milk their mothers. We also had homemade ice cream made with goat's milk. Delicious!

Here's a picture of two of our own baby chickens, quickly growing up!

Lastly, can anyone identify this cool looking caterpillar we saw this week? I could probably find it online and will hunt for it if nobody identifies it for me.

Remember, you can click on any picture and see a larger version.

I do plan to update again before another month has gone by. Maybe I'll post some artwork then. I've been sketching and painting outside in the afternoons; almost like having an outdoor studio!

All sorts of great things

2008-04-22T21:11:00.000-05:00

We've had a very full several days! It sure is a blessing to be living out here in the midst of nature. Wonderful! Saturday we spent a couple of hours participating in a clean-up drive of the road we live on, and then Jon built a chicken tractor while David and I planted most of our garden. For those of you wondering what a chicken tractor is, it's a pen with no bottom. You let the chickens eat and fertilize in one place for a day or so and then move it over a section. You just keep on moving them around and they keep the grass green and free of weeds. :)

I don't have pictures of these, but yesterday morning after Jon left and while David was still asleep I saw four Indigo Buntings at the edge of the backyard!! I was so excited! Then, David and I sat outside to eat lunch and saw two Summer Tanagers in the big pecan tree at the back of the yard. WOW! Later in the day, David went fishing and came running home to tell me that the Canadian Geese who've been hanging around the lake had had babies! So all three of us walked over and enjoyed watching the new family for a while.

Yesterday we also got to see the rat snake our neighbor found, as well as the largest black widow spider I've EVER seen!

Then, in the evening we had the cutest little tree frog on the kitchen window! I couldn't resist taking its picture.

With all these exciting things happening outside, the inside of my house is a mess! What's more, the weather is supposed to be this nice for the rest of the week. Maybe I'll do house work when it rains on Saturday...

Baby chickens

2008-04-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

Well, we've taken the next step in living in the country, and added ten baby chickens to the mix! What will happen next?? :) David and I sat outside today, did school and ate lunch while watching the chickens. Jon and David are building a chicken tractor tomorrow so they'll have a bigger place to play than the pen they are in now. I did some quick sketches, but they really don't stand still long enough to do much. They are pretty, though!

As I pulled out a sketchbook I haven't used in a few weeks I discovered this small painting of a pepper I did over Christmas while we family members all sat around the kitchen table and sketched or painted. Fun! I'd forgotten about this.

Very welcome visitors

2008-03-29T21:21:00.002-05:00

We hung up our hummingbird feeder a week or so ago and the birds immediately started coming. Today there were several of them out there- in March! How exciting!

Then a pileated woodpecker showed up right outside our side window two days in a row, between our house and our neighbor's. David saw him first both days and we all hovered around the window watching him. I took a bunch of pictures and was thrilled! The next two days we watched out the window at the same time we'd seen him the other two days but he has't come back. Click on the picture to see a closer view.

A friend gave us these eggs on Easter Sunday. They were beautiful! They came from her chickens this way, too. I kind of thought she was kidding, but did a bit of research and found Easter Egg Chickens. Who knew?? Not this city girl. The eggs are really delicately colored and it seemed almost shameful to crack them open and scramble them.

I do hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Acts of Kindness

2008-03-18T19:53:00.002-05:00

I recently pledged to take part in a Pay It Forward gift exchange. After responding to her challenge, I received a beautiful painting from Anita Davies (see below.)

It is based on the concept from the movie 'Pay It Forward' where three acts of kindness are carried out without expecting anything in return. Each recipient of those acts of kindness then selects three different people who they, in turn, then do an "act of kindness" for and the process repeats over and over, spreading kindness in an ever-widening circle.

If you are interested, here's how it works:

Email me your land mail address, with 'Pay It Forward' in the subject line. thebrashers1@bellsouth.net

Please remember that you must be prepared to send three acts of kindness to other people when you do this.

I promise to create a small gift for the first three people who email me requesting to participate in the 'Pay It Forward' exchange.

I will announce the three people here on my blog.

The three people must then post on their own blogs promising three different people an act of kindness gift.

Sorry, you must have your own blog in order to participate.

Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for me to create and mail your gift.

Gifts can be anything that is handmade or painted by your own hand.

