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Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.
Xoxo,
Laureline
Kitchen vignette
Jane in a contemplative mood
11" x 15" 8b graphite on paper
Finally, Ippy and I got a chance to draw together again. (Scroll down to see a drawing of her.) We drew our wonderful friend Jane, whom you've seen before.
(You have to scroll down a bit here, too, before Jane pops up!)
This time next week, I'll be winging my way to Paris via NYC. And I'll be gone for three weeks, doing this, that, and the other in France. I'm sure I'll never have another traveling year like this one. I certainly never have had before.
Meantime, August has happened here at home. August, the month of gladioli and other exuberant flowers:
Though these gladioli didn't come from my garden, today's post at Making a Mark, spurred me to show you photos of my garden as it looks today, miraculously revived after a couple of brief showers last week and many recent hours of weeding and grooming by me and my buddy Lisa.
Last Friday, I, an American, sat with two English friends in a pub at Boxford, in Suffolk, listening to a young Australian woman singing American jazz songs---oh, the power of the English language. It was a great opportunity to sketch, even if the light was a bit dim. Several people around me had their eyes closed, but I felt this was a sign of their concentration on the music and not of incipient catatonia. Victoria Newton, the singer, was lively and brash and fun.
There was so much to see on beautiful Mersea Island---and so little time. Here's a vignette from the boat yard at a sunny moment in that day of dramatic, changeable weather.
It was 55F at dawn yesterday and 102F at twilight. In between, the Atlantic Ocean occurred. My week in England was jam-packed with seeing old and dear friends, meeting new, making some sketches, exploring coastal Suffolk (my new favorite spot on the planet. Well, except for Paris. And Stockholm. But, still,) painting with adorable and talented 5 year old Iona, and talking with equally gifted and winsome Olivia and Hugo, 13 and 10 respectively, going to a fabulous jazz performance in a 400 year old building, eating lots of local seafood, including some oysters with whom my guts had a head-on collision, necessitating my being in bed most of the last two days of my holiday. But, never mind--it was a wonderful, wonderful time and I was pampered shamefully by my darling hostess and her handsome, gallant beau.
My computer wimped out on me so I wasn't able to post there (did you notice?), but here are a few sketches from the week. I had hoped to do more outdoor sketches, but rainy days and oysters intervened. I do have a few more sketches and will post those soon.
I leave for Suffolk and Essex, via London, in a few hours!
Here's where I'll be:
Woodbridge, England
Mersea, England
Here's my art gear, most of it, for the trip:
You can see how much I've pared down since my trip to Paris last October.
Of course, I'm not going to be gone for a month this time, but I've also eliminated the Kremer paint tin as well as most of the Daniel Smith mineral-based paints.
Kremer paints are SO opaque. They just don't behave the way I want them to in sketches. I think they'd work well for studio work, though, when you're not after the quick, the loose, the light-filled so much.
I've been very disappointed, over the long haul, in the Daniel Smith mineral-based paints. Looking back at my Paris sketchbook (which you see in today's photo), I note a LOT of color fading. I'm not happy. Minnesota Pipestone, zoisite, and blue ochre are the most ephemeral of those I used. Kyanite's fine.
Ah well, live and learn.
I've also eliminated DS green gold. It's way too loud for me.
I've added Daniel Smith indigo, eliminated Daniel Smith azurite. I'm experimenting with the former. The latter isn't necessary, so off with its head!
I'm still a Daniel Smith fan. As far as their mineral-based paints go, I'm less enthusiastic.
People write to me fairly frequently to ask about my palette. I felt it was time, therefore, for a little palette update.
And now, it is time to finish packing.
Signed,
She Who Waits 'til the Last Minute
It was almost 80F before dawn this morning. It's 103F now. Hot.
I'm packing for my trip to England, leaving this Sunday.
I'm pretty messy at the best of times, but when I'm packing and it's this hot, too, I can't seem to summon the minutest tidying impulse. This is a narrow view of my bathroom sink. I spared you a panoramic view.
I was walking the dog the other day at an ungodly predawn hour, as I do most days. And, as on most such days, I was in a pleasant and tranquil, semi-stupefied state of mind. All at once, I heard a loud, protracted screechy growl, like the call of a demented and homicidal rusty screen door. A dark shape flung itself at my head, howling and screeching demonically. It swooped, it slashed, it beat its ghastly wings. It rose then swooped again, making for my head for all it was worth. I yelled 'Stop, you dumb bird!' Wasn't that effective?
Poor dog had no idea what the heck was going on, especially when I took her leash (still attached to her neck) and tried to throw it at the bird. Wasn't THAT effective?
The bird followed me for miles and miles. Or maybe a quarter of a block. At last, I moved out of range of this crazed, nesting mockingbird, who thought I had evil designs on her fledglings.
I now pick up a stick and carry it around with me while I walk the dog. I look like a paranoid lunatic, but I'll be ready for the next attack.
I spent a lot of time in the garden this spring, preparing for the big wedding. I noticed robins were being uncharacteristically frisky. Nuptials were in the air for birds and daughter alike. Robins make me think of middle-aged office workers, intent and serious, stolid, a bit slow moving. Very conscientious, and rather portly. 
.
Carolina wrens are the cutest of birds. They're little egg-shaped, feathery things, with perky little uptilted derrieres. They perch everywhere and they nest everywhere, too. In outdoor grills, atop empty milk bottles, in the running shoes you left at the back door, seconds after you left them. They are dim little creatures, but cute, very cute. Bird brains. 
So there you have it. Good birds, bad birds. If I think of anything else to say about birds, I'll be sure to let you know.
Whew. Just got back last night from another trip and am already thinking about what to pack for my next travels. I leave for England, (Suffolk, to be exact), in about ten days. I'll have a few days after I return to get ready to go to France. While in England, I'll be working on getting the Paris sketches published, as well as seeing a dear friend and her adorable beau. In France, I'll be taking a watercolor workshop, visiting friends in Paris, and joining my husband and our friends for a week in the Dordogne.
In the midst of all of this coming and going, I've just found out that some of my sketches are going to be included in a book on artists' journals that is coming out in 2008! More about that later. The sketch that accompanies this post is one from last October in Paris that I never posted, a morning view from my bedroom window. I figured it's not cheating TOO much to post it, since it relates to all that is going on now and is about to go on soon!
Daughter K is home between business trips to Cambodia and Tanzania. She and her new husband will be staying with us for a month while renovations are completed on their new house. Daughter C will be moving to her first post-college apartment this weekend. Suitcases, suitcases, everywhere.
I want to thank sweet Tara of Paris Parfait for giving me a Blogger Reflection award. I hope she will forgive me for not completing, due to lack of time, all the steps I'm supposed to in return. I'm so grateful for her friendship and can't wait to see her in Paris next month!
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