A quaint village church, working on Folk Art, & walk to the docks Cape Cod

[00:00:00]Good day all. I'm back in the village and I have to hop into the uh little Episcopal Episcopal church which I think I showed last vlog when I was walking in the village. So, I thought I'll take my camera out as I'm trying to keep it with me and just show you how darling this little church is inside.

[00:00:18]I think I ah there's the vicar's dog. A little French bulldog. Isn't he a darling?

[00:00:26]So, I just thought I would uh just quickly take my camera out and give you a little view around. Um, as I said, this church is uh new for our village because it was built in the 1890s. Um, but I just love that we uh it's just very, very simple and charming. I always think the blue ceiling is lovely and the sweet little chairs with the prayer books in the back. So, just thought I'd have a little scan around and you can see how adorable it is. And I'll get a shot of uh the other church in our village, which is much older, on another trip, but I had to hop in today. So, I thought I would film quickly.

[00:01:11]As I mentioned in last week's vlog, this church is actually quite young for our village uh because it was built in the in very very late 1800s. I think it was like 189697 it was built and it was interesting because it was actually kind of a tough time for sandwich because the glass factory had closed and really times were just changing but it was uh summer uh summer people and um the local ladies guild who raised the the money to build the church. So I just think it's really sweet and they they always kept the wood exposed and the ceiling was always painted that sort of sky robins egg blue. So, I just think that's a sweet little history for this darling, quaint little church in the village.

[00:02:00][music] >> [music] >> Well, I'm going to just walk down to the brown jug and get a cup of coffee and uh just enjoy the morning before I head back home and go to the studio. But there it is, St. John's Little Church.

[00:02:32]All right. So, we'll continue on down here. This building here has some darling uh little shops in. I won't go in this morning, but I will take you uh in one day. As I said, I'm trying to keep my camera on me. So, as I hop into the village and run errands or just pop into a shop for an afternoon browse, I'll try to remember to pull out the camera and share it all with you. But for now, I'm just going to cross and uh get a coffee at the Brown Jug. Here's another little mini park here.

[00:03:04]This was where we light this tree here is the tree that gets lit for Christmas, even though it is a evergreen. And I I did do a a winter vlog where we went for the Christmas stroll. And I think I got a picture of that lighting up with the uh little local girls dance troop doing a fun little dance out in front. And this building here is really uh the business that's in here now is really nice. I think I also took us in here at Christmas as well. Um, the person who owns it is actually a really well-known interior designer and and when she took over the shop last year, she made like a little mini kind of a retail shop as well, but I mean she's also a designer and such, but really sweet things in there. Used to be it was a dress shop for years, but it's really sweet and they do great little windows. And um, if you do remember the Christmas vlog, I had a picture of how they dressed their windows for Christmas for the Christmas stroll this past year.

[00:03:57]And of course, hydrangeas everywhere. It is Cape Cod.

[00:04:03]And the blue of our hydrangeas are always amazing just because the acidity of our soil is thus that uh they get quite blue. So into the brown jug to get a cup of coffee.

[00:04:15]It's a nice cool day today, too. It's low 70s Fahrenheit. So just wander in and grab a coffee. I love this old merkantile and I've shown it many times I think. But I might as well order my coffee and uh before that I'll just poke over here and show in the summertime they have the darling little outdoor seating area with a woodf fired oven and such.

[00:04:46]All right, let's go order our coffee.

[00:04:50]Well, I've got my delicious coffee and uh uh I need to take us to the uh spotted cod as well, but I it's Monday today, so I think they're closed on Mondays. I wouldn't bring my coffee in anyway, but I'm pretty sure today they're closed. So, let's just hop over and see.

[00:05:10]Yes, closed Mondays. But again, I wanted to grab some footage as I'm out and about strolling in the village. But for now, I think I'm just going to head back home and work in the studio for a bit.

[00:05:20]So, let's do that.

[00:05:38][music] >> [music] >> Well, we're back in the studio. I'm just taking some straight burnt umber from the tube and I'm going to be making some simple trees. Again, just a refresher that I'm trying uh my hand at some folk artwork. Here is an example of the a Warren Kimble that I'm kind of using as a jumping off point. You can see the simple lines of just straight burnt umber just to represent the trees. Now, of course, just as uh the same with the rudimentary very rustic [music] lighthouse I have here, I'm going to go back in and put multiple layers on to kind of give it some more depth. But at the same time, I don't want too much depth. I want there [music] to be very much a a flat uh decorative quality because that's one of the major attributes. Like for example, in this cocoon painting, um you can see how flat and representational the mermaid and the boats and the houses in the distance are, but you can still see um a depth of color and form as well. So, I'll be adding that as I go. But I just think it's kind of fun just starting out laying out the basic layers of everything.

