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I took the whole weekend off and went dancing, which was flat out marvelous. I’ve also been doing some work on my house, so actual art work has been thin on the ground lately. I have done breakfast sketches the last two mornings, though, and I’m easing back in. I’m both using and drawing a new-to-me teacup I found brocanting over the weekend. It’s Prussian and hand painted and the most delicious blue. It feels nice to be beginning days by drawing again.
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I’ve been having a little trouble with my printer and also taking all my free time lately to dive back into oil painting, so I haven’t done any scanning yet. I am, however, doing some home sketches along the way. Here were a couple of teacups that started the year, along with a couple of Mr. Darcy sketches. And one more self portrait. I’ll try to get organized to share the rest of what I’ve been doing lately. On the organization front, I did spend all morning doing end of the year book keeping yesterday. The less fun part of owning your own business. Today I will be joyfully back to painting on my water landscape series.
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I got some sticks of water soluble graphite on the advice of Ruth, who works at our marvelous local art store the Art Center. I’ve loved my tin of it, which I use with a brush, but I hadn’t tried the sticks. I love having an art store with local artists working who know and use the stock. I especially love not having to order and wait for days if I get a new project in my head. I had woken up with several new prints dancing around in there and went to buy the blocks so I could start right away. I’m working on them now, but in the meantime, here are the graphite sketches I’ve been doing. After all the packaging and marketing and reprinting of the holiday season, it’s good to get to do spontaneous art again. I’m so grateful for everyone who buys real art for presents. I absolutely couldn’t do what I do without you. But I’m also grateful to be past the push and with a little winter time to play with new ideas.
Speaking of presents, I got an email from Antiques Warehouse (a big, neighborhood antique mall that I love) that they were open on Christmas Eve. I went over there just for fun on my quiet holiday and found the mirror above. I’d hoped for one on a stand that I could use for self portraits, but this one was $8, nice looking, big enough to really see, and lightweight to move around in my various work spaces. A total win. I got it and the Royal Doulton teacup (bottom right) for my gifts to myself, and I’m enjoying both of them. I feel some more self portraits coming. I’ve missed doing figures lately.
Speaking of presents, I got an email from Antiques Warehouse (a big, neighborhood antique mall that I love) that they were open on Christmas Eve. I went over there just for fun on my quiet holiday and found the mirror above. I’d hoped for one on a stand that I could use for self portraits, but this one was $8, nice looking, big enough to really see, and lightweight to move around in my various work spaces. A total win. I got it and the Royal Doulton teacup (bottom right) for my gifts to myself, and I’m enjoying both of them. I feel some more self portraits coming. I’ve missed doing figures lately.
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I made it through three shows and two sets of houseguests (all delightful to see) in a week and a half period, and I was due for some serious vacation. I’m out in Washington state, sleeping late, reading lots of baseball news, hitting some truly great thrift stores, and revisiting some favorite places in an unexpected streak of sunshine. I’ve managed exactly one sketch so far, and I’m trying not to put too much pressure on myself. It’s sometimes good to take breaks.
I have been taking photos as I walk though. The frost is amazing, especially since I stay right along the Skagit River. I’d always heard the term “hoar frost” in the British novels I read, but I hadn’t been sure what exactly it was. It turns out that mist and fog rising off rivers in cold conditions can freeze in almost sculptural ways. I’ve had fun taking some photos.
I have been taking photos as I walk though. The frost is amazing, especially since I stay right along the Skagit River. I’d always heard the term “hoar frost” in the British novels I read, but I hadn’t been sure what exactly it was. It turns out that mist and fog rising off rivers in cold conditions can freeze in almost sculptural ways. I’ve had fun taking some photos.
The frost in the great meadow at Rasar State Park (one of my magic places) extends only into about a third of the meadow and burns off as it gets further away from the river. Part of that is the deep valley that keeps out most of the sun. The bottom right photo above is just about noon. I can see why fairy tales so often came from the northern regions. It’s not a little uncanny to walk out of strong sunshine and into blue dimness in the middle of the day. It feels like entering Narnia and the land of perpetual winter, where you walk over an invisble boundary into fairyland. My dad brought me a book of Scandinavian fairy tales when I was little that was one of my favorites for years. I’m feeling its echoes on this trip.
