Laurelines

New moons and portals

I've been in a long new moon phase, hidden from sight, but very here. Just recently I've begun to see  the 15 or so (!) paintings I've been making start to gel a bit.  Of these, how many will eventually be finished, I have no idea. The ones that need to be finished will make themselves known and I will just keep at it until I know which they are.

This process is very slow but it appears to be mine for now, so I accept it. Deadlines and rushing can come later.

Here's a detail of one of these in progress. This is one of what I call 'portal paintings,' small at 12" x12", but big enough for me to squeeze through to the next incarnation. All of the pieces I'm working on are inspired by my numinous places, this one in particular is inspired by a bay in northern Wales.

 

 

I've also been learning to make linocuts and I love that medium! After a semester long ago spent learning etching and aquatint, and workshops in lithography, and silkscreen, I've finally found the  printmaking method that calls to me. I feel it lends itself very well to my Caledonian Orogeny project, as a way of working back in the studio, after making  my on-site drawings.

Here's an example of what I mean.

 

Here's another. I beg your indulgence...I LOVE learning this art form and I love tweaking for color and texture changes! I will force myself to stop at posting two here.

 

 

My garden will be on view this weekend to at least 1300 visitors, so I have had garden prep very much in my life these past months. I am sharing, therefore, two garden images, one from my journal documenting two recent plant acquisitions and one sketch I made a couple of years ago at J C Raulston Arboretum, a sketch I recently rediscovered under a pile of other work.

My trip to VERY northern Norway is coming up in May! To say I'm excited is an egregious understatement. I have lots more to tell before I go and I will!

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!

Copper runs through it

Well, here I am with a post from February, which cheekily ended way too soon! 

For months I have been elatedly immersed in thoughts of copper and copper-related minerals and copper-related colors, ever since my residency in Alaska last August. One Alaskan sunset in particular was seared forever on my mind's eye and heart... the sky all tints and hues of orange, pink, red, and the glacial waters of Lake Clark looking like pale oxidized copper,  and then the mountains, Copper Mountain, in particular (yes! That is its name!) was set on coppery fire by that sun. It was one of those holy moments; I felt lifted to a world of thrilling and pure beauty.

And then, everywhere I looked afterwards, I saw copper... in the salmon leaping from the water, in the colors of the native blue geranium leaves as they turned autumnal, in the bonfire flames, and on and on. My work started to be filled with burnt orange, cadmium oranges and reds, phthalo turquoise, cobalt green, teal, burnt sienna, ochre... the orange/blue- to- red/green world I saw when I thought of Alaska.

This is a bonfire built the night of that coppery sunset.The magnificent fire was a brilliant celebration of that place, that day, that glory. Here we see my orange/turquoise palette in an early manifestation.

Below are two of many, many studies I'm working through to try to figure out my own idiom for expressing what I saw and felt in the coppery Alaska. In addition to those zillion studies of all sizes and impulses, I have 12 paintings in progress, filling up my studio walls and floor. Who knows which of these will end up resolved? I don't mind, though. This is the slow way I work. I am an eternal pioneer in the studio, scrabbling for ways to get where i want to go.

Here is copper in the vegetal world, spangles of it appearing overnight on the leaves of wild native geranium:

Later, on my trip to Austria, I was thrilled to learn that the Natural History Museum in Vienna has a vast mineralogical collection. I headed straight for the specimens that were copper-related. Oh, those colors, my new colors! I stood my ground there on the cold tile floor, sketching carefully for hours, as rivers of school children flowed everywhere around me. This was the micro view of my copper world and with my love of geology, I reveled in it.  Here are two spreads from my Vienna sketchbook:

Since my return, I've made several sketches, unrelated to my Alaska project, without realizing as I drew that I was still using my coppery palette!

A bystander at the Women's March in January asked me why I'd chosen the colors I used for my sketches. It was then that I realized what I'd done!

I want to finish at least SOME of the Copper Mountain series before I leave for Wales again in May. I'm slow, but I'm optimistic!

A pause for pencil

In a complicated world, experienced by a complicated mind (mine, to wit), it is well from time to time to simplify. What could be simpler than pencil on paper? And it's so much fun, the pencil. Here are colored pencils in action at the Audubon Gallery at the North Carolina Museum of Art. I usually find taxidermy distressing and depressing, but the birds at NCMA are lovely. Their spirit remains.

I commend to you, in addition to the Audubon Gallery at NCMA, the Iris restaurant where, along with bright and tasty food and polite fellow diners, you get to rub shoulders with one of Patrick Dougherty's sublime site-specific branch and twig wall sculptures. Pencil with a bit of added wash happened here.

Why do I like blue pencil so much? I have no idea, but there we are. At a workshop I went to last weekend, I blue penciled my fellow attendees. And on blue-lined paper, too. I sense a theme evolving here.

and

On the other hand, we have non-blue pencils and here is one very dandy example ... I used a multi-colored, swirled-together leaded pencil for a quick drawing I made of my daughter Kate on her birthday. Those multi-colored pencils are delightful... they're rainbows in pencil form.

And here's a nude guy from a figure drawing session I went to,  drawn on 18" x 24" paper. Brown pencil here, I don't remember which kind.

People and countries behave badly often, but pencils... they're low-key, they're steady, they're workhorses. On the cusp of July as we are, with its heat and its relative quiet (Northern Hemispherically speaking) and in the midst of global troubles, it's worthwhile to consider pausing with a pencil or two. That's what I'm doing.

