Follow your bliss...: October 2008

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Autumn ideas

These are a progression of drawings, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008...on the first two I went through a phase in which I played around with creating panels on one sheet, taping out borders, making a mess drawing over everything and then pulling off the tape to see what I got...sometimes I had a little trouble with the tape...tape and I don't always get along...so now I just stick with the outside border...all four are autumn inspired drawings...reaction to the changing season, the wind and the rain rather than the autumn leaves, which is what everyone thinks about first...up here on our hilltop acre, the elements of autumn often rage at night and have a more intense quality about them that can be harsh...sometimes nightmarish...the 2008 drawing entitled Heffalumps and Woozles is straight out of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Study of mist and mountain

Here's a study that I enjoyed making a few weeks back...a sort of Chinese misty mountain thing going on...once again this is done with woodless water-soluble colored pencils, and lots of play with water and using the pencil sharpener to shred color into the water to create thick layers that are just as crusty as any acrylic paint...

Once again...I have way too much fun...

The details below are just as pretty up close...

Sunday, October 12, 2008

New work

Nocturne, October 9, 2008
color pencil, pencil, and watercolor on Stonehenge paper, 8 x 8 inches

I love green...can't you tell?

River of Fallen Stars, October 4, 2008, colored pencil, pencil, and watercolor on Stonehenge paper, 8 x 8 inches

A smaller version of the big one that was sold this summer...

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Drawing from Nature

The drawing is "I Want More Out of Life", September 26, 2008, pencil...lots of heavy 9B black, smudges (accidental and on purpose), a smattering of hard leads carved in to model the blacks...the push and pull of layers, opposing forces, order and chaos...

The two photos are studies that I've made from the things I found around the yard, the dried grass coiled and laid on the weathered wood of the porch floor, the evening light raking across it, the strong verticals of the wood grain, and then the classic beauty of a snail shell...shapes and lines that catch my eye and wind up repeated in my drawings and paintings...

Inspiration all around!

Me and Fibromyalgia...the good news is, it's not going to kill me.

I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2007 after years of being told my illness was all in my head. My Fibro is everyday fatigue with body aches, mostly tolerable, but when I have a flare-up, which can be triggered by stress, hormones, or being over tired from over-doing it, I get the full body pain, including chest pains (yes, these are scary, like an elephant standing on my chest.) Thankfully, it doesn't hurt to take a breath, but I feel breathless, I just do yoga and breathing exercises to stretch and breathe to ease through the worst of it, NSAIDs help to cut the pain, and naps are always a necessary thing when needed (but hard to do while at the day job!) It's a balancing act to manage, I take advantage of the good days, lay low on the bad ones, and very often, push through in spite of the bad days...some mornings I wish I could stay in bed, but I'm glad that I get up and about, very often 'the kinks' work themselves out. I refuse to take the recommended pharmaceutical band-aids on the market, I tried one once, and I don't like feeling like a zombie. I keep active with my creativity, I think that's the key to my overcoming this obstacle every day...and I have my Fred and our son, five cats, and one dog named Max.