Laurelines

Iceland, interrupted.

I was on my way. I'd left my home airport and was at JFK, waiting to board my flight for Iceland. But wait, my passport.... it was gone. GONE. VERY gone.

I, a most meticulous and frequent traveler, obsessive about my passport, had lost it... and then someone must have picked it up and kept it.  I, along with my husband, airline, airport, and TSA employees at JFK AND my home airport looked everywhere. Gone.

SO. My husband and I drive to DC Monday for an appointment with the US Passport Agency where, I HOPE, they will give me a replacement one. Then we drive home.

Then, the very next day, we begin again our journey to Iceland. I have rebooked all hotels, flights, etc. exactly the way they were... just seven days later.

Cross your fingers all goes well this time!

This forced hiatus has allowed me to test drive some of the supplies I'd packed to take. I was very eager to try  a Strathmore sketchbook with toned gray paper, my new Stillman & Birns Delta sketchbook with heavy-duty cold pressed paper.. and to use again my old trusty favorite drawing tools from art school, Caran d'Ache watercolor crayons. I figure I'll be sketching fast and loose (even more than I usually do) and in inclement weather... so the crayons will be perfect for getting down tones, gestures, textures FAST. I'll use them with other drawing materials, too.

I made sketches from photographs and sketches from my last Iceland trip and from references I found on the internet...just to get the feel of Iceland again. Some of these remind me of my sketches of Norway, which makes complete sense.

Here are some I've done. It will be so interesting, don't you think, to see how the ones done on site will differ from these? These do have, of necessity, a slightly generic feel about them.

 

Heading for Iceland again!

I've been super busy and have not had one instant to blog, but I will, I will! I'm going back to Iceland again to stock up on inspiration for paintings. Here's what I said last time I was there, in August of 2008. See you on the other side!

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.

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Sketches of sketchers sketching at the sketchers show.

At the Urban Sketchers show, that is, at the Ackland Museum of Art store.  

I, along with Amanda Hughes, Director of External Affairs at the Ackland Museum, gave a little talk yesterday about sketching to a group of 12-15 people, with the Urban Sketchers show as background and inspiration.

I brought a dozen or so completed sketchbooks, as well as lots of my favorite art supplies, to show and talk about. So did Amanda.  Our styles are diametrically opposed, so it was a good way for beginning sketchers to see the range of possibilities in approaching subjects to sketch. Of course the wide range of work exhibited amplified that point! We talked about the phenomenon of Urban Sketching and about the work on the walls around us. We answered questions about tools and technique.

And then we sketched.

 

Here are three I did, in between talking to the participants.

In this first sketch, I used all sorts of drawing materials, since I had them with me.

 

Here I used one of my beloved Portuguese laundry pencils, plus a brush pen filled with acrylic ink, and two Faber Castel colored pencils. It's fun to mix up your media. I too often forget to do that.

Here I used a big graphite stick and smudged the lines with my finger after, you know, spitting on it.  We sketchers do what we must to get the drawing right. That's Amanda Hughes seated on the right. She did a lovely, elegant sketch of the scene through the store window. SHE refrained from spitting. I told you our styles are different ;D.

It was a fun occasion and I think and hope it was helpful for the participants. Having to get out my art supplies to talk about them was GREAT preparation for my upcoming art trip to Iceland! I've rediscovered lots of cool things I have and I will take several of these long-forgotten things with me!