Good News from Florida

We left for Florida last Monday to see Charlie's radiation oncologist for a six-month check-up.  I got my big cast off on Friday and was fitted with a Star Wars Storm Trooper boot just in time for the trip. With wheelchair service at the airport, I got along well on the trip from Greensboro to St. Petersburg.

We were nervous about the scans because of the recurrence of cancer last year, but everything looked good this time.  He goes back in six months for the next evaluation.

A big thumbs-up after his check-up at Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota!

We are so happy!

 The day after that, we had lunch in Punta Gorda with some other friends that we met at Dattoli last summer.  Bill and John just finished their long three phases of treatment in December and are doing well.  It was so good to visit with them again, as well as John's wife Beverly.   We spent many hours together last summer.

We stayed in Ft. Myers with my brother Jeff and his wife Anna for most of the week.  We had some nice visits with family while we were there.

I don't have much artsy or quilty to report.  Since we flew in and out of St. Pete, I would have loved to visit the Dali museum and Chihuly glass collection, but this was not the right time for gadding about with my cane and giant boot.  Maybe when we go back in July.

Meanwhile, Life is Good!

Journaling the Bible

Bible Art Journaling...a lovely past-time that combines spending time in The Word with pleasurable art activities! 

Here are some pages I have journaled during the past few months.

In my original Crossway Bible with two-inch lined margins on each page (ESV Single Column Journaling Bible (Black).
:

Matthew 25:14-30-The Parable of Talents

John 21:18  My reaction to being immobile due to ankle surgery

Habakkuk 3:19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet  like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.

The page with the deer was inspired by the visitors outside my window during a recent snow event. The verse just happened to be referenced in my daily devotional Jesus Calling on January 18.

Since I have filled so many pages in my first Crossway journal, I purchased another one.  This time I bought the hard-cover interleaved version.( ESV Journaling Bible, Interleaved Edition, Cloth over Board, Tan)  There is a blank page next to every page of Scripture.  This allows for a full-page illustration without covering up any of the Scripture.  It is much heavier, but I enjoy the space provided for artwork.

Psalm 8-How Majestic is Your Name

My artwork on this page was inspired by a video lesson by Gina Lee Kim on Interweave.com (The Versatility of Blue).  It is done in watercolor with the addition of white acrylic paint.

Exodus 38:18

I also illustrated this page while the ground was covered with snow, and I was desperate to work with some bright colors!

Ezekiel 36:9  You shall be tilled and sown.

These pages were colored with Derwent Inktense pencils and softened with a water brush.  I find this is the easiest method to use outside of my studio, especially while confined to the couch.  The image is my version of VanGogh's Landscape with House and Ploughman.  I enjoy trying my hand and learning from paintings by the masters of art.  Coincidentally, Charlie brought home the handout from church that Sunday, and the theme of the sermon was "The Sower."

 I started Bible Art Journaling in February, 2016, when my husband was finishing up seven months of radiation treatment in Sarasota, Florida.  It was a stressful time.  I had been art journaling for about six years when I discovered by browsing Pinterest that people were journaling directly in their Bibles .  This immediately caught my attention, because I was using Scripture in some of my journaling already. 

I googled "Bible Art Journaling" and discovered the website of Rebekah R. Jones from Great Britain.  She has offered several free online workshops for Bible Journaling, with suggested verses, devotionals, and YouTube videos with art lessons to complete each page.  I began with the Original Bible Art Journaling Challenge, which was a weekly challenge in 2015.  All the archives are online on her page.  I tried to do these in order, and it was amazing how frequently the lessons featured scripture that was exactly what I needed to get me through that day.

A perfect example is this page, which followed the prompt for the day we met with Charlie's doctor at the end of his radiation treatment.  He was pronounced in remission that day.  I had done this page with colored pencils in the car on our 90-mile daily commute to the cancer center.

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, to give you a future and a hope.

Following the OBAJC, the next year Rebekah offered the series Heaven is Calling, a monthly challenge, and in 2017 Deeper Still.  That one is still ongoing since life interfered with her offering the monthly videos.  You can view the tutorials directly from You Tube (Rebekah R. Jones).

If you are interested in Bible Art Journaling, Rebekah's online challenges are a great place to begin. I really did not know that much about the Old Testament, but have learned so much from completing the lessons and doing further reading.  I have almost never followed her lessons on artwork, preferring to choose my own illustrations, but she has helped many new artists confidently produce beautiful Bible pages.

