A new drawing...

I started a new drawing on Sunday night...it's been a long time since I made a pencil drawing...I settled in on the couch to watch the Ken Burn's National Parks on PBS and taped out the edges of some smooth finish Bristol paper (9 x 12) and started to make random marks...and then let my pencils go with the flow...
This is a close up of Sunday night's corner...

And this is what I did during last night's episode...one problem with photographing graphite drawings, they shimmer...There is no top or bottom, right or left to this yet...it resolves itself as I move along...

These drawings are very soothing to me, some are successful, some are rambling nonsense with no focal point to anchor the viewers eye...people tell me they get lost in them...I say they give me joy...I can't wait until I get back to this one tonight! When the show ended last night, I wanted to keep going, but I had to stop, I was so tired last night, my Fibromyalgia was really giving me grief all day yesterday...these drawings are my therapy...

Here's some of my most favorite drawings...

A Little Bit Softer Now...2005

Show and Tell, 2005...This little drawing was stolen from the bin at the gallery where my drawings were on display...I'm pissed at the thief...tho' I keep being told I should feel "honored" that someone liked it so much they felt compelled to walk off with it.

Joy, 2006

For Cello, 2007



Spring Nights, 2007


May, 2008

They're all small ones...8 x 10 or less...pencil drawing is my first love...I'll always go back to it to regroup, think about what to do next, or just to play...or go with the flow...

It's a keeper...

Elemental Autumn, Twilight, 9/27/2009, acrylic monotype on sumi paper mounted on canvas. I finally resolved the left side to my satisfaction, it kept changing, and I would like it for a little while, and then...I wanted to do better.

Bones of the Earth, White Stone, 9/26/2009, acrylic monotype on sumi paper mounted on Stonehenge paper, 8 x 8 inches.

This little one...purely accidental. It started out much brighter, and then I messed it up, and then I tried to fix it...made it worse, and then I just went into "oh, f' it" mode and did this and that just to see what I can do while waiting for paint to dry on the others I've been working on...and so...when this stony surface happened with lots of the under coats showing through and the paper texture doing its thing in spite of the layers of washes I had a "that's it!" moment...

My vacation is over...

and the sky was blue as can be...

The best blue ever...I lay flat on my back and stared at that fantastic blue and treasured it...treasured that it is there...I'm seeing it when I need it most...

I spent the day on the porch working on various bits of this and that, taking advantage of the gorgeous September day...it was in the seventies...

...and while lying on my back on the porch floor soaking up some sunshine (and popping my spine back in place, oh, yeah, that felt much better!) I saw these fantastic spirea shadows on one of the pillars...


Work in progress...progressing...yup, this is the one last week that I only wanted to show you the center because the ends were displeasing me so badly...nope, it's not done yet, but almost there...

I'm thinking about working in pastels again...ought oh...I smell new colors coming my way...

I'm still fooling around with my manuscript...yeah, the one I said I'd finish by Labor Day...well, I did...but not quite...I'm on vacation this week so I can take another tour through it again...and I think I will...

Looking...seeing...

I've been wandering the acre looking for inspiration...

...who would'a thought a milkweed leaf could be so fascinating...I spotted it from my window and zoomed in on this bit o' gorgeous color!


...and then I focused on a weathered door with the scratches from a long ago dog wanting to go outside...when I downloaded the pictures I was so happy to see this one!

I have a work in progress on my easel that I'm still thinking about what to do next...

...I love the middle part, the ends I have yet to fall in love with...the soup is on the stove simmering, my paints are within reach...I've done enough work on my manuscript for one day...tho' I keep going back to it...one more look...one more peek...one more change (weren't you done with this thing last weekend? WTF, lady!)...but the painting is calling me...maybe it was something I saw today...

Labor Day labors...

Oh, I've had a fun day...I creatively kicked ass...
Bones of the Earth, Deep Ore, (Labor Day) 9/7/2009, acrylic monotype on sumi paper mounted on canvas, 10 x 10 inches.

I stepped away from my lichen encrusted stones and felt like making something with that lonely tube of vermillion sitting in the box next to everything mossy...the dark is actually the same dark mossy brown/green that I use in the other paintings, it just looks black against the red...

And then I added more bits to the long horizontal that I've been working on...and I'm in love wit it too...

Bones of the Earth, Upstate Fieldstones, (Labor Day) 9/7/2009, acrylic monotype on sumi paper mounted on canvas, 12 x 30 inches.

And I also finished the final touches to my manuscript The Fractured Hues of White Light, I just need to do some formatting and one more pass through with the spell/grammar check before I pass it to my Fred for designing...

It's been a very productive and positive long weekend!

Work in progress...Bones of the Earth

Detail of left side...

I took a break from my editorial work on my manuscript The Fractured Hues of White Light to fool around with my colors...there's still much to do with this canvas (12" x 30"), it's pleasing me so far...lots of little things going on, still some big things necessary to work on...so far so good...I'm lovin' it...for a moment there, I thought I messed up the middle, but I think I pulled it back without losing too much of the pretty stuff that I had going on...tho' (drat), this picture doesn't really do it justice...

Detail of right side...sorry, everything is a bit crooked...

The weather has been gorgeous, so I've been on the porch most of the weekend (when I'm not napping)...I intend to be back out there in the morning...alternating between laptop and studio table...(the book is nearly done, I'm so close! Go to my blog Upstate Girl to read all about it...or read a bit about it.) I'm a bit on a literary high, I just had a reader finish reading my little ghost story Dusty Waters, and she wrote a sweet 5 star review on Goodreads.com (I've been doing little happy dances all day!)