Laurelines

Technical difficulties, begone! Scotland trip upcoming!

Hello! I have been frustrated for a long time due to a glitch with my renewal of Adobe services (i.e I now can't access any of them, including Photoshop) and my scanner and printer. It's a mess. I WILL get things sorted out when I have one or two 37-hour days to talk again with Apple support and with Adobe support. A word to the wise: don't forget to write down your system password. Ever. 

Meantime, I remembered I could at least post this update/outburst.  

My husband and two of our closest friends leave for almost three weeks in Scotland in less than a month. I have made a wonderful itinerary, she said modestly. And I WILL HAVE my computer problems sorted out by then, one way or another. She said, sort of ominously.

This will be a sentimental journey for me. I lived in Edinburgh for a year many years ago, during which time I got married, had my first child, and spent two terms at Edinburgh College of Art (second one was truncated by my advanced pregnancy.) I took my daughter back to Scotland on her 18th birthday and loved it then as much as I had at the very beginning.

I am thrilled to be going back, at long last.

Since I can't access images of my work for now, I am sharing photos from the places we will be staying during our three weeks.

The Farmhouse on the  Duffus Estate near Elgin in Moray, with views of Duffus Castle.

A cottage on the Ardsheal Estate, overlooking Loch Linnhe in Argyll and Bute.

A small hotel in a beautiful Georgian building at No. 11 Brunswick Street in Edinburgh.

And that's not all! You won't believe all the fantastic places we are going to see in the Lothians, Perthshire, Moray, Aberdeenshire, the Highlands, the Lowlands, Argyll and Bute, and the inner Hebrides and even more.
 
So that is all for now. I will be back! Technical matters are not completely out of reach for me.. but they are not, shall I say,  where I shine. But Scotland!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Italy sketches, first batch: TBDI 2014 conference and more!

At the wonderful TBD Italy conference in Rimini week before last, I had little time to sketch! Our days were busy from 8am to bedtime! But I managed a few drawings, mostly made during talks, and here they are.

Backs of heads, fronts of heads,  people sitting,  earnest speakers making important points and opining!

And, oh, yes... profiles!

There were dozens of indoor and outdoor booths. Here's one of the latter, drawn while I was waiting for my buddies to meet me for lunch:

You can see I ended up using mostly pen and wash at the conference. One brush pen sketch I made was a bust, so I ditched it for the rest of the trip. I was busy and I had to make each sketching minute count!

I have more sketches from the second part of the trip... mountains and food, mostly. To try to capture the magnificence of the majestic Dolomite mountains in a tiny 4" x 6" sketchbook was daunting, to say the least.

More about this next time and more sketches, too.

Here's a sample, though. Quick and loose, Cretacolor oil pencil and wash: the view above Vipiteno, the northernmost town in Italy. 

I fell in love, love, love with the Italian Alps. They brought back beautiful memories of childhood trips to the Swiss and French Alps... they are the same and they are very different. Ahhh.

I am deeply grateful to the organizers and sponsors of TBD Italy 2104 for hosting me! I met so many charming people who are now new friends and I learned so much about the travel industry in Italy and beyond. I became clearer about what it is I do as a blogger and why. It was a priceless experience in very many ways. 

Art supplies for Italy, that age-old question

It's the eternal question for us traveling artists. Which art supplies to take? On my upcoming trip to Italy to attend the TBDI 2014, I'll be taking only a carry-on bag, so the lack of space makes the question even more agonizing. 

I am usually a quick decider, but on this question, I waffle with the worst of them.

 The truth of this hit me hard recently as I was choosing some of my sketches to be published in Cathy Johnson's upcoming book, provisionally titled, "Sketching on the Spot.'  The first decision, then as now, boiled down to which would be the default sketching tool: pens or pencils?

I most often sketch with pens, such as my Pentel Pocket brush pen, which feels like an extension of my fingertips. Being a painter, I love the brushiness of those lines. They do robust, they do atmospheric, they play well with color or on their own. 

Bouziès, France

 

Copenhagen, Denmark
 

Bergen, Norway

Other times I want a crisp line, so I use a fine-tipped pen like the Ecco Pigment pen... again, with or without color:

 

Fontaine de l'Observatoire, Paris

But lately, my heart is leading me back to pencil, that most sensuous of drawing tools. There is NOTHING like the skidmarks, the fractured trails of a big, fat, soft pencil on good paper. With or without color added.

 

 

 Brittany, Presqu'ile de Rhuys

 

Middleton Place, Charleston, SC  Northern Norway

And then there is the matter of the which and the how of taking watercolors! I think this time, I'll take a few squeezed-out blobs from my paint tubes in a very lightweight plastic travel palette.

So here's the plan for now: two pens (one brush pen, one hard tip), a couple of pencils, limited watercolors and, if I have space, 4 or 5 watercolor crayons. And did I mention which sketchbook to take? I did not. That's a thought, alas, for another day. My decider synapses, now exhausted, have taken to their beds.

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!

 

More from Italy

I grabbed an hour today from more pressing deadlines to process/scan these sketches. It is still May and I am still thinking about Italy!

I have a few more besides this crop to share, too. When? We shall see. It's back to the big stuff for me for the foreseeable future.

Venice is many things. One of them, often, is pink. The lanterns around St. Mark's square have rosy glass in them. And some of the marble in the Doge's Palace is pink, too.  I love this pinkness of Venice.

