Merry Christmas

Thank you all for your visits and comments. I love that you stop by. I'm sorry to have been gone for most of December. I'll explain after the holidays.
These are Christmas Fairies that hang on our living room tree. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year!

"On the Road Again"

These are the last of the most recent travel sketches. On the road to Ohio, a seven hour drive, we ran into lake effect snow. The first snow of the season for us.

Since we moved to the midwest - twenty five years ago(!) - I've been fascinated with the skies. I remember my first impression-the sky is so big and the trees are so small!

"The Morning Fog May Chill the Air - I Don't Care"

More from San Francisco-




Most of these sketches were done on the run and completed from memory. We don't get to San Francisco often enough but with a grandchild on the way we'll get there more frequently I'm sure!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We got back from San Francisco and took off the next day for Ohio. Now we're home and busy getting ready for Thanksgiving.

One of the many things I have to be thankful for is a love of drawing. I love to draw and I love looking at other people's drawings. That makes me thankful for all of you who stop by and comment on my sketches and for all of you who generously share your work online.

I did a little sketching while I was away- not a much as I hoped but more than I thought! I'll post more soon.

What a Difference a Year Makes-We'll See

I'm off to San Francisco for a few days. I hope I get lots of sketching done. This is a sketch I did last year at this time in the car in Napa. It will be interesting to see if I am braver and more disciplined after sketching more in public over the year. We'll see.

Before Her Time

I come from a long line of very strong women. As the saying goes-
"Strong women-
may we know them,
may we raise them,
may we be them."

Today would have been my mother's eighty-fifth birthday. This is a sketch I did of her in 1997. Happy Birthday, Mother. Thank you!

Delicious EDM #194

Whenever my husband goes away on business I indulge in a passion we don't share, baked sweet potatoes. Sometimes I eat them with sour cream and nutmeg (the spice not my cat, though she does keep me company) and sometimes just with butter.

Happy Halloween!

This is a sketch I did as one of the exercises from Christina Lopp and Gay Kreager's DVD "Beginning Watercolor Journaling".

It's also EDM #38-draw something Halloween. May your day be filled with treats!

A Trio of Pears

VIrtual sketch date had a photo of very interesting pears as the subject this month. The image was from Belinda Lindhardt . Thanks Belinda!

One of these days I'll learn to deal with the background. I think if I use a bigger brush it would help. I still enjoyed doing this watercolor. It was challenging to work with these colors.

Clap for Me

Last night I went to a book signing at Borders. Isaac Mizrahi was signing his book "How to Have Style". It was great people watching! I'm proud of myself for taking out my sketchbook while we were waiting and actually using it! This summer's Monday sketch group really helped me with my phobia about drawing in public without being hidden from view.

It was a fun evening all around. The sketching results were not so great, but that's O.K. it will get better!

Everything Old is New Again

I'm starting a large project at work so I'm cleaning my studio (still or again?) in preparation. These old Starbuck sketches came to the surface.






When I was in high school, in Newport, RI, we used to stop at a coffee shop everyday on our way down Bellevue Avenue to the bus terminal. On dates we would go to the Ballad Room just off "the Avenue". It was a coffee house that made us feel very hip. LOL. Now I go to Starbucks sometimes with my husband, sometimes with my grandchildren, sometimes by myself and I still love a coffee house and a good cup of coffee!

Let's Hear It for Visual Foodies

Ever since Suzanne posted her peanut and raspberry jelly sandwich my mouth has been watering for one. I managed to save a quarter of mine to sketch. PB&J on whole grain bread and a cup of green tea. Gourmet? No. Good? Yes!

To Everything There is a Season

It seems like only yesterday I was rooting sweet potatoes with my granddaughters and impatiently waiting to plant them outside. This drawing is from a photo of the vines sitting on the window sill waiting for spring. Now I'm relishing the first chill of autumn. I love autumn. For the moment it's my favorite season. There is something about fall - maybe it's years of "the new school year" - that really says Happy New Year to me. Maybe I just love fall clothes but that's another drawing!

Merci!

I must say that bloggers who sketch and paint are amazingly generous and encouraging. Thank you kazumiwannabe for sending this award my way. I will pay it forward soon. I enjoy so many art blogs for so many different reasons it's very hard to choose!

Virtual Sketch Date-Oops

This is a quick (15 minutes) value sketch of the image for September's VSD. For some reason I thought I was supposed to post it on Monday and still had time. Well obviously that wasn't right. I didn't want to be a deadbeat sketcher so I present this meager offering. I was gratified to see some of Richard Scott's lessons have taken root!

October is another month.

I'd Like to Thank My…

Today I received the Arte y Pico award from Starr. What a nice way to start the day!

As many of you know there are a set of instructions/rules that go along with the gift.
They are:
1. Pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico so everyone will know the origin of this award.

It's very difficult to decide to whom to pass the award. There are so many blogs I read regularly, so many I look at in awe and comment on the wonderful artwork. I learn so much and get so much from them all but here goes-the envelope please-

1. Mia-she participates in four (!!!!) blogs and websites, all of them outstanding.
2. Lydia- eclectic and fun.
3. Karen-her journal layouts are so simple and so dynamic.
4. Christie-beautifully written, beautifully drawn.
5.Rachel- I don't know how she does all she does.

