The Quicksilver Workaholic

The Shortest Day

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

-Susan Cooper.

I love this poem, and think of it every year at this time as the days get longer and the light claims victory over the darkness...as well as my dear young friend Ailsa, sometimes known as tattermuffin, whose anniversary it is.  Have a wonderful day, dear heart!

And oops, I wish I knew how to edit the size of the art...LiveJournal has changed their setup...

In honor of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, their friends and family,
and the brave men and women who dealt with the aftermath.

It is my own personal tradition to remember this day by posting my painting of the event; I owe them that much.

ART TIP #124--Exploring Dip Pens Last time we played with a variety of fountain pens to see what they would do...this time we take a step back in time to versatile, inexpensive dip pens, and a bit about their history.   Join us for Part 2 of pen comparisons, as always in the Art Tips at upper left, here: http://cathyjohnson.info. We've archived past entries to the right of every tip--you can find ideas on 124 subjects now!    Save them, print them out, keep them on your hard drive, share them with friends...that's what they're there for.    (They're also archived on inexpensive CDs and the NEW download form for your convenience--some people don't like to wait!) * If you know someone who might be interested in ALL our offerings, feel free to share signup info for this newsletter or forward this email!  The signup form's on my website, too...address in the sidebar at right. Free Art Tip # 125, since we're on a drawing kick, will be on unusual drawing tools--watch for it! And in other news...downloads! We just jumped into the 21st Century, and ALL of our latest downloads are finally available, for those who prefer that format rather than ordering CDs--it's especially handy for our overseas art friends, but we're delighted with the wonderful response from people on THIS side of the pond, as well. The Watercolor Pencil Workshop remains our most popular offering--that's a challenging medium!  Click the link above to learn more about what's included.  I'm happy to note that Keeping an Artist's Journal is a very close second, with the other workshops not far behind.  THANK you all who have ordered from us!     We've also added downloadable versions for a couple of our little living history booklets from Graphics/Fine Arts Press--they've been in print for well over a decade now, and we're test-driving them as eBooks.       If you're as fascinated with pirates as many of us are, you might get a kick out of Pyrates in Petticoats, above!    Check out all our offerings--art books, living history, nature, in our book catalog: http://www.cathyjohnson.info/books.html.   ------------------------------------------------- JETPENS BLOG   JETPENS featured my work on their blog this past week--thank you Lily and David and all!  You can find the mini-interview here: http://blog.jetpens.com/2012/07/artist-highlight-cathy-johnson.html   I had no idea they had such an interesting blog, with interviews and features on a lot of artists worth checking out.  You may want to bookmark the site, I did!   http://blog.jetpens.com/   If you haven't ordered from JetPens.com before, I'm happy to be able to tell you their customer service is LOVELY.  Nice folks, fun offerings.   ------------------------------------------   URBAN SKETCHERS SHOW    ...upcoming at the Ackland Museum at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.   Correspondents of the Urban Sketchers blog have donated works to benefit the organization, help with future symposia and workshops, and generally advance the cause of urban sketching.  I've donated three, myself!   The show opens August 10 and promises to be an exciting peek into urban sketches across the globe.   You can see one of my sketches here: http://urbansketchers-midwest.blogspot.com/2012/06/hoping-for-future.html ------------------------------ LINKS WE LIKE   Jacqueline Newbold offers a free drawing tutorial on her blog--with excellent examples of  measuring with your pencil.  You'll find it here: http://djnewbold.blogspot.com/2012/07/drawing-lesson-part-i.html   Charles Reid, one of my all-time favorite watercolorists, is now on Facebook.  You can browse his wonderful paintings and journals here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Charles-Reid-Watercolor/358463624182022   If that doesn't inspire you, nothing will!   Pamela Outersky Smith, a good friend of mine, was recently featured in the Best of Missouri Hands newsletter, and she DESERVES it.  Beautiful work that shows her deep love of horses and nature.  You can see the PDF here: http://www.bestofmissourihands.org/newsletter/BOMH_newsletter_2012-July.pdf       NEWS FROM the ARTIST'S JOURNAL WORKSHOP BLOG   You'll like some of the recent posts from our correspondents.  If you've been considering binding your own sketchbooks, here's Vicky Williamson's latest entry--her journals always look so professional!   http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/07/new-handbound-sketchbooks.html   One of our recent interviews, Catriona Andrews, uses glorious inks--take a peek at her explorations here:   http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/06/indigo-blue.html   And remember, our poll is still open, in the sidebar at right...feel free to let us know what you'd like to see on the blog!   ------------------------------   If you're a journal keeper and you'd like to join us, we also have an active Facebook group  and a Flick group--you'll find it here:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/artists-journal-workshop/ --check them out!   ---------------------------------------------------------  URBAN SKETCHERS-MIDWEST   We've had some wonderful additions to the group blog lately!  Don't miss Don Gore's visit to Colonial Williamsburg (that's one of his sketches, above), Vicky Williamson's travels in Kansas, Marcia Milner-Brage's delicious backyard scenes done with NeoColor II crayons, and our recent sketchcrawl at Belvoir Winery in Liberty, MO.   You'll find Urban Sketchers Midwest here: http://urbansketchers-midwest.blogspot.com/--the blog is invitation only, but we're always looking for new members.   Check out the sidebar on the right on the blog--there are some wonderful opportunities for learning, including the 3rd International Urban Sketchers Symposium, in Santo Domingo, almost ready to begin, and a workshop in Portland, Oregon in August from Marc Taro Holmes of the wonderful Citizen Sketcher blog and Shari Blaukopf, whose "The Sketchbook" blog will surely inspire you.    (More information on the Symposium here: http://sdq2012.urbansketchers.org/)   -------------   If you're an urban sketcher and you live in the Midwest, join us on Flickr, here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/urban-sketchers-midwest/ or on our Facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/291703234226829/   MORE STUDIO CLEANING   More art supplies, CDs, and other goodies as I continue to follow Thoreau's advice and "Simplify, simplify"--the other day I took time to write a list of all the art supplies I use constantly and wouldn't ever want to be without.  Everything else needs to go!  (And sigh, yes, I do have more of the set shown above!)   Feel free to check them out at my eBay store, Kate's Treasures: http://stores.ebay.com/Kates-Treasures AND AS ALWAYS, FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!   We appreciate your suggestions and impressions--on art tips, on classes, and on this newsletter.  If you have ideas for future tips or requests, write me!  I'll add them to the list.  (Sorry for those who paint in oils--I can't, because of allergies, so I just try to pass along useful links to those who do...)   If you want to see something different in this newsletter, we want to know that too.  THANK YOU! You can reach me at kate.cathyjohnson@gmail.com. ------------------   I've been doing more urban sketching, when I get the chance--it's HOT by afternoon!  I hope you've had the chance to do likewise!   Best wishes from Kate

