Spinning Wheels

Savanna Stripes- Zebra Colt

It seems like I have been busy all day but have accomplished little.  I mailed out the paintings to their new owners.  I had a new buyer from Western Australia.  All were little mini's 2.5x3.5inch, ACEOs, except for one an 11x14 of Mike Smith kissing Zenyatta GoodBye.  This week I have an 8x10 on stretched gallery wrap canvas up for auction on eBay.  Hope it sells well, starting at $25.oo no bids yet.  I really like it.

Delving into history of our farm and the area.

I have been sidetracked for my art by life, my goal of sketching the wildflowers in the woods to a new study- that of studying the history of our area.  My son Mark found a book in his basement, since his house is about ten years old, the book probably belonged to his deceased father-in-law.  The book has its cover fallen off.  The book The History of Hillsdale County, Michigan published in 1879.  We read through parts of the book, Indian history etc. and paid special attention to the formation of our township.  My son Matt wondered if any of the people mentioned in the book were involved with the settling of our farm.  To answer this we got out our deed that has been searched and documented several times.  In it we did indeed find where our property was given by President Van Buren to officers for service in the US Army.  The dates of the presidential deeds are August 1836 and January 1837.  I went thru the deed and recorded the owners of both properties that in 1900 were combined.  We were delighted to find biographical sketches of some of Reading's prominent men and pioneers.and to find their names and wills, on our deed.

The Buffalo Tannery was begun in 1877 in Reading, becoming one of the largest of its kind in the world.  Once the slaughter of buffalo began in the west, their population quickly disappeared, putting an end to the once thriving industry. 



Reading MI main street 1906.  There was still a drug store with a soda fountain on the corner up until around 1968.  The building now houses an art studio.  All the buildings in this block are still in tack up to and including the building with the tower on it, which was our fire station until 30 or 40 years ago.  Between the fire station and the drug store where the white rounded windows shoot out on second story, was an opera house!



This Brick house located around the corner, was built around 1850 as was our home.  This illustration comes from the book History of Hillsdale County Michigan written in 1879.   I find it remarkable how the pioneers and settlers built distinguished homes, buildings in such a short time.  1836 first pioneers build log cabins, two years later they have a mill and start building more elaborate homes several like this one and ours are still standing.  Ours was built of hand-hewn hardwood local lumber on  a foundation of large stones. 

ACEO offered at eBay art auction May8-15 marysfineart

ACEO   Daisy  2.5"x3.5"

ACEO  Edge of Night

ACEO  Tiger Child

Wildflowers- Violets

I went on my daily ride and concentrated on the violets.  In our woods we have two violets: The Common Blue Violet and the Yellow Downy Violet.  The Common Blue are common in the spring in woods and around wooded area.  They are 3-5 in. high with 5 petals on the small flower.  Leaves are heart shaped with coarse round toothed margins.  The Downy Yellow violet are about the same size but yellow in color, they have brown-purple lines at their base of the center bearded petal.  In our woods the Common purple form many large bunches while the Downy yellow are fewer in smaller bunches.  I am seeing so many wildflowers and am getting behind in doing the portraits of the ones I can identify.  I tried to post my drawing but for some reason the blogger would not let me, so I am posting copyright free photos from the net.

"eBay" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "I Want It That Way" by Backstreet Boys. In it, the narrator describes how he incessantly purchases bizarre (and purportedly unneeded) items on eBay.  If you haven't heard the song go to Utube,  It is very humorous.
The song mentions many things either commonly found on eBay, or reflective of the ridiculous advertisements on the website.

• A used pink bathrobe
• A rare mint snowglobe
• A Smurf TV tray
• (Another) Pet rock
• Pac Man Fever lunchbox
• A case of vintage tube socks
• That Alf alarm clock
• William Shatner's old toupee
• A slightly damaged golf bag
• Some Beanie Babies, new with tags
• That Farrah Fawcett poster
• Pez dispensers
• A toaster
• A Kleenex used by Dr. Dre
• Dukes of Hazzard ashtray
• Your watch, (please)                                     Wikiipedia®

My life on eBay may not be a comical but it is colorful for I sell miniature paintings called ACEO's
ACEO's are original pieces of art that measure 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches the same as a baseball card.  Collecting ACEOs is a way for a person to affordablely collect original artwork.  The little cards are used in a variety of ways from framing, gift inserts for cards to friend... to putting them in an album and everything in between.  They are a way a collector can have real, original art without breaking the bank.  Originally ACEOs were paintings that artist traded and shared among friends.  During the week I work at painting these little gems.  It takes me about 2-3 hours to do one as I am committed to presenting pieces with good composition that contain lots of detail.  Many of my ACEOs are oil paint on real canvas.  I post them on Sunday night and they auctioned on the site for 7 days.  I have not found a good way to direct people to my site.  My id name is marysfineart but I can't get to the site using that.  I put M2 at the end of most of my painting descriptions so that people can search for M2 and find my work.  I am told that M2 is on others but that you can check a few to find mine and then add my auction to eBay favorite sellers.  I will be posting some of my ACEOs on this blog.

Wild flowers

Today while riding in the woods I found these little blue and white flowers.  I have been riding daily taking notice of any new wildflowers.  Dandilions have open their yellow flowers today.  But the little blue and white were new to me.  Upon getting home I got out a favorite book that I recieved back in 1998 from a dear friend.  The book is titled Michigan Wildwood in Color by Harry C. Lund.   I was so surprised when I descovered the name of this beautiful little flower--- Blue-eyed Mary!
       Here is what the Harry says about the Blue-Eyed Mary-

Bicolored flowers with a whaite upper lip and bright blue lower.  5 petals notched at tips; appear as 4 with a 5th petal folded length wise and hidden between the other 2 blue petals.Lower leaves ar broad to nearly round on long leavstalks.  Upper leaves mostly long , narrow stalkless, and in opposite pairs or in whorls.  margins coarsely toothed to entire.  Stems are single or many, smooth below and slightly hairy above.  This species is not widely distributed but where found forms brilliant , showy colonies, especially on wooded river-bottom soils. 

      I feel akin to the Blue-Eyed Mary as I love our woods with its many streams and revines.  I liked that part about the 5th petal being hidden sort of like me with a part of my spirit being secret, private and hermit like
     It is my goal for this spring summer to ride as often as possible caring my camera to record new, beautiful, unusual things along the way.  I have always loved wildflowers -flowers of anykind.  As I capture the flowers with my camera I am entering them in a sketchbook and trying to identify them using various books.

Sketch of the Blue-Eyed Mary wildflower done with watercolor and a little ink

William and Kate's Royal Wedding Coverage

This is an ACEO watercolor sketch that I did of the team of horses who pulled the carriage.

Many Americans who watched the royal wedding coverage say they appreciated the elegance and traditions of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge.  My favorite part was the carriage ride after the wedding.
Britain's Prince William and and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, traveled to Buckingham Palace in a 1902 State Landau carriage after the royal wedding at Westminster Abbey.   I wanted to see more of the horses especially the ones pulling the carriage.  I loved watching the prancing horses and how they were controlled or driven by riders.  I hunted for a good photo of the horses but found NONE.  So I watched the videos and did a quick watercolor sketch of the four horses who pulled the royal carriage.