When Creating Art Sometimes You Have To Just Walk Away

I learned this from golf:  when you're in the middle of a swing and it just doesn't feel right, stop and start over.  It's hard to do.  Recently I posted a painting with two ducks and some fish  that I spent three weeks working on.  Last week, though, I stepped back from my drafting board to check the tonal values and I knew it was time to quit. One of the ducks looked stiff to me.  The water wasn't showing any movement.  I couldn't get the fish to disappear underneath the water.  I realized I'd used the more textured side of the Stonehenge paper. So, even though I invested three weeks of my precious art life in this painting, I'm glad I quit.  I learned I love the smooth side of Stonehenge because of the way it takes color.  I was trying to change the photo too much and it just didn't work for me. I just finished a new painting and I love the reflection of the grapes in the silver bowl.

Grape Reflection by Susie Tenzer, 8" x 10" colored pencil (all rights reserved)  Buy this painting

I'm participating in a blog hop this week.  What's that?  It's a fun activity where you can visit a lot of wonderful blogs.  Click on the Blog Love Therapy below & start hopping!  See you in a couple of weeks, I'll be out of town visiting my adorable grandkids.

The Secret To Staying Young

Be honest, the title grabbed you, right?  I do have a secret to staying young - try new things.  For example, I love to move my furniture around.  (My husband is always looking for something that I've put in a new, better place.)  I love to try new art techniques.  Right now I'm using a lot of gray/neutral tones with pops of color in my colored pencil pieces.  I'm getting further along on my painting with ducks and fish.

                                                                 Any title ideas?

 I've been trying new cooking ideas.  My daughter sent me a Tajine, a middle eastern cooking pot.  It's ceramic, so I had to season it before I could cook anything.  The directions said to soak the bottom and the lid in water for 24 hours.

 

Now I'm ready to try chicken tajine.  Some recipes look a bit complicated, but I'm cooking chicken legs with onions and garlic.  I bought a stove top heat diffuser so the ceramic pot doesn't crack.

Hey, not bad!  Have you tried anything new lately?  Anyone else have a tajine?

Do You Have Cyber Friends?

I have different kinds of friends.  Friends that are acquaintances, like my book club friends.  Friends that are work related, like my artist friends.  Hinda is a friend that I've had forever, who would do anything for me.  We're so close we don't even remember how we met.  Now I have a new category, "cyber" friend.  Last week I was looking at my Etsy shop and I popped in on a discussion thread of a promotional team that I'm on.  I was shocked to see everyone was talking about a team member whose husband had just died.  I don't know any of these people but it was very sad.  One lady proposed we collect money to send her a food gift.  She created a gift account in PayPal and after a couple of days there was almost $200!  The woman whose husband died was so appreciative.  Janice has become my cyber friend.  We've actually been friends for 48 years!  I got her name when I was 12 as a pen pal in elementary school and we've been corresponding ever since.  She lives in England.  We just started emailing and she checks my FaceBook page to see what's new.  I sent her a photo of my latest work-in-progress:

 
This one is fun!  I love to do glass.  I set up the props and took the photo (a lot of photos).  Hopefully I'll finish it in a week or so.  I plan to enter this one in a competition.  To all my friends, cyber or not, have a very happy healthy New Year!

Top Five Food Blogs

I have a new found love of food.  I didn't always love food.  For many years, due to a chronic illness, I had to limit salt.  My cooking was bland, my food life was blah.  Now that I'm able to eat normally, I'm becoming a bit adventurous.  Have you noticed that I paint a lot of food?  I love the colors, shapes and textures of food.

Here's one of my food photos, a set up for a new painting.

Here's the painting, "Two Scoops".  I'll be posting this painting and more small works on Etsy

 I recently discovered the world of food blogs.  Some of these blogs have the most amazing photos of food you'll ever see!  Here are my top five favorite food blogs:
1.  Smitten Kitchen  Written in an easy, breezy style by Deb Perelman, this food blog is about classic comfort food.  No fancy food ingredients, here!  Just good food & amazing photos.
2.  101 Cookbooks  This one is by Heidi Swenson.  She features wholesome, vegetarian recipes along with fabulous photos.  The food reflects her world travels.  I want to try the Baked Quinoa Patties.
3.  Seven Spoons  This blog has lovely photos and great writing by Tara O'Grady.  She makes each recipe look and sound delicious!
4. TasteSpotting  Talk about beautiful photos!  Folks submit food photos, you click on the photo and are taken to the recipe.  You can search by various categories.
5.  Foodgawker  This is the same idea as TasteSpotting.  I could spend hours looking at these photos and I've tried several of the recipes.  There's a "gawkerverse": dwellinggawker, weddinggawker and  craftgawker.

Do you look at food blogs?  Any favorites?