Another Cute Photo

I know it seems as if I'm taking more photos than doing any art these days but I am painting - I'm just not painting anything I can show right now.

But, back to the photo. That's a cute little frog stuck to our glass kitchen storm door in case you can't tell. He was there when I came back from the barn after tending to Bonnie. It was still fairly dark out and I had a hard time getting a good photo. I tried to take a picture from inside but the kind of glass we have in the door evidently isn't good for shooting photos through as all I got was a yellowish blob!

I don't know what it is with the wildlife lately, but our porch has been attractive to it. Yesterday morning as I was going out to the barn to feed Bonnie, there was a little rabbit not far from the kitchen door! Again, it was still pretty dark outside and I didn't see it until I was right up on it! It startled me good, let me tell you! Of course, I'm sure it was startled more than I was! Since I'd come from around the corner (we have a wrap-around porch and I'd gone out another door) I guess it didn't hear or see me coming.

He hopped down the steps ahead of me and couldn't get away fast enough! The little frog didn't hang around very long either. I'd planned to try for more pictures after the sun came up but he was gone by the time that happened.

Oh, well, at least I got this one! I don't know what to expect for tomorrow morning but I'll look carefully before going out - there's been a whiff of skunk in the air the past couple of mornings!

Sisters Reunion

my sisters and me

I'm so sorry for not being around much this month. My husband had the flu then gave it to me and for about 3 weeks, we only got out of bed enough to take care of the animals.

Then my sisters arrived from the mid-west this past Friday and left yesterday so we were very busy catching up and giggling and generally acting like we were kids again (minus the arguing! lol) Our brother and his family came from near Winston-Salem on Saturday and we had a big cook-out and even more giggling and cutting up. I'm sure our adult children who were there thought we were nuts but that's ok - how many people in their 50's and 60's get to act like kids again?

My sister, Sue, is a professional photographer and got to see a lot of our wildlife - maybe too much actually as a skunk came up into the yard one evening! We got photos of it but it was moving around a lot and we just weren't going to get all that close to it so the pictures came out a little blurry!

I'll probably show some of the photos I took in future posts but I do think that pretty much all of the wildlife we have here showed up at one point or another during their visit. It became our ritual to sit out on the back porch in the early mornings and evenings to see what wandered by!

Anyway, I hope to do better keeping up this blog now that life has settled down again!

'Tis The Season!

Skunk
Pastel on Paper
copyright
Jan Gibson

As you can see, I wasn't referring to the Christmas season in the title of today's blog! The foxes haven't been seen for some time but the skunks have been fairly active for a month or more. Fortunately, we haven't seen any here on our farm but lingering odors are proof positive that they're definitely around somewhere.

This painting was sort of an experiment as I received some new FC Pitt pastel pencils in a recent art supply order. Almost everyone in a pet portrait forum I belong to said they used these pencils pretty much exclusively for their animal portraits. Also, Colin Bradley, a famous pastel pencil artist uses the Pitt pastel pencils almost exlusively so I thought I'd try them. I ordered them from open stock to replace some of the CarbOthello pencils I was getting low on and I must say that the colors are really nice. But, I'm not all that crazy about the way the pencils lay down the color. They aren't as smooth as the CarbOthellos but not as scratchy as the Derwents. I think they'll do fine to fill in for the colors I lack but I don't think I'd invest in a complete set of them.

Right now, I have a complete set of the CarbOthellos, a few Derwents, many of the earth tones of the Pitts and a few of the Conte' pencils. The next time I need to restock, I may buy more of the Conte's if they're still made the way mine are made. I had purchased a few of the Conte's from open stock probably 30 years ago or more but never used them much as they were hard to sharpen. When I started working more in pastel pencils, I dug them out and started using them again.

So, my preference in pastel pencil brands are ranked as follows.

1. CarbOthellos by Stabilo

2. Conte'

3. Pitt by Faber Castell

4. Derwent

I admit that I haven't tried every pencil brand in every color and I know that there's a difference between pencils even within brands so the above ranking is based on the colors used mainly for animal paintings.

