Laurelines

Only Connect: My Trip to North Wales

Connections are surfacing everywhere in my life this phase. Without going into a long explanation right now on that topic, (but I will soon!), let me share some images from my two weeks on the Lleyn Peninsula and on Anglesey, two very different, but equally magnificent places. 

Walking along the sandy beach on Abersoch Bay, I saw several luminous blue mounds and wondered what they were. They were Velella jellyfish, washed up on shore, a phenomenon that has occurred on the various coastal regions of Wales often recently. Here I started with the Winsor & Newton tube gouache I took along and finished with crayon since the paint took so long to dry.

 Tea time at the beautiful house and gardens Plas yn Rhiw on the Lleyn Peninsula was a great treat. My husband and I were able to sit on the terrace and have our tea, a rare occasion on this often blustery, rainy, chilly trip. Here I used watercolor crayon and Pentel brush pen on site, adding colored pencil green later at home.

Traveling light as I do, I had pared down my paint and crayon palettes to just a few colors, one of which was not green, so I used my blues and yellows to make this sketch of the Italianate garden on the grounds of the house we stayed in at Abersoch. I ended up being glad I had no green; I like the retro Technicolor effect I got from those limited colors.

On Anglesey, at the café of the art gallery Oriel ynys Môn, I had for lunch, what else, Welsh Rarebit. It was warm and comforting on another one of those chilly, blustery days. Again, here I used Pentel pocket brush pen, watercolor crayon, and a blue colored pencil.  And you can't tell this from the sketch, but that was wonderful Welsh sparkling water in the small glass.

On the many, many walks I took on Anglesey, taking advantage of the lulls in rain and high wind, I often started by walking down a magical holloway, or sunken lane, behind our house, leading to the Anglesey coast path. Here is one of the parade of venerable trees that line that old way:

I don't have landscape sketches per se, because I was concentrating on a different way of looking at land forms and that was the underlying reason for the trip. This has to do with the Caledonian Orogeny and it has to do with connections and you've read some about that here before.  Here's just a snippet of the 12' drawing I made this time of the rock outcrops I found on LLigwy Bay, rocks that are 450 million years old, give or take a few million.

The story is longer and so is the drawing and so is the time it would take to tell it. But it's an important story to me and I will be back soon!

September: Moving forward

A late-breaking illustration job meant I had to press Pause on my painting series, but  I've finished the illustrations and am turning my thoughts towards my upcoming trip to North Wales!  I will share the illustrations I've done this summer once they are published this October. They are colorful and fun!

Before anything else, I want to tell you about a new book on sketching landscapes by my good friend and excellent American artist Virginia Hein. Her book 5-Minute Sketching: Landscapes is one of the best out there on the topic of sketching. And since there is a vast flotilla of books out there on that topic, that is saying a lot!

Virginia teaches at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, was for many years a toy designer, and is a prolific urban sketcher with a worldwide reputation and following. Her book is thoughtfully and gracefully written and is brimming with tips and suggestions and many, many illustrations of her own and of artists around the world. I am extremely proud to be one of her contributing artists.

 Here are two of several of my images that appear in Virginia's book:

I sincerely recommend this book for anyone interested in rendering landscapes of all kinds. Virginia has a fresh, energetic, and inspiring way of thinking and teaching. No matter how many landscape drawing and sketching and painting books you might have in your personal library, you will love this one, I promise you!

Now for thoughts of Wales! I am taking two Seawhite concertina sketchbooks so I can make more 12' long drawings of the kind I made on Whitesands Bay last May..weather, as always, permitting. Other art gear I hope to fit into my carryon:

See those little tubes of Winsor Newton paint? I have a hankering to try gouache. We'll see what happens. 

Finally, two quick and happy recent drawings, using my Koh-i-noor Magic Pencil with multi-colored lead. Hmm, I think I'd better pack that one for Wales, too!

See you soon!

Trip prep and paint pots

I leave for Pembrokeshire, Wales in a few days and I'm madly scrambling to ... do everything. I travel only with a carryon, which makes it rough if you want to make art! This time I was able to order some things from Amazon.uk that I couldn't pack and have them sent to the place I'm renting...things like a jar of matte medium, and some giant Derwent graphite blocks (man, are they heavy and messy! Not sure they'll be my faves, but wanted to try.) And a pair of foldable hiking poles, which for me can be classified as art supplies! ( TSA won't let you pack those in a carry-on.) And a couple of other things. I'll order some gesso when I get there.

I'll have to send home the poles and whatever else I want to keep and use after my time there.  Luckily, there's a very nice postmistress in St Davids who will help me accomplish this in a reasonable way. This reminds me that I FINALLY got out of my state of denial with regard to the size of drawings and paintings I can work on while traveling... especially, since, as I said, I pack only a carryon. I'm restricted to about 9" x 11" paper and just a few watercolors as paint. But that's okay. I happily use these sketches as source materials in the studio when I get back. 