Venice is also very decorated. This I love, too. And the sculpted forms, the capitals of columns especially, are lively, charming, and surprising. Check out the fish heads adorning the capitals in the Rialto fish market sketch in the last post. Check out the herons on the capital here, atop a column of the Doge's Palace.

Okay, so it's not just Venice that is pink. Here is the main square in my favorite hilltown of the Veneto--- Montagnana. It, you will see, is pink. I made it pinker than it is, but that is what art is for.

And now back to Venice again, with the two last sketches. One is of gondolas. You know I had to. And they are not pink.

The rich darkness of Saint Roch's Church is populated with, in addition to magnificent Tiepolo and other Italian master paintings, giant lanterns and fanciful figures atop pilasters in the Grand Hall.

Back to painting and illustrating. I should, I HAVE TO, be through with the latter in a few days, so I will come back and report. Ciao!

Italy sketches, take one

Yes, dear friends, it's life in the Cuisinart lane again, so many projects rocking and rolling, deadlines looming, ideas popping left and right----all very exciting. And stressful. But mostly in a goodish way.

So, here, in between major items on the To Do list, comes the first batch of Italy sketches.  We had a memorable, lovely time. Italy is... Italy. I've fallen, hard.

Enough talk. Here are sketches:

Italy being Italy, as we've agreed it is, eating is a popular pastime. And, never ones to wish to be contrary, we did eat.

The two sketches below are the left and right sides of a single spread, made in my beautiful Cathy Johnson sketchbook filled with a variety of paper types.

 

 

 

 

And the sketches above show a similar spread, made at the Venice Fish Market. The color is off in the last image. I took an Iphone photo of it to show you how it works in the book itself. Here are the Hotel Cipriani ones in that same format. I'm having a terrible time formatting this post. My apologies for how clunky it is!

 

Finally, a sketch of one of the many lions of Venice. I love the rugged and robust air they give that beautiful, otherwise ethereal, city.

PS I had a great time using the colored pens I took (see previous post!) I have more sketches and will process and scan them in stolen moments from my big jobs. Ciao, buddies!

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!

Portland in March, some sketches

On a recent trip to Portland to see my daughter Cecelia and some friends, we had great luck with the weather... not one day of rain! The cherry trees were in full glory and the Portland Urban Sketchers and I met at the riverside to catch them in their prime:

Here are two of the afore-mentioned Portland Urban Sketchers, having at it!

I had MORE fun with my Koh-i-noor Magic Pencil (see it in my New York sketches here). It comes in several colorways and the ones I don't have are on their magic way to me even as we speak! There is something so beguiling about the way color(s) appear as you draw, as if by (wait for it...) magic! I have just begun to explore the possibilities of this unique drawing instrument!

One more drawing for today. I have several more to show, but don't want to clog up this post. I'll be back in a few days with the rest!

Sketches from inside cold New York City!

So cold in my brief not-quite-two-days there this week, that the only sketches I made were inside.

Inside Grand Central Station, having a delicious lunch at Cipriani with dear friend Amanda:

Inside our hotel, at breakfast, breaking out the fun, multi-colored Koh-i-noor 'Magic Pencil' I bought with Amanda at New York Central Art Supply to sketch fellow diners:

Inside our hotel room, looking at the building across the street, sketching its frills and furbelows:

Inside the Asian collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Inside my sketchbook, drawing my husband with the 'Magic' pencil, mentioned above. It is great fun because you have no idea what colors will emerge (note his eyebrows!) and there is no control over values and tones, either, of course. I wish the lead were more deeply pigmented, but you can't have everything in this life, can you?

2014, cutting up and letting go

Two things I learned last year in the studio:

Thing One:

    I am in love with texture, shapes, color... the materiality of my stuff. Seeing brushmarks on board or paper makes me giddy with delight, euphoric. That, and the drive to respond to the chi, the energy that is in and through all things, are the reasons why I paint and draw. It comes to that.

Thing Two:

When I follow my inner prompts, I go places. I know now to stay tuned.... and move aside... when I hear the call of the (inner) wild.

So, having learned all of that:

I'm going to spend the rest of this month playing with paint on big sheets of paper... making all kinds of marks and textures and shapes on page after page.

This will loosen me up and make me happy. The sheets of paper will be used--- maybe, maybe not, who knows how--- as elements in future paintings and illustrations.

See! Look what happened just this morning as I was cleaning up my studio! While filing away old sheets of paper on which I tested colors last year, I really looked at their surfaces for the first time. And picked up my scissors and started cutting. Birds happened. (The big one is maybe 12" across.) A whale happened.

So, cutting up (which also means, in American English, to act in a silly and/or noisy way) and letting go.

Letting go of my need to control. Letting go of foregone conclusions. Is there any art more boring than the same stuff cranked out year after year, where the artist knows exactly what the piece is going to be at the outset? Ugh. 

Of course, I haven't abandoned all need for structure. I'm just minimizing it in my art life.

With another painting show slated for next fall and with, I hope, continued illustration assignments this year, there'll be enough structure in my work days.

Of course, my thinking self is still (mostly) in charge of my wild self. It's a lively pas de deux.  

In 2014, I'll be painting, drawing, writing, cutting up. I'll be using acrylics, inks, pens, pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, and watercolors.

So, from this morning, a watercolor sketch, on pastel paper, of a hyacinth in my studio.  

In 2014, I'll also be traveling (of course) and I'll be starting a secret (for now) drawing project, the idea of which just came to me yesterday!  I'll tell more as the days go on. I'm excited and happy!

Are you coming with?