Thanks for visiting!   Feel free to forward this email to a friend...

Our group journaling blog is active and vital, and full of great ideas from our co-authors!  If there's something you'd like to see discussed, please let us know--and don't miss the poll in the sidebar at right!  That's a great way to let us know what you want to see--please join us! Bookmark the site, "follow" the blog, share it with friends, but do be sure to visit to see what the buzz is about!   We also have a very active Facebook group  and a Flick group you may want to join, if you're a journal keeper--you'll find it here:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/artists-journal-workshop/ another addition to our group Artist's Journal Workshop blog . 

And AGAIN it's been a while...

I finished the big month-long class I did for Strathmore Artist Papers, at the end of March...figured I'd take a break, she said, laughing hysterically...

I've been quite busy working on the next mini-class, Quick Sketching in Color, and hope to have it done by the end of May...

Delighted the other mini-classes have been doing so well!  We got 17 new students in the past two weeks, and lots of good feedback...thank you SO MUCH, all. 

The videos went over so well in the Strathmore class, I'm definitely planning more...I'm no Spielburg, but people seem to feel encouraged by my more laid-back, casual approach.  I figure if I don't have fun with them, you won't either!

I've been working on our new Urban Sketchers Midwest blog, http://urbansketchers-midwest.blogspot.com/ and love the response we've gotten.  I love it here and I would like others to see what a beautiful area it is...if you're an artist from the Midwest, please join us on our Facebook group or join us on Flickr!  We're always looking for new members for the blog.

Artist's Journal Workshop http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/ is busy too, with wonderful artists adding their art, reviews, materials, journal pages...if you haven't visited, please do!  I've done a couple of new catalog pages there and on my gallery blog, one for a bookshelf of recommended books that pertain to art and sketching, and one for tools and materials we like!

Or feel free to join our wonderful Facebook group, it's VERY active.

I actually got an art tip done not too long ago, too, but I forgot to announce it here.  You can find it here: http://www.cathyjohnson.info/tips.html

An old friend has been here for a couple of weeks, getting ready to paint the trim on the house...he's a pro, so he's REALLY doing it right...I don't know if that's been done since the last time HE did it, 15 years ago or more!  It's going to look great.

Between that, computer work, and our sewer backing up, we've had lots of folks around.

I've been updating my eBay offerings and my Etsy store with original art, fine art prints, and handmade jewelry.

And now we're finally back to working on the house we've been rehabbing for years now!

Check out kateslover's journal for some of the pictures from last month!  He's been doing a lot of bits and pieces since then...painting doors, rehabbing hinges and hardware, fixing locks, painting more trim. And today I joined him to start pulling the hundreds of staples in the south parlor's floor--there was some truly nasty carpet in there!  NO idea how many staples I got up today, but I got good and grotty crawling around on the floor.

So I decided I might as well go ahead and deal with the big new planters I got this morning, and all that compost, mulch, and potting soil, in preparation for a few veggies and flowers over where we actually get some sun.  More on that later...right now I'm mud-covered and tired, so off to the shower!