Pileated Woodpeckers and Roosters

2008-03-08T17:43:00.005-06:00

The day after I posted the last update we saw a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers come to the tree nearest the kitchen window, then fly to the back of the yard. They hung around that tree for about ten minutes, during which time we all three stayed glued to the window and kept passing the binoculars back and forth. How wonderful! The night before we sat outside and observed the beautiful lunar eclipse. :)

Since then we've had a quiet two weeks of school, fishing, and enjoying the outdoors. Today it turned cold, however! We woke to snow flurries and wind, and the temperature never got above 43. For this Alabama gal that is quite cold!

Our neighbors have two very colorful roosters, and they wander into our yard occasionally. They rarely come close enough or stand still long enough for me to do more than brief sketches, but I love seeing all the color on them! I'm going to continue to try to capture them in my sketchbook and enjoy the process. What beautiful birds!

Last night I roughly sketched my grandmother's very pretty bread board. The sketch doesn't do it justice, but it's got a ring of carving around the edge. I keep it because it was hers, but I don't use it. :)

I haven't done any actual painting lately, but I sure have been enjoying sketching!

A burst of beagles, lady bugs and the flu

2008-02-21T19:32:00.000-06:00

Despite the lady bugs, actually Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles (which are no longer so cute!) we are still enjoying our new home in the country. I'm just learning to keep things covered, and to check anything that is out on the counter before either putting it away or serving it. :) The picture is of the window in the laundry room.

Saturday morning we were in various stages of getting ready for the day when we heard the most unusual noise coming from outside! I looked out the kitchen window, and there on their way through the yard were at least a dozen beagles, baying and sniffing, and following a scent. I yelled for Jon and David to come look out the window, and we watched the "burst of beagles" as they zigged and zagged their way through our yard, the neighbor's yard and into the woods behind. As they disappeared here came another one- slightly more portly than the rest. He paused, sniffed, looked confused and then heard the rest of them. He made a bee-line for the woods and followed them in. How unusual!! We were left feeling that you just never know what might happen when you move 8 miles away! :) Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to grab my camera.

We've had a quiet week or so, otherwise, because David has had the flu. After a weekend of a fever, I finally took him to the doctor on Monday afternoon. He confirmed my thinking, and sent us home to recuperate. Today all that is left is a cough, thank goodness! Click on the image for a larger view.

Adventurous Home Schooling in the Country

2008-02-09T17:03:00.000-06:00

Well!! I have to say that we've been in the new home less than 10 days and we are already having adventures! David has fished almost every day, and earlier this week he went with our neighbor (and landlord) to put out a beaver trap. Apparently beavers are building a dam and messing with Mr. W's lakes. My thought was "cool! David will get to see a bit about being an outdoorsman."

Yesterday Mom and I left David and my dad fishing while we went to look for curtains. After a while we called Dad's cell to let him know we were on our way, and I asked him if they had caught any fish. He said yes, and that David had an otter!!! Now, lest you think I'm hardhearted and not an animal lover, I truly thought he was joking. I told Mom what he said; we laughed and came on home. As we drove into the driveway we saw Dad and David with a river otter hanging from wire in a tree!!!! ACK! I said to Mom- "oh, my gosh!! He DOES have an otter!!" and Mom said "oh, NO!!!"...

They had gone with Mr. W to check his trap, and the trap contained an otter rather than a beaver. So, Mr. W told David to take it home and skin it. He told Dad how (he probably already knew) and told him that he was not to do it- David was, with Dad's supervision. So, they began the process, and then Jon took over when he got home from work after Mom and Dad left for their home. They finished about dusk and put the skin in the freezer until they can begin the tanning process.

This morning David went with Mr. W again- this time they had a beaver!!! So,... today he and Jon skinned a beaver, and tonight we (or maybe THEY) are having beaver stew!!! Can you imagine?? I'm thinking of all sorts of ways to use this in school. I'm also very thankful that these animals are already dead by the time David sees them and that he's not responsible for their termination.

Please don't anybody get mad at me for posting about this completely unexpected adventure! I just felt it was too interesting not to share.

Daffodils in the new home

2008-02-06T12:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I took a break from unpacking and sketched the first daffodils blooming at the new house. I only spent about ten minutes on it, but really enjoyed doing it! I have to get back to pursuing my goal of sketching every day this year. This past week I've not done so well...

I'm part of an online art group called Everyday Matters, and there is a weekly challenge of something to draw. They are currently at week #157 or so, and I just recently joined. Therefore, I am going to be doing some of the older challenges mixed in with other things! Here is #1- a shoe. The daffodils fit #76 (flowers) and #124 (something yellow).