Thank you all for sharing your work and thoughts. Thank you, Starr, for visiting my blog.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

Changing purses today I found this remnant (eeew) from a Cubs game on Labor Day weekend. EDM #188 draw a peanut.

Monday at the Zoo

My granddaughters love the zoo. It has become one of my favorite places. Of course when I'm with them there is no time to sketch so my Monday Sketchcrawl was at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a cloudy and cool day. At least it wasn't raining like the last Monday we were there! The sketches were done quickly on gessoed newspaper with the lines pre-drawn. I tore the page and pasted the individual sketches in my "Monday" sketchbook. Not great but definitely fun-
The last one is done right in the sketchbook. It's from a photo on one of the information displays.

9.11.01 Remembered

from September 1, 1936 by W.H.Auden

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
...

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame

Another Day-Another Style

It seems I bounce around a lot as far as drawing style goes. I just pick up a pencil or pen and start, what happens happens. I must be in my adolescent stage of sketching and someday the real me will emerge. I hope so.


These are Fitflops, a great gift from my sister. The construction is based on the walking style of Maasai tribe in Africa. Wearing them exercises your legs and feet. Will they help me attain the Maasai lean and graceful carriage? LOL Talk about hope! Well, they certainly are comfortable.

Pinwheels for Peace

This is a fun and thought provoking project (particularly for you home schoolers). Check out this out on my other blog Remarks from Remarque or Pinwheels for Peace. Enjoy!

Something New

Somehow I stumbled on Virtual Sketch Date and this is my first contribution. I'm sure I found out about it from someone at EDM but I'm sorry I don't remember who. Thank you whoever it was. I really enjoyed doing this.

The reference photo is a beautiful image from Sherrie Roberts. Thank you for letting us use it!

A Tiffany Blue Monday

Our Monday sketch group met at the Chicago Cultural Center. The Classical Mondays Concert Series is held in there in the Preston Bradley Hall. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, beautiful music, the magnificent recently-restored Tiffany dome and mosaics in the hall and sketching.

EDM #52-The Granddog

This is a doodle of Andrew and Genevieve's Burling. He doesn't hold still very long!

The Olympics and EDM# 177

We put these Tibetan Prayer flags on the deck during the opening ceremonies.

Surrealism in Chicago

There is something very surreal about sitting at the beach under a palm tree gazing up at the Hancock Center in Chicago!
We were a smaller group than usual today but I got a lot done. When working in such an open area I struggle with visual editing. This week I managed to work faster, simplify and focus better. Next week I'll try for a little bigger and freer.





It wasn't until I started to scan these sketches that I realized I didn't draw the palm trees and the skyline. That was really the most iconic view. Well that's a quest for another day.

EDM #8

The other day I was talking with some friends about the Norton Museum in Palm Beach and the Iris Apfel, Rare Bird of Fashion, 2007 exhibit. It was also at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan in New York. She's an inspiration and I really enjoyed the show and book. This chat put me in mind of this bracelet, which lead to this sketch and EDM #8- draw your watch or some other piece of jewelry, which led to this post…

Some Days Are Better Than Others

The sun was hot at "The Bean", the beautiful "Cloud Gate" sculpture in Millennium Park. Sat in the shade, hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and light jacket and still my knees (of all things) got sunburned! Slowly but surely I'm beginning to learn to visually edit as I sketch outside. I've been pre-drawing a few boxes on the page and sketching in them on site. That seems to help. I don't know why.

I plan to review my notes from Richard Scott's workshop before next week. As I gain more experience sketching outdoors I expect to get even more from his excellent instruction.



Next week we meet at the beach.

Something Summer

Just as sure as the calendar says it's August the cicadas are singing their summer song. This year it isn't as loud as last year's 17 year concert! EDM#176 draw something summer.

Doodling with a Purpose

Testing Markers-I have more markers-all different brands and sizes! Most are left over from sets where the majority have dried out and have been discarded. I couldn't resist another doodle. EDM# 26.

Still Doodling

I love to look back at old sketchbooks, especially the ones that have odd scraps of paper tucked in between the pages. That's where I found these. The first two are of my granddaughters. I did them last year when we were on a day trip to Wisconsin. Sophie was in her car seat and I was in the "Nana" seat in the back of the van. Morgan is done from memory since I couldn't see her from my vantage point.


This is of a beautiful blown glass bowl that should be displayed on its own but when I saw these red berries I couldn't resist!
It's also EDM #178 - draw something red!

All three fall into the "inchie" category.

Doodling and Dawdling

I am the world's best procrastinator when it comes to keeping my studio/office straightened! Now that it's beginning to look more like a storage room than a work space I guess I should take action and get it done. Rediscovering little bits of inspiration that I found and saved make for a very slow process! Funny, I'm really a very organized person in other aspects of my life.



Stop doodling and dawdling, Barbara, and get back to work. Just do it!