Laurelines

Postcard from the Emerald City

I've been working with green lately and it has been such a pleasure after yellow. There are so MANY greens and most of them are gorgeous and all of them are *cheery in a (mostly) quiet way.

I gathered together a bunch of green things this morning and here they are:

Now, I'm well aware this kind of activity isn't rocket science or high art, but it IS pleasant and it IS instructive, in its way, to me.

Signed,

The Wizard of Is

*Look at all these greens from my watercolor crayon set. Those are some cheery colors, are they not?

Garlic, fusion style

Fresh garlic from farmers' market, drawn with Japanese brush pen, painted in English gouaches on Indonesian paper. By a person of unknown, and no doubt very questionable, origin.

The drawing story continues

This is really part of the post just below. I didn't want to make that one longer than it already is. Here are more sketches from the trip a year ago. At the time they seemed fine. I don't know if others can see a big difference between recent efforts and these, but I can. The months of drawing since January have given me greater fluency, I feel. And my color explorations of the past months have allowed me to think of and use color in a more subtle way. I think. I hope.

Why I draw and other tales

A year ago almost exactly, I was sitting on a grassy triangle, looking across a narrow valley to the town at left. This is Flavigny, in Burgundy, France. Since my first visit the fall before, I'd had it in my mind to draw this place, but on that flawlessly sunny afternoon, perched on my portable stool, my art supplies spread out around me,  I was daunted and depressed. I had not drawn actively in years, though I had been making paintings. I hadn't drawn for the SAKE  of drawing. Yet, here I was. And there was Flavigny, rife with beauty and history.  So I  started at the left edge of my two-page spread and I drew. Lines, edges, shapes appeared. I, though, disappeared--- or at least my fears did.  After it was all through, I saw that I had made a little world on paper. Mind you, it is no great shakes. ( I could do better now, I'm sure. I've been practicing!) It is only a sketch made in a half hour or so, by the side of the road. Yet, it got me started again on this drawing path, and because drawing gives me so much pleasure ---and meaning,really--- I am grateful for it.

I have other drawings from that trip to post later. A year later, they look different to me.

Drawing from the model, session two

I'm including some quick sketches (and therefore looser sketches) in this batch from last night.  May I just say that foreshortening is hell?  

Brave puppy defeats renegade box

Seven week old Abby F. saved her family from certain death at the hands of a vicious Quaker Oats box (pictured below in file photo) early this morning. "I had just gone outside to get the paper when I heard ferocious growls and the sound of scuffling on the kitchen floor. By the time I got there, the danger was past. Abby had shaken the box into a state of unconsciousness. The police arrived moments after my 911 call and took the villain into custody. We are so very proud of our brave pup! To think what would have happened to us had she not been here---well, I just can't," said the dog's owner, shivering.

Abby F., pictured at left, rests after her heroic struggle. The Quaker Oats box remains  in critical condition at Memorial Hospital. Criminal charges are pending.

Puppy love

Wow! and I didn't even know I was pregnant! Here's our new baby , held by our human baby, C. We had the unexpected chance to get this darling golden retriever from a kennel nearby on Saturday. (We had been on their July list, so this was much sooner and so much more fun!) Her name is Abby and she was born on April 4th. If she ever stops wiggling, I'll sketch her from life. You WILL see, however, lots of sleeping puppy poses.

Poppies, Act Three: shadows of their former selves

You thought you were all poppied out, but you were wrong.  Here's one more act, the denouement. The brisk wind here has stripped most of the beauties of their scarlet streamers, though there are some ingenues waiting and hoping in the wings.

Poppies, Act Two: after the rains

It rained hard last night and now I've got a flower border punctuated by these blowsy and buxom beauties.

Here I've used a Pentel Color Brush for the drawing and two Chinese ink sticked inks for the colors.

Note to Toto: We've lost Kansas

Somewhere over the rainbow, models show up when they're supposed to. Last night mine didn't, so no figure drawings to share today. (I was so eager to draw her, too. Oh well, next week.) Anyway, here's a pair of ruby slippers my daughter C bought last night, from that enchanted country near the Spanish-Chinese border.