Tag Archives: indiana

A week of winter sunrises

Posted on January 26, 2025 | 3 comments

Monday, Jan 20, 2023 The beginning of thawout.

My west coast son asked me this week, Hey, Mom, have you been doing any work in your studio lately? Ha!

My studio is a summer kitchen about 30 feet from the house. In case you don’t know, summer kitchens were standard buildings for most farms in the south and Midwest a century ago. They were designed to keep the heat from the wood cookstoves out of the house during the summer, cooking and canning. Although very handy as a studio, it’s not really comfortable during the depth of winter. I’ve been known to wear a couple of pairs of socks, several layers of other clothes, a hat and fingerless gloves while working there in the winter. Turning up the heater is not really economical.

Tuesday, Jan 21, 2025. Muted sunrise on an overcast day.

Normally, winters around here are like long autumns. We lived in Michigan for ten years so I’m pretty used to some pretty chilly weather. But this past couple of weeks, we’ve had nine or ten inches of snow with a few inches of ice on top. Temps have dropped to zero, and the sun has only weakly thawed and refrozen the ice. We were housebound for a few days. Our drive is still a mess and not for the faint of heart, or those without four wheel drive.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2025 Another rosy sunrise.

But…the scenery has been beautiful. Especially the sunrises. As you can see in the photos, the morning colors are reflected off the icy snow crusts. Probably subject for future paintings but I’m pretty tired of it by now.

Wherever you live, I hope you are having a more pleasant winter than we’ve been having. Keep warm. Keep safe.

Another golden sunrise, more melted and refrozen snow.

3 Comments

Posted in country living, old house, Uncategorized

Tagged country living, icy snow, indiana, kit miracle, snow, winter, winter sunrise

Painting churches

Posted on November 24, 2024 | 2 comments

Painting churches. In this case, rather, it is sketching churches. Although I have painted quite a number of churches over the years.

Holy Family. This is a large but somewhat modern church. The most difficult part was deciding how much detail to include of the large stained glass window.

I’m not quite sure why I have had an attraction to churches. I think that it’s because they are often the most spectacular or impressive buildings in the area, whether it’s a big city, a small town, or even a rural area. I appreciate the workmanship and planning which goes into such buildings no matter their size or location.

Trinity UCC. The beautiful cupola has stained glass which really lights up the church inside.

Some fancy cathedrals have been around for centuries while others are newer and usually more sedate in architecture. I’ve captured them in paint, oil or acrylic or watercolor, and pen and ink drawings.

Precious Blood. Another church with some stained glass but I was more interested in the architecture of the building.

Redemption Christian Church. This is one of the newest churches in the area. It is very striking with its light, almost white colored stone.

When I’m doing a painting or drawing of a church, I often reflect upon the people who belong to or use the church. What is the congregation like? Are they kind? Do they do community work? Do they celebrate with music and singing? Or are they among those who sit in quiet contemplation?

I recently finished drawing a group of local churches which I haven’t done before. I’ve completed some others before but realized that I’ve left a lot out. (And there are still many more I might do in the future.)

Shiloh Church. This reminds me a little of some New England churches. Although the exterior is larger than I was able to capture in this one image, it has a very modest feeling.

I print the sketches on notecards and sell them locally. It seems everyone is proud of their religious homes. But, actually, I just enjoy drawing them.

What are the churches like in your area? Are they beautiful showpieces or places of quieter thoughts?

2 Comments

Posted in pen and ink, travel

Tagged art, churches, indiana, kit miracle, local scenes, sketching

Autumn roundup 2024

Posted on November 17, 2024 | 2 comments

Fall decorations. The impatiens are still hanging on.

The fall colors have been really spectacular this season. We had the right amount of rain early on but little rain from August until recently. I was afraid that the colors would be drab and the trees would just drop their leaves. I was wrong.

I read some survey that said Southern Indiana was rated as one of the best places to see fall color. As I always like to joke, it’s like New England but without the crowds. Gently rolling hills and wooded. The farmers were able to get a jump on the harvest and most every field is cleared by now. We have had a couple of rains in the past two weeks but they only keep the dust down. And we haven’t even had a frost yet in my area so I’m still harvesting the last scraggly tomatoes and peppers. That is about to change this coming week.

