Daily Drawing

'Her Complicated Hat' pigma pen and watercolor in 8x6 epsilon

'Jellyfish Land' watercolor and casein paint in 8x6 epsilon

watercolor, prismacolor pencil, casein paint, etc, in 8x6 epsilon

Here is a little offering of recent sketchbook pages; I continue to make time to draw most every evening before climbing the stairs to my book and bed.  Hope the week is rolling smoothly along for you.  My calendar shows a skull and crossbones as well as a full moon and lunar eclipse for today! Look out!

Girl & Gramma, Woods & Wolf

I read the story again.  There are several versions.  In all of them, the Wolf gets the short shaft.  

Little Red Riding Hood on the way to Gramma's, watched by the Wolf, stage right.

(Both drawings here are Derwent ' Inktense' watercolor pencils and Tinted Charcoal in 8x6 Epsilon)

The Wolf beats LRRH to G'mas, eats her up and hops into her bed to trick the girl and eat up her, too, but a Woodsman intervenes to the Wolf's detriment.

 

Flossy does not approve.

The story of Little Red Riding Hood is illustrated by many other wonderful artists linked over at Patrice's, who brought us this challenge.

Leaves

Leaves have a shape I love to draw and paint.

In the alley my studio is located along there is a pussy willow tree...

...which has shed its leaves for the winter.

I had fun color-changing them...

...and studying the negative space around them.

Happy Thanksgiving to friends who live in the US.  

Lots to be grateful for everyday, I think.

Welcome, Snow! (A post by Flossy)

How thrilled I was to wake up this morning and find the Snow we’d been promised by the Unreliable Weather Forecaster had actually started falling in the night.  

  

 I LOVE Snow!

 I was outside for the Morning Walk as soon as I could get Mother to put down her coffee and patrolled the woods on my own for a long time after she got home from Church.   

 Then we had the Afternoon Walk.  We parked our truck Bluebird at the Swan Observatory and walked to Blind Slough.  

 Well, Mother walked but I ran, which I do much faster in Snow.

 At the Slough there were a couple of snooty Trumpeter Swans gliding around taking offense at my barking.

They glided away from us in a hurry, so they are kind of hard to see in Mother’s photos.

Hmmph.

 In the Picnic Grounds I had my first Snow Bath of the winter!

  It was extremely refreshing!

The First Snow tastes absolutely delicious, don't you find?

 When we got back in Bluebird I tried not to get Snow on the seats but Mother made me ride in the back anyway.  

Hmmph, again!

I hope you all enjoyed your Walk today as much as I did.  Winter is here and I am glad!  

Love, Flossy

Drawing Challenge: Habit

Word association: 

You say 'habit'; I say 'bad'.

'Habit' - acrylic, oil stick, graphite and paper on book page; 8"x6"

detail 01

detail 02

When a bad habit caught me in its vicious circle of hopelessness, the only way out was surrender and prayer, one day at a time.

Many more takes on this theme 

by talented artists 

can be found over at Kirsten's fascinating blog, A Sunny Spot.

Daily Drawing and Studio Assistant

'Walk Away' - pigma pen and prismacolor in 6"x8" Epsilon

'Internal Landscape' - pigma pen and prismacolor in 6"x8" Epsilon

pigma pen and prismacolor in 6"x8" Epsilon

'Studio Assistant' - pigma pen and prismacolor in 6"x8" Epsilon

Flossy, the real studio assistant, poses by recent work in our studio

Flossy and I wish you happiness this mid-week day.  Are you drawing?

Work and Walk

Painting continues, revealing its magic.  Order arises from the chaos of underpainting. 

acrylic collage on canvas in progress, 24"x36"

 Sometimes I sit and ponder... 

detail of collage in progress

 ...sometimes I dance for joy.

detail #2 of collage in progress

And at noon, I walk on the floats with my dog.

crab gear

Critique

Work on paintings for my show with Pia in Juneau next month has been proceeding apace with the other projects due this month.  Friday is the opening reception for our annual Women's Invitational exhibit at the museum.  (I will be posting more on that later in the week).  In the mean time, I offer a couple of details from one of the Juneau paintings.

'Below and Above' (working title); detail 1; acrylic and paper on canvas

'Below and Above' - detail 2

Working alone in a vacuum most of the time, it is possible to loose perspective - to question if the paintings are strong - if I am deluding myself - wasting my time.  BUT - Saturday I had a most valuable critique session with a fellow painter whose work I greatly admire.  I feel completely validated and energized to carry on with this body of work ( as if I had a choice anyway)! I look forward to sharing these paintings with you in early December when I am ready to get on the ferry and take them north to the gallery in Juneau. 

Abbild - Portrayal - DC

This week's challenge from our hostess Ariane-the-Rose lead me to use tea and rust dyed fabric scraps left over from my recent accordion book project to create a likeness of a doll I might have loved to play with as a child.

'Harriette' - tea/rust dyed vintage linen, antique buttons, pigma pen; approximately 8" tall

detail of Harriette

Did you (do you) play with dolls?  Did you sew for them?  Please do visit over at Ariane's - many more abbilder for your amazement and amusement there.