Upper 10

At last, we have moved in!  The new studio is ours!

Flossy was all sorts of help, of course.

She is a good little decorator, and knows all about 'Fang' Shui.

 

To the right is the free dresser I discovered half a block from our house yesterday.  Daughter and her pals helped me get it into my truck.  On Saturday, I got a couple of excellent work tables (see center and left) and two upholstered stools at a shop going out of business, and hauled them away for practically nothing.

One of the work tables even has a drawer.  

Flossy suggests that it would be a fine place to store dog treats.

I am going to Denver in the morning for a few days, and have a lot to look forward to when I come back!  

What are you grateful for this week?

Kristen LInk in Petersburg

As a part of the Rain Forest Festival each year, an artist is often invited to teach workshops for adults and children over the course of the week.  This year we were lucky to welcome Kristen Link, a young science illustrator from McCarthy, Alaska.  I participated in her botanical illustration workshop Saturday afternoon, and her field sketching class today.

Kristen, standing in blue and braids, with a few of my fellow students.

Yesterday's class was an intensely rewarding experience for me.  Although I am committed to drawing and make it a daily practice, my days of drawing from life pretty much ended with grad school.  I re-discovered the power and magic of drawing what's in front of me in Kristen's workshop.

We drew first on tracing paper, later transferring that to watercolor paper by adding graphite to the back of the tracing paper under our drawn lines.

I chose a favorite plant, cottonwood, and used a branch of it as my model.  This is my up-close detail of a bud, still on the tracing paper.

The cottonwood branch rendered on 11"x17" watercolor paper.  I ran out of time to add color, alas.  The bud detail will go in the lower right part of the page.

Today we were graced with yet another lovely fall afternoon out at Sandy Beach in which to enjoy Kristen's field sketching workshop.

After we did some close-up studies, I chose to paint this scene looking across Frederick Sound at Horn Cliffs.

This is the rest of my scene.

Working on an accordian-folded sheet of watercolor paper was very effective.

I did not have time to finish my painting...

...but feel it is complete.  Two hours just wasn't enough time!

 

Rediscovering the enchantment of drawing from life was a great gift.  I believe I'll continue to practice this magic regularly.  Thanks, Kristen, for coming to Petersburg and sharing your gift! 

Post script: Flossy wants Readers to know she roamed at large on the Beach all afternoon without giving in to the temptation to roll in dead salmon.

High Summer (Solstice DC)

'High Summer' pigma pen and inktense pencil in 8x6 gamma

I hope you are not all tired of looking at scenery photos here in my little back water of Blogland, but I just can't get enough of this weather.  After two years of literally NO warm sunny weather, we are blessed with reason to remember why we live here in Southeast Alaska.

On the morning bridge

calm water murmurs memories

of last June’s floods

while birdsong chorus

lightens the dawning day.

Thank you,

most High and Glorious Creator

for Solstice and

the World 

full of

Summer’s radiance and glory

this longest day.

Thanks to my Bloggish friend Kirsten for this week's Drawing Challenge theme, 'Solstice'.  Beautiful images await you at her inspiring place, A Sunny Spot. Whether it is Summer or Winter Solstice in your part of the World, I wish you a week full of magic.

Relishing Summer

So much to be grateful for this week...

...blue skies...

...warmer temperatures...

...LONG days...

...and Summer's Screaming Green palette.

crab apple blossoms

baby pine cones

Best of all, our Daughter is coming for a week's visit tomorrow and our Son is coming up to work for the summer on Sunday.

I will be taking a little break from studio work this week.  Here are some projects in mid-stream, waiting for my return:

detail of  one of a series of procion dye paintings, waiting to be stitched

monoprint, acrylic paint and prismacolor pencil on cotton, 6"x8", waiting to be stitched

containers of low-water emersion over-dyes, all cottons, which I will rinse out tomorrow while I wait for Daughter's plane to land in the morning

Hope your week is going well.  Got gratitude?

Beauty DC

'You know life is what you make of it
So beautiful or so what'  - Paul Simon

More beautiful than the scenery of my island home...

... more beautiful than a break through at the studio...

monoprints on rice paper, this and the following, all are approximately 10" high

... our children!

both passionate about their college studies, both kind, loving, and healthy

In beauty I walk.

With beauty before me, I walk.

With beauty behind me, I walk.

With beauty below me, I walk.

With beauty all around me, I walk. 

-Navajo prayer (excerpt)

 

I thank God every day for the beauty around me!  And I thank Nadine for this drawing challenge.  Do go visit her for many more reflections on the topic by makers of beautiful and provocative art.

Process/Product

Sometimes I feel like I am just spinning my creative wheels, not able to really get started because I don’t know what I want to say.  The past couple of weeks have been like that, drifty and discouraging.  

detail, work in progress, textile paint monoprint on cotton, machine stitching

A couple of helpful posts by artists whose work I admire have given me renewed enthusiasm.  Jane Dunnewold is a guest artist this month over at And Then We Set It On Fire.  Her essay on using the right tools lifted my spirits as she reminded me that the work I have been doing recently – sketching, making new stencils and masks, thinking – is by no means wasted time but indeed, critical to creative success.  

masks coated with gel medium drying on waxed paper

detail, textile paint monoprint on hand dyed cotton

Yesterday’s post at The Fairy Yellow Bug Queen also cheered me.  Norma writes: ‘Nothing is perfect, in life, or in art. I am ignoring the imperfect bits and won't bore you by pointing them out. My complete purpose in doing these pieces is to learn. I am having so much fun…’.

detail, textile paint monoprint with hand and machine stitching

detail, textile paint monoprint with beads and machine stitching

I am off to the studio today with an attitude of gratitude for the creative PROCESS rather than a demand of myself for a steady stream of PRODUCT.  Thanks to all of you in Blogland for your contagious enthusiasm for art and life with all its beauty and magic.  I appreciate you!

Daily Drawing

pigma pen and prismacolor pencil in 8x6 epsilon

pigma pen and watercolor in 8x6 epsilon

'Year of the Snake is Coming' - pigma pen and watercolor pencils (including inktense) in 8x6 epsilon

'Inventory' - pigma pen and prismacolor pencil in 8x6 epsilon

Today I offer you a selection of recent daily drawings for your viewing amusement.   The week here is flying by and I am finding contentment in simple things: lengthening days and silvery light, silly pets, laughing with friends.  What's making you smile today?