I also went down to the pebble beach at the end of the park, which is one of my favorite places. It’s stunning in winter in a completely different way. It was a gorgeous way to spend a morning, and then I headed back to the land of heating and good, local pizza after being out in the cold for a couple of hours.
I also went down to the pebble beach at the end of the park, which is one of my favorite places. It’s stunning in winter in a completely different way. It was a gorgeous way to spend a morning, and then I headed back to the land of heating and good, local pizza after being out in the cold for a couple of hours.
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Even though I'm primarily a painter/printmaker, I listen to a lot of writing podcasts. They translate well into a verbal medium, deal with creativity, and teach me some the publishing industry as I'm working on my Mr. Darcy picture book. There's a bit of talk about "morning pages," the early morning writing you do for yourself, not part of your regular work, just to loosen up in the mornings. This week I've been doing the sketcher version of that, drawing my morning tea.
It's been a week of some drawing, but mostly fiddly computer work, as I scan in drawings and text and assemble them in photoshop as pages for my book. I've wanted to have some bit of actual creative, painterly fun in the midst of it, so this has been a good way to start my mornings lately. I'm always trying to balance the journal/blog/social media/printing and packaging time I spend against painting or carving time, so this may not be a good fit for me daily. Often I wake up with a painting just dying to push its way out, and all I want to do is dive in. Doing a daily anything can be constrictive for me creatively. But I do enjoy these meditative sketches, so I'm leaving a paint box out on the counter at my breakfast spot for now (one of many advantages to living by myself), and I'll see if I can be more mindful about sketching instead of just looking at a screen when I am having some down time at meals.
It's been a week of some drawing, but mostly fiddly computer work, as I scan in drawings and text and assemble them in photoshop as pages for my book. I've wanted to have some bit of actual creative, painterly fun in the midst of it, so this has been a good way to start my mornings lately. I'm always trying to balance the journal/blog/social media/printing and packaging time I spend against painting or carving time, so this may not be a good fit for me daily. Often I wake up with a painting just dying to push its way out, and all I want to do is dive in. Doing a daily anything can be constrictive for me creatively. But I do enjoy these meditative sketches, so I'm leaving a paint box out on the counter at my breakfast spot for now (one of many advantages to living by myself), and I'll see if I can be more mindful about sketching instead of just looking at a screen when I am having some down time at meals.
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I've been mostly DOING Inktober even though I've been bad about posting here lately. Most days I've managed one ink sketch, but the majority of my work this past week has been tons of computer work (taking my attention from scanning for other purposes) to get the Mr. Darcy Goes Home book and the related counting book ready to send out. I've got a mid November deadline to be able to submit to my dream publisher without needing an agent first, so I'm working flat out to get it ready. I'll show a couple of reject sketches from that process here, but for now, a few more Inktober sketches to show what I've been up to around the edges.
Above is the Side Street Steppers. Below is one sketch as I was stopped at a train on my way to a printmaking demonstration at Dixon (I'll be doing several more of those) plus a quick sketch waiting in line at Home Depot, buying materials to shore up my floor to receive the type cabinet (see the last blog post).
Above is the Side Street Steppers. Below is one sketch as I was stopped at a train on my way to a printmaking demonstration at Dixon (I'll be doing several more of those) plus a quick sketch waiting in line at Home Depot, buying materials to shore up my floor to receive the type cabinet (see the last blog post).
I've been still practicing people when I get the chance, so at right are a handful of sketches from lunch at the Majestic downtown. Below is one quick page during last weekend. I almost never draw at dance weekends -- my only real vacation from art, complete and total, but I did do a few on Saturday, knowing it was Inktober and trying not to flake out completely.
Plus I always enjoy drawing treats, as a way to keep enjoying them, and also remember nice days I've spent with other people. Here is one of those, just to round things out.
