Blues to Blooms

 

Apparently Seasonal Affective Disorder is a REAL THING for me.  And by the end of winter, snow and cloud cover, I'm definitely in a dark and dreary mood.  I was just trying to express how I felt with this doodly doodle.  As always, by the time I was through, my mood (and palette) had brightened considerably.  Very happy for SPRING!

 Even the sense of musical blues looked like it had plenty of Tchaikovsky or Gershwin by the time THAT one was done. Thanks to Trader Joes' bargain daffodils, I had several batches with which to depict Spring more overtly. Thanks especially to my Dallas friend, Lynne, who gifted me with the Ikebana style vase!

Clump o' Doodles

  
Evenings are pretty quiet at my house.  Doodling or knitting while listening to classical music or television dramas is pretty satisfying. Sometimes there's a theme, or a subject, or just a pattern I want to incorporate.

This post includes my drawings from the first week of March:  (Not quite Spring yet, but hoping!)

The above is my interpretation of a magic cat with a magic umbrella protecting herself from magic precipitation.

 This was meant to be a sunflower, even if it sort of looks like a cross between a palm tree, carnival ride and surf board display.  You just never know.

 

I'm still fascinated by house facades; especially ones that vary a lot from whatever is "the usual." If there were an HOA, what WOULD they do?!!

 A person I respect told me that I might learn a lot from the myth of Demeter and Persephone.  I've read quite a few versions, and I'm not sure I understand where I would fit in.  Above is an image attempting to show both goddesses and their interdependence.

 This might have been more successful had I actually STACKED four cups.  But we only use mugs!  So I made this up and added a sort of Rothko background.

Below is actually the first image of this series.  The concept is a path emerging from a sere, dry, inhospitable climate.  Eventually the path finds "brighter" pastures, supportive flora, and less chaos.

 

And then there was the day I went driving around looking for something to sketch.  EVERYTHING WAS STILL COVERED WITH SNOW.

So this is snow and shadows with only a hint of trees and skies.

I wish I had had a gray marker.  Not all of the shadows were black!

Sketching, an Airedale and her human, then photoshopping to compensate for forgetting my "real" camera.

 After satiating ourselves at the Portsmouth, NH Barnes and Nobles (books AND panini purchases!) we took the very long way home down the coast through Strawberry Banke, New Castle (island), eventually pulling off after passing Odiorne Point State Park.  What a lovely series of coves.  Scalloped, shallow, sandy with mostly smooth stones, minimal seaweed, and at the dinner hour on a cool Sunday evening, quiet and uncrowded.

 

 It's been too long since I deliberately got outside in a new place to draw.  I can easily imagine these sketches turning into abstracts.  IF I had remembered to bring my "real" camera from home, they might have turned into more representational paintings.  Not sure that I have the imagination or talent to turn my phone's photos into anything inspiring.

There was a gulp of cormorants settled on sand bars about 50 yards out... The sand bars (at least at low tide) were walkable... by others who intuitively left their marks by erecting stone cairns.  With my eyesight, I needed my binoculars (which I DID remember!) to separate the birds from the rocks. 

My husband was most fascinated with a huge driftwood tree.  It's placement made it seem more likely it had washed up... than fallen down from the nearby woodlands.  Surprisingly, it had thoughtful graffiti

and carvings.  There was a nicely lettered directive:  dream a beautiful dream.

For the less intrepid, or less likely to try walking on water (or sand bar) there was a stone stack at water's edge.  The tide must have been coming in, because it had toppled by the time I left.

At right, the "lumps" are mostly cormorants rather than people or rocks.

A photoshopped version of me and my shadow.

 I met a beautiful, aloof Airedale named Sheena and her human, Ben.  While Ben and I chatted, Sheena found parents with toddler sons who threw a stick for her.  She could not remain aloof near a stick throwing playmate.  With Ben's OK, she also chased sticks into the waves, swimming with happy confidence.

   Can you tell I am partial to Airedales?

I am often surprised by the colors my computer filters find in my photographs.  I think this would make a nice acrylic impasto abstract.

I hope I will draw, chat, paint and photograph more.  Soon.  It is such a barometer of how things are going.

Sketchy Review

Sometimes, a camera is the wrong instrument!
Sometimes one needs a pen or pencil or brush to perk up one's brain cells, vision, and creativity.  Last week was a good week with my sketch book.  Partly because I was away from home (and the related responsibilities and distractions) and partly because I just got in the habit of drawing in the evening.

