A Wedding Present and other recent drawings

I made this one special for a wedding present for my friend Megan Dunn who just got married last week, I knew that I wanted to do one to add to her collection of other small drawings that I've made for her (one for graduation and one for a going away present on her last day of work)...I'm a sucker for weddings and happily ever after good stuff, so when I soaked this small sheet of Arches watercolor paper, the first stroke was the right side of the heart, which is the only side that I can draw consistently right, I always mess up the left side (I don't know why, it shouldn't be so tough to be symmetrical, or as close as one can get!) Any way...this whimsical little watercolor evolved as I splashed color and water throughout the day of its creation...I sketched a little to define what I needed to define, and then I tagged it at the top with Corinthians 13 just because I felt it was right.




I've been on vacation for a week, it's been nice to have the time to spend making lots of art, I did set up the picnic table studio on Wednesday...it was a paint explosion for a while...I finished nothing but have lots of promising beginnings in the works and reworking of things that languished in limbo...but nothing I want to share just yet... the point of the day was having lots of fun! Fun immeasurable! Favorite beer included.























Oh, yes...two recent drawings...these were made in May...

Pencil...my favorite...

"May" May 12, 2008





















"The Rain is Coming" May 18, 2008

The Little Pieces of "Whimsy"

Some of my favorites are the smallest drawings...done in a 4 x 5 sketchbook that I carry with me every day, many of the images in it are taped off to 3 x 3 size, some spill out beyond that initial border...more often than not, they're pencil drawings, some are colored pencil, some are tinted graphite that have been saturated with water and scumbled with a brush, and then a drawing made over the dried result...

The Heart of Night, 5/27/2007


























The Red Window, 5/29/2007

















The Blue Window, 6/5/2007




The Window's Edge, 6/2007

Each piece pictured here is in a portfolio featured by request at the Contemporary Gallery, 230 Harrison Street, Syracuse NY (they're prettier in person!)

The Opening of Whimsy at The Contemporary Gallery

The opening was fantastic, baked goods were delightful, the tea from the Roji Tea Lounge was heavenly, the art whimsical, and fun was had by all! Thought I'd post the installation shots of our room at the end of the hall...my Fred and I were both very pleased with the arrangement...
Courtney and Roslyn did a good job pulling the space and the art together in such a short span of time...

Mixed Medium Experimentation

This is the fun stuff that I've made lately...started with white acrylic paint slathered on bristol paper leaving behind brush marks and ridges, then I scribbled over it after it dried with the tinted graphite pencils that I adore so much, drenched them with water and squished the brush around to make bubbles, swirls, and other such textures, allowing it to pool and make it's own tide lines...then I let it set up a bit to the almost but not quite dry, and splattered some acrylic and watercolor...let it dry...

I contemplated drawing on them, but left them alone...I didn't want to do anything more with them, I just have enough fun looking at them as is...there's nothing wrong with that, not everything has to be finished...

























Mixed medium experimentation...oh, my goodness, it's always a pleasure!

I will be participating in a group exhibition this summer at the Contemporary Gallery, 230 Harrison Street, Syracuse New York...please click their link for more information about the conception of the gallery, ongoing events, and gallery hours!

Slivers of Time

I promised to show my latest effort with photos of my progress...some of them didn't turn out so good, disappointing, but I salvaged what I could...I set up at the dining room table for this adventure, made a big productive mess...

I taped three sheets of Strathmore watercolor paper 18 x 6 to a drawing board, I used lots of water, lots of gouache, watercolor, and acrylic paints, some color pencil, some pastel shavings, pencil sketching, and I shaved some water soluble graphite with my jack knife into puddles of water where it's dark dark dark...makes for a crusty surface...

The cardboard "ring" on the right is from a finished packing tape roll...makes nice circles, either by tracing with a pencil or stamping into paint and twisting it on the paper...

The pesto jars on the left contain the various colors of thinned washes that I have splashed all over...


Day 1
Day 2



Finished

It was fun making three at a time, I didn't really want them to connect like puzzle pieces, I wasn't going for a triptych, (to tell the truth, I wouldn't want to mat such a thing...I can do it, but if I don't have to do it, I won't choose to do it!) Ah-h, "The Triplets"... funny, like children, each one has it's own personality, just as I had hoped they would...

Celestial Spring series

A little mixed media fun on 140 lb Arches watercolor paper...this one a delicate pale green...there's a lot going on in there...it started off with a wash of watercolor and gouache, then pencil, more watercolor, gouache, and thinned acrylic splashed about, pastel and graphite shavings saturated with water...more pencil...more splashing...

It's play time...

A delicate touch

The First Saturday in May: Eight Belles, 5/3/08

This is a recent drawing, one of my "big ones" 14 x 11, I really enjoyed making the grays as much as I loved making the velvety blacks...I named it after the 2008 Kentucky Derby...

Remember this?

Once upon a time, I had promised to show you the finished product of this gray colored pencil background that I made, so here's the before...




and finally (I just got around to taking the picture) here's the after...




I never really know where my pencil is going to lead me, but the colored pencil made an interesting surface for graphite to glide, it made natural skips, sharp lines, and the black took on a different tone, I will play some more with this technique again...only on a better quality paper, this sheet really took a beating...

Photography...a portrait of a wild daffodil

I'm slowly coming around to the idea that digital cameras are just as good as the old fashioned cameras that I learned on way back when...even though my new digital camera isn't that fancy, more on the low end...but I intend to have fun with it making pictures of the bits of nature in my yard...

This wild daffodil reminds me of the ones I used to pick for my mother when I was a little girl running around in the back woods getting burdocks caught in the fringe of my poncho...sometimes in my hair...


A bit reminiscent of Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers...


Next to blue, yellow is one of my favorite colors to work with...and this little flower had it all in one delicate package...

Which brings me back to this little watercolor...Stream of Consciousness, Yellow from January of 2006...


And Celestial Spring, March 18, 2007...



And Celestial Spring, II from December 2007...



Yellow...

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...