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I made it through the Pink Palace Crafts Fair week, which is always a crazy ride but a really fun time. I so appreciated everyone who came out in the rain to support all of us local and not-so-local artists. It was fun to catch up with a whole group of different friends, and I'm always touched when people come to see my art year after year, tell me what piece they have (and sometimes show me a photo of how they got it framed), and maybe even take home a new piece to keep the old one company. I missed a couple of days of Inktober sketching in the hooplah, but I managed most days, so here are a few that I did but hadn't scanned in yet.
This last one served as a model for a demo linocut I started carving during the demonstrations at the crafts fair. I have more work to do once I pull a print and see what it looks like. I love coming home with a sketch I want to spend more time with and make more art from.
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I’m having a quiet day today. It’s hot, the Orsay is closed, and I’m on vacation. So lots of sewing on my next to last quilt block going on, and a couple of around the house sketches. I found this new teapot at a pop up street flea market yesterday, and careful readers of my blog will know how much I adore drawing teapots. I’m also on a self portrait jag, so here’s one more of those. I was trying to get a little more facial expression. I remember the artist who did pastel portraits of my sister and me as kids alway said that “a portrait is a picture with something funny with the mouth.” Nothing could more encapsulate my attempts to branch out into figurative work.
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I've been on the road a lot and out of my normal routine, which makes it harder for me to stay disciplined about what I'm putting in my mouth. It gets easy for me to graze without paying attention as closely when it feels like I'm on vacation, and I was beginning to creep up a little bit on the scale. It wasn't time for a full fledged diet, and I'm not a big fan of feeling deprived. That seems to sabotage me over time. But I decided it was time to be more mindful and intentional about what I ate. Also the direct watercolor challenge had just started, and a sketching food journal seemed like one good way to participate. So I decided to keep a week's worth of food journal in a large watercolor sketch book. I've also been trying to up my watercolor painting size, so this was a good project across the board.
It's less fun for any dinner companions you might have, so I only did it for a week or so, but it did help me. If I have to want a snack badly enough to get out the paints and add it to the journal, I really am hungry. It was fun, and when I'm back to my solo living life, I may do another week. In the meantime, here are a few of the days. You can see that I was more painting for the moment than trying to keep a list of my intake for future reference. Chicken or lasagne aren't always that easy to tell what they are in a quick sketch done before food goes cold. But it served its purpose for the moment. It was also a good exercise in composing a large page of multiple images. I had fun and am overall pleased with the big, colorful double pages.
It's less fun for any dinner companions you might have, so I only did it for a week or so, but it did help me. If I have to want a snack badly enough to get out the paints and add it to the journal, I really am hungry. It was fun, and when I'm back to my solo living life, I may do another week. In the meantime, here are a few of the days. You can see that I was more painting for the moment than trying to keep a list of my intake for future reference. Chicken or lasagne aren't always that easy to tell what they are in a quick sketch done before food goes cold. But it served its purpose for the moment. It was also a good exercise in composing a large page of multiple images. I had fun and am overall pleased with the big, colorful double pages.
One day was busy enough I decided to do just line drawings instead, which had a different feel. That was fun too.
My knitting group out here is from 5-8, and I don't do late dinners very well, so I was eating early and in a hurry. That day I let myself just do breakfast and lunch, but I kind of liked this one. It's the last one I'll put here. I don't switch my food up that much, so they got a little repetitive, but it really was a fun project.
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I've been doing some sketches along in my journal, but I'm behind scanning them in, so here are a bunch of recent sketches. Above is the view from the table in the window of my favorite diner. Below is the view from the front porch (looking over the houses opposite, anyway).
There was also tea in my favorite coffee shop and a trip to Rasar State Park, one of my favorite spots out here. I've been making some good rounds lately.
There's a 30 day "direct watercolor" challenge online right now, and I'm mostly playing along, trying to do watercolors with little to no line drawing first. These are a couple of larger journal sketches as practice.
