Do you see the dragons?

There's a few in there, hiding in the mists of distraction...


curling and swirling...


rising and diving...


frisking in the waves...


coiling within the clouds...

Feels like summer...

We reached into the 80's yesterday afternoon, it felt like summer, but it's not summer, and last night smelled like a summer night...the peepers were spring peeping, and the breeze coming through the window had the mild touch of a June night (sans fireflies, too early for them), weird weather...my gardens are already too dry.

But all of this made me think of a green night, so I dug out a picture of this black and green nocturne that I made last June, last night felt like this drawing...a full moon in a thin haze of clouds, the night took on a summer mantel, casting off the winter shroud with a shrug...

Natural Flow

The most common question I get is: "How do you do that?"

What's so simple to me seems unfathomable to the viewers.











I mostly follow my pencil when I'm drawing. This little untitled drawing from December 2004 is one of those that emerged from doodles, letting how my pencil reacts to the paper texture dictate what comes next, and follow the flow...





Natural Flow, 2005

The only thing I consciously set in place was when I made the circle in the upper left corner by using the hole in the plastic spool that my tape was on...the rest I let the pencil skip about, making ripples...memories of water...I think about the times I spent sitting on a rock at the lake or in the middle of a river, watching the water flow and shimmer...it's such a peaceful place to be...







Twister, 2007

It's a storm of graphite lines and tints, an emotional maelstrom...I must admit that my emotional state will put its two cents into the flow of my work, this does look quite stressed out with brief passages of gray peace. I recall not liking this drawing very much after I finished it, even while working on it...but now, looking at it, I like it more, probably because there's distance from that moment of time that has taken the edge off...











August Improvisation, 2007

I took yet another device to create a circle for a starting point, and a straight edge to create sharp lines that are in some cases like spears, or as in others shafts of light...
I love drawing and painting while listening to music...I don't do it enough...

Colored Pencil

Blue Bliss with a little bit of red...


I really love working in colored pencils, I used them when I was a kid, and when I "grew up" and went to college, I really learned how to use them in commercial illustration classes...they're another dry medium that I enjoy, and the ones that can get wet just add more toys in the toy box for me to play with...


these little bits are a result of my love affair with the color blue...I believe the blue pencil is a Prismacolor, ultramarine blue, the red...I think that came out of a box of Crayola pencils...










I went for a pale blue in this one, but after setting aside for some time, I decided that it needed green...

Winter Current























On a hot summer night...

I like working in monochromatic, but as much as I like this piece as it is (love the color)...I wish that I had gone into it with graphite to punch it up in places...there's no one telling me that I can't...maybe I will...maybe I won't...

















The first three are finished and "tamed" this is a sample of a work in progress that I have in my sketchbook. I created a surface in this new piece, (it's not done yet, but I will add it in when it is...stay tuned...). Just so you know, the tape was used in a previous drawing, I wanted to "smudge" in the graphite as part of the piece...I'm so glad I photographed this, I fell in love with this surface treatment (too bad I drew over it, but it's becoming its own thing now)...



The colored pencils that I used here are made by Derwent (I really love this company's products) the pencils are soft and blend beautifully...they make making art fun!