Here are some shots of what I'll take with me. My travel palette has two new colors: Daniel Smith cerulean blue (Wales seems to call for that opaque and granulating oceanic blue) and Daniel Smith German Greenish Raw Umber. That last works well, combined with other colors,  for rendering the rock outcroppings I love to look at and draw.

:

I'm taking three (!) sketchbooks, if my carryon will let me. First is one made of Khadi paper, a rough, tough surface useful if you want to paint with mud, sand, and the like.

Second is a new Seawhite accordion sketchbook, pictured below in its case next to the one I used last fall, an old one I'd ordered from Seawhite of Brighton a few years back. Note the diminishment in size, which made me a little sad. Here's the one from last fall, all spread out:

And here it is side by side with the new one:

Third one is a new Stillman & Birn Beta, the ultimate in sketchbooks, for my tastes.

Just to round out the picture of my gear, here are my hiking boots, which I have to wear on the plane and trains since my feet are big, which make the boots bigger than they might be on others. I got them for my Alaska residency and I took them also to Wales last fall and I wear them gardening around here in areas where copperheads thrive. They'd just about fit in that much-talked about carryon, if I packed nothing else with them. My feet and I will be the absolute picture of travel chic! 

I had hoped to be finished with some of the Copper Mountain paintings I've been working on before I left for Wales, but this is not to be. There are four out of the eight or so that are ALMOST finished, but clearly I can't rush them. I work on them every day, but there you are. They have a mind of their own. To tide them and me over until I get back, I have made pots of the colors I've mixed for each painting, so I'll be able to take off running with them when I return.

See you in Wales very soon!

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.

The track of my heart; the journal as location device

 It's the last day of March and the last page of my journal for the first part of 2015. As I've written  before, I keep a regular sketchbook journal, filling one 8 1/2 x 11" Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook every three months.

There are many reasons why these books are vital to my well-being, but I'm feeling this especially at the end of a short period where my work is in progress and where the same work has been interrupted a fair amount.  Nothing dramatic here, just some family obligations that I need and want to fulfill. All is well still.

This morning I came across the phrase 'the track of the heart' in reference to an artist's characteristic style over a large body of work. And I thought that's also what my journal is, the track of my heart, and of my mind, my eye, my hand.

And then, one thing leading to another as they will, THAT phrase reminded me of a quotation by Frederick Buechner that I've scrawled recently on my studio blackboard:

Thus when you wake up in the morning [...] , if you want to know who you are, watch your feet. Because where your feet take you, that is who you are.

 

 An accidental photo I took of myself walking in Cesenatico, Italy last fall. There are several of these unplanned self-portraits pasted in my journals.

Knowing who you are is obviously a good idea for all of us. As an artist completely devoted to making art that comes from who I am (making no claims whatsoever about the value of this work to others), I feel a deep and continual need to keep in touch with that inner self.

I see her in the little ink and wash experiments and sketches and to do lists I put in my journals:

 I'm crazy about the way watercolor granulates and illuminates.

 

And I love using dip pens and ink with watercolor washes.

 

I see her in the studies for my current painting series:

I had fun using black lava texture gel here. Would never use it in a finished piece, but it lent the proper spirit to these rough-hewn explorations.

I see myself in the little sketchy faces that appear on my pages, sometimes from the imagination, sometimes as studies for illustration assignments:

Big Stabilo crayons and ink and wash produced the top image; Pentel Pocketbrush pen and watercolor created the bottom one.

I see myself in the spontaneous sketches I make in my journal in the early mornings, before I'm fully awake, of obects in my surroundings:

I keep my old journals nearby, the last two years' worth on a bookshelf in my studio, older ones on a bookshelf in the next room. I consult them several times a week. I find recurring imagery, ideas that surface again and again and demand to be dealt with in time. I get inspired by old brushstrokes and compositions. I discover there are times in each year when my energy and moods are not at their best and this helps me get through those seasonal cycles with a feeling of compassion for myself. I said these books are vital to my well-being and they truly are.

So there.  That's the story.

Even with interruptions and occasional strayings from the path, I have my journals to show me who I am, where I've been, and where in the world I might be going next. 

 

 My snowshoe-clad feet on Mt. Hood earlier this month.

News from the traveling artist!

Hi everyone,

Leaving for northern Italy soon and, except for my hideous head cold, I'm in pretty good shape! Thought you might like to see my art gear selected for this trip. The *palette is considerably warmer and more diverse than the ones I took to Iceland and Norway in the winter! Note the gorgeous sketchbook pictured, covered in burnt sienna and gold and umber paper. That is a handmade journal given to me by my dear friend Cathy Johnson. I have had it for a while and have been waiting for just the right time to break it open. I think a trip to the Veneto qualifies as just the right time, don't  you?  I won't fill it all this trip, so I guess I'll just have to plan another Italian trip next year. Too bad ;D.