News from August, my (almost) favorite month

For a person who adores winter and cold weather and the Far North, I'm surprisingly also a lover of August. August is slow, golden, and ripe. Every year as the last days of July approach, I fall head over heels again. That light--- honey-colored and with a tinge of blue, too, in the afternoons--- bewitching.

This particular August is important for me, both in terms of what I've completed and what's to come, in my art life.

Nine illustrations for Walter Magazine in their August issue! Here are a couple of them:

 

The work for my art show with my dear friend Ippy Patterson, opening August 30th at the Ackland Museum Store! Can't show it now, but will after opening day. But, whew, to be finished with the work feels so good!

 

And in other news, Italy... the Adriatic Coast, to be precise ! I've been selected to attend a conference in Rimini, Italy in October on the theme of travel and blogging. Expenses paid, the opportunity to meet wonderful travel bloggers from all over the world, to meet with and brainstorm with people in the travel trade in Italy, to see what can happen when people who are passionate about travel and telling their travel stories get together! This is the second such conference and it seems to me to be a particularly Italian and lovely concept! More about this later!

 

Forgive me for my July absence, but you can see I've been busy in the studio! 

Happy golden August to you!

 

In print, recent past and near future!

An update on the recent illustration front. I did 8 sketches for an article on Saxapahaw, NC for Walter Magazine for their May issue. Saxapahaw is a happening little town, about an hour's drive from Raleigh. Here you will find great natural beauty, music, art and craft, delish food, and lovely people.

Here are some images from that article. Click on link above for full text. All 8 illustrations appear in the print version, but not online.

 

 

My oyster illustration appeared in the Florida Weekly/Charlotte edition newspaper on April 24, 2014, on behalf of The Nature Conservancy, as part of their Coastal Awareness campaign. 

 

And today, I start a new assignment for the August issue of Walter, having this week finished one for the upcoming issue of Charleston Style & Design, a new client. I'll share these after they are published.  

Now to paint!

February again, on several fronts

There's the fall show front, here represented by a color, texture, and composition study of hyacinths made in my ever-present portable studio, also known as my Stillman & Birns Alpha Series 8 1/2 x 11 sketchbook. This is the fun part! Who knows what relationship the final pieces will have to these studies. We will all find out in time. Oh, and that's a sweet gum ball at the bottom of the page. More fun with textures!

There's the illustration front. This is a portrait of Zach Clayton, a columnist for Walter Magazine, making his debut in the current issue (February 2014.)  He was easy to do. He has lots of facial architecture, unlike some of my other subjects. Do you sense a smidge of frustration in that last phrase? Clever you.

 

 

 

The last two are images from my personal drawing/painting front, a project I started earlier this month. It's a long story, that one, and I'll tell it soon.

 

 

 

 

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!

 

September smorgasbord, part 2: illustrations

Part 2 of my re-entry!

For the aforementioned September issue of Walter Magazine, I was interviewed about the cover image
I produced for their first anniversary issue.

It's a fun interview, thanks to the witty writing of Liza Roberts, general editor:

And here is one of two pencil portraits I was asked to make of two new Walter contributors. This is Dean McCord, Raleigh food writer and lawyer. I love his open and friendly face.

And here's an eggplant. But you figured that out on your own ;D. This accompanied a cooking feature slated to be a regular in the magazine.

I love little marginal illustrations à la Gourmet and the New Yorker magazines. Here's one in that kind of small scale of, well, the eponymous Sir Walter Raleigh. He's becoming a habit here in my studio! I believe this will be used as a frequent design element in Walter, so that's fun for me!

My Iceland-inspired painting show opens this coming Sunday, September 29th. I will post photos of it and stories, too. And then we will have covered all that has happened while I've been away from Laurelines this summer.

So, after my final update, it's on to new beginnings! A November trip to Portland, a December trip to northern Norway, and a new painting series or two are waiting in the wings! Vive 2013! 

September Laurelines re-entry; a smorgasbord

Are you, by any chance, still there???

 I've never EVER had such a long hiatus from Laurelines, but I have had my reasons!  Life and work have been particularly meaningful, as you will see. Still, I hope never to have such a long lapse again. 

So that's the re-entry part. The smorgasbord part is that I'll only serve tidbits today, with separate posts on these topics to follow in the next days.

First and most important, is the fact of my daughter's giving birth a week ago to a beautiful baby boy named Miles. Longtime readers of this blog (if there are still some left) will know why this is a particularly joyful birth for our family. All births are important and to be cherished, it is true. But some births are anticipated with an intense prayerfulness and met with great gratitude and relief...and this was such a one.

Second on the menu of recent events is the appearance of several of my illustrations in the current issue of Walter Magazine, its first anniversary one! In fact, my watercolor portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh appears on the cover! There's also a full-page interview of yours truly and four other interior Laura Frankstone illustrations within the pages of the September issue! So, more to come on that subject!

 

And, finally, my painting show is to open a week from today. The work is based on my responses to Iceland. The pieces fall along the abstraction continuum (some more, some less), with lots of fire and ice motifs and with some indication, I hope, of the intense movement and energy of that majestic land.

Today is the first day of fall, my favorite season. It's a good day to celebrate completion, bounty, and fruition. Then we can clear the decks for what is to come... whatever it is, it will be fresh and exciting!

 

Are you still there, then? Happy turning of the seasons!