Watercolor/ pen and ink sketch of the Ferdinand State Forest

Meanwhile, I’ve been able to get outdoors, go for a drive or have a lunch in the park with my husband. I did a few small sketches and one middling painting, too. Just pleasant to be outside.

My flowers have held their blooms, including the geraniums. And my lilacs and rhododendrons have even bloomed this month!

In addition to the free kids’ Picasso art class that I taught last month, we just painted our self-portraits this week. How to draw cats is next month.

Unfortunately, not all is good news. My husband had a serious injury on his tractor (just getting on it) which sent us to the emergency room. This had me scrambling for first aid supplies and trying to remember my old classes in first aid. He’ll be laid up for awhile.

And…I had my first run-in with a deer on the way home from the grocery this week. In the middle of the day! I’m posting a photo of what that coated safety glass will do when a large animal hits it. I didn’t even see it as it bounced down an embankment. Fortunately I was poking along that day but the damage to the car is not pleasant. Calls to the insurance company and locating a repair shop added to the stress. Well, no injury, fortunately. My husband and sons have hit a total of eleven deer over the years. A very common accident in these parts.

Finally, the cardinal that I posted about earlier this year is back, fighting his reflection in the windows. Doesn’t he know mating season is over? He’s looking a bit bedraggled now but he’s still persistent.

I hope you all have been able to get outside and enjoy the season. Snow is coming soon for some of us. Time to hunker down for the winter.

2 Comments

Posted in art, country living, watercolor

Tagged gardening, indiana, kit miracle

Picasso visits Birdseye library

Posted on October 15, 2024 | Comments Off

Autumn is here and we were introduced to a new artist, Pablo Picasso. I recently taught a free children’s art class at the little Birdseye library. Picasso was so famous and painted in such a variety of styles over the decades that I thought there would be something for everyone. And there was.

Always getting in the spirit of the class with Picasso stripes and beret.

These free children’s art classes are designed for kids ages 8 to 14 but we actually had a four year old (with grandma) up to a sixteen year old. It’s 25 miles to town so the idea is to offer some fun art activities for this rural area.

In this case, I always enjoy trying to channel the featured artist, at least in dress. I gave a brief introduction to Picasso, why he was important, and some discussion of his changing styles over the years. The kids were very receptive. Although I offered a few projects which focused on emulating the artist, they were actually free to create their own paintings. I love the variety of work they came up with.

Capturing the cubist idea of viewing a face from both front and side

Hummm….the northern lights with hearts. I think Picasso would have loved this.

We’ll do some self-portraits at the next class in November. I’ll look forward to what the kids come up with. All materials are included. Call the library to register as the class size is limited. https://jdcpl.us/birdseye-library/

Well, this looks like Pikachu but we love it anyway.

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Posted in art, painting instruction

Tagged art, Birdseye, birdseye library, free art classes, history, indiana, kids classes, kit miracle, pablo-picasso, painting, painting instruction, picasso

Light sketching tools

Posted on September 22, 2024 | Comments Off

My rendition of the musicians. You don’t have to include every detail, just make hints of many items.

Being an artist means that you continue to view the world through an artist’s eyes. You’re always looking around you with an intention of expressing your views through whatever means with which you are most comfortable. For me, it’s capturing my views through quick sketches. These are not finished drawings or paintings, but quick translations of what catches my attention.

Many of these sketches end up as finished paintings. Most do not. They are just recordings of my thoughts and viewpoints. There is something about sketching which makes me look more closely. As opposed to photographs., which do not always. The sketches dig into my consciousness, impressing certain details that I would normally overlook with a quick photo.

The full quick sketch kit – plastic bag, sketchbook, collapsible water container, paper towel, plastic eraser, pen, mechanical pen and paint box.

I keep a quick sketch bag at the ready. Since my favorite tool is watercolor, paper, and pen, this is what I keep in my bag.

