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!

In print in October: garden and grits!

Hello from a golden world! While I was in ecstasy, walking and drawing, 

eating and drinking in marvelous Wales, two projects I'd been part of appeared in print!

First was my illustration to accompany an essay on grits by Margaret Locklair in the Fall 2016 issue of Charleston Style and Design. This was a playful piece and I hope my illustration expresses that sense of play.

 

This is the third piece by Margaret Locklair I've illustrated for CS&D.  

Each one has been a joy.

Here's the essay from the digital copy of the magazine:

 

My second print appearance this month was a photo essay in Walter Magazine; Raleigh's Life and Soul, on my garden, with more photos and the accompanying text written by yours truly.

Here's my essay:

My garden

By Laura Frankstone

If my garden could talk, you would hear mostly French, with traces of North and South Carolina-inflected English.

I lived in France for three years as a young child; the shapes and patterns of that country’s elegant formal gardens became imprinted in my heart. This was, as far as I could tell, the way things grew.

In my grandmother’s garden in Charlotte, luscious gardenias and glowing panicles of snowball bushes thrilled me to my core. Her verdant oval of lawn studded by white iron glider benches and chairs was my one constant in a childhood of frequent moves, the dislocations of a military family’s life.

My mother-in-law’s Charleston courtyard garden was proof that formal design could live happily in an intimate setting. There grew a deft mix of herbs, flowers, and ferns, with graceful seating for conversation.

My garden’s French accent has grown stronger over the years, with many visits to France. A pilgrimage I made to le Jardin Agapanthe in Normandy, the gardens of brilliant garden designer Alexandre Thomas, was especially transformative, showing me you can use traditional French garden motifs in free and fresh ways.

My garden tells many stories, those of an artist-gardener who plants for texture, color, and shape, more than from horticultural considerations. It tells stories of my daughter’s wedding, rehearsal parties, receptions, countless dinners, and birthday celebrations of children and grandchildren. It tells the story of 3 a.m. meteor showers, seen from two outdoor lounge chairs given to me expressly for the purpose of stargazing.

What those other gardens told me, and what my garden says, is that in order and beauty, there is comfort. Life provides enough pyrotechnics. Let our gardens give us peace, space for reverie, and delight.

 

I am now in re-entry mode from the Wales trip (and the Alaska trip, if I'm to be honest!) and will continue to process those experiences physically, through my work, and emotionally, too.

 

I will post sketches from Wales in the next days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014 in the rear-view mirror

If 2014 were a road trip, I'd be dizzy from the speed and velocity of it! Whoosh!

For the second year in a row, I've had a significant show of my work in the fall to work toward. In 2013, it was my Iceland-inspired paintings at the Horace Williams House. This past fall, it was work on a floral theme at the Ackland Museum Store, UNC-Chapel Hill. They were two very different shows, the 2013 one featured all paintings, the 2014 show included ink and wash and mixed media on paper pieces, among others.  And the pieces were too big to be scanned and I didn't have time to take good photos of them... whoosh!

 

Having deadlines is a powerful motivation, but I learned from these two shows not to say yes to another show unless I have over half the pieces already finished when I agree to show! (Yikes! and pass the ibuprofen!) Still, the show went really well and I loved working with my fellow exhibitor and friend Ippy Patterson and my buddies at the Ackland Museum Store.

2014 brought more illustration work for me, including images for Walter Magazine, Charleston Style & Design and Chapel Hill Magazine. Other clients this year were The Nature Conservancy and Edible Hudson Valley.

Fireflies for Charleston Style & Design.

Person Street illustrations for Walter Magazine.

Blue crabs for Edible Hudson Valley.

Continuing on the art front... my work appeared in an excellent new book on drawing by Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark blog fame.  Her book Drawing 365 is now available here in the US and will be released in the UK and worldwide in January. This is a book you will want to own if you have any interest in drawing. It's hands down one of the most informative and useful of this popular genre.  Here's a small peek at one of my contributions to it... a blind contour drawing, demonstrating one of the 365 drawing tips Katherine writes about:

I travelled a lot in 2014, but since this is already sounding like one of those annoying Christmas letters, I'll mention only the trip that relates directly to my art career, my October trip to Italy. I had the great fortune to have been invited to Rimini, Italy for a conference organized by the Italian tourism industry, one designed to connect people whose passion is travel with people whose business is travel, to see what kind of synergy might result. My years of travel writing and sketching on my blog led to my being chosen to participate in this exciting new conference, now in its second year.

It was exciting, fascinating, informative and fun. I learned so much about the travel industry and about the power of social media and about what it is I do as a blogger and why I do it. I met many lovely people from all over the world.

I will be forever grateful for the organizers of TBDI 2014 for having given me this opportunity.

While in Italy, I fell in love with the Dolomites

and they, along with my passion for the mountains of Norway and the rugged topography of Iceland, have filled me with ideas for new paintings... some kind of response, I know not yet what, to this mountain splendor and energy. More about this in my 2015: A Plan, to be published in the next couple of days.

Finally, on December 20th, I led a sketching session at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. This was a kind of reaching out and giving back as an artist that I have done very little of,  but I so enjoyed that I am eager to do more, more, more!  I had a fabulous group of sketchers, almost all beginners, and they reported having benefited a lot from my talk and our working together. It was such fun and very rewarding!

So, I think that covers it... though I can't be sure, dizzy as I still am from all the 2014 action! 

I have many thoughts about what is to come and will share those, as I said, in the next few days.

Happy 2015 to you, dear readers. I hope 2014 has been kind to you. Thank you for sharing this journey, many of you, year after year. I am so very grateful for your interest and support.

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!

 

Rocks, paper, scissors for Norway

I use big (18"x 24") pads of decent drawing paper (Borden & Riley Vellum) to test colors and textures when I'm making paintings.  I used to feel a bit guilty about 'wasting' decent paper that way, but it is a key part of my painting process, so I carry on.

One day, trying to solve a compositional problem, I cut a shape from my test paper and taped it to a painting to see how it worked instead of the shape I had painted there. This way of trying new compositions without making permanent changes on paintings' surfaces was fun! AND the more I looked at the energy and incidental force and flow of the marks on those papers, the more I liked them. 

So I began to use them in my illustrations. Here, in a recent illustration for Walter Magazine...

the oyster shell was cut from one of my test papers. I added a little more directional movement to the shapes... and voilà.

I've fallen in love with the idea of using cut paper (as below)

to add to sketches and illustrations and maybe, who knows, bigger paintings?

Clearly, the painted shapes in my Iceland paintings are related in some way to these paper shapes. Though which came first? It's the old chicken and the egg conundrum.

So where does Norway fit in? In a few days, I'll be there and I'll be sketching. And I'll have some loose sheets of paper already painted on, in the colors and textures I know are what I see when I'm in Norway. As here, a glimpse of just some of these colors and these textures, in a sketch from a couple of years ago:

And in Norway, looking at that icy and snowy fabulousness and trying my best to capture SOMETHING of it, I will, among other techniques, cut shapes from these papers, as the spirit moves me ----and paste them into my sketchbook and draw and paint on and around them. And it will be fun!

Lots of people work with cut paper in their sketches and paintings.

I'm doing nothing new.  Just new to me.

I can't wait. Rocks, paper, scissors, Norway... here I come!

 

 

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!