Category Archives: Mixed Media

February 30-Day Creative Gathering Day 23

Day 23, FEB C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2020 Sheila Delgado.

Day 23, Prickly Pear cactus. Flubbed this one big time. Ruined the sky. Tried to fix it and lost my cloud shapes. Ended up with blue clouds. Haha. Flubbed the sand. This is sand after a windstorm. Twigs and debris everywhere. Haha. I picked that up from the stormy, weird weather shows I had on. Flubbed the cacti. It just wasn’t working last night. So I gave up. Walked away defeated. Haha. I lost some of my pencil lines and had to fake it.

I came back this morning, surprise! It’s not as awful as I thought. Not quite.

Maybe it is just a sign. My mojo has left the building. I pushed through last night. But today, when I had a handful of pads to finish and ALL those spines… it was like dragging a five-year-old to the dentist. So I am calling it done. Calling it won.

Rain, rain, come our way…

Yesterday was cloudy and mucky, and wonderful. Mostly light drizzle, but for a few minutes, we had hail (tiny). The storm came from the south. At one point, I looked out and it seemed as if Mingus had been chopped to pieces.

Afterward, it cleared. Sunny and bright. Then the sky turned a weird shade of yellow. Mingus vanished in a misty sort of fog. A solid wall. That’s when the rainbow appeared.

Today is partly cloudy, and teasing rain. Mingus had snow overnight!

Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
Langston Hughes

Rain hangs about the place, like a friendly ghost.
If it’s not coming down in delicate droplets, then it’s in buckets;
and if neither, it tends to lurk suspiciously in the atmosphere.
Barbara Acton-Bond

Day 20 Of The 30-Day Creative Gathering

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Day 20, FEB C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on paper. © 2020 Sheila Delgado.

I have to admit, I have had a hard time getting started each day. Seems I think about what to paint, longer than it takes for me to actually paint. Haha. Indecision. Not procrastination. I have a folder full of images, cacti, that I would like to paint. I just have a hard time deciding.

I guess that’s not a bad problem to have. I would like to start earlier. And finish before midnight. Tonight I set a goal for myself. To complete the piece in 2 hours. I wasn’t sure I could. I haven’t been timing myself. I stop for breaks and get distracted. Sometimes. But I sat down to work and didn’t stop until I was done. I had 2 minutes to spare.

Did you know cactus spines are actually highly modified leaves? This helps to prevent water loss from the surface of a leaf. The spines can also provide shade for the cactus and reduce airflow around the plant.

I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession, and dogged endurance,
combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas.
Albert Einstein

Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing,
but to turn it into glory.
William Barclay

February 2020 30-Day Creative Gathering, Day 19

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Day 19, FEB C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on paper. © 2020 Sheila Delgado.

I love how the sky turned out. This is the inexpensive paper I bought from Hobby Lobby. This time, the texture is really noticeable. Love it! The key is using a sedimentary color.

A work in progress. I think. I need to add shadows. And the sand feels too… something. Too orange, too red, too busy. Too hot. Scottsdale was extremely hot the day I took this photo. And what are those rocky shapes along the edge?? And why does the sky have horns? Haha!

Still, I would say that I am happy with this piece. I had fun working on it.

I haven’t found a name for this plant. I think it is an Octopus Agave. It looks like a giant air plant. Most of the Octopus Agaves grow out from the center. This one was shaped more like a mohawk.

I want to paint this again. I used the photo as a reference for the shapes, but for some reason, I didn’t use it for the light.