Laurelines

Brush pen memories

Help! I'm working on illustrations to go along with the essay on my garden that I wrote for Charleston Style & Design's upcoming fall issue. Deadline: NOW or a time very much like it.

I have made dozens and zillions of drafts for these, mainly because I can't settle on the technique I want to use. My collage approach doesn't fit with this subject and the format of these images. My studio floor, the repository for rejected drafts, is a mess, 

What to do??!! Last night, I thought, "brush pen, why not?" I love working with my Pentel pocket brush pen. It feels almost like an extension of my drawing hand. I've used it for lots of sketch subjects and some illustrations over the years. I looked back at my Flickr account to remind myself of the ways I had done this and was waylaid by memories.

May I share some of these rediscovered images and memories with you?

Below: In Pasadena,a cactus garden, part of the larger Huntington Gardens, that I visited with my friend and brilliant artist Virginia Hein on a sketching jaunt fall before last. This brings back such wonderful memories of our time together.

I had hesitated to try brush pen with my current assignment because I wasn't sure I could get the nuances I want with it. But this sketch managed nuance!

Next a scene from Oakland Bay from 2015. I was visiting my daughter Cecelia. Looking at this, I am instantly back in that day, in that place. And I miss my daughter so much. Some nuance here, too!

In another vein, a portrait sketch of Sir Walter Raleigh for the cover of Walter Magazine in 2013. I submitted several images. They chose another one for the cover, but I have always loved this Sir Walter's sassy and flourishy attitude.

Jumping again to a quite different topic, here's a pretty atmospheric, nuancy sketch of a scene in Iceland. Drawing in the twilight, especially the Northern twilight.. aahhh. Heaven. 

The sketch below is another one-way express ticket to the past. David and I were traveling in the Dordogne with our friends Moreton and Drake. Moreton drew me as I drew this scene on the river near Bouziès. I spy nuance! Fabulous memories here, too!:

Finally, speaking of being overtaken by memories, I saw this pen and ink and crayon drawing of our Miles three or so years ago and, though it's not a brush pen drawing, it IS a drawing of a beloved baby, so that counts for a lot, doesn't it? Memories.

Back to work now, keeping my fingers crossed that my brush pen and I will get this done!

San Francisco days, wet and dry, March 2016

Well, it looks like I'll be heading back to the Bay Area end of April because my daughter Cecelia is having her first art show there and I can't miss the opening! I'm SO proud of her!

I hope and trust the weather will be better than it was on this recent trip. It rained, rained, rained... rain with the weight of chicken soup... every day except my last.

So, here are some indoor sketches first from the rainy days, and then some from my happy, busy last day on the coast with my dear friend Kathleen, whom I've loved since we were freshmen in college.

I stayed in a charming, slightly quirky, but very commodious bed and breakfast place in north Berkeley. The decor was heavily Asian and very tranquil. Here's a peek:

 

Cecelia and I had lunch our last day at a Spanish restaurant on Shattuck Street. Inside: bright and dry. Outside: rain.

We went to Chinatown to an Asian art supply store so I could buy some BIG calligraphy brushes. Afterwards, we sketched on the staircase. Here is Cecelia:

Finally, three sketches from the day trip Kathleen and I took to the coast near Pescadero. I was in absolute heaven, witnessing this craggy magnificence and making attempts at capturing something of it. I can't wait to go back!

April is going to be a busy month, what with another trip to California, leading a sketching session at Duke's Nasher Museum of Art, finalizing plans for a very special trip to Alaska that I just got word I'd be making this year, and diving into my personal project for the year! More about all of this soon! A bientôt!

Passing through Pasadena and LA with pencils, pens, color

Since I was in the LA area primarily to visit an old friend who is not a sketcher, I made fewer travel sketches than I normally would have.  We went to my favorite kinds of places to visit when I travel, though : museums and garden. The first two sketches here are, in fact, some I made with fellow artist and Urban Sketcher and longtime cyber buddy Virginia Hein! No worries there about taking up HER time while I sketched!

 The cactus and succulent garden at Huntington Gardens was fabulous. I have seen other such gardens, but this surpasses all of them.

Red hot pokers (kniphofia of some description) interwoven with succulents at Huntington Gardens. Eye-stopping.

 

 At the Norton Simon Museum, Rodin's Balzac, with his leonine head and sphinx-like hauteur, reigns over the front courtyard.

Indian sculpture, Digambara Yaksha Sarvahna,  circa 900.

 

Next up (and soon!) Munich, Salzburg, and the Bavarian Alps!! Watch this space!