from the heart

This is Lori. Stellar photographer, wonderful knitter, and all around the kind of person who its good to know is walking the earth. Lori has a great blog.
http://www.loritimesfive.blogspot.com/
This is acrylic and a little bit of oil pastel on canvas, 8x10. I primed the canvas with burnt sienna, then drew in the face with charcol and began to add the layers of paint.
The bird is a roller, from Africa. Lori's favorite bird.





One of Lori's beautiful portraits.



I learned that if you paint things that mean something to you it adds to the still life.

So here is my favorite glass, one of my cafe au lait bowls and the last of the summer peaches.

The geranium blossom is from my mother's garden, and now is rooting in a flower pot!



Lots more cafe bowls to paint...

We went to Santa Barbara for my birthday. Yes, its really this gorgeous

After the museum we stopped in at the ultimate grocery store, Lazy Acres. Can you even believe this produce section?

More ornaments to list today........

Thanks so much for visiting

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

back to the woods

Everyone knew the time arrived to get back to the woods.

Except for Red Riding Rabbit, who'd decided to take a detour.

Let's go Red! all her friends called........

The nights were coming on sooner

Fox was very savvy and carried two lanterns.

Red dropped off the cake to Grandma and hurried on.

This gingerbread deliciousness was made by Kary.

www.myfarmhousekitchen.blogspot.com

They would come back and see the farmlady at halloween though;

Everyone would think they were in costumes!

Only you and I know their secret.

Have fun in the woods, but be careful of the wolf.

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

sleeping flowers

The last week its been a challenge to cut a boquet because all the flowers are going to sleep.

I've collected my sweet pea seeds, the plants themselves dug back into the earth.

And I hope you'll pardon the paint on my hand. I really do wash up before I cook dinner!

I did manage a late summer boquet, but most of the blooms come from my mother's beautiful garden. There's even a rogue grapefruit blossom there. The fragrance is heady and intoxicating.

I started out with a spoon for the sleeping flowers, but have been wanting to paint some canvases.

These are 'warm ups' five by seven inches. Acrylic and oil pastel on masonite board.

Thats butterflies flying around the still unfinished braided girl on the left.

Since I especially like to paint people I know, here's Nina wishing a hummingbird safe journey til next year. But you will be seeing me alot sooner, I promise!

xxx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

jam session

There I was all set to make plum jam, when I saw a flat of strawberries at farmer's market.

I added a few ripe nectarines too.

And inspired by summer's continuing bounty, I made some new jam jars and even a lid for an old transferware piece.

I saved the stems for the wild birds.

They seemed to enjoy them

After the jam was canned I took a sea break and got there just in time before the fog bank rolled in. It smelled so fresh and briney.

Passed the wild fennel whose stalks I add to my spagetti sauce.

Time to test the jam.

With strawberry tea and scones. The jam is okay. I can taste the lemon and the nectarine adds a nice sharpness.

The red winged blackbirds in the berry bushes are saying fall will visit soon. So I've got a small listing ready.

Wishing you a lovely weekend in your snug house this weekend. I'm now searching for a strawberry jam tart recipie. I think you know why!

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

a summer day

This summer day I got dressed, grabbed my favorite apron and went to the plum tree.
This California native plum is in my mother's backyard and its forty feet tall. I set my basket in the crook of a limb and got to picking.
There are thousands of plums this year. More than I've ever seen in the twenty years I've been picking them.
I filled my basket and picked some for a friend and went to deliver. We ended up visiting for an hour. We talked about cooking, and books and even canning.
Home again with my basket, and some fresh geraniums from mom's garden.
Don't they look just like rosebuds? After the flowers fade I plant them and they just root so well. I've got rosebud geraniums all over the garden.
I decided to make a clafouti. My first one. I mixed it up and put in in the oven.
I did a little housework.
Well, I washed the dishes at least!
Emptied the kiln
The clafouti was done so I tried a piece. I sifted powdered sugar over it just like they do in France.
I thought it would be more like cake, but it was almost like a fruit custard. I guess I liked it, though.
I've still got an awful lot of plums. And the tree is laden still!
So I ordered a new canning book. I've heard good things about this. I'll let you know.
Might be plum jam appearing on my shelves soon.
xxx
hope you are having a wonderful summer
juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

gold dust

I've always wanted to add gold embellishments to my pottery. I think growing up in California exposes you to gold fever. So there is a brush stroke here and there on the porcelain cups above. Can you see it on the tips of the bird's wings?

Cup backs. These are slab built porcelain.

I panned for gold when I was ten. I remember the little particles of gold dust glinting in the sun.

This is my husband's ancestors from Sutter Creek , California. Gold Rush country.

I visited this house and met Gramps standing up in back on the right. He was 97at the time. I was 20. They had chickens coming in and out of the kitchen and an ancient orchard out the back. The floorboards creaked like a chorus of frogs. I loved it there.
div>
They came out in the 1840's not to strike it rich in mining, but in logging. All those miners needed wood for houses when they struck the mother lode.

The dog's name was Sampson.

An old plate with gold paint next to a beaker.

These are porcelain, so they are light.

My plans for these cups. The instuctions for using the gold are:

Immaculate brush only used for gold. Apply gold to finished piece in its own firing. These pieces were fired three times.Wipe down a glazed piece with rubbing alchohol.

Cleaning brush in the special solution to keep the brush supple. It goes on red, so its easy to see your strokes.

Fire at 018. Which is about 1377 degrees.

A vase shape where the flowers spill out nicely.
my first bud vase!
I'm hoping there is a pink butterfly out there somewhere.
Also did a couple of cups the old school way!

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com