Art in the Dark

Last night I was home by myself.   Just me and Archie, The Dog.

He's a really nice dog - not always a good dog - but we love him at lot and he makes us smile.

My plan was to walk The Dog and then glaze some pottery pieces.  

After the walk and tiding up of the house, readying my brain for glazing and two cups of tea to stall for a bit, the rain came pouring from the skies.

Thunder pounded, lightning lit up the sky and the power went out.  

Common place for a summer storm but two hours later I realized I might be in the dark for a while.  

What to do? What to do?

No lights.

Too dark to be in my pottery room.

No television.

No computer,

Reading nearly impossible by camping headlamp.

Too rainy to take The Dog for another walk.

Too wet to garden.

Too big to fit under the bed to hide with The Trembling Dog.

Too awake after my two caffinated cups of tea to sleep.

And, no one to talk to.

Curiosity made me wonder if I could do a watercolor painting the semi-dark.

Lit by LED flashlight and a crappy candle  I gave it a try.

Watercolor paints gave way to watercolor pencils as I couldn't see the color washes clearly enough to see what I was putting on the paper.

LED light, by the way, is the worst lighting ever.

Water color wash on, sort of.

Watercolor pencils highlighted areas I couldn't see and then blended in.  The entire thing looked like a muddy mess of color.

Staedler fine liner out to try and add some detail.  Squinting, painting, scribbling, wondering if the wine had gotten to warm to drink (it hadn't) and then taking pictures with  the flash so that I could review to see what was being created on the paper.

Not pretty but a good time-filler.

And then this morning...

Cherries are ready.

Raspberries are almost ready.

Lillies are ready.

Tonight is forecast for another 10mm rain with thunder and lightning.  

Maybe I'll try hand building something out of clay if the power goes out tonight.

Hope the boys survived the storm.