EDM

I finally got my copy of “Everyday Matters” and stayed up late to read it all. It's really touching; Oh my, what a struggle. I recommend it.

I like the idea that when you draw, you really slow down, your brain clears, and all you concentrate on is your subject. You see things that you hadn’t realized or noticed before – sort of like when you have to walk through a street that you normally pass by in a car. In slowing down, you manage to see more of it, concentrate on it, and can see the beauty in all of it.

But, I’m fighting the idea of drawing with pen and ink (it forces you to commit to a line). I have to do plenty of this for work; it’s so precise. I like the idea of soft pencil gradations, the fuzziness of it all. With the ink, I find myself feeling like adding words, commenting. Or is it all Danny G’s doing? An emulation? Or an inspiraton? I dunno. It sort of just comes out. I squirm internally and fight it, but I’ll give it a bit of a go, since it seems to be tapping into something a little bit different. I’ll admit that even at work, I’m enjoying the coloring and especially the shading parts of it all, prismacolors and graphite pencils. I might do a bit more pen work, but I just can’t resist the temptation to add in backgrounds, shading.. I’ve become a bit compulsive about it lately, enjoying my black and white prismacolor pencils.

But I'll give it a go.

Lookit me!

Danny Gregory's post on the Olvera St sketchcrawl.
Click here, or the photo

Happy Easter

No matter how long the winter,
spring is sure to follow.
-Proverb

Rain

It had been a long week at work, and I’d been spending my time after dinner either at the gym or in the jacuzzi, and that's about all my brain could deal with. And then there’s all this rain, too. I had Joy come over, and we headed off to sit and soak, two tired design gals. I don’t bother turning on the bubbles for the jacuzzi and enjoy just having the quiet. For whatever reason, the water circulation pump was off as well, so the water was absolutely still. It’s amazing how clear the water can be when it’s that still, lit from beneath the surface. And then, it started to rain. Joy and I figured we were wet anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt to stay a bit.

Then we saw this:

The rain would hit the surface of the water, bouncing back droplets in response. Ripples spread across the water, breaking the calm, a pattern of circles, with a certain lulling rhythm. Joy noticed that if you held your hand, palm up, just at the surface of the water, you could feel the cold drops, falling, while the rest of your hand remained nice and warm.

We both thought, “Wow, how cool is this?”

It’s the everyday things that, when you let them unfold on their own, often present the greatest treasures of all.

More painting

A little more playing with images that I have in my mind. I'm thinking I need to go back to playing with watercolors, to let the water control the blending of the pigment a bit, or .. with acrylics, to let each successive layer dry a bit more permanently than either gouache or watercolor... I'm trying to work with subtle transparent layers and I find myself struggling with idea of glazing on gouache, without glopping on too much water. I hear, "Glaze, Wendee! Glaze", over and over.
[sigh] We'll see.

The breezy grass scene is a study of something I've had in my mind, actually, for quite a while. When it's all said and done, I'll have added some sheer 'curtains' (actual fabric) to the actual "real" painting, to give one of my close friends one more window at his place. Inspite of my apparent struggle with working with gouache, I did find myself thinking that I really need to start working on larger boards