Laurelines

August miscellany

LOTS of good things going on! Here, in no particular order, are they:

• I'm almost at the end of my blog update. Still have my new banner to be installed. But now you can easily subscribe to Laurelines by email, or using various readers.... see righthand side of home page. I've been so remiss about this and have gotten so many requests to update my subscription functions! Whew, done. Still have some streamlining and fine-tuning to do in the next few days.
• I'm going to Lisbon next week to visit my daughter Cecelia. My Lisbon timing is, sadly, way off... would have loved to have been there for the Urban Sketchers Symposium last month, but it was not to be. Lisbon sketches should be forthcoming!
• Had great fun coming up with images commissioned by The Morning News for an article that appeared Thursday. It really is a super online arts and ideas magazine...check it out!  Here are some, with the one they used appearing last.

It was great fun turning my spiky, calligraphics into spooky shapes. Come back soon to see my blog's completed new look!

August love

I am besotted with August. I love August light, August stillness, August ripeness. Really, no other word than 'love' to describe my feeling will do.

It's been a quiet month on the outside for me, but not on the inside. I'm working a lot and playing a lot, too.

I'm reading Michael Pollan's wonderful book A Place of My Own and there I found this quote: 

' "Chi" is the Chinese word for the earth spirit, or cosmic breath, which flows in invisible currents over the face of the earth... . This earth spirit animates all living things.'

Doesn't it just!

In these pieces, I'm leaping back and forth between the particular and the abstract, between what I know and what I feel, between line and shape, all the while reveling in texture and color. No expectations, no worries. Following the chi.

Oh, and I'm getting a blog tune-up this week, a fresh look, and updated functions! Come back and check on us, me and Laurelines!

August variations

I'm continuing the flower thing, the garden thing, with the increasing awareness that the flower days are diminishing in number. Must draw them, must paint them... NOW!

Happy August!