There is a wide array of journaling Bibles available from Amazon, Lifeway, or other book sellers.  Rebekkah offers advice on which one to choose on her website.  You can also journal on any Bible if you don't mind covering some of the text with your artwork.  Some people prefer to do Bible journaling in a conventional journal.

Now I often journal in response to the readings from Sunday church service or the Jesus Calling devotional.  Sometimes I search for a verse that might support my need for that day or just something that I feel like painting or drawing.

Good luck if you decide to try Bible Art Journaling.  Feel free to ask any questions via the comments.

Surprise! I'm Back!

Hello out there to any of my followers who might still remember me after a three-month absence from my blog.  We're still here...Charlie is doing a little better with his blood counts following his last radiation.  I had a total ankle replacement in Charlotte on January 9, which has left me in non-weight-bearing status since then.  We go back to Charlotte on January 26, and hopefully will get rid of the giant heavy cast and switch to a walking boot.

On Monday, January 29, we go back to Sarasota for Charlie's six-month check-up at Dattoli Cancer Center.  We are looking forward to the warmer weather and visiting with family who live down there.  We have had an exceptionally cold winter so far here in the North Carolina mountains, so it has been a good month to hibernate inside.  Even though I stay on the couch all day, I can see outside through our glass door and big windows.  Here are some visitors that I spied on one of the snow days.

I was really getting motivated to finish organizing my basement studio when deer season arrived, then  Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Had to add air beds downstairs for company and a table for a gift-wrapping station.  The painting side is in pretty good shape, but not the fabric/quilting area.  Maybe when we get back from Florida.

I did paint some winter scenes and a Christmas card before  I got laid up.

Snowy Woods

Snowy Woods was this year's Christmas card.

Light in the Forest

I started Light in the Forest four years ago.  One of my former workshop instructors, Karlyn Holman, wrote a step-by-step tutorial in Watercolor Artist magazine about creating a snowy woodland scene.  I did not like mine at all and put it aside.  Four years later I got some new ideas and am very happy with this luminous scene.  In fact, it is sold!

I have done a little art journaling, as well.  My brother Chris sent me a photo of a very angry screech owl he encountered while mowing his grass, and I tried to paint him.

Here are my last three journal pages for the Monthly Art Journal Challenge Group on Facebook.  The moderator always suggests a theme for the month.

November:  Glitter


























It's a little-known fact that when my husband and I ride the Gator through a dark piny section of our mountain, he often quotes lines from this beloved Robert Frost poem to me.


December:  Poinsettias


















Inspired by a watercolor painting on Pinterest

January:  the year 2018

I painted this luminous angel some time ago, but never finished the page.  I used a white Sharpie paint pen (extra fine point) to add the journaling, halo, and flower.

I have done quite a bit of Bible journaling while recuperating, and will post some of those pages next time.

Thank you to my sister-in-law Alice Turner for requesting that I start blogging again!  I needed a nudge!

Autumn Paintings

We continue to have sunny and beautiful autumn weather here in the North Carolina mountains.  I have been doing some quick little fall scenes in watercolor.

The first three are 5" x 7" watercolors.

This one is 10" x 10".

This next one just sold at the art and craft fair at the Jefferson United Methodist Church.

And here is a seasonal journal entry.  I just felt like painting some pumpkins!

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

Charlie and I have been to Boone, NC several times for doctors' appointments over the past six weeks, and I finally got to visit the Turchin Arts Center at Appalachian State University on our last trip.

The space is very lovely, right on King Street, very spacious.  The exhibit that I wanted to see was by Diane Kempler, who combines porcelain with seed pods and forms exotic shapes that mimic nature.

The tall spires were very striking, and these gourd-looking objects made an interesting display.

The next ones represent "Floating Microbes."

The next one is "Microbial Garden."

Several other artists had exhibits included in an upstairs gallery.  I liked this large piece by Bob Ray, which looks like an old quilt to me.  It is made of PVC, paint, tape, and collage.  It is named "A Room in Charleston."

Here is a detail of some of the crosses.

Bob Ray also created "Night Fence" from paint, wood, tape, and charcoal.

I liked this display by Barbara Hardy, which also reminded me of quilts in a way.

