GF Menu

Wake up with a cup of tea with milk

Saute chard with garlic
Fry a couple eggs over medium

Still hungry
Cup of yogurt plain then I add Maple Syrup

Mid morning I have some corn chips and salsa

Lunch
Veggies with hummus
rice cake with sunbutter
corn on the cob

Afternoon
Chocolate
Pear

Before dinner snack
more chips and salsa

Dinner
Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, hard boiled egg, bacon, dill goat cheese, and scallions
I make a dressing with olive oil, mayo(GF) rice vinegar, dill and crushed garlic.

Dessert
Tapioca pudding

Before bed snack
bowl of GF cereal with milk (rice chex)

GF Desserts

Here are some desserts that are typically GF. 

Tapioca Pudding
Custard
Fruit Compote
Ice Cream

You could make a crustless pumpkin Pie or use a GF crust.

Nut Balls are good.

Mix together
1/2 cup of
nut butter
honey
sweetened cocoa
sunflower seeds
shredded coconut
1 cup of nuts
make into balls and roll in powdered sugar

This is a nice easy snack to have in the fridge that is sweet and yummy.

GF baking can be tricky.  Cakes often are dense, sticky or crumbly
Cookies are easier.  You need to have a GF flour that you can use.  A combination of bean flour, rice flour and tapioca flour is what I use.  Before you experiment with your own combination there are GF all purpose flours you can buy.  Bob's Red Mill is pretty good and you can find it at Hannaford.  Xanthan Gum is an important ingredient to have also.  I would say try making chocolate chip cookies using GF flour and Xanthan Gum probably at least 1/4 of a teaspoon or up to 1/2 of a teaspoon depending on how many cookies you are making.

Let me know what you think.

Hummus

This is my hummus recipe
 I don't use exact amounts so feel free to vary the amount to your liking.

1 can of Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans
2-3 Tablespoons of Tahini (sesame seed butter)
1-2 or more garlic cloves
Olive oil to make it the right consistancy
salt and pepper to taste

Optional additions
1-3 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
any fresh herbs you have on hand or curry powder

Put 1st 3 ingredients in a food processor and blend up
add optional ingredients blend again then add olive oil until it is the consistancy that you like.
Taste
Add any salt or pepper or more lemon juice etc.
Blend and serve

Garnish with either one or three whole Garbanzo Beans
Fresh herbs or
Curry powder

Enjoy

Gluten Free Snacking on a budget

Things to have on hand.
carrots
celery
apples
bananas
rice cakes
corn thins
nut or seed butter
hummus (chickpea spread-recipe soon)
yogurt (plain)
honey
maple syrup (the real thing)

Veggies and hummus are a great snack.
Yogurt with sliced bananas and/or apples and maple syrup or honey is a nice sweet snack. 
Corn thin or rice cake with nut butter and sliced banana is the snack for the supper hungry.
Potato chips and corn chips are usually gluten free, but when you buy salsa look for gluten free salsa.
For those of you who are just trying this for a few weeks to see if it helps you these snack will do.  Those who are on a gluten free diet because you have to be or you will be sick may want more variety as you go.  Eventually I would like to post lots of recipes, easy ones for the busy moms and dads who have way to much going on to deal with anything else.

Journal Entry

So today is June first.  I have been looking at flowers and decided that I am going to begin drawing flowers.  If only I could paint or draw a lilac and show how wonderful it smells.
I have been busy and been trying to find direction.  Life draw is going well but I am tired from the 3 children and lack of sleep.
I hope to have time to post one of my drawings from life drawing soon.

Journal Entry

Ok sick family again, more rain and I have lost my motivation.  I am working on it.  I have been to another Life Drawing Group Session.  It was interesting.  I used paint this time.  I need to find something to get me motivated.  Sun please come out.  I may need to move on to the art of food.  We will see what happens in the next couple weeks.

Life Drawing

I am now part of a Life Drawing Group.  There is very little instruction, but I had fun.  I played around with drawing without looking at the paper.  I think it would be more fun to paint.  Maybe I will try that next time.  Lucien was fine while I was gone.  I didn't have to worry so much.  I will try to remember that next Saturday.

