Beach sketches

A week at the beach on Holden Island - the east coast of North Carolina. I was relaxed and inspired and had a wonderful week with my family - but sketching and painting were just not what I was inspired to do. Instead I meandered on the beach, biked down the sidewalk trying to keep up with my daughter, stayed up late reading, slept the morning away, and all those things that make life at the beach so easy and relaxed.

One evening I was getting the itch to sketch and it just couldn't be controlled, so I got out my colored pencils while I was out on the deck with my husband and daughter and did this quick little drawing of a house across the canal in the distance. I was drawn by the contrast of the white house against the deep greens and blues.

New Art, New Books - Ain't Life Grand!

I completed these yesterday at the festival - fun!



Three new books I ordered from northlight recently. I got all three for $25! They are very good books that I'm anxious to read through. I'm especially inspired by Moira Huntly's sketching.

Leaf and String Festival Display

I showed and demonstrated my artwork yesterday at the Leaf and String Festival. This is for the classes I will teach in the fall at Chestnut Creek School of the Arts.

Saturday Night Art Fun

My daughter and I worked in the studio until almost midnight last night! What fun! She made this wonderful collage on masonite and I did the paintings above.



Isn't this fantastic!!!





This is my favorite of my paintings, so I thought I'd put it in an individual photo.




Above is a new set up for 5 new paintings; I wanted to show how I did these. I took a canvas panel and taped down 4 or 5 5" x 7" sheets of watercolor paper. I work on all of them at the same time (for the most part). One sort of led to the other the first time around (see top photo). I started out with very tight drawings in my first two (you can see this in the pot of geraniums. They were from my imagination, but tight - I loosened up on the last two and kept going back in and working with all different media - watercolor, watercolor pencils, colored pencil, pen, and oil pastels - until I achieved the look I wanted. I plan to set up in a local festival this coming weekend and display these works for sale as well as demonstrate for three upcoming classes I'll be teaching this fall.

More recent sketches

I did this today in my new Moleskine. I have decided to make this moleskine strictly for DRY MEDIA. I went at lunch today (breaking my agreement with myself to buy no art supplies for a year) and spent around $3.50 on these two pencil (4B) and this kneaded rubber eraser to carry in my purse with the moleskine. I want these supplies to be with me at all times. I'm hoping to pare down my supplies that I carry with me to just these simple tools and see what happens. I do have a huge selection of colored pencils on my desk at work. And lots of pens. So I should be well-equipped.

This is a 5" x 7" gouache from my imagination/memory. I added colored pencil to further refine and define the shapes and to add texture and some brightness and contrast to the painting. The Pelikan gouache pans I have found very chalky. I think I used too much white mixed with them. They are very grainy paints.

This was done from my imagination, just doodling and playing one evening last week after work. The flowers on the cup are done with colored pencil. First I drew in graphite, added the black marker, and then splashed with watercolor.

Sketched this Wednesday, May 27 in a meeting and then added colored pencil later. This is on discarded letterhead paper. I like the texture very much for graphite and colored pencil.

The sketches on the right page were done in a meeting on Wednesday morning and the one on the left I doodled from memory while I was on the phone.

I did these drawings from my imagination/memory at my daughter's swim team practice tonight. Practicing and planning for later 5" x 7" bright paintings.

New Work - Wild and Wonderful

I've been busy painting and sketching lately and haven't blogged, but this and the next post will show you the fruits of my recent labors. Here are three of my bright drawings 5" x 7" in clear "bags" with acid free backing boards, both from clearbags.com. I completed all three of these on Monday from start to finish. (I had a wild streak)

New Work in Moleskine

Some new work in my moleskine... Obviously I have abandoned the idea of completing the Every Day in May challenge. Life got too hectic at work and at home and so it goes... BUT since there are NO RULES in my sketchbook, then I refuse to feel guilty. I will simply move on and paint and sketch when time allows.






Had to take Daddy to the cardiologist for a checkup last Tuesday and the sketches above were the result of my waiting time, which turned out to be rather limited since we were only there for an hour total. The problem with waiting room sketches is the people don't wait very long. Each time I started a drawing of someone, they got up and left... quite frustrating.



I did this at lunch 5/13 sitting at Taco Bell looking across at this church steeple. I used my new Pelikan gouache later to add color.