Stuff everywhere!

2008-02-04T20:38:00.000-06:00

These last few weeks have been pretty (!!) hectic and stressful, but with the very generous help of an amazing number of friends, we moved into our new home this past week! We spent the first night here Saturday. Whew! Now we are surrounded by boxes and trying to figure out where to put everything. We've determined that we are going to release a lot of these things that we haven't used in years to bless others, and we're going to start using things we've "saved for a special occasion."

One example is the nice china that we got as wedding presents- we've hardly ever used it! Why is this?? I've decided that it's silly. Of course, now it's all in boxes and I need to find a place to put it where I can get TO it in order to use it, but that's all in good time.

Meanwhile, why did I save that beautiful tea dress from our wedding tea 21 years ago when I've not been able to fit my left elbow into it for, oh, 15 or 16 years?? I've got the husband! I don't need the dress to remind me of the special occasion. But it is so beautiful...

This home is at least 32 years old, just a few miles out of town, surrounded by pecan trees and a couple of ponds we're welcome to fish in, daffodils are already blooming in the front and there are crepe myrtles at the corners (I can't wait to see what colors they are!) and azaleas near the house. The house itself has more space than we had, and a wonderful place to homeschool! We've been assured by many friends that our neighbors are wonderful, and we've already seen evidence of that. How God has taken a very stressful situation and used it to bless us mightily!

The back yard:

And here's the combo den, school room, tv room, family room. Take a look at the shelves! Of course we've already filled them and have boxes of books leftover to figure out what to do with... :

More good news is that our email address stays the same and so do our cell numbers. The land line had to change, but that's okay! We're blessed. David caught 6 fish yesterday, and we had them for supper last night after church!

Come visit in a few weeks after we've had time to sort out everything!

Snow!

2008-01-19T21:15:00.000-06:00

Well, today in central Alabama we had snow! They predicted anywhere from 1 to 6 inches, but we ended up with about 1/2 inch here. However, it was a lot of fun watching David and all the neighborhood kids play. They had snowball fights and built snowmen (small ones) and got really cold. A really fun day!

One night this week I did a quick sketch from a photo in the files of Watercolorworkshop to try to keep my goal of sketching every day this year. The blue in the sky completely dropped out of this scan, but the rest is pretty close. It was fun.

I also did a sketch of some cactus flowers, using a reference photo I took in the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham last year. I'm finding I like my sketches better when drawn from life.

Have a wonderful holiday!

2008

2008-01-12T21:35:00.000-06:00

Lots of artists' blogs I've read in the past couple of weeks have mentioned their art-related goals for this year. I have decided that the only one I can realistically attempt to accomplish (with everything else I've got going on) is to sketch every day. It can be a quick 3 minute one if needed, but I do want to try to keep my hand fresh. I know I won't have time to paint that often, since that requires clearing off the kitchen table and getting out all my stuff. :)

This past week we collected ants for David's new ant farm and have had a blast watching them dig tunnels! Fascinating. That first day, I did a quick sketch of an ant while watching them through the magnifying glass. This is with pencil on a note pad- one of those freebies from a business.

Another night this week I did a quick sketch of a grapefruit and a bell pepper for a scavenger hunt item (from Wetcanvas). It was done at night in very poor light and the colors show it!

Then this evening I did a sketch of the three tadpoles that we've had since August!! These things are huge. I think they must be bullfrog tadpoles, which can take as long as three years to become mature frogs!! Yikes!! I don't know how much of those three years they are tadpoles, but we may have taken on a longer commitment than we knew! :)

I hope your 2008 has begun well!

Christmas Fun

2007-12-29T10:00:00.000-06:00

Well, after most of the gifts were exchanged and the wonderful meals cooked and eaten, my dad, sister and I decided to sit at the table and do some sketching! Mom and Dad gave me a new sketch pen and sketch book, so I used the pen. The sketch book is the perfect size for my purse! I used larger ones for these sketches, however.

I had the newest scavenger hunt list from Wetcanvas, and we drew some items from the list. My favorite things were the tools that my dad brought out for us to draw. They were his father's clamps and a London Screwdriver, and they are over 100 years old. You can click on the pictures to see larger versions with more detail.

The larger clamp is about 24 inches on the longest side, and the screwdriver is maybe 14 inches long- very hefty. I've never seen another screwdriver like it.