A one gallon ziplock bag
A small sketch book, probably for watercolor or at least pen and ink, sometimes precut watercolor postcard sizes
A mechanical pencil
A pen, usually a commercial fade-proof and waterproof ink, nothing fancy
A plastic eraser
A folding water container
An old-fashioned metal PRANG watercolor box, filled with my good paints, only eight colors
Two or three good brushes, small enough to fit in the color box
A paper towel or cloth rag
A bottle of water
This is it.

A few samples of small sketchbooks I keep on hand.

This is light weight. Always packed. Ready to grab at an instance and get out of Dodge.

My old metal Prang watercolor box, filled with the good watercolor paint and a few brushes. I let it stay open overnight until the paints have dried out so it travels without making a mess.

This past weekend I participated at a small local arts and music festival. I haven’t done art fairs for thirty years so it was a good opportunity to renew my experience. And to discover why I don’t really want to do it any more.

But it also afforded me a few hours to sketch the people and entertainers at the festival. Fun to experience that. But also fun to know that I don’t have to do this any more. And I had a good opportunity to people watch. With my quick sketch tools.

Are you ready to get out in the world with some quick art tools? The better prepared you are to go, the more likely you will be to do so. Be prepared.

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Posted in art, painting instruction, plein air painting, travel, watercolor

Tagged art, Ferdinand Folk Festival, indiana, kit miracle, painting instruction, pen and ink, quick sketch, watercolor

Painting again

Posted on August 18, 2024 | Comments Off

After so many early summer activities – gardening, hosting company, chores around the house – I’ve finally be able to get back to doing something fun for me. Mostly painting for upcoming exhibits.

Nick’s Pond, 20 x 16, acrylic on canvas, Kit Miracle

I don’t usually lack for ideas. Quite the opposite – too many ideas. But when I hit a dry spell, I sit with my notepad and just start brainstorming. Sometimes I think of a theme, or a location, or something that’s just a challenge. Not all of the ideas I consider reach fruition. Some turn out quite awful, to be frank, but you don’t see those. Maybe it’s a quick glimpse of a cloud or weather formation. Or maybe I want to try some new materials. I really like to do landscapes and to capture human forms. Not much into capturing ugly (to me) – rusty old implements or derelict buildings. But any of this could change in the future, maybe next week.

The Conversation, 12 x 16 acrylic on canvas, Kit Miracle

The past few months I’ve been capturing my travels to California this past spring. Totally different landscape for me. I mostly just did simple sketches, watercolor with pen and ink. But this inspired me to try some bigger, more finished paintings in acrylic on canvas. Many of these were challenging, even to the point where I asked myself why I decided to even try them. But I usually finish what I start as I’ve encountered that messy part of working on a painting about 60% of the way through where it all looks like garbage. Funny how that often works itself out.

Here are a few pieces that I’ve done the second half of the summer. And loads more ideas to come. There just aren’t enough hours in a day.

Palace of Fine Arts – Front View, 16 x 20, acrylic on Canvas, Kit Miracle

Palace of Fine Arts, Back View, 16 x 20, acrylic on canvas, Kit Miracle

The Visitor, 24 x 24, acrylic on canvas, Kit Miracle

Red Lanterns, 16 x 12, acrylic on canvas, Kit Miracle

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Posted in art, contemporary impressionism, impressionism, travel

Tagged acrylic, art, california, chinatown, contemporary impressionist, indiana, kit miracle, palace of fine arts, red lanterns

Spring into Summer 2024

Posted on July 28, 2024 | 6 comments

After I returned from vacation last spring, I immediately jumped into the many spring tasks requiring attention. The usual trimming and weeding. Building and adding a third raised bed. I really enjoyed gardening with those last year. Planting and spring cleaning.

I dealt with a very stubborn cardinal who kept fighting his reflection in the window. All day long for weeks, beginning at dawn and going until dusk. I drew scary faces of owls which helped for a minute. Finally, I hung some netting which covered the window reflections. Until I caught mama cardinal trying to steal the netting for her nest, I presume.

