waiting for the game

My favorite bit of this sketch is those couches:

You just never know what wonderful little surprises

you're going to get with watercolor.

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travel art supplies

 

I'm looking forward to painting a bunch more this year

than I did last year!! As such, I have packed up

some of my drawing/painting accessories to tote around:

a couple of General's Sketch & Wash pencils,

a mechanical pencil, a blending stump,

a waterbrush, and a mini mister.

I also toss in a travel watercolor set,

some tubes of gouache, or the cutesy

watercolor pencils I received for Christmas.

Ooh -- there's also a Pentel brush pen in there. Tasty!!

 

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tether ball

Tether ball is the newest

addition to our yard and family

entertainment. Elliott loves it!

 

corvallis snail, take one

This colorful snail was one of our friends on sabbatical last year.

We were all captivated by the little guy.

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the remains of a lunch

This here is the remains of a lunch I had downtown

at Bruegger's Bagel last time I had jury duty. Do

you see the shadow bird emerging from the paper

wrappings? The winter sun was so bright pouring in

through the windows that it cast fabulous shadows.

 

 

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the hubby's huge desk

My husband has the most gigantic desk ever in his office.

While it looks rather demure in this sketch, it has to be over

six feet long. It's huge.

Anyway, thanks for sticking around through my long silence.

This month has held a miserable case of the flu and several

obsessive diversions which I will fill you in on soon.

What have you been about lately?

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at the monastery

I spent last weekend at the Holy Trinity Monastery

in St. David, Az. This crucifix was in my room.

 

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eric cuts his hair

My husband has extremely curly hair,

which he entrusts to no one.

Not even, quite, to himself.

But he'll have to do.

 

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pomegranate carcas

My friend Emily gave us a gigantic pomegranate.

The kids happily devoured it this afternoon, leaving

behind this exoskeleton and a whole lot of juice!

 

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serger

I've been enjoying my serger a lot

lately. I've only recently learned how

to get good, even stitches out of it --

the machine requires a great deal

of manual adjustment to set all the

tensions correctly. There's something

beautiful about the tactile, mechanical

nature of the thing, though.

 

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days of rest

 

Seed Pods, watercolor, 5"x5"

I've been going out of my way lately to find spaces for rest.

I'm not particularly good at resting, but I feel the need to respond to Jesus.

He said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)

Last week, I practiced resting by spending a few hours alone at a

generous friend's house. This painting came from that time.

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cherries

watercolor, 6" x 4"

 

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tiny tennies

These baby sneakers were on display at a 

children's clothing store in Corvallis.

I loved their colors and abstract shape combinations.
Plus, they were just so cute!

Watercolor and acrylic ink, 4"x6"

travel paints

In preparation for our trip, I've been pulling together travel

watercolor pallets for myself and the kids. This seems like the

most portable art option, although (popular to contrary belief)

watercolor is not a very kid-friendly medium. Here's why: 

kids are very straightforward about painting. They start big 

and add details later. This works fine if none of the details

are lighter than the main mass. But watercolor doesn't have

a lot of easy options for adding whites or light colors at the 

end. In fact, many watercolorists work backwords, saving the white

highlights at the beginning. This takes a good deal of planning...

or at least awareness. Also, if all the colors go on while the

initial round of painting is wet, watercolors tend to blend together

into a puddle of brown. So kids get frustrated with the colors 

coming out not nearly as clear and bright as they were in the box.

All that to say that I am baffled with our tendency to start 

children with watercolors. Let's go back to finger paints!! 

Okay, I'll hop down off my soap box now.

 Because, after all, I am toting a variety of adorable travel palettes

loaded full of juicy watercolor paints to dive into with my kids

on vacation. Hopefully I can teach them some techniques that will 

lead to satisfying outcomes in their travel journals. 

To get palettes set up, I had to figure out what pigments they already

contained. So I've had a delicious time painting color

swatches and comparing them to tube paints and friends' supplies.

Now the Art Basket is loaded up, as is the Summer-Enrichment-Program

Briefcase and the Making-Fabric-Flowers Bag. I'll share more about 

these soon! In the meantime, I'd better go pack some clothes.... 

 

zucchini plant

Things in the garden are a'flowering!

watercolor, 6"x6"

tiny teacup

I'm particularly fond of this little teacup

painting by my daughter.

1.5"x 3" watercolor

tiny tea pot

Painting with the kids -- it's spring break!
Watercolor, 2"x2"

eric's garden

3"x5" watercolor

I can't figure out how to get my light greens

(namely the leaves of the top planter) 

to not show up as garish yellows when scanned.

Any thoughts? I've already adjusted for value & color.

little white flowers

Emily brought these little flowers over today, 

and we spent a few minutes painting. It was so 
refreshing to paint with a friend! I wanted to post 
her painting as well, because it came out so different 
from mine. It was too wet to slap on the scanner, 
though, so I'll just have to leave that to your imagination!

irises in boulder

Hi, there!

Eric and I just got back from a lovely trip to Colorado.

There was so much good about it, and the timing was

just right as today marks the end of the school year.

Good to get a nice dose of chilly weather and rain just

as we head into the ninety degrees of summer!

Also, the trip was a nice blend of structured and unstructured

activities, time with friends and with just the two of us,

lots of walks down bricked pathways in downtown

Boulder and Denver, and GREAT FOOD. 

This patch of irises was growing outside the window at 

one of the coffee shops we discovered, and it may be

the first watercolor I've painted in over a year. It felt

good to pull the ol' paintbrush out again. I hope to do so 

more in the months to come! Light-colored watercolors

don't scan well, so I've attempted to color correct; however,

you may get a better feel for it by clicking on the image for a close-up.