Wow, Monday morning the sky was marked in two right overhead.  It was as though a purply-gray silk comforter were pulled up so far and no more.  The rest of the sky was clear palest, palest blue.

Well we won no prize for our entry.  But I have seen the cow at the fair and this is where you will find it.  East of the Swine Barn and North of the Outdoor Arena is a traingular grassy patch as you go up the hill.  The CFUM cow is  at the southeast corner of that patch and it is right next to a purple recycling cow.   Go to an information booth and you can get a “Program” with all of the cows listed with a brief description.  I don’t think they give any Cow Map out though so you just have to look for them.  But I can also tell you that they are clustered so where you find one you will find others.

Wow I was surprised to need a layer because sleeveless would leave me cold when I went walking his morning.  I passed a good dozen others out this morning.  The drop in temps really kicked folks into action it seems.  The sky  was covered with rows of clouds like a series of wave tops.  They caught light and shadow and inbetween their bands let the blue  show.  Sky was robin’s egg blue and the clouds were cream and salmon orangy-pink and the shadows were lavender-gray.  Word sketch not watercolor sketch this morning.

 I continue to receive evening phone calls from several friends pushing me outside (again) or reporting on their sky views.  The humidity is an amazing affector on the sky blurring or leaving crisp edges of the moon and clouds and sunset colors.   Still working with line, line, line as the most playful recorder of what I see.  Reading a fictionalized interview with Michelangelo and the last q&a was about his drawing and poetry.  He talked about the sameness in DESIGN of both.  They are records, plans, complete thoughts and the manipulation of the marking tool – pen, charcoal… is the same path for the brain.

I picked up the phone last night and the first thing I heard was “Sky Watch!!!”  I said , “Hello? Who is this?”  Then it dawned on me (pun intended) this was an artist friend kicking my butt outside to see the sunset. She has turned into a partner in the observation and noting business of these daily marvels.  “Thank you, thank you, thank you! for kicking me when I need it.”

The CFUM Cow is now at the State Fair.  The Butter Cow Centennial Judging will happen before the fair opens and then the cows both 24 inch and 36 inch will be placed all around the fairgrounds for the running of the fair (August 11-21).  There are three prizes which include cash and fair tickets with parking passes and food coupons.  No small matter this!  Anyway when I delivered the cow with the help of my neighbor and his pickup truck we were able to see about 8 other entries.  They are all SO different.  I do not envy the judges.  These photos – One when I met her and the second  is good bye at the warehouse. ( see the cousins?!)

Today “Cloudia” or “Blue….Betty, Bettina,Between..whatever …will arrive at the Iowa State Fair Grounds for her beauty contest!! Woo Hoo for her.  Wish her luck.  After one round of judging she will be placed somewhere on the fairgrounds for us to seek and find her.  You won’t miss her when you see her.  Blue, clouds, sneakers, and gorgeous jewelry.

Yesterday driving home from work the air was shimmering with heat.  A muted haze overlayed the  palest blue and peach-ivory mix.  With my windows down I could hear that someone had a rooster in their yard.  4PM?? that rooster is off his schedule!!!

This morning the sky was FULL of clouds.  There was even a long winding cloud bank stretching from over my head to the southwest and it looked very much like a river. I am working with a new-old rapidograph pen.  I found them in a drawer and spent time last night cleaning some of the nibs.  This super fine point is the only one working at the moment but it was a good line for the skies today.  Yeah…a new toy!!

A couple of sketches and photos from  Iowa and Colorado skies.

A spell of the  computer not cooperating with my camera and I got out of the posting routine.  Blogging just is not as habitual as pen and paper writing.    Well there is progress on the Blue Cow – “Cloudia”.  bit by bit she changes.  The waiting inbetween painting is cause for me to move on to other projects which is not so good since there is a deadline for this project.  Sunday I hope to be done with the painting.  I will look tomorrow and edit and adjust any final things and start the Urethane coating to protect the paint from dings and the weather for at least the next month.  This photo is before the clouds took shape and before the sneakers got painted in.

I have not quit noticing th sky but a 5 day computer camera hiccup did put me off the reporting routine.  This morning looked like a pale gray mass – one color wash until I got a block or two from the house. Then there were small gaps that permitted a salmon or pale blue bubble to show.  I am off to find some tissue papers this morning – watercolor washes are not capturing the horizon and sky for me.  Maybe a different material will.

So far more of my painting time has been at night.  I am finally working some this morning.  Does make a difference – Thank You!  I started the clouds and I definately need more.  More is more.

Primer coat

She weighs 125 pounds.  I have her on a dolly so it possible for me to move her around in the garage to paint her.  The detail on her legs and face is really nice. Really want to come up with a good name.  Hm…

Working on a project for the office.  Painting a cement cow, 24″ tall, that will be part of the Iowa State Fair Centennial Celebration of the Butter Cow.  This is the progress so far.  First the sketch submitted is for a sky blue cow with clouds all along it’s head and back bone and kids sneakers on it’s feet.  Logo on the side between shoulder and hip.  After the design was accepted I picked it up the cement cow  at the Fairgrounds  with my neighbor’s help and his pick -up truck .  We got to see it in a row with some of its cousins.   Once home it needed patching and smoothing. Plus I did not expect the cement base so my design might change a bit.  Can I cut and fit real sneakers or will I paint them on the hooves?