I don't have scans of anyone's drawings but mine, but my dad and sister did a great job on theirs! My new pen contained non-permanent ink, so I used a waterbrush to blend the lines and add shading, and added a touch of watercolor as well. I had so much fun!

One more item from the list is below- a sweet potato. There are several more, but I hate to bore you with posting them all! It's the most I've been able to participate in one of the scavenger hunts in ages, and I really enjoyed it.

I hope you all had a very pleasant Christmas, and are looking forward to a blessed new year!

Bur Oak, otherwise known as Mossy Cup Oak...

2007-12-21T18:29:00.000-06:00

Thanks to all who emailed us with the answer to our question of what type of acorns Jon found! We also googled it and found the same thing- these acorns are from the Bur Oak, and are the largest and sweetest of all acorns. They are also sometimes called Mossycup oaks, and the moss-like fringe certainly shows they are aptly named!

With our Christmas preparations this week I've only now had time to do a small sketch of one. I plan to do more, however! This one was fun, but the painting doesn't show the mossyness nearly as much as it should. I'll work on that in the next one.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

hairy acorns

2007-12-19T20:41:00.000-06:00

The other day, Jon came home from work with the most interesting looking acorns we've ever seen!! We'd love to know what kind of oak tree they are from if anyone knows. I'm posting two pictures- one that shows the top of my favorite one pretty clearly, and one including a nickle so you can see the size of these things! Do let me know if you can identify them. If you click on the image you'll get a larger version.

They immediately beg to have faces drawn on them- they look like little Russian fur hats!!

We've had a couple of good school weeks and I have decided it's now officially Christmas break. We went light on the decorations this year, and we've let David decorate the tree with mostly home made ornaments. I think he enjoyed it!

We've shopped some and wrapped some, and I think we're about ready. How about you? I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!! Travel safely if you're on the road.

Holiday Art Sale

2007-12-05T09:48:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been busy this week doing school with David and getting ready for a local art sale this Friday. I've decided to have another set of note cards printed and hope to do well with all three sets and some prints at the sale. I'll also be bringing my original paintings and some things to work on while there. The sale is from noon to 9 pm, so I need to have something to do!

I am planning to paint another floral to replace the butterfly one in this group, but until I get that done I am going ahead with it this way.

This Sunday night we'll be playing our Christmas music at church, which should be good. It's one of my favorite services of the year. I love this music and the joyous occasion it commemorates!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-28T21:29:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had as pleasant a holiday as we did. We visited my sister, and she and I did most of the Thanksgiving cooking since Mom has done it for so many years. She was right in there with us, though, and the three of us had a good time.

Football was good, and the turkey was delicious! David certainly enjoyed it, and I thought you might like to see a picture of the main meal...

Football this past Saturday was ESPECIALLY good- WAR EAGLE!!! :) Go Tigers!

More pictures of David

2007-11-17T21:06:00.000-06:00

I thought I'd upload a couple more pictures of David during the Expo last week. He and I took a break (or gave the other exhibitors a break!) for a couple of hours on Thursday and went out to the beach. I was so cold! I was wearing jeans and a light jacket and still wrapped up in our towels while David played. I also brought a small sketch book and did a couple of drawings while sitting there. Just about the time I started really getting into them and enjoying the opportunity to draw some Laughing Gulls, David got cold and we had to go in.

I thought you might also like to see the view from our window of the spectacular sunset that night! Wow. Isn't God's creation magnificent??!

I've sold a number of my card packs already, much to my encouragement. Today I sat down and looked through other paintings and decided to have a few more printed to see how they look. If I like them I may print notes from them as well. I need to find time to paint! :)

If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a blessed one! Stay safe on the roads if you travel.

Note Card packs for Christmas gifts

2007-11-12T19:12:00.000-06:00

After I sent out my last blog update, a friend followed the link to see my note cards on Greeting Card Universe, but wanted to buy them in packs to give as Christmas presents. Greeting Card Universe doesn't do that, so I decided to do it myself. :)

For now I've come up with 2 different groups, each composed of 8 note cards (2 each of 4 designs) and envelopes. I have several paintings not included in these, but plan to increase my selection in future if these do well.

The first set is all florals. The second one includes paintings of a monastery in Ukraine, so I'm calling it the monastery group. If you'd like to order some packs to give as Christmas presents, please let me know! thebrashers1@bellsouth.net Each pack of 8 cards and envelopes is $12.00.

