Laurelines

My *last still lifes

We had 18 people for dinner in our new garden last night, so am rushing to catch up here.

I probably should fiddle with the bottle shapes more, because they're a bit off, but ... no. Out of time.

Please scroll down on the shells and the flower sketches.

I've really enjoyed this *month of still lifes. Choosing and arranging objects on my drawing table has been like playing with toys. What delicious fun to use so much color. The shell sketch above may be my favorite of the 31 drawings for July--those are such great shapes and lines and colors to work with! Did you have a favorite from this month? (They're all in the Still Life gallery at left.)

August will be Animals and Farm Sketches but don't expect such finished drawings as we've had in July. I'm working on a couple of other things and just won't have the time. Some days there'll be just gesture drawings of live animals, some days sketches of animals represented in art or decorative objects, some days foody animals like shrimp, some days...who knows what? And the drawings will often come in clusters, I think. Onward!

Qui suis-je?

And moreover, où vais-je? Who am I, I ask. And will someone please tell me where I'm going. I'm all over the place with my art mediums. I start off this month all crayony and bright and I end up all watercolory and washy.  I didn't mean to! Zese zings, zay  hahppen. ( Hope you don't mind me practicing my French. October* is just around the corner ;D.)

So here's this morning. A few things arranged in a most unconnected way. I was sleepy when I arranged them on my table. C'est dommage, mais bon.

To scroll down, svp.

Pigma micron pen and watercolor, natch.

*I'll be in Paris for all of October.  Oui, c'est vrai.

Slices of life

I'm trying to work in a more vertical format to adapt to a new project I'm involved with, so here are two slices of my life today: the last blue hydrangea mophead of the season and some gingery, tomatoey slivers on a cutting board.

The more vertical, though, the more scrolling down required. I'm sure there's a way around this. Must consult Typepad Help. At some point. Not now.

Boxful of country cousins

Do your vegetables have personalities?  Of course they do! Look closely, you'll see their little ways.  I, personally, am hyperattuned to the creatures of the vegetable world. I can spot a tomatillo with the personality of a Tennesse Williams heroine a mile away. I also know a cartonful of timid provincial tomatillos when I see one.

I saw one. This is it.

Scroll down, if you please.

Candelabra, windows

A minor change of pace here.

Pen and ink and wash and gouache.

I've been frustrated that the last several sketches look less crisp here than they do in real life.  C'est, I guess, la vie.

Another longish sketch requiring scrolling down.

Cobalt turquoise is the new black

I use it all the time in my paintings, both in acrylics and in my watercolor sketches.

Please scroll down to see the whole birdy thing.

Onions on blue plate

After our collective sugar high from snarfing danishes bedecked with pear, peach and kiwi, it's time for a little straight talk from the onion family.

I see this as the soulmate of the garlic and shallots in a French bowl  sketch of earlier this month (see Still Life Sketches in gallery at left.) Here the plate is English. Kind of a latter day Entente Cordiale.

Danish still life

I blame this on Paris Breakfasts, this resuscitated interest in painting desserts. Oh yes, I did petits fours in February and why not, it was Food Month. But seeing all that chocolate recently on Carol's blog made me start seeing the world through sugar-coated eyes. That and the fact that I'm about to begin a new foodie project that I'm excited about (more about that later.)

So, I give you cream danish, with kiwi, pear, and peach, on a doily.  (Please scroll down, for some reason.) Don't tell me one danish doesn't make a still life. You're thinking of one swallow and a summer.  

A woman I saw at the V&A...

in London one quiet June afternoon was sitting on a stool with her painting apparatus, making a large watercolor painting of some china displayed in a glass case. She looked so tranquil, profoundly absorbed, meditative, dreamy.

That happened to me this morning.  If I have a point here, that's it. That's all I'm saying.

Hibiscus in Swedish vase

Flower from my garden. I love the narrow elliptical shape of this vase, given to me by a dear friend.