Dogberries

It snowed again today and as I left the house, the contrast of the red berries with their snowcap caught my eye, so I went back in to get the camera and capture it.

The birds make short work of these berries once the weather turns cold and crows carry off bunches, sitting in the tops of trees, eating them like grapes.

The tree is the mountain ash, but locally it is known as a dogberry. I don't know how it got this name as the tart berries definitely wouldn't be the food of choice of dogs. However, the lovely colour against the snow makes beautiful in-built Christmas decoration for the trees.

Lines

My work days seem to get longer and longer lately, at least for the job that is the main earner. My art work is still trying to catch up and not doing too badly this month. But tonight I didn't get home til around 7:30. I had a late conference call then out into traffic and snow.

When it snows, mystery traffic seems to materialize. A person without snow tires or an accident, and everything comes to a grinding halt for what seems like eternity. There wasn't that much snow on the ground, perhaps 5 -10cm but it made driving slick in places especially when you hit the snow outside the furrows left by other cars on the road. I do dislike winter, and especially dislike driving in snow.

On weekends I teach drawing to children and have to have something - or things - up my sleeve to keep their interest, so this weekend it will be anime/manga drawing. I don't have much experience in drawing these kind of figures, but the concept seems pretty straight forward and the techniques of drawing anything is still the same, so this is what I'll be tackling. They're strange creatures, these doe-eyed figments of imagination, but children and teens seem to think they're wonderful. Everything goes through phases and this no doubt will be the same.

Name change

Joy
Colored pencil on Stonehenge 9 x 12
Copyright Jeanette Jobson

My surname is Jobson. A very simple name. J O B S O N You'd think it would not be difficult to read, write or remember in the English speaking world, wouldn't you?

But it is apparently. I have received mail, government forms, cheques and documents all bearing variations of my surname on them. Today was a new variation. Gobson. It would be funny except that it was on three separate cheques from an organization that I spent two hours with filling out forms with my name and other personal information in order for them to get it all correct! Sigh. I'm going to change my name to something more simple. Smith? No....too complex....I think I'll go for X. I'll become the new Madame X, just without the controversial gown. That's a bit too chilly in the snow.

Rant over. Now on to more interesting things.

I'm heading towards half way through a commission of the 9 emotions of yoga - the rasas. I'm doing them in coloured pencil and each mask will be a different colour. There is a fine line between depiicting some of the emotions. The tilt of an eyebrow or eye can make all the difference. So far I've completed Joy more or less, which is shown here, Calmness, Disgust and Sadness.

Those emotions sort of sum up my day so far.

Seasonal show

The little oil painting of figs that I did sold at today's show. It was one of the first of my re-emergence into oil paints after a long period of working mostly in dry media. I did a few small oils and am still playing with the medium and trying to find time to do more pieces as well as familiarize myself with the painting process.

I quite liked this little piece and was toying whether to keep it myself or let it go. The play of light and the colours of the figs was one of those happy accidents almost. Sometimes paintings just fall off the brush onto the canvas, other times they need a lot of thought and work put into them. This one was the former. It just seemed to flow without much assistance from me.

Figs
Oils on canvas board 5 x 7
copyright Jeanette Jobson

Today's show did remarkably well considering that the weather was atrocious. Rain, snow and wind dampened spirits and peoples' ability to get around. However, there was about a 30% sell rate which is remarkable considering that it definitely wasn't from passing foot traffic today. The setting was lovely and overlooked St. John's Harbour, pretty, despite the horizontal snow.