New Artist of the Month

OK so I couldn't come up with an artist because I am to busy.  So I will paint then find an artist that has a similar style.  I need the fun in my life of free painting.  I will also be taking a life drawing class so that might inspire me.  I figured out that I can do anything I want to do with this blog.  I am not stuck to a particular format especially if it is not working for me.  So onward into my discovery.

Journal Entry

I need to get re energized with my art projects.  How do you re energize when you are running on empty?   Am I just dragging because it is cloudy and gray and spring just will not come soon enough.  We keep getting these gray and windy days.  How do you feed your soul when it is hungry, but you don't know what to feed it.  I have little 20-30 minute chunks of time and I think I need a longer chunk.  I will be starting a life drawing class in May but still don't have a babysitter for that chunk.  I feel like I have to work really hard to be able to do anything, which when you have little energy to do something you don't what to use it all up before you get to the fun part.  I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me but that is OK because this is a journal entry.  Maybe I am just tired because I am just getting over being sick.  This feeling doesn't seem to be a new one.  I have felt it before.  It is maybe most comfortable to not do anything so I don't fail.  Is it failure I am afraid of?  But if you don't try you have failed even before you have done anything so that doesn't make sense.  OK positive thinking ---- I am successful at everything I do.  Yes that is right, I am successful at everything I do.  I am not doing, OH maybe I am afraid of success? That is an interesting twist now isn't it.  What positive thinking statement can I come up with for that one??????

New Painting

This is not the best photo of my new painting.  I had a lot of fun with this one.  I like abstract expressionism,  I will be looking for a new artist to study.  Anyone have a suggestion for a May artist?

Springtime

Springtime is so busy.  I have not done much painting but have been to a couple museums.  I love looking at art.  Sometimes I get it and other times I wonder what might have been going on in the artists mind that I just don't get.  I went to the Art Museum at Colby college, it was great.  They have a collection of John Marin paintings.  My favorite painting at the museum was one called Night Rain, I can't remember the artists name but plan on going back and finding out.  I always think I am going to remember things then I forget.  I hope this is not a sign of me getting older.  I also went to the Portland Museum of Art.  That was fun but I was starting to get sick so it was not as much fun as it could have been.  I was not as impressed as at the Colby museum.  I am working on a painting and will post a new picture soon. 

Grace Hartigan

Grace Hartigan was a painter during the time when abstract expressionism  was just moving from Paris to New York.  She was a struggling artist in New York and became friends with Pollock, de Kooning and more who were at that time also struggling.  I was curious about Grace Hartigan because she was also a mother, but she gave her son to her ex-husband to raise and really hardly saw him if ever.  She lived a life of poverty and made are history by being the first woman artist to be internationally known.  The Museum of Modern Art bought one of her paintings and she is known for moving Abstract expressionism to Pop Art.  The love of painting took over her life completely.   It was her great love.

I don't know if we would have gotten along.  I do not understand how someone can give up parenting to do painting.  Love doesn't run out, it grows.  I have a hard time not judging on this one.  I like to think of myself as non judgmental but sometimes it is hard to understand the diversity.  I do like some of her art work and I respect her passion for painting but I can't get past some of the personal choices that she made,  I guess I have some growing to do.

Now the search for a woman artist who is a mother and an artist at the same time.  None of this one or the other crap.

Circles

I had fun painting this one too.  I guess I will be moving back to the more challenging work and my artist study.  Grace Hartigan here I come.

Finding Order in My Life

Well I needed to find some order and have fun with paint.

This is what I made.  It was fun. 

Now circles.

April Funk

Please help me get out of this funk.  I had a beautiful sketch and then ruined it with paint.  I hate that.  I was too attached to an idea.  This growing into an artist thing is hard.  I haven't had any time to paint except at night, then the colors are not right because I don't have good lighting.  OK I am done complaining for today.  I am going to try to repair the painting, or just paint it all white and start over.

Grace Hartigan

So I missed yesterday.  We had a blizzard for April Fool's Day and we lost power for the whole day and still do not have power back.   I can't use the internet at my house, so I made a trip to town so I could post my April Artist.

Grace Hartigan is a woman abstract expressionist.  She was not professionally trained.  So I can identify with her a little.   I will do more research and post what I find in the next week.

I will also be getting some more pictures posted as soon as I have internet at my house.

