Laurelines

Happy 2013! It was!

 

Not to whine, for such is life... but simply to observe: 2013 was the first good year around here since 2007. Oh, there've been many good days, minutes, hours, some weeks, even, since 2007... but whole years? Not those. Neutral years, years in which nothing much bad happened? Not those, either.

2013 could have turned out differently. The stakes were high. And the big results weren't in until September. 

But what the first nine months were leading up to culminated in very happy news!

My daughter's adorable baby son Miles, born on September 13, and shown here on Christmas Day, at almost 3 1/2 months: 

 I am beyond besotted! Look at that tender, adorable face!

The painting show I started working on in early January, opened in late September to a very warm reception.  There were moments in March when I thought I wasn't going to make it. But I worked through the problems and ended up finding, as I had struggled to find, my own idiom. I made quirky paintings and they pleased me. The fact that others liked them was delicious.

I made illustrations, you will perhaps remember, for a wonderful new magazine about Raleigh, NC, called, appropriately enough Walter!

I got to do all sorts of things---maps, portraits, foodie things, even the cover of the first anniversary issue! And I had a double spread of garden imagery in June !

 

 

 

  

 

 My work appeared on other pages, too. In the June issue of Watercolor Artist Magazine and in Playing with Sketches (the fourth book my work is included in!) by Whitney Sherman, director of the graduate program in illustration at the Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art. I'm so proud to be represented in both publications.

I made trips to Austin and to Portland, OR, to see my darling peripatetic daughter Cecelia. In Portland, I had a delightful sketching meetup with some Portland Urban Sketchers.

As you may know, I ended up my year with an exciting trip to northern Norway. More sketches from that trip to appear in a few days. My scanner is still hiccupping and the holidays are still intervening! 

I will also talk about my art goals for 2014. I've done this before ;D. See you in just a few days!

And happy New Year to all of you, wherever you are!

 

Norway sketches 2013, part one

Well, our third midwinter trip to Norway exceeded even MY expectations--it was cold, it was snowy, it was stormy (I loved it!), we saw the northern lights, we loved our cabin in the little fishing village above the Arctic Circle, we ate fish three times a day, we ... and on it went.

Because I had a week to make Christmas happen after our return from Norway, I'm late sharing these and I'm going to do it lightning quick.

View from our moving boat.  It was so dark that morning and I was working so fast, I could hardly see ( or take the time to look at)  my art supplies! I just reached down, grabbed a crayon and drew.

My husband and I were stunned when we rounded a corner in Bergen and saw this spectacular wooden sculpture of a fish, the King Cod. We didn't remember it from our last trip. We were sure it was part of a ship's prow from time long past. No, it is a recent sculpture by an Italian artist!

Another glimpse of the constantly moving scenes before us as we sailed up to the Arctic Circle and beyond:

Here was a jolly fellow we kept seeing on board ship. He was always accompanied by a glass of beer. He had quite a belly laugh, but then he had quite the belly to work with!

As I mentioned earlier, the scenery was in constant motion during the first part of our trip. This happens on a ship ;D. I made a page of thumbnails to record, just barely, some shapes and textures I saw.

I have more to share, of course. I want also to do my annual end of year post. It's been quite a year! See you after Christmas! God yul, y'all!