[00:07:04]So now I'm taking a fan brush and I have a couple of shades of green here. And I'm using the classic green from the Folk Art U paint. And I'm also using phallow green from my open acrylics.

[00:07:17]Just doing a little mix of those two colors just to give me the base color.

[00:07:21]And again, as a reference image here, you can see I'll start with this multi [music] green and then I'll probably build it up with some um dark browns to give it depth and a bit of yellow or maybe a cream to add on top of it. But I just thought it would be fun to show how I'm trying to build up these forms. I think what I like about uh what I'm enjoying about the folk art style that I'm trying now is it [music] it combines my love of decorative and patterning with the act of [music] painting and it has a also a feel of print making as well. I know um in print making I often loved how you could have flat form but then build with multiple prints to bring out color. I thought I'd give another example. This is a I think it's probably 1820s this painting. Uh the artist is unknown but you can see again that sort of flat uh depth of form not very representation of reality but the layers of color build up to give it more uh nicer quality overall. So So that's today's bit of this painting putting leaves and trees together.

[00:08:32][music] >> [music] >> Well, thank you for joining me for this short vlog, the short Wednesday vlog.

[00:08:50]I'm just walking down to the dock, the old brick path.

[00:09:01]And I thought I would uh pull up my camera, which I'm really trying to keep it on me at all times now to uh close out today's vlog. Might seem odd that I'm trying to do two vlogs a week to try to make sure I keep doing vlogs, but I just feel if I do a couple of vlogs.

[00:09:22]Blue Jay's not happy with me.

[00:09:25]See if I can get him up there. Can you see him through the trees?

[00:09:34]Good morning, you loud little fellow.

[00:09:39]I have a lovehate with blue jays because they're in the crow family, so they're quite clever, but they can be devils with bird feeders and other song birds. But but as I was saying, I just kind of feel if I do a couple of shorter vlogs during the week, I may just testing out to see if it'll kind of almost make it easier for me to keep up with my vlogs. And I, as I'm having fun with my little folk art, fun is sort of uh holding me to task to uh plug away at it daily. though. How pretty the red geraniums look.

[00:10:23]Such a sign of summertime.

[00:10:26]Red geraniums in an old whiskey barrel by a dock.

[00:10:31]And the wind's picking up today. I saw in the news that um many people are still dealing with the yellow skies and I guess they're it's affecting people's health and such which I feel bad because we only had the yellow sky for about a day and a half and I didn't notice any air quality myself and but but since then we've had blue skies and today we're getting a we're supposed to get a big thunderstorm so it'll be lovely day to sit in the studio and work more on my folk art painting. Enjoy the heavy rain and the thunder.

[00:11:08]And then uh we're meant to have clear skies the rest of the week. So hopefully maybe our windstorm will head off to the rest of the US and give them clear skies. Give them some reprieve from the yellow skies. But you can tell it's high summer now, mid July, because the fishermen keep their other boat out and the neighbors have their sailboats out and their motorboats out.

[00:11:46]Not sure if you can see that funny little kite thing down there, but they you might be able to see one over here.

[00:11:51]They hook them up to the uh where they set their the oyster cages and see how it really does look like a bird flying. So, it looks like a bird of prey. So, it kind of keeps the uh the gulls and stuff off to try to stop picking away at the young oysters and such. And out on that little central island in the small harbor over here, you can see there's a a bird stand that one of the pair of osprey use every season when they come back and have their children, their Cape Cod children.

[00:12:25]But so right now the wind's picking up and it's lovely. I think I've probably got another hour before the rain rolls in. So I'm going to finish my walk and then head home to the studio, which is always fun when the rain's coming down.

[00:12:36]So, thank you for joining me for this short Wednesday vlog. I hope you enjoyed the little slip into the church in the village, grabbing a cup of coffee, and seeing me just having fun with some folk art trees, which I'm going to probably add some more detail to. So, all right, I'm gonna finish this. I can get home and edit it and send it off to all of you. My little postcard vlog. So until now Sunday's vlog, I hope you have a lovely rest of your week and as always remember, stay creative. Cheers.

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