Laurelines

French sketches, priming the pump

I leave today for the Lot River valley in France and then to Paris. I haven't finished packing! Yikes is an understatement! Here's a very quick look back at some past, miscellaneous French sketches of mine. There will be more forthcoming from this trip! A bientôt, les amis!

They teach you

I've always said that my daughters have been my greatest teachers. Oh, I know a fair amount about child development and I have strong values so, of course, I guided them. But, really, they taught me what they needed as they grew. I learned to pay close attention to, and follow, their signs.

So it is now with my materials. My paints, my brushes, my grounds are leading me on a path I didn't consciously set out on. Oh, I have my ideas and I have imagery I've been drawn to forever, but now when I paint, what comes from my hand surprises me. I'm paying attention to the signs and I'm following them. All I knew when I decided to return to painting earlier this year, was what didn't interest me...rendering the world realistically, for example. I've dashed back and forth between abstract and representational for years, without following any one path to the end. Not this time. This time I'm betting on the process and I'm going where I have to go.

So now, wherever next? I guess we'll find out, won't we?

Here are the latest pieces, working backward chronologically. You'll see that the influence of the Pondshiners' process on what followed it. 

Detail from below:

detail from above:

I'll be leaving for France a week from tomorrow. The Lot River valley and Paris are my destinations. I'll check in here again before I go!

Three from Lisbon

I went to Lisbon primarily to spend time with my daughter, who moved to Germany last February, and who now is living in Barcelona. We had planned a rendez-vous in Lisbon a while ago, so rendez-vous there we did. I don't have as many sketches, therefore, from this trip as I normally do. Here are three and more will follow.

My daughter has caught the sketching bug. Here she is sketching in the garden of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antigua our last afternoon together.

By the way, how do you like my new banner and the blog's new look? I like them! I think the greens of the first sketch look pretty swell with the reds and blacks of the header image---complementarity works!