I haven't tried any other pastel pencils but I think these are the top-rated for lightfastness and I only want to use lightfast, archival materials anyway so may not experiment any further.

I know that I really, really dislike using paper now that I've worked on sanded supports. I guess my favorite support is Ampersand's PastelBord and Hahnemuhle's Velour Paper is second favorite, with ColourFix by ArtSpectrum being ok to use. I'd like to try the Uart and other sanded papers and will eventually order a sampler from Dakota Pastels or something. I'd also like to try the Clairefontaine Pastelmat but I don't think it's distributed in the US at this time.

I guess I'm an art supply junkie but I'm finding out what I really like to use and what I don't like and won't buy again. That's important to me.

I think the best advice I've ever been given is to use what works for me. Unfortunately, that usually means the most expensive products!

Catching Up

copyright Jan Gibson

copyright Jan Gibson

I've been working lately so haven't had a chance to post here. It seems that if you're painting, then you don't have much time for anything else! Anyway, here are a couple of screen shots of a pastel pencil painting that I'm working on. I've signed on at a local gallery and need some art to exhibit there. Since I work mainly on commission, I don't have anything to show especially since the gallery wants animal artwork from me. So, I'm trying to get something worthwhile to show there.

Yesterday was my husband and my 24th wedding anniversary. Seems like only yesterday that we were married yet it also seems that we've been married forever. One of those paradoxes like time disappearing, I think! Anyway, I couldn't be married to a more supportive and wonderful man and I'm looking for many more years with him.

On top of our anniversary, the dogs got sprayed by a skunk again. This is one of those times when I wished we lived in town! Of course, I guess I don't really wish that - there are trade-offs and compromises there that I really don't want to make. But I do wish the dogs would leave the skunks alone when one happens into their area! Cleaning up 2 medium to large sized dogs is no picnic! Plus, no matter how many times you bathe them and how many "de-skunking" recipes you use, a slight skunk odor seems to linger for a very long time.

I do feel sorry for the dogs though. They get banned from the house until they're cleaned up and our male dog will rub his face on the grass until his nose is raw and bleeding. My husband sprayed some kind of animal deterrent around the outside perimeter of the backyard fence in hopes that the skunks will stay away. I don't think they are actually coming into the fenced area but are spraying the dogs through the fence. Neither dog was as odiferous as they could have been, thank God, so I don't think they're getting the full force of the spray. But, no matter where the skunks are, the dogs still end up pretty darned stinky!

Not only is it active season for skunks again but the spiders are weaving their webs in preparation for winter, I guess. All I know is that I've started carrying a long stick when I go out to the barn of a morning. There's nothing worse than running into one unseen web after another and having to pull those sticky web threads from your face and hair! (Well, it is worse when the spider happens to be in the part of the web you walk into!) Not only that, but the web sticks to my glasses and is almost impossible to remove without washing them. The walking stick is great because you can move it around in front of you and pull down any spider webs before walking into them.

Well, I think that catches you up on all of the latest happenings out here in the boonies! I'm going back to work on that cute little bulldog and I'll post any further updates I do on him. Until then, have a super life!

The Joys of Country Life!

I know that even with the photo enlarged that you won't be able to tell what the arrow is pointing to, but let me assure you it's a skunk! And I certainly won't apologize for not getting a better photo as I wasn't about to get much closer!


I was just finishing up a new commission when I glanced out of my studio window. I couldn't tell what kind of animal this was but I had seen a skunk yesterday mid-morning as I was leaving the farm and wondered if he had returned. I got the binoculars and, sure enough, either he/she had come back or had a friend who was checking out the place!

It's highly unusual for a skunk to be seen in broad daylight so I wonder if this one was rabid. This is the season for skunks to give birth and it could be that mama skunk is having difficulty finding enough food right now. The thick pine forest beside us was thinned recently and I'm sure some skunk habitat was destroyed. However, I wouldn't think that a skunk would need to be out in the daytime to find food around here. It's kind of suspicious to say the least.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a gray fox right before dusk and it was acting rather strangely also. At this time of the year especially, it's just best to be on your toes when it comes to wildlife.