Butter Cow SketchCow patching work

Saw this in the newspaper and thought of Van Gogh’s “Potato…?” need to look that up. The sky was great with the rainbow!! and there were two great Umbrellas. Noticing the sky does not have to be my sky.

I walked a path pretty much north – south this morning.  To the east was the sun in late fireball stages.  In the west were still smudges of clouds in different grays with daylight colors barely a promise.

I was making sketchbook pages of fireworks bouquets and then I heard the kabooms of ones going up close to home.  Ran to get my camera but the streetlight interferred a lot with the photographs.  Oh well the memory of the dazzle is better than any ole photograph.  Every burst and cascade seem impossible in color and shape.  “How do they do that?”  Is it all formulas or is there still a visual

Front door fireworks

surprize for the designers?  With all the other lights in the sky I almost missed the crescent sliver of the moon.  That and the streetlight stayed constant and silent while the razzle-dazzle percussion light show  kept me outside wiggling only to swat mosquitos for 20 minutes.

This morning was such a switch from the last two to three days.  60 Degree temps.  I couldn’t NOT go out just to be in the cool air!  Last night driving home the sky was dramatically divided by a jagged vertical line of black-blue thunder heads reaching from the ground up moving into the southern smokyblue dusk.  Inside the thunderheads were fireworks of lightening.  Expressway driving does not allow for picture taking.  Too bad.  I will hunt for some dark drawing papers today when I do my errands.  Also it makes me think chalks and not pastels.  Again, I will have to see what I have.  Hm…

Last night the sky was a series of smoky and clear blues.  This morning I can see the heat haze starting early.   The Yuccas are taller than I am – out doing anything I have seen them do before.  Last year there were no blooms in fact.  Threw a lot of effort into this year it seems.  Tomorrow I start work on  the cement cow project.

I had an early meeting today.  Just as well not to be out in this heat wave cooker.  How can a blue sky seem hot?  It did today.

Clouds today started looking like pulls of cotton candy and then moved into formations.  I was up early enough that the sun playing into the clouds and the lake surface was blinding.  Once I noticed and started counting there were 10 ant colonies that were swarming above ground.  I wonder what that was all about.  I was imagining the ground collapsing without their underground presence holding me up.

6AM with a pale blue sky, peach hint at the horizon. Trees vary from silvery olive and army green to forest green.  Bark is metallic steel gray to grizzley brown.  Just a little kelly green popping on the evergreen bushes.  Still see the mower tracks in the grass as very dark lines, in fact see multiple weeks worth of tracks.  So the yard is beyond pin-striped suit to festive beach awining, multi-striped fabric.  Muy bien, San Tropez!!

Sunday I woke up in a cloud.  Literally.  The air outside my door shimmered because the clouds had come down to grass level.  Could see to the end of the cul de sac but not much more beyond.

Monday clouds are flash mobbing to take over the whole sky but their attention span is faltering and the toe hold of the sun is growing into blue patches up high.

Today and yesterday so different.  The clouds were endless allowing only the smallest of blue slivers to show through.  I struggle with showing edges and volumes of clouds.  Maybe I will glue cotton balls down and be happier with the result.   Marshmallows may be more fun.  Now I am thinking cocoa on this cool rainy afternoon.  One thought does lead to another nicely.

One line for the whole sky fullRacing Sky

Racing Sky

I have kept up with the noticing but not the posting of any comments and pictures. One thing becoming more powerful to me in this whole noticing and recording the sky discipline is the sketchbook. I actually like it and I cannot say I have ever been in love with or even liked sketchbooks. I journal and for sure value writing words down as I do it but not so much the sketching. Looking back at drawings though – I am almost always pleasantly surprised with the variety and the volume of visual thoughts.  So…today three days worth of notes.  Weather is so changeable and I am not responsible and I like that.

Birds are crazy active on this cloudy day.  Spitting rain cut short my morning walk and the wind is blowing cloud cluster after cloud cluster across the sky such that there is no gap between any.  Another study in grays.  I needed some flamingo color to balance the monotone.

The weather is a changing so the sky was a great record of the was and about to be.  Rain gone, clear now and rain to come.  The drawing is the Clear now portion of the sky. Think I will get bigger paper since the sky is such a big subject.

(6:00AM) Swiss dots of black and gray on my window as I look out on a two-tone work of swaying darkest green trees and a sky that is all one dark cloud.

(6:15AM) Now the sky is the color of ashes leftover from yesterday’s grilling.

(6:30AM) The trees are variations of matte, dark greens and the sky is like winter snow banks with all the folds and shadows that show definition.  The “cold” is at the top of my sight rather than near to hand.

     These Bumble Bee Iris started with just three roots 6 or 7  years ago.  Those stiff little wings put a smile on my face every year and now they are “everywhere”  .

Rain and frustration will both end soon. Saturday afternoon now and I can see some dry patches on the pavement.    I have been reading Twyla Tharp’s “The Creative Habit”.  It is both practical and inspiring which means it borders on the magical.  Anyway one insight about myself-my work is how important line is to me.  Also I see writing and another form of line drawing.  Hm… If that is true then is a book a format worth exploring for my work? Hm….. mull, mull, mull.

Mixed Media Group met last night and I  looked forward to it all week.  It is such a plus to work along side other artists.  When I forget I need to be around other “creatives” I suffer.  Can’t wait  till next week again.

Just received the invitation/announcement to Fiber Directions 2011. My sculpture “From the Ground Up” is part of the show.  Now I want to figure out how to go down to see the whole exhibit before May 8.