No one would mistake this for a photograph, but on the other hand, if you know your cameras, you would recognize this as a Canon Power Shot!  Hardly state of the art, but as much as I can manage.

 At the Nashua Artists' Breakfast Club I ran into Carolyn Gaudet who taught elementary school art for a gazillion years.  She described an exercise where second graders (!) marked their papers with one inch squares, mixed a big puddle of gray watercolor and then made splotches representing whatever she called out.
I scribbled splotchy shapes as ideas came to me.  Do you see the elephant?  The backside of the elephant?
After one had the splotches, Carolyn's class could add darker splotches for shaping and shadows.  I did that on some, but by then I was excited enough to get out my traveling watercolor set and add color.

I got better as I progressed.  I'm really happy with the bottom row.

 

 I am struggling with re-composing a painting I did from a picture I took back in Texas.  I probably need to do another couple of pages of thumbnails before I go to paint again  (or paint over the last one.)

I got out my stash of sheep faces and tried to really LEARN their facial construction.  Drawing a sheep nose from memory really DID. NOT. WORK!

 I can always tell (and you probably can as well), when I am drawing from "life" and when I'm drawing "out of my mind."

 "Out of my mind" isn't always BAD... just different.

These are of the Springfield Marriott lobby.  I didn't realize until I was cropping the scans just HOW far off "plumb" that room was.  OR that the plants and pillars were leaning East.  That's probably a good reminder that drawing on your lap doesn't always work.    

 
I was tickled that I conveyed the gist of the crystal chandelier... even if an average person would slide off that couch.

When I draw places we go, I always remember them better.  I had a great conversation with a waiter waiting for his ride and another hotel guest waiting for her dinner partner.  When a stranger thinks you are pre-occupied (and NOT drawing them !), they seem less shy and more willing to have a conversation. 

Sketchbook Thumbnails: Barn Practice

Value and composition and perspective studies from Googled images of beach houses, barns and birds.  (It was a good night for the letter "B."

 

 I hope that by practicing my favorites of these, I'll get to know them well enough that they are my own, rather than pale imitations.  Certainly my colors and emphases will be unlike anyone elses!

I definitely need to look at bird pictures!  Unlike sheep, their legs are exposed!!

Sketchbook Side Trip

 It was last month, actually, that I got to start a new journal/sketchbook.  (I usually use a Bienfang spiral bound that is 8 1/2 x 11:  the paper takes most any medium as long as it isn't soaking wet!)  I think I want to make sure I did the title page BEFORE I turned one more year older.  Either that or I forgot how old I was. 

 Thumbnail sketches at the Carlisle Conservation Land also known as Great Brook Park... on the border of Lincoln and Carlisle, MA.













 I did this sketch the afternoon after I went to the John Singer Sargent exhibit at the MFA.  HIS architectural watercolors were SO realistic and magnificent, I made myself sit for longer than usual attempting to draw the tower on the Billerica Library.  A triangle or T-square might have helped!  The actual tower does not seem in imminent danger of collapse. 

I made softie pumpkins for friends for Halloween.








More thumbnails from photographs and/or imagination in preparation for pastel class.

The faces below left were done in pencil from newspaper photographs.

Below right are more thumbnails:  searching for simple but interesting shapes.

Sketching and painting progress (slowly)

9 x 12 This one is pretty much finished, although I'll probably take it to my artist friends to see if they have any (more) suggestions.  I think art is finished when you don't have any idea what else to do with it.

 I'm liking this, even though it is much more "graphic" in style than I expected.  I'm practicing with color variation while trying to keep the values similar.  And thanks to my friend Peter for telling me some tips about shadows.  Can you tell this building is based on the same one as above?  !!!!

When I bought art supplies last, they were having a sale on canvas flat panels. So I'm scraping my "left over paint" onto them in hopes that I'll learn more about color harmony and abstraction.  This one clearly is NOT ready for prime time.

Yesterday morning really was perfect.  Today was just as wonderful.  I did the pen/ink yesterday and watercolor today.  Just for fun.  And sanity.

Three weeks ago I had not been making enough art or taking the time to LOOK at things.  On my way home from my artists' meeting, I kept looking for someplace to pull off and sketch.  (Thanks Cathy Johnson for the art-in-the-car encouragement!).  Perspective and blocky little New England buildings are pretty fascinating.  I'm hoping the skill to do more representative trees will grow on me.