Thursday, January 31, 2013

A Little Bit Of Everything

 Mother Nature can't seem to make up her mind here in North Carolina. We get a day that's warm and sunny like Spring, then we get ice and snow, then we get another spring tease, then we get hurricane force winds and tornado warnings. It's been crazy weather and it seems to be having the same effect on me, can't make up my mind what I want to do. I know I don't want to be outside right now. I've done some weaving, some reading, some painting, photographed some work, visited with friends, spent time with my family. But no clay work to show you. My studio is just too cold. I went out the other day thinking I would just cut off a chunk of clay and bring it in the house, but it was frozen solid. Yesterday was warm and wet, and I did manage to put my studio back in some sort of order after the studio tour in December. It's nice and clean now, found all the things I had stored away, and I'm ready to go when we get another wishy washy day. Gerry and I went over to UNC's campus on Tuesday for breakfast and walked around in the brief warm weather. The campus is so beautiful and historic and it's a great place to go for a walk after breakfast on Franklin St. It was such a short window of warmth but very welcome just the same.

 I have been trying to capture the view from my kitchen table with watercolors. I'm not that good and I don't know when to stop, so it ends up being muddy, but I seem to be learning from that and going more slowly, less water, less clutter. I haven't managed to use the brush Brandon Phillips sent me awhile back for any clay deco, but it makes really great tree branches.
 It's so bleak out there.......
Yesterday I walked around on the paths in our woods and my cat followed me every step of the way, like a dog and she kept rubbing up next to me to get warm, I suppose. She's ready for spring too.
I can feel it coming just around the bend, can't you?

24 comments:

Lori Buff said...

I honestly think your watercolor painting did a great job of capturing the trees. Space heaters will be on clearance soon, you might think about one for the studio (one without a fan).

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Lori, I have a space heater, but the walls are very thin, no insulation, if its below 50 degrees, it's cold! I did it last year, but it wasn't fun, and I'm not that desperate right now for a clay fix:)
The watercolor looked a lot better to me in the photograph than when I was right on top of it, I think it does capture the cold and gray sort of ok!

cookingwithgas said...

Love the watercolor! I am a big fan of trees and those look rather nice and winter like.

Trish said...

Hi Tracey..yes, the weather does put a damper on the clay work..or firing in my case. It has been in the low minus 20's C here plus wind which definately deters me from making the track to load my kiln...warmer tomorrow, so a glaze firing planned for then. I really like the watercolour. :)
Cheers, T.

Laura Farrow said...

all night we expected a tree to come down on us! the wind was intense, and with all the peeps chirping and warmth it felt like a summer thunderstorm.
watercolors are good friends for filling up creative time, no? and so challenging...
I still think we should just wrap your entire studio in plastic!!! HA! xo

Susan Wells said...

I love your floating boney trees. Good times for walking and journaling with paint!

Sherry said...

I like what you're doing with the water colour work...playing, experimenting and working through is the best way to make something work. I like the colours and how you are recreating what you see from outside your window.

Michèle Hastings said...

Your watercolor trees look great! sometimes you have to photograph things to look at them in a new way... it sort of separates yourself from them.
We have a daffodil and a crocus blooming in our yard, so yes, spring is on it's way.

Hollis Engley said...

Hi, Trace. Just came in from picking up cans and bottles that flew from our recycle bin and blew all over the yard. It's been crazy here the past couple of days. And snow is expected Sunday. I don't think spring will be coming to Cape Cod any time soon.

Melissa Rohrer said...

Love the trees. I actually like winter for that- you can see skeletons of the trees.

I've also been painting for the first time in years to give my left wrist a break from clay.

Amy said...

are you at all concerned about frozen clay? I heard it's best for it not to freeze; then again, I know little about such things...

Tracey Broome said...

Hey M, I'm rather partial to our trees here, I just like them better with the green stuff. I'm trying to love the sticks since I have no choice, ha!

Tracey Broome said...

I'll stay in the South, thank you, brrrr!

Tracey Broome said...

I KNOW! I slept downstairs, we have a dead tree that is just waiting for the right moment to come through my bedroom! I figured it might be last night, yikes!

Tracey Broome said...

They are bony trees aren't they? I love that! Could be a line in a song....

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Sherry thanks. Sometimes I like to get the paints out and play, it will never amount to much, but it's fun to see where it goes, especially with watercolors.

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Michele, thanks. Ahhhh, the daffy dills, sign of things to come, yay!

Tracey Broome said...

We had lots of wind, but surprisingly nothing to clean up this morning, I thought there would be branches everywhere. The recycling went to the center the day before, lucky us for thinking to that ahead of time!

Tracey Broome said...

Painting is a great way to step away from clay and have a whole new experience. I'm giving my arm a bit of a rest too....

Tracey Broome said...

I'm sure I'm not the technical expert here, but my clay freezes all the time, never seems to be a problem once it thaws out. I've been keeping it outside for eight years now, so I guess if there was a problem I would have discovered it. I went out yesterday and it was nice and soft in the 70 degree temps, it looked fine....

eb said...

such a warm post
beautiful images
very nice w/c direction
do more
yes - crazy weather
hoping for steady winds
as I head west...

Tracey Broome said...

Hi EB, thanks, yes go with steady winds, a nice thought for the day....

Shannon said...

hey watercolor gal--good work! just keep going....

Tracey Broome said...

Shannon, I could keep going for years and never catch up to you! But it's fun to play:)