Laurelines

Overwrought on Iceland

I'm a goner for Iceland, I freely admit it. Of course, I need to go back in winter to get another side of the Iceland story, but I'm a real ice and snow fan, so I'm undaunted on that score. You would laugh if you knew how long it has taken me to choose these photos from the zillions I took. I want you to see what I saw, but I don't want to be like your clueless and boring auntie, afflicting you with her Dreaded Trip Pictures. Here we go.

If there is any way you can make a trip to Iceland, I urge you to do it. It is a splendid country--- unique, majestic, and, as you can see from my reactions to it, spellbinding. Although I have trip sketches to share, the impact on my work of what I saw and felt in Iceland will manifest itself over time. There was, as you can tell, a lot to take in.

Wide-eyed in Iceland

I've traveled a fair amount, but I have never felt such an emotional response to a place as I did in Iceland. Back last night, I'm still wide-eyed and mouth-agape and filled to the brim with images of that gorgeous country.
Iceland is the youngest land mass on the planet, a mere toddler at 20 million years old. Created by volcanic eruptions issuing from  the ocean's depths, it remains a place where earth, air, fire, and water play out their eternal drama before your very eyes.

My Iceland story will continue here, with more photos and sketches, in the next days. Come back, won't you?

Here today, there tomorrow.

Today,  my garden:

Tomorrow, Iceland:

Thanks to Trey Ratcliffe for the use of this exquisite photo.

I had not shown pictures of my garden in a while, so thought I'd give a little update on that front before I leave tomorrow for other, more exotic pastures for a few days. Here, we have not (yet) suffered from the extreme drought we experienced the last year and a half, though we are still in need of rain.  In Iceland, I'm going to make lots of sketches for later paintings and I'm going to take lots of photos with my new digital SLR, the Canon Rebel XSi. I will be sharing some of these from Iceland, if all goes well technically.  See you soon!

Sleepy Sunday, August

I love August. I love how the light turns golden and plump, like the word August itself. I love the hot colors of the flowers in the garden and of the vegetables I buy at the farmers' market, too. August is quiet. Butterflies in the day and fireflies at night float in the quiet air.
On August Sundays, we eat a special breakfast made by my husband---fresh eggs, preserves, and fruit from the farmers. The dog naps.  The cat naps.

I'm working on paintings behind the scenes, acrylic paintings on my water theme. I leave for Iceland in a few days. I'll see you before I go. Sweet August dreams to you.

My misbehaving life

May I usher out this week with unseemly glee? Everything in my life has been at sixes and sevens lately and I don't know why. Something to do with stars and planets, no doubt, dear Brutus.
I managed some testing of materials, though, playing with transparent paints and staining paints  and trying various mediums and types of papers, so there's been progress, of a sort, behind the scenes.  Here are three things I have to share, the first features the aforementioned transparent and staining paints, the second was done with my new Sai watercolor brush pens (don't they make nice washes? I did use some Schmincke cobalt paint here, too) and the third is my husband in plain old black and white. When the going gets icky, he's there, as calm and solid as can be. Lucky me.:

Wet on wet and wild

Trained in oil painting, I've been skittish about wet on wet watercolor technique. If you mess up with this method, there's no correcting it---painting with oils and acrylics you can correct 'til the cows come home. I don't like being skittish, of course, so I found a workshop whose focus was the very technique I needed help with. Sue Archer, a very fine painter, led the workshop and did a brilliant job of teaching.  Although her painting style is very different from mine,  the information she shared can be used in limitless ways.
It'll be fun experimenting with this technique--- it will suit my watery theme very well.  We'll see what develops!
In the meantime, here are some sketches from the week, beginning with one from a restaurant we went to that serves rattlesnake and rabbit sausage, among other things (I chose tamer fare), plus a little painting I did to fulfill a class assignment---it's not my usual style, of course, but it was useful to work within the strictures Sue set up on that day. She does a lot of layering with transparent paints to get deep, rich colors and that is the method I used for the plums and the background here.

I used a rougher paper than I normally do, Lanaquarelle 300lb Rough. I'm testing papers, paints, and techniques in preparation for my trip to Iceland in a couple of weeks!