My son announced a visit in late June. Oh, and he’d be bringing a bunch of his California friends so they could see where he grew up. Whaaaa???? He and his girlfriend planned their trip to begin in Louisville where they showed them the sights with visits to distilleries and the famous Churchill Downs. Then they planned a day out here in the country. This led to weeks of preparation on our part, catching up on all those jobs which have been put off the past couple of years. Plus planning dinner for 12 or 14 people. Yikes!

The friends and family group dinner. Italian, of course!

We all had a wonderful day. My son arranged for his friends to do things that they can’t or don’t normally do in California. Go fishing. A hike in the woods. Shooting off fireworks. And trying out some firearms. They were a wonderful group of people. So glad I got to meet them.

Afterwards, my son and his girlfriend spent the rest of the week. One day boating on the lake. Anchoring in a quiet cove for lunch and swimming, then cruising to another cove. Uncle teaching my grandson how to swim and skip rocks. Just what uncles are supposed to do. (Not the “pull my finger stunt, either.”)

Cruising on Lake Patoka. What a lovely day.

Now it’s time to pick tomatoes and peppers, make some salsa. Revisit the weeding. Welcome more visitors. Take the grandkids to library programs and classes. And actually do some painting for upcoming shows and exhibits.

Summer seems to speed up and fall is getting closer.

And, finally, on a sad note. My precious cat Leo who had been experiencing some serious health issues had to be put down last spring. I am heartbroken and can admit that I cried buckets. I’ll get another cat eventually but I’m not ready yet. Someday.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the remainder of your summer and can get outside to enjoy nature.

6 Comments

Posted in country living, garden

Tagged california, cardinal, country living, friend group, indiana, kit miracle, Lake Patoka, raised beds

Making nature prints

Posted on May 26, 2024 | 2 comments

A sample piece with leaves, ferns and flowers.

Creating prints from natural materials can be a whole lot of fun for you or your kids. I had an opportunity to conduct another free class at the little library a couple of weeks ago. This was the last of a series of free kids art classes this spring.

The idea was to collect some interesting natural materials, cover them in paint, and use them to make prints. The materials I used were just collected from my yard. Ferns, leaves, flowers, weeds. I also added some feathers and even a snake skin for texture. Maybe you can take a nature walk with your kids to collect the materials.

One of my demonstration sample print pieces on top of a painted sunrise.

Some of the kids used artist canvas boards, but we found that paper or cardboard works best as supports for the prints. The paper can be plain white or colored, or even textured. Some of the kids did a pre-print drawing or rainbow on their papers. There are just so many ideas.

This was a pretty messy project so as before, I recommend a disposable table cloth, lots of newspapers, disposable plates for palettes, and disposable cups for water. Actually, after our class was done, nearly everything got wrapped up in the tablecloth and tossed. Easy cleanup.

I also recommend that you AND the kids wear some protective clothing or aprons. An old shirt turned backwards works great, too. Things may (WILL) get messy.

Some of the kids wore gloves but others opted not to.

The paint we used was acrylic but tempera or poster paints work pretty good, too. And we used cheap makeup sponges instead of brushes.

Before we started, I showed the kids some of the sheets where I had practiced with some of the materials. Then I demonstrated the process. Afterwards, they painted their leaves or whatever, pressed it into their papers, and used some newspapers to really rub in in. Then they needed to gently lift the leaf or natural materials off. The most difficult part was to judge how much paint was enough and not too much or too little. They caught on very quickly.

The kids selected from a big pile of natural materials. They had about six colors to select from.

This would be a great project to do outdoors on a summer day. The kids didn’t sit down as they kept moving around, trying new materials. I was so happy to see them having so much fun.

Printing light colors on a darker color paper worked well, too.

If you try this out, please let me know how your project turns out.

2 Comments

Posted in art, painting instruction

Tagged acrylic, art, birdseye library, feather prints, flower prints, indiana, kids classes, kit miracle, leaf prints, nature prints, printing natural materials, prints from nature, snake skin prints

Another view of the eclipse

Posted on April 14, 2024 | 1 comment

The eerie darkness shadowed the land while the skies on the horizons were light. All the yard lights came on. There is a video clip of this on the KitMiracleArt Facebook page, too.