I'm taking two sets of colored markers/pens, something I've never done before. I want to have access to color without having to depend solely on watercolor washes for it. (There is often not enough time to paint on site when I'm traveling with others and I'm impatient, anyway.) I've got chisel tip Prismacolor markers, chosen because you can get such varying line weights with them, and colored Sakura brush pens, too. I have a cartridge pen filled with Noodler's Lexington Grey ink and my trusty Pentel Pocket brush pen. I have two nero Cretacolor oil pencils and one in sanguine. Also, a Stillman&Birn landscape Alpha sketchbook and portable watercolor brushes, etc.

*Here are my (completely quirky and not very rational) palette colors: Daniel Smith transparent Pyrrol orange, DS quin rose, DS graphite gray, DS new gamboge, DS transparent yellow oxide, DS quin gold, Holbein ochre, DS terre verte, DS ultra turquoise, DS manganese blue, DS cobalt blue, Winsor Newton cobalt turquoise light, DS lunar blue. I don't need all those yellows, but Wendy Shortland, an artist friend now traveling through Italy, suggested I bring the yellow oxide. It's different enough from my the Quin Gold and the ochre, so I added it. The palette weighs about as much as two feathers, so it's okay to have so much.

So, the Italy trip is to come. Here's an interview I did last week, based on some previous trips,  for a fabulous new website called Wander Arti that combines two of my greatest loves: art and travel. The questions about travel and about artistic style are interesting, so have a look. And leave a comment, if you like. I'm sure Lizzie Davey, the site's founder, would love to have your feedback.

 

See you soon, on the other side of the ocean!

 

April, behind the scenes

Except there's no SCENE yet... everything is in transitional or embryonic phase. It's like the new moon around here... you can't see it yet, but it's there.

Under these conditions, a couple of peeks at my journal can provide evidence of continued life on my planet.

I'm still having lots of fun with the Koh-i-noor magical pencils. I've expanded my holdings to include all of the colorways the Magic Pencils come in, as well as the entire range of their triangular Tri-tone pencils, shipped all the way from Poland! (Gulp, why did I not notice the shipping charges when I ordered them!! Do NOT try this at home. Still, in a couple of years, I'm *sure* I'll forget the pain.)

 

Getting into the swing of things for my fall show on a floral/plant/garden theme, I'm pulling out all my supplies and trying everything to see what feels right. The Koh-i-noor Tri-tone pencils worked pretty well on an acrylic-painted journal page!

I added some acrylic splashes to the drawing,too.

And finally, another pencil piece... a quick sketch of our dear friend Neil, made with a Koh-i-noor Progresso pencil (and maybe a white conté pencil, too... can't remember what I used) on toned paper.

 I'm leaving for Italy two weeks from today, on a several days' birthday trip for my wonderful husband, to stay with dear friends in the Veneto. More about that very soon. But before then, will be working, working, working in the studio to get things accomplished for my show! Wish me luck, if you please!

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.

 

 

 

 

Journal sketches... and Portland, here I come!

Trying to get back into the habit of sketching before my trips to Portland and to Norway... and just because I miss it!

Truth is, when I'm not painting or illustrating now, I seem to use my journal more for writing than for making images. But this won't last. I've been drawing since at least the age of 3. I'm sure not going to stop now.

You know I've have used this kind of floral imagery in my journals and sketchbooks many times. Drawing my flowers helps me loosen up in the studio first thing in the morning. Plus, it's fun.

Sometimes there appears an object in your life that you've got to sketch. This vintage hen figurine was one. I'll let you read about it on the page itself:

Looking at this sketch on toned paper I just shared, I realized it's  a convenient segue to my Portland trip.

I LOVE my gray-toned sketchbooks, especially for trips to the cold, snowy, and/or rainy places I'm besotted with. So this is what I'm taking with me to Portland tomorrow, a Strathmore gray-toned sketchbook and, of course, my Stillman & Birn Alpha series book, for those moments when I'm not being rained upon, in case there are some! Here are a couple of images from Iceland and Vancouver... cases in point:

My trip to Portland is a short one...my first visit to my daughter Cecelia since she moved there last August. I'll be going a lot. Not sure how much sketch time I'll have under those circumstances, but I KNOW we'll be meeting up with some sketching buddies at the Portland Museum of Art to sketch there, at least! Portland, I'm ready for you!

Journal as palate/palette cleanser

I use my journal for lots of things, one of which is as a sort of palate cleanser. Before or after a long session in my painting studio, I can grab my Stillman & Birn 8 1/2" x 11" Alpha journal and do a quick, fun drawing... it feels like having a mouthful of sorbet between heavy, rich courses. And it's a palette cleanser, too. My painting palette is heavy on the reds and oranges and dark neutrals right now. My watercolor palette lets me lighten up, in all ways.

 

These daffodils and pussy willows are my first bouquet of the season from our local farmers' market. 

 

 

Here's a Flickr slideshow, just for fun, of many of the quick floral and botanical sketches I've done over the past few years:

Happy spring, whenever it finally comes your way!