Monthly Archives: October 2016

Clouds

Posted on October 26, 2016 | Comments Off

A.J.’s Clouds, oil on canvas, 24 x 30, Kit Miracle

Occasionally here in the Midwest we get some pretty fabulous cloud formations. They’re probably not any different than anywhere else, it’s just that we actually have the space to see them. This painting is from a photo that my son shared with me of some dramatic cumulonimbus clouds in August. Interestingly enough, I was taking photos of the same clouds from two miles away as was another friend who lives about 30 miles away. That’s how impressive the formations were. I decided to turn it into a painting for my son for Christmas. I don’t think he follows my blog or otherwise, this won’t be a surprise for him.

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Posted in country living, oil painting

Tagged art, clouds, oil painting

Monet’s Field

Posted on October 19, 2016 | Comments Off

Monet’s Fields, oil on canvas, 16 x 20, Kit Miracle

This is the field next to my studio. In the early fall, it is a riot of colors of wild flowers. This time of year it’s mostly purples, blues and yellows. Of course, as the artist, I emphasized the colors but they were pretty bright anyway. The field was hayed earlier in the year so you’re mostly looking at goldenrod, ageratum, iron weed and Queen Ann’s lace.

Monet’s Fields, original photograph

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Posted in Uncategorized

What’s with that?

Posted on October 16, 2016 | 2 comments

Since this blog is about art, books, and country living, today’s post is about books. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m an Amazon Vine reviewer. They offer me a limited number of books and merchandise to choose from which continuously changes. I get to keep the items and all I have to do is write an honest review of the product. No where does Amazon require that I write a good review if I don’t think the product is any good. I do try to justify my review with specifics thinking of the readers who rely on reviews. In fact, I often find the negative reviews to be more enlightening but that is just me.

I’m not quite sure how Amazon selected me for this program. Probably because I buy a lot of books and other merchandise through them. I also write reviews even on the non-free items that I order, some of which have received high ratings.

But a few months ago I wrote a negative review on a book that I’d ordered several months ago. It was an art book and I felt the author was a fraud and didn’t have any skills except self-promotion. I realize that anyone can write a book and publish it. That is not the point. The point is that other people rely on the reviews when they make their purchases and would be wasting their money if they purchased the book thinking it was one thing when it wasn’t (in my opinion). So I wrote the review and even had several photos that I’d scanned from the book to prove my point. However, for whatever reason, I wasn’t able to upload the photos. But the review received several positive votes.

The surprise was when I recently revisited the review to see if I would be able to upload the photos now, the review wasn’t there anymore. Hummm…. A little internet research revealed that Amazon is now taking down some reviews. There’s some internet chat about the reasoning behind their decision, but the fact that they do makes me pretty skeptical about the entire review process.

The point here is, you ought to be wary of the review system, too. How do we know we’re getting honest opinions? I don’t know the answer to that question but I do know that I’m going to go back and re-review that book. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload the photos now.

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Posted in books

Tagged Amazon, books

Sage Cottage

Posted on October 9, 2016 | Comments Off

Sage Cottage, Adairsville GA Watercolor / pen and ink, Kit Miracle

We were in Georgia last month for a wedding at the Barnsley Estate. We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast a few miles away called the Sage Cottage. Owners, Jim and Sharon Southerland, were such gracious hosts and made us feel welcome in every way. The house is actually quite large with really beautiful grounds. Another wedding party had taken over most of the remainder of the rooms. There was plenty of space to roam so I decided to use my time to make this watercolor / pen and ink sketch of the main house. It was difficult to choose a view as the grounds were laid out so well, with hidden nooks, statuary, and gardens.

This was painted in a Pentalic Aqua Journal which has really thick pages, almost like cardboard. I use a couple of clips to hold the pages open but otherwise, there is no buckling from watermedia. I only wished later that I had used a larger sheet of paper, maybe an 11 x 14. This is 5 x 16 (5 x 8 landscape notebook).