Maybe you’ve been overwhelmed with all the reports about the solar eclipse this past week, but for those of us in the direct path, it was a life-time experience. For me, it right up there with the spectacular Hale-Bopp light show back in 1997, and the birth of my children.

Here in southern Indiana, we were in the direct path of totality. Every little town and burg was prepared. Events were planned months in advance. Businesses were using every type of marketing to entice visitors to the region. I joked with my husband that we ought to rent out our front field for parking. We didn’t. However, the nearby winery was charging $40 a car…in a gravel parking lot.

Many varieties of eclipse glasses. I was not successful in filming the actual eclipse on my phone by placing them in front of the camera.

And then there were those people who complained at the last minute that they didn’t have the special glasses. Really? You didn’t know the eclipse was coming? Libraries and other organizations were giving the glasses away for free. One disgruntled person in a fit of sour grapes commented, I hope it’s cloudy that day!

I was fortunate to experience the solar eclipse back in 1997 but it was only 93% coverage. It was still impressive. But total eclipse was beyond anything I expected.

The eclipse casts crescent-shaped shadows.

As we sat on the patio with our eclipse glasses on, we watched the shadow take over our area. We noticed how the birds and other animals quieted, and the frogs in the creek fired up. The yard lights came on. The eerie darkness with the lighted sky on the horizons prevailed. We could take our glasses off for a few minutes while the eclipse was a peak. Noting stars, the corona, other mysterious solar events. The experience was overwhelming.

A visiting blacksnake added to the excitement of the event. I didn’t know that they can raise themselves up. Watch a video of this on my Facebook page at KitMiracleArt.

Meanwhile, a big black snake came out and our border collie alerted us to the invader. I did not know that snakes can stand up when they feel threatened. I’ve posted a still shot of this side event, but you can check out the video on my Facebook site at KitMiracleArt. All ended well. The dog was called off and the snake headed towards the woodpile to feast upon little rodents.

I hope that many of you have some memorable moments about the total eclipse. This was truly one of those lifetime memory events and I won’t forget it anytime soon, if ever.

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Posted in country living

Tagged 2024, astronomy, blacksnake, eclipse, indiana, nasa, solar eclipse, southern indiana, sun

Georgia O’Keeffe visits Birdseye this month

Posted on March 24, 2024 | Comments Off

Cow skull. This is the largest one in my collection.

Another famous artist visited our little library this month. After the exciting visit by Van Gogh last month, Georgia O’Keeffe thought she would pay a visit. She brought several of the skulls from her collection for the kids to use as subject matter. These included a cow skull, a fully-antlered buck skull, two antlerless deer skulls, and a bird skeleton. One of the boys in the class pointed out that the small deer skull was probably a baby as it had no teeth.

Two brothers working on their paintings. One is using the large deer skull with antlers and the other is referring to some O’Keeffe paintings in an art book.

I thought the “ick” factor of the skulls would attract the kids…and it did although probably not as much as I anticipated. In this rural area, hunting is part of the culture and most kids are used to seeing or being around hunting and fishing. In fact, my sons both were required to take a hunting and boating class in seventh grade which makes sense.

Sketching your subject before you paint helps you to become familiar with all the shapes and shadows.

I showed the kids how the skulls were alike and different. They were allowed to examine them closely (they’d been cleaned with bleach water several times and were pretty old. I also suggested that they practice by making drawings of the subjects before they try to paint.

Discussing brush sizes. Each girl has selected the skull she wants to work from.

We discussed why O’Keeffe was attracted to bones and skulls when she lived in the desert southwest. And we also viewed some of her paintings, how she changed them or added to them. The kids were allowed to choose the the bones they wanted to work from and create their own compositions. One child chose to create an archeological dig of bones and fossils in layers.

The next class will be in early May and is open to ages 8 through 14. Contact the library to sign up for this free class. We will be making nature prints from real materials that we’ve gathered.