A Painting Adventure

Heather has been trying to get me to do a create and consume event with her at Rooster Dreams in Neenah. We tried to find one that worked in September but it never happened. She sent me the list for October and we narrowed it down to 2 options… a pumpkin design and a home sign. Since we could use the home sign all year round, we opted to go to that one.

I was very hesitant to do one of these painting events because I am not a very good artist yet I am somewhat of a perfectionist. I was dreading taking home something that didn’t turn out to be very good. Heather assured me Kristine was very helpful and gave great directions. It really didn’t put me at ease but since I was willing to do anything once, I put my fears aside and decided to give it a whirl.

After grabbing dinner and a snack to bring with us at Q’doba, we head downtown to the Marketplace and Rooster Dreams. We get upstairs and settle in just before it was to start. I was expecting everyone to do the same painting with very little personalization but I was mistaken. We were told to pick out 4 colors we want to use as our background. I went with a lighter blue, a darker blue, a dark green, and a mustard yellow.

Kristine would show us what to do on the canvas before letting us do it which helped immensely since I need that visual. Our firs take was to make a patchwork quilt of color on our canvas. I started with the yellow and moved into the blues and greens. This was my first mistake. I should have started with one of the darker colors so when I started to blend and layer, the blue or green would not have stood out as much as the yellow did or turn to green as the yellow and blue did. Because I wasn’t happy with the bright yellow splotches mixed with the darker blues and greens, I smeared the yellow into the blues and to make more of green. Some of the yellow showed through but it gave it more of a blueish-green background that didn’t look bad.

Once we had the background painted (and dry) it was time to move onto the letters and compass. I was slightly apprehensive about having to draw the compass and the state of Wisconsin but Kristine quickly calmed my fears by passing out Wisconsin stencils and rulers and circles for the compass. It’s okay to cheat in the design of good art. I had no problems with the letters. The compass on the other hand really gave me trouble. The circles were easy the arrows were too much for my feeble mind to grasp or something. They did not line up properly. Luckily Heather and Kristine were there to rescue me and helped me realign my lines so they went to the correct points.

Painting the letters wasn’t that difficult. I had some difficulty adding dimension but they came out alright. Freehanding the latitude and longitude wasn’t horrible except I made the numbers too big and the 8s were a bit of a challenge. The compass still wasn’t being my friend though. I had a lot of trouble getting the arrows to have dimension partially because they didn’t line up exactly right. The other “issue” I had was the border of my compass was too dark in my opinion. I was told we can fix that with metallic paint and it was. The silver metallic greatly helped my compass and the gold added an extra layer to the background.

Overall I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out and the hubby wanted to know if we could frame it. I told him we could hang it up without being frame. He said it almost looked professional… I wouldn’t go THAT far.

Would I do it again? You bet. However, it just has to be when it’s in the budget as Kristine doesn’t accept cards just cash and checks. I’d love to get a group of friends together and all of us go paint. As much as I would love to do a winter scene, I’m thinking the budget says we need to wait until spring. I will be definitely be painting again. It may be one of those things that I do often enough that I run out of room to hang my paintings.

Art After Dark

Art After Dark at the Bergstrom-Mahler Glass Museum popped up in my Facebook Feed offering free museum admission after hours to see the Bending Brilliance: Neon and Plasma Sculpture Exhibit. Three things caught my eye: Museum, Glow in the Dark, Free. I like all those things especially free. Danielle and I checked out but opted not to go in costume.

The exhibits were constructed using Neon, Plasma, or other light up material. There were several exhibit halls filled with light up sculptures both upstairs and down. Some of the exhibits featured glass objects already found in the museum that were made with certain material (which I can’t remember the name to) that under lights (like black light) it glows in the dark.

The museum staff was dressed as scientists answering questions, forbidding me to take a picture of a really cool piece of art, and showing us how the glow in the dark glass worked. To make sure, we didn’t get too close to the exhibits, they put black adhesive tape on the floor so you could get up close but not too close to knock them over. Danielle had to pull me back from one b/c the tip of my shoe crossed the line which was at a diagonal.

I am not one for art museums and art but this is my kind of art… more than just paintings. The various ways the artists incorporated neon or plasma into their sculptures was mind boggling. I was expecting neon signs and lights not sculptures and moving “lava lamp” type designs.

Some of the pieces incorporated other objects into the design such as pins to make a centipede.

If you get a chance before the exhibit closes in February go check it out. The Museum is offering additional Art After Dark events every 3rd Thursday of the month between now and February. It is free and the art is amazing to see.

#3951. Go to Peninsula Sate Park in Door County

I not so casually mentioned to Rick and Shannon I’ll go hiking any time with them and kind of invited myself to go hiking with them on Saturday. Luckily they let me come. They wanted to go to Door County and at first Rick mentioned Potawatomie State Park. I didn’t have a real preference since the three they were thinking about were all on the bucket list. We ended up going to Peninsula State Park.

Peninsula State Park is between Fish Creek and Ephraim on the bay side of Door County. It is an extremely popular 3700+ acre state park that features hiking, biking, an 18-hole golf course, a lighthouse, a sandy beach, plenty of camping and summer theater performances. There are high bluffs and rocky shoreline. Up until a few months ago, there was an observation tower but it had to be taken down to do being structurally unsafe. They plan on rebuilding it.

When we got up to Peninsula State Park, we decided to have lunch before going hiking. We stopped at the first picnic area we found and had a nice picnic lunch. It was right on the water which made it chilly. We were the only people there when we got there but after our hike the place was full of people. It only had 4 or so picnic tables. I’m glad we ate when we did.

We wanted a short trail to hike. Every trail on the map we came to said 5+ miles. I joked we could walk a mile and turn around. Then we found the Eagle Trail. It was marked difficult. The map showed that it made a giant loop and didn’t seem all that long. It seemed like a fairly popular trail. We decided if it was too difficult we would just turn around.

I am not sure what they meant by “difficult”. The trail was easier than the Lime Kiln Trail at High Cliff and way easier than the trial Tanya and I hiked at Devil’s Lake last year. I think it was difficult because it was “rugged” and not a flat trail lined with gravel or wood chips. There were

Stones and rocks walk on

Stone steps to climb

Muddy inclines to navigate

Tree roots to avoid tripping over

Dead trees to climb over (and sit on)

This was my kind of hiking. Yes you hiked down to the water level but unlike High Cliff or Devil’s Lake, it was more of a gradual descend/ascend rather than all at once.

My favorite part of the hike was the “caves” or openings in the bluff. Once I realized what trail we were on, I was hoping that we would get to see the caves.

Some of them were small that you could barely fit in them.

Others I could walk into.

They are not very deep and aren’t really worth exploring but are still cool to see. I believe there are more “caves” down on the water level that you can actually kayak into. Yes, it’s on my bucket list.

It was also a great day to take pictures with the leaves starting to change. I always love posing for pictures and so does my niece. We had fun taking pictures. I won’t recommend lying on the stone beach for long though. Those rocks hurt.

Out of all the State Parks I visited this year, this one is my favorite. I loved the ruggedness of the trail, the scenery, and caves. I want to go back and explore other trails (which I’m sure I’ll be disappointed by the lack of difficulty) and find the water caves. I know the hubby won’t go hiking and exploring with me so I jump on any chance I get.