Pinch Hitter Course

I've been taking flight lessons, well landing lessons really, for the past month.  I am leaning to land an aircraft in case of an emergency.  Since my husband and I travel quite a bit in our

Our plane landing

Beachcraft Debonair
and he's the professional pilot, we thought it would be a good idea for me to get familiar with the workings of our aircraft and be able to land it in case of an emergency if he were incapacitated. Who knew there was a course for learning to land a plane safely during an emergency?

Grumman Tiger first lesson ready to taxi.

Well to "land" one has to learn to "take off" first.  Taking off is much preferable to landing for me but one has to land to get back on Terra firma, hopefully with the plane in tack and one can walk away.  My very first lesson the instructor has me 'take off'.  It was amazing and very scary.

The plane I was learning in (a Grumman Tiger) was one with dual controls...like the cars student drivers use. I had flown our plan for a few minutes a couple of times but this was a whole new ball game...pun intended.

After 7 hours of flying time I passed my course as well as the AOPA's (aircraft owners' and pilots' association) written course.  My instructor says I can call myself  "an inexperienced pilot".  I won't go on to get a license but it is nice to know what the plane will and won't do...takes away a lot of the anxiety.

Love learning new things especially at age 66.

Another try at reflections on water

Pretty pleased with the way this turned out. I only spent 30 minutes on the entire page. I might do a little more pen work on the trees and the reflection and darken the water behind the bird a bit. But OK!

Another art assignment finished...well sort of

The latest assignment for my sketching class was to create a cover/title page for our sketchbook from a previous trip. The suit case is the size that can be carried on board..for now at least. It originally belonged to my mother and when she passed away I took it over. I have now had it for over 20 years and decided to use fabric paints to write some of the cities an countries that I have visited rolling it along in tow.  It's been on almost every trip I have taken and is pretty easy to identify on the luggage carousel  in the event I have to check it.

I realized that I had the wrong dates on my title page so had to get out the trusty White Sharpie poster pen to correct them. I also added some of the blue around the edges of the suitcase and backpack to tie the page together a bit.

Signs of spring???Maybe????

Tiny shoots of spring

Darby and Woody

It's beginning  to warm up a bit around here. In fact it is supposed to get up to 60 degrees today. The snow is still hanging on but I can see a bit of spring green out and about. The boys are so happy to finally be able to get out and dig around in the ground checking for those winter smells that

have been left behind.

First & Second Assignments Finished

 I'm working on some sketches from my trip last fall to Central Europe, including Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary

The first sketch is a Journal Highlight Page. I took a lot of 'artist license' with it as it is a composite of the photos below.

In another class we are learning how to paint water. The second sketch is more about the glass with water than the flowers.

Another Beginning

It's been almost a year since I've been here.  My where has the time gone? I don't know why I don't keep up with this. I like writing but I just seem to let other things (like life) get in my way.

 I am excited and motivated because I'm taking another art class (Imaginary Trips) with Laure Ferlita.  This trip is to a "past vacation". I actually took this in class May 2013 and loved it; so I thought I'd take it again and 'sketch' my trip to Europe that I took in September 2013.

Laure also has a beautiful blog , Painted Thoughts, She did a wonderful post on 'The Messy Desks of Creatives'. She ask those of us who read her blog to send pictures of our creative spaces, aka Messy Desks, and these are two that I sent her.  My space is about 4x4 space in the corner of our living room and I do enjoy it, but would love to have a real studio.

In the picture to the right is a silhouette of me when I was in second grade. My teacher had a silhouette artist come to our class. She cut the silhouettes of each student free hand, then we made them into a card for Mother's Day.  I had no idea that my mother had kept this and found it among her things after she died. What a special treasure.