Last Day of March

I want to paint.  Parenting is so tiring, I haven't been able to stay up after the children have gone to bed so I can paint.  I am hoping tonight I might.  We are suppose to have a big storm tonight and tomorrow, maybe I can paint then too.

Early Spring Chickens

I was looking for a landscape to paint.  I looked outside and there before me was the chicken coop.

So I watercolor for a few more days, then onto a new artist. 

Who should it be?

Grace Hartigan or Cezanne

New Portrait

Hello
I am in a much better place today.  I was able to sleep in, Lucien decided to take a long nap and I think I finished the self-portrait that I have been working on for a few days now (in little 20 minute blocks of time).  It is my first acrylic self-portrait.  I really like having a painting project.  I am also looking forward to beginning a life drawing class.  That I hope will help me learn more about how to see the shadows.

So first I drew a pencil sketch of my face, then I transfered it over to the canvas. 

The next step was finding time to paint, I did that and my chin dimple looked like a life saver. 

I went to repair that lifesaver but my color was a little orange,

so then today I fixed the orange and lost some of the lighter colors, but gained some clothing. 

 I guess I could redo over and over but I am calling it done for now.

Day in the life of me

Wake up
nurse baby
bathroom if I am lucky
change baby
make breakfast for kids
eat if lucky
feed the dogs
keep baby out of the dog food
feed baby banana
keep dogs from eating the banana
nurse baby
drive older children to school or acting class or track practice or dance class or music or friends house
baby sleeps in car
if I am lucky I can sketch something from the car while the baby sleeps
home again
baby wakes when I try to move him
nurse baby
change baby
pick up the toys
do the dishes so I can make lunch
make lunch
feed baby
uh oh last diaper quick do a load of diapers
pick up the toys again
keep baby out of dog water
block the stairs baby is halfway up
pick up the floor
nurse baby
dry the diapers
pick up older kids
oops baby sleeps 5 minutes  no nap at home today
change baby
nurse baby
snack for kids
clean up after kids
nag kids to clean up
make dinner
clean up
nurse baby
ah sleeping baby
feed dogs
older children to bed
now I finally get to paint unless I take a bath or have already fallen asleep
This may not seem like alot but boy is it tiring.

I want a whole day to just paint and read and draw and nap if I am tired.

Marin Style painting

So after spending a bunch of time outside today I finally made the move and painted the landscape.  Marin had a respect for the natural world.  I was feeling very happy for spring, the amazing sun and new life.   The snow is melting away.

Work

I like to play with paint.  This is why I have decided to become an artist and explore different artist’s lives and techniques.  I want to find my own special style.  I want to learn the skills to make my playing with the paint more effective.  So I need to learn to draw.  I have been working on noticing shadows today.  It was a cloudy day today so it was not easy to notice the shadows, but I have opened my eyes to see the light and shadow of the objects around me.   I painted a still life, a quick watercolor still life.

  I am realizing that have a lot to learn.  The other day I really needed to play with the paint, so I did and it was fun.  I need to remember to go back to what I think is fun every so often so that I keep my motivation to learn more going.  I like acrylic paint.  It has an ease about it. 

 Watercolor is not easy, but I am slowly learning the techniques needed to make it more fun.

Watercolor

Watercolor painting is harder than you might think.  I still need to practice patience.  I tend to move to fast then the colors blurr together.  Practice practice practice.

Pollock

I just watched the movie "Pollock" about Jackson Pollock.  What a disturbed individual.  He may have been brilliant but had a couple problems.  I am interested in his wife's work, Lee Krasner.  Amazing what women put up with.

Lucien still sick, but I painted today. 

Time to Paint

So the reality of my life is that I have 3 children.  It is March.  Everyone is taking turns being sick, so when do I have time to do my painting and researching?  Well, today while holding Lucien in the carrier I practiced greying colors using the opposite color.  I explored red and green today.  Lucien slept with his fever of 102 and I painted.  While he slept later in the bed, I fell asleep to a lecture about Spanish art in the Louvre.  I wonder how much I will retain of this information.  I am sleep deprived and so tired of sickness.  I need spring so I can go outside and paint it.

Field Trip

If you are looking for a great field trip.  My grandmother has a show up at the Chocolate Church Art Center in Bath, Maine.  She was born in 1919 and has paintings in the show from when she was twelve to the present day.  It is really a great show.  These are some of my favorites.

