Laurelines

A grateful heart is the seat of happiness

Those were the closing words of my daughter's *commencement ceremony on Saturday. I believe them.
*C will officially graduate in August, after making up in summer school some credit deficits resulting from a semester in Sweden, but she participated in her class's ceremony, as did others in her situation. It was lovely and moving and the weather was glorious. Let us hope for the same on June 2, K's wedding day!
I managed to sketch a bit, more than I'm sharing here, because I had to stop midway through on many of them. When you are the mother of the grad or of the bride, you are more participant than sketcher. Still, here are two:

As the wedding date approaches, I can see life beyond it. I'm making arrangements for a trip to France in September which will include a watercolor workshop, some time in the Dordogne and in Paris, too. I'll tell more once the wedding is over. I'm also working on getting Laurelines in Paris into book form of some kind. I had thought of going the Lulu.com route, but, like my daughter C, I don't seem to be able to do things the easy way. Our version of traversing the distance between two points is NOT linear. Have you noticed?

I hope to...

have some sketches from this weekend in Washington, DC and my daughter C's graduation from Georgetown University to show you in a couple of days. It's certain that the only way I'm going to get any artwork done just now is to be bodily separated from my garden. Nothing like the pressure of a huge life event to focus one on the task at hand. So I'm removing spent blossoms from EVERY flowering thing out there, every day. I'm handwatering every plant with a kelp solution or bloom booster. I'm planting, planting, still, and weeding, weeding, weeding. Staking and pruning, I go through my days. Like most things worth doing, success is all in the details. I'm painting and drawing in my mind every day, though, and it helps me to remember that other artists have had their own little gardening foibles. What was that French guy's name.... starts with an M? Here's what I've been working on. I have no photos yet of the front and side gardens. Will show a bit of each right before June 2, the wedding day. Thanks so much for your continued interest, in spite of a temporary drawing drought! Everything feeds the art life, don't you find?

Catching a breath

Now whose idea WAS it to stage one of the most important ceremonies of my daughter's life HERE, IN OUR HOUSE, IN OUR GARDEN???And it's not going to be a small wedding, either. It started out small, but don't they all. I'm such a perfectionist, of course---every one of the 360 degrees of the garden surrounding the house is being groomed, planted, cajoled, bribed and, when needed, threatened.
Here are the only two sketches I've managed to do in the last while. One is of my constant companions. The other is of my daughter last Wednesday night, having her gown fitted. One more fitting to go. I purposely chose an angle which would not tell too much about the style of the gown---don't want to spoil the surprise. The front of the gown is where most of the drama lies.

On a much sadder subject---the precious son of one of my closest friends was in an horrific auto accident a week ago. He is in a coma, but the doctors and his parents and sister and all of us who are their friends are very hopeful that he will pull through. Our whole community is wrapping their collective arms around the family and making sure they have all the support we can muster.

Jeffery reads his poems and I draw

Yesterday, my friend Jeffery Beam, an accomplished and much-published poet, and I went to a local high school class that had been studying his work. Jeffery talked and read and sang. He's a wonderful performer. Miss Kostrewa's class, an impressive group, listened closely and asked good questions. I drew. If I could figure out a justification (other than my own enjoyment) to go and sketch a high school literature class once a week for a year, I'd do it. How great would that be? I love high school age people.

My garden has been sucking my life's blood lately. Here's a photo. Of my garden, not of it sucking my blood. My garden's wider than it seems in this photo. Note the diamond shapes, the stonework in the middle ground. Today those shapes were filled with and surrounded by fieldstone. And then the whole thing had to be dug up and redone. The surface was tilting like a deck of a sea-tossed ship. My stonemason liked me better before this happened. This, too, is life.

Paying it forward x 4

I have a little crowd of sketches from this week, all squeaking and squealing for exposure, but no time to post them 'til tomorrow, so I want instead to tell you about some artists and blogs I'm crazy about.
Lots of nice people have been supportive of my work and said so on their blogs since I began Laurelines a couple of years ago. Most recently, and most warmly, is Kate Johnson. When you have Kate in your corner, you're a blessed person, indeed. Her own artwork is sublime and I hope you will check out her blog and her many books on art technique (buy them!), if you aren't familiar with them already. Charlie Parker did a feature on me and my Paris sketchbook last fall and I missed the chance to note that and thank him in a timely fashion, so I do that now and commend to you his informative and thoughtful blog, Lines and Colors.
I've recently discovered a fantastic painter called Jared Shear who is takings shape as the Monet of the Pacific Northwest, if his Cougar Peak series of paintings is any indication. I am completely blown away by his work. I won't say more---you'll have to see for yourself.
Another wonderful artist of that area is Gabi Campanario. His sketches and illustrations are simply delightful, full of personality and verve. Check him out!
I'll be back with my own efforts tomorrow. I've had a fun morning playing hooky from my crazy life with a poet friend and a high school English class and my sketching gear.
See you then!