I did this from my imagination - it is inspired by my rhododendron and bird feeder outside my living room window. An indigo bunting has been visiting the feeder and it a simply stunning sight nestled in the rhododendron bush! I used a Sakura glaze gel pen for the drawing and then Pelikan gouache for the color. I sort of wanted this stained glass look. I rather like this - it was part of a larger drawing and I had included a table set for coffee or tea in the foreground, but I didn't like how it turned out, so I collaged the window portion of the drawing, which I very much liked, in my moleskine. I haven't decided how to fill the rest of the 2-page spread, but time will tell.

Interesting effect

This is something I played around with last week. I drew the page on right with my Caran d'Ache (looking so luscious and bright in the photo below) and then wet a torn portion of a paper towel and pressed it into the dry watercolor crayons making the image/impression on the towel (pictured on the left). I haven't collaged these down yet not knowing exactly how I want this to turn out, but a very interesting effect I think.

A Blast from the Past

The pastel drawing above is now in my kitchen, quite by an amazing turn of events - divine intervention I believe. Here is how the story unfolds... I completed this drawing in 1992. I was dating a very monstrous young man at the time (another story) and was sitting out in his mother's garden at his home. She had purchased me a set of pastels and a sketchbook after hearing that I loved to draw and paint. These are her impatiens (I believe they were impatiens - pink flowers at any rate). After a few torturous months I finally rid myself of this young man and moved on with my pastel painting intact in the sketchbook. Later I framed this and then after I married my husband in 1994 this painting became linked to an old memory that I wanted to be rid of naturally. Our neighbor at the time was a dear older lady who had no close family and lived alone. When my daughter was born, she came to see us bearing gifts and we became acquaintences. She valued art and I gave her this piece. Years pass and my daughter is now 13... We moved and I've wondered about this sweet lady often since...

To the present... there is a church across the street from our house and they were having a yard sale last Saturday. I walked across the road and looked down to see this very pastel painting. I screamed, "I did that!!!" "How did you get it!!" Of course, upon remembering when and where I completed the work and forgetting that I had kept it after the breakup, my first thought was that it had somehow come to be there through this old boyfriend's family and I got a very sick feeling in my stomach, but then I kept asking and as it turns out, the nephew of that dear lady whom I had given this painting is actually the pastor of the church across the street from me!!! She is now in a nursing home and they had cleaned out her home and most of the things in the yard sale belonged to her. He had now bought the property where she lived and was renting out her home. BUT, the lady is still living although her mind is very bad, so I can actually go and visit her in the nursing home. She won't know me of course, but maybe it will make her feel good to have a visitor.

Now of course it is (as we all know) every artist's dream to have her work in a yard sale for $2, but it makes a great story nonetheless. I donated the money for the painting, refusing to say that I was buying it since I was the artist, and brought it back to its original home.

Amazing, huh!! Coincidence, I don't think so...

Rainy Sunday Evening

There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

-- Sara Teasdale

EDinMay #14 - Health Screening

I created this spread in celebration of the successful health screening I had done at work yesterday. I have worked very hard during the past four-six months to get my weight and cholesterol down, and it has proven successful!! I'm so pleased!
I did find that I had very low blood pressure, but all turned out well when I called the doctor and was instructed to stop taking one of my medications, which was likely the cause of the low blood pressure. Less medicine and everything is great. I had a full panel blood workup done and everything is normal, including my iron. I do have low sodium so I need to drink less. I do tend to "drown my sorrows" in coffee, tea, and lots of water. I think it is more habit than anything else. So today I have tried to drink less. It has actually been very difficult. You know you hear everywhere, in fact we're bombarded with "Drink more water! Get your eight glasses a day!" Well for some people apparently that is not the answer to all problems. So now I have to try and break a supposedly great habit of drinking that water. Makes one think... I seem to be finding rules are made to be broken lately LOL. Hey - you know what else! I have not exercised during this weight and cholesterol reduction. I have cut back on calories and really haven't deprived myself at all. I do walk occasionally, but certainly not what you would consider actively. Another interesting notation...

A look back ...

The sketches below were done in 2002-2003. I love the crispness of the lines and the combination of pen and wash.






The sketch is above is of a barn that has since disappeared due to a highway addition. I was heartbroken when I saw it being torn down. This is one of many sketches I did of it. It was such an appealing addition to the landscape.



Thankfully this barn is still there, but is very dilapidated now - very close to falling down.

Isn't it sad, the slow disappearance of all the lovely barns.