We just returned from a home builders association's new product expo, where Jon had an exhibit of his invention, Storm Greeter. It seemed to be well received, and everyone who stopped and looked was very interested. We're really excited about it and expect it to take off very soon! For more information on this great product that will protect metal construction components from rust and corrosion, see http://www.missioncreekllc.com/.

David had a great time! He became the sous chef of the chef hired to demonstrate an induction stove for one of the exhibitors. One thing about David is that he is NOT shy. He got to know all the exhibitors in the hall and then cooked most of the day. The chef said that he made a wonderful helper, doing exactly what he was told and then able to recreate the recipe on the third time around. It was a really good experience for him!

I also got a chance to do a little sketching on two afternoons, and I enjoyed that!

Fun on the water

2007-10-23T14:45:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we had a wonderful time visiting my family several hours away. My dad took us out fishing in his boat, and began teaching David to drive the boat on the way to the fishing spot. His expressions may not show it, but he was excited!

After going on the river for a while, we went to the Botanical Gardens to see the scarecrows.

Then we went to a local nursery to enjoy their pansy festival! What a beautiful and enjoyable day. The whole weekend was wonderful!

2007-10-09T14:52:00.000-05:00

Last week we had our local county fair. David entered several things including 2 pairs of pajama bottoms, a wooden shelf, and a beautiful photo of a garden spider. He won a blue ribbon for each! We are so proud of him, and happy that he had the opportunity.

I haven't had much time to paint lately and I miss it! I'm posting a couple of sketches I did last year and hope to have something new to put up soon. The top one is David's fishing hat, and the bottom one is a green anole who visited our back patio last year. We enjoyed watching him and drawing him for our nature notebooks.

For you Auburn fans, check out my newly created cards in Greeting Card Universe. I have some cards made from photos I have taken on campus through the years. I hope you enjoy them! War Eagle!

Some new paintings

2007-09-18T22:16:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I did some small paintings that I really enjoyed. I had so much fun I think I'll keep doing some this size. They are about 5"x7". I think I'm going to put the one with the butterfly up on my Greeting Card Universe store and Cafe Press. Neither of the originals is available for sale, but prints of the butterfly one are.

Please Pray for Noah

2007-09-08T16:47:00.000-05:00

I have been receiving updates on and praying for baby Noah now for a while, and these last few days his health has taken a turn for the worse. He has undergone several surgeries in recent weeks and has developed a serious infection in the past several days. He is allergic to most antibiotics and is not taking in much nutrition. Please take a few moments to pray for this child, for his family and for the medical personnel who are working so diligently to try to help him.

Here is a link to the blog his parents are using to keep everyone informed. You will be blessed if you go and read a few of their posts! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ourquiverfull/

Plenty from a friend's garden

2007-09-04T15:53:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago a good friend invited ds and me to lunch after a pleasant morning of blueberry picking together. Afterwards, she sent me home with bounty from her garden! It was wonderfully colorful, so I took pictures before we began to consume it.

This weekend I did a couple of small paintings from some of the pictures, and began several others. I think I overworked these tomatoes, but I enjoyed myself! I'll post the others when I finish them.

On a different subject, we've been on two field trips in two weeks! Amazing. Last year in school we barely did two field trips in a half a year. Anyway, we went to the Audobon Aquarium in New Orleans two weeks ago when we traveled with dh on a business trip, and last week we went to Callaway Gardens with the same friend who gave us food from her garden. We have really enjoyed both trips. I plan to do more field trips this year to help ds enjoy school more. He is such a hands-on learner that I think they are good for him.

New Horizons

2007-07-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been following a fellow artist's blog now for several months, and this week I noticed something new. It's a cool graphic that leads to a store for her images sold as greeting cards. Anita Davies So... I had some time tonight and decided to explore for myself. I've set up a card store now, and plan to add more images to both it and the Cafe Press store in the next few days when I take the shrink wrap and mats off my other artwork, scan it in with a higher resolution, and then re-shrink wrap them. :)

Meanwhile, I'm going to attempt to add the graphic to my blog tonight. I did a small watercolor sketch of some vegetables with my students in yesterday's art class and had a lot of fun. I'll scan it in later.

I've got a painting I really want to try to finish in the next week or so. It's been on my mind for years, and I actually began it a couple of years ago. I'm finally getting to the finishing stages of it, after working on it in fits and starts since I began it. It's of two little girls who are playing together on the steps. They appear as different as night and day, and when I saw them I couldn't resist taking several pictures!

