Laurelines

Another birth announcement! Urban Sketchers Blog, DOB: 11/01/08!

I've been asked to participate in a brilliant new project, conceived and executed by gifted Seattle illustrator and writer Gabi Campanario. Of course, I said yes! Here's the story, excerpted from Gabi's press release:

Urban Sketchers blog captures city life around the world
Talented artist-correspondents from around the globe will share their sketchbooks starting Nov. 1 at http://www.urbansketchers.com, a new group blog that will showcase drawings from the city streets on at least four different continents.  The project is the brainchild of Seattle illustrator and journalist Gabi Campanario of SeattleSketcher.com and the Flickr group Urban Sketchers. After seeing a steady flow of drawings to the group's pool, Campanario decided to recruit his favorite artists from the blogosphere to launch www.urbansketchers.com. Participants include, to name a few, New York advertising art director Tommy Kane, Tel-Aviv illustrator Marina Grechanik and Glasgow web designer Wil Freeborn. You can learn more about the rest of the team and see sample drawings at http://www.urbansketchers.com.

Several friends of mine from farflung places will be participating, including Walt Taylor, Katherine Tyrrell, Nina Johannson, and Pedro Cabral. This is going to be so much fun! Why don't you subscribe via Bloglines or your preferred blog subscription service and follow our adventures?

"Birth is so savage...."

...so Ippy wrote to me in response to my email telling her about K's labor. Ippy is writing and illustrating a book about birth and she's also just been through a similar experience with her own daughter giving birth this year, so she wrote what she knew.
I had the luck to have had two easy deliveries and, I swear, once *they* perfect time travel, I'm going back and changing places with my daughter.
The role of the mother of the mother in labor is amorphous. K wanted me there, naturally, but she had a doula in addition to her wonderful husband to help with labor's stages. I'm such an action-oriented person and a mother lion in spades, so at first I was a little unsure as to how to help. Drawing soothed me during those times when I wasn't needed to comfort, massage, pour water, put socks on cold feet, hold hands, cheer on.
You'll see that my sketches are wobbly, a bit, and no wonder--- until the last two, when I got to gaze and draw at our new baby, in awe and delight.

We have a baby!

After a harrowing prelude, our baby J, son of my daughter K and her husband, made his appearance on the world's stage this past Thursday, October 16th at 5:40am! I have sketches, I have stories, and they will be forthcoming within the next days. Right now, I have sleep deprivation and a commitment to helping out the new little family in its first days as a trio.
Stay tuned---he IS the most beautiful newborn baby in this world or any other!

'After the rain' revisited/ I can see the aurora borealis from my house!

I altered the paintings I showed in the last post. I didn't like the leaves in the darker painting---they were prissy and finicky and the two halves of the painting didn't hang together. I neatened up the second painting a bit. As always, I'm searching to refine and define my own water-painting idiom, one not strictly representational, but certainly not completely abstracted, either. The beauty of working in a long series* such as this year's water one is that you have lots of room to experiment, to get clearer regarding what you want to say and how you want to say it. These two paintings are just steps along the way.

Last Sunday, I realized I could see the aurora borealis from my house! In my house. The reflections of flowers on my dining room walls looked to me like the Northern Lights. Iceland is still in my heart and in my eyes.

 On the baby J front: he will probably make his inaugural appearance this week, what with the full moon and his due date and all! Prayers, kind thoughts, crossed fingers all gratefully accepted!

*For an informative and illuminating post on painting in a series, please check out Katherine Tyrrell's great blog, Making a Mark.

After the rain, before the baby

We thought the baby might have arrived this past Monday, then it was Wednesday, now it may be next week---as K's health improves, the question of bringing baby J along early starts to diminish. Whew.
Waiting for the daily updates, I'm in the studio painting, trying to finish a series of 'After the Rain' paintings I started at the beginning of the year. Here are two. They look better in person.

Acrylic on wood, 11" x 14"