This one is named "The Other Color."  It is oil on wood.

After the art museum, Charlie and I met two of my brothers and my sister-in-law Debbie at Proper in Boone for a nice outdoor lunch.  

My brother Chris, myself, and my brother John

It is starting to look a lot like fall up here.  There's nothing like a blue October Carolina sky against fall color, like these towering goldenrods.

I like seeing the local businesses decorating with fall and harvest themes.  Welch's Produce is one of our favorite stops between Jefferson and our town of Laurel Springs.

And here is a family of wild turkeys, ignoring the "No Trespassing" sign to go for a stroll on a nearby farm.

Bible Art Journaling

 I bought a new Bible for art journaling that has a full blank page for every page of text.  That will allow a generous space for artwork without covering up the Scripture.  Here is the first page that I completed.  I borrowed a scene from Vincent Van Gogh that looks a lot like our mountain countryside here in North Carolina.  The scripture is Psalm 103.

In my other Bible I added this illustration of a bald eagle for Job 28: 20-21.

And here is a very simple one in only one color of Intense pencils. (Genesis 18:1-8)

Charlie and I joined the Jefferson United Methodist Church last Sunday.  The minister was not familiar with Bible Art journaling, and loved my illustrated Bible.  He even showed it to the congregation when he was introducing us.  I may end up leading a group who wants to try it out.

Yesterday we went to Charlotte to see an orthopedic foot surgeon.  I am going to be scheduled for total ankle replacement on my left foot.  When that one heals, I will also need it on my right foot.  So, I am going to try hard to get my house organized and clean before I am on crutches for awhile.  They said it might be 6-8 weeks from now before I can have the first surgery.  I do well when I have a deadline, so maybe the basement studio will be in good shape by then.

A couple of years ago, Charlie bought me a porcelain palette for my watercolor paints.  It is designed by one of my favorite art instructors, Tom Lynch.  I finally filled it with luscious paints, and it is ready to use.  I like the holes in the corners for standing paint brushes.  There is a plastic dust cover with insulating tape around the top.

Hopefully, it will not be a virgin much longer!

After Irma

This is the first day in a week that I have worked in the studio.  We have been busy watching The Weather Channel to see what Hurricane Irma was doing in Florida and on up to the Carolinas.  My brother Jeff and his wife Anna evacuated a week ago from Ft. Myers, Florida and have been staying with us.  I think they will leave tomorrow...going back to no power or water, no traffic lights, and pretty much chaos.  Jeff works in Naples, where the highest wind gusts in Florida were recorded.  The house is okay and all their family is safe, which is all that matters.

When they were here on vacation just a couple of weeks ago, I wrapped Jeff's birthday present in a piece of brown Kraft paper that I had painted with an undersea scene.

He liked the wrapping paper so much that I mounted it on a gallery-wrapped canvas for him.  Here it is, glued down with gel medium and sprayed with glossy acrylic varnish.

Underwater Scene, acrylic paint on brown Kraft paper, mounted on gallery-wrapped canvas.

My new quilt guild meets Thursday, and this month's challenge block was a six-inch maple leaf.  I made two.  These did not take as long as the Sister's Choice block I featured on my last post, but I am very rusty...and still having to search for things.

I have been asked to provide quits to hang in the New River State Park clubhouse for a couple of months, so I went through the stash of smaller quilts that might work.  Lo and behold, I came across The Green Man, started many years ago in an online class with fabric artist Pamela Allen.  The Green Man is probably the strangest quilt I have ever made, but I love him.  He suffered an awful fate years ago when my grand-dog had an anxiety attack and chewed off the corner of the quilt, as well as the three-D nose and eyebrow.   

I am happy to say that I have made repairs, and I think he looks just fine.  I made a new corner for the quilt and added some leaves and flowers from an old flower arrangement.  I finished the edges with Tussah Silk Tops that I just mashed around the edges and zigzagged with my sewing machine.

The Green Man, art quilt by Jeanne Turner McBrayer

I also finally finished the edges of this little batik quilt that I made several years ago.  It is oriental paper, painted with watercolor paints and sealed with wax. The drawing is a detail from a Kathy George kit that I purchased after taking a workshop from her several years ago.  I think I will mount this one on gallery-wrapped canvas.

                                       

That's about it until next time!