John Marin

John Marin seemed to appreciate the beauty in life.  He painted that beauty as he saw it.  He felt that paint was alive and needed to express itself.     He lost his mother shortly after he was born and when to live with his aunts.  He lived with them for over thirty years.  When he was finally allowed to study art he travelled to Europe and when he returned he never went back.  He married and had a son and summered in Maine and painted.  He was friends with Alfred Stieglitz who had a series of art galleries in New York.  The art in these galleries ended up defining Modern Art, artists who first showed their work in these galleries where artists like Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, and Georgia O’Keeffe.

In John Marin’s career as an artist he did some amazing etchings, watercolors and oils, but is probably know for is watercolor more than anything else.  When he wrote he used dashes and capital letters instead of traditional punctuation.  He drew the lines and shapes that the earth showed him.  He said “An artist has to construct shapes seen-to his own shapes the triangles and squares & circles which he creates he would never have created if he hadn’t seen triangles circles or squares in nature all his life…so that’s the source of his gettings-he being a natural object himself he can never get away from this (his seeings and hearings) and they register within himself and he uses them”.

He had an artist’s eye for movement and a respect for the earth .  “Go look at the bird’s flight-the man’s walk-the sea’s movement.  They have a way-to keep their motion-nature’s laws of motion have to be obeyed-and you have to follow along. The good picture embraces these laws-the best of the old did-that’s what gives them their life…”   

He loved to be in nature, “ Watch those animals put their feet down-they have respect for the Earth.” 

He loved classical music and often looked at his paintbrush as his instrument. “… and as to whether that Musical Instrument be brush, camera, spade, saw, or fiddle-matters not-provided that it give”

John Marin is a fascination person to study.  He didn’t care for intellectuals and didn’t like abstraction but often his paintings at first glance appeared abstract.  “John Marin by John Marin” is a collection of his writings and it gives a small look into what made John Marin tick. 

Now I will begin my work on seeing the movement and shapes in the world, so I can produce a John Marin inspired piece of art. 

Self Portrait

To see John Marin's self portrait follow this link.
http://www.npg.si.edu/cexh/eye/html/l_marin.htm

John Marin

So I am studying John Marin.  Today was my first day.  So here is what to expect.  I am going to study for about a week then report on what I learn.  In the mean time I am going to practice my art and develop my style. 

My grandfather was inspired by work of John Marin.  To read about my grandfather go to http://lucienday.net/
and click on reviews

"Lord how wonderful it is to be-alone-for then in imagination you can have any Companion you want and can get rid of when you want-My temperament cannot stand having a bunch around me wherever I go."

 -John Marin

Self Portrait

Well I sketched and painted 5 self-portraits in 5 days.  I learned a lot about watercolor paints and mixing colors.  I think I improved greatly.  Now on with my project.  John Marin will be my March artist.

My first attempt

I used a grid

Free hand sketch, learning about shading

Oops the eyebrows are a little dark and big.  I learned that you can't take the paint off.



I don't know, I think I got the colors right, but it doesn't really look like me, does it?



Fun with pencils

I am busy today sketching my family.  I hear that practice with faces will help me develop the skills needed to capture the likeness in a face, so I am practicing drawing faces. 

I played with my watercolors today, mixing colors to see what I can come up with.  I have 8 colors lemon yellow, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine, cerulean blue, viridien green, yellow ochre and burnt sienna.  I can mix yellow ochre and cadmium red to make my skin tone and then add a little viridian (very little) to make shadows.  Ultramarine and burnt sienna make my gray/black tone.

 I need to find a skull to sketch from.  Halloween stuff here I come.  I have my anatomy book out and have started looking at how our body is attached to our skulls.  There is alot to this drawing people thing. 

The books make it sound so easy, but it is not.  Fun but not easy.

Too much watercolor

So I did another self portrait.  I liked the sketch.  Everything was going well until a drip of paint went in the wrong place.  I went to fix it and then the shading went wrong.  I went to fix that and the whole mouth was wrong.  Watercolor seems to have a personality of its own.  I am just getting to know it.  I think I like this watercolor personality, there is a fluidity to it. 

Should I put up a picture of my funny shaded self-portrait?

Black and White

Today's self portrait is not in color.  I watched a video on how to mix black watercolors so I decided to do my portrait painting in black.  I also tried using the grid method for sketching so I could see the proportions better.  I enjoy the painting more than the sketching. 