Art class

2007-07-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

This summer I am teaching a couple of children's art classes in my home, and yesterday after the scheduled lesson, I had the group draw an onion, which I set on the table. I sat down with them and drew it, too- here it is. I used pencil, colored pencil, and then went back in with a bit of ink.

I was planning to take ds to the pool today but it has rained off and on all day. I also need to grind some wheat and make bread! I'm behind on my housewifely duties this week. :) I'd love to ditch it all and just paint, but then what would we eat?

Commission finished and delivered

2007-07-07T20:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a painting that I finished and delivered a few weeks ago, and forgot to post. The person who commissioned it seemed to really like it, but I never heard whether her husband liked it or not. It was a gift for him.

This commission came about because of the times I had my artwork set up at the gym. The client kept my card and called me later. :)

Cafe Press store!

2007-07-07T17:17:00.000-05:00

Well, I've taken the plunge and signed up for a Cafe Press store to try to sell some of my artwork. I'm going to try to add a banner to this site if possible, but if not I'll at least put up a link. Y'all come on by and see what's there!

Here's my link- it's also now in the side bar. www.cafepress.com/leslie_brasher .

Recent paintings

2007-03-24T17:29:00.000-05:00

My gym has customer appreciation days every so often, when they showcase a member's business. It sure makes it a friendly place! Twice during March I was asked to bring my artwork and set up a table, so I did. I didn't sell anything, but I did get one small commission and a LOT of interest. Gave away a bunch of business cards. Perhaps the best thing, though, was several uninterrupted hours to paint! I brought my work with me and set it up and got a lot done.

These are some of the ones I painted as I sat there in my gym, sort of wishing I was working out. I also began several others, and kept working on a big one that I've been working on for a long time. One of these days I'll finish it.

Bird Feeder Joys

2007-02-14T15:08:00.000-06:00

We've had some wonderful visitors to our bird feeders this winter, and I just decided to try to take some pictures. Several of them have been quite unusual. They have a bright pink spot on their heads! I'm pretty sure there must be a research project going on somewhere nearby, because to me the spots look like they may be artificial and I can't find them on any birds like this in my bird books. Anyway, one came near enough to the kitchen window to take a decent picture today. I have to say I agree with Bob Sargeant, though- they are ALL beautiful!

I'm so proud!

2007-02-07T18:22:00.000-06:00

Well, since I have a cold and didn't want to share my germs with anyone, I stayed home from Bible study this morning. Dh took ds to his Bible study and I picked him up. When he got to the car, he handed me a piece of paper with a drawing on it and asked if I knew what it was. I looked and immediately saw a submarine. I looked again, and Lo! it is a drawing of the Hunley! Several months ago we watched a show about the Hunley on the Discovery channel, and did about an hour's further research online afterwards. He remembered all that detail since then! Wow. I am so impressed.

Busy, busy...

2007-02-06T19:59:00.000-06:00

Well, okay, so I have not been very good about keeping up with this blog! I hope to do better. Meanwhile, I'm fighting a cold and praying hubby and son don't catch it.

About a week ago, I got all motivated to paint, so I got out my stuff and did a little 9x12 painting of a scene in Ukraine. I took the reference picture in the summer of '05 from the window of a train. It's a monastery at sunset, and I would love to see the place in full daylight! It was beautiful at sunset.

Surprise visits from relatives...

2006-07-17T18:35:00.000-05:00

... make great opportunities to clean up my house in a hurry! As usual, we had several projects underway, including 4 boxes in the living room to fill and ship to Ukraine, clean laundry waiting to be put away, etc., last night when we came home from church. We discovered we had a message from dh's cousin saying they were in town to show their son the local university campus.

We had a very productive morning! haha... and now my house is freshly vacuumed, cleaned, and straightened. The only drawing I've done today was during my son's swimming lesson this morning. Here is a sketch from a swim lesson last Thursday.

Let's give this a try...

2006-07-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about starting my own blog lately. I decided to just jump in with both feet! I intend to add to it occasionally, and include photos and sketches as I get a chance. I'll start with a little watercolor sketch I did yesterday in response to a sketching thread on Wetcanvas.com. I usually paint from my own reference photos, but this time I walked outside with my small watercolor kit and painted this lilly. The scan turned the flower very yellow, and all my blues disappeared, so I'm going to have to work on sorting that kind of thing out.