Today I got stuck in a snowbank and sketched Lucien's sippy cup while I waited for my neighborhood hero to come with his truck and pull me out of the snow.  Lucien napped the whole time.  I feel truly blessed.  

I am reading about blocking in & layout, value and value scales and using negative space.
I am having fun with my new learning. 

Looking at the whole face

Add caption

Today I learned about looking at the whole face instead of its parts.  The shadows of the face make it recognizable.  I don't think I have it down just yet but I am learning.  I did do some painting.  I attemped to fix up one of my sketches and then painted it.  It was quite fun.  I think I will do one each day for the rest of the month and see if I get any better. 

I need to learn more about mixing colors, shape, form, shadows, and many many other things.



'44N 69W: Radius Belfast'

 Åarhus Gallery, Friday March 4th, 5-8pm for the third annual '44N 69W: Radius Belfast' opening reception.  My art is there and will be in the show.

Sketch 1st

OK I sketched myself.  What I learned is that it is hard to make a realistic drawing of yourself.  The mirror is better than the photo for self study, but both are hard.  I seem to draw myself with a masculine look.  If anyone has suggestions please help me.

Tomorrow I will paint.  We will see if I then sketch again.

Wish me luck.

Looking at yourself

I am older than I was the last time I looked at myself closely.  My face is lop-sided and I have wrinkles.  This self-portrait project is getting scarier. 

First painting completed

Circus, this is the painting that started me on this adventure.  I am submitting it to the gallery down town.  I had such fun through the whole process that I decided to start this blog and be an artist.  I did find that there is a point where you have to just stop painting.  I kept painting then it would be done, but then I would see something that needed more work, then I was done, but then it would happen again and again, so I decided that I would take a picture of the painting and post it as Done. Completed. Finished.

Fun is important when painting but there is so much to learn about.  I went to the library today and got a couple books, six actually.  I am going to begin with watercolors, that is what most of my grandfathers paintings are.  I learned about brushes and some of the techniques today.  I am feeling a little timid about my self-portrait.  I did take a picture of myself and got a book called "Portrait Painting in Watercolor" by Charles Reid, so I am well on my way.

Now I just need the baby to take a nap so I can begin my self-portrait.

Busy Busy Busy

Well today has been busy.  I am searching for my first artist to work with.   John Marin was my grandfathers inspiration.  I really like his work. I am also looking at women artists.  Frida Kahlo did not have professional training so I am interested in her work, also she has an incredible life story.  Georgia O'Keefe is a wonderful artist, I know the work but not much about her and her life.  There is my grandmother Jerry Day Mason who I could interview she has a show in March at the Chocolate Church in Bath, Maine. 

I now have a tabletop easel.  Oil paints, acrylic paints and watercolor paints are now in my hands along with some new brushes and canvases.

My oldest, who is 13 years old and my daughter who is 9 are both very excited about my project.  They are also painting.

I have decided that I want to do a self portrait, a still life and a landscape.  It seems to be what most artists (painters) do, so I will be working on those.  I will begin with a self-portrait.   This will be my beginning self
portrait and after a year of learning I will do another and see how different they are.

Did I mention that I am going to begin with painters and then see where it goes from there.

Artists I Like

Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seutat, Paul Cezanne, Georges Rouault, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, Max Beckman, Joseph Stella, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Marc Chagull, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Hans Arp, Jackson Pollock, Paul Jenkins, Salvador Dali, Victor Vasarely, etc...

Who to start with?

So here I go.  There are so many artists.  Who should I start with?  Maybe Jackson Pollock? Pablo Picasso? Vincent van Gogh? or should I go with someone else?  Decisions decisions...

Introduction

I come from a family of creative people.  I have always considered myself a creative dabbler.  Now the time has come for me to make it a full time job.  I am going to be researching artists and attempting to create a piece of art in their style.  I will choose a new artist monthly and post what I am learning.  At the end of the month, I will post my final piece of art.

I recently gave birth to my third child whose namesake was a great artist (my grandfather, Lucien Day).  Baby Lucien is 9 years younger than his closest sibling.  I feel like I am starting over.  I don't want to go back to work outside the home and I want to do something different that makes me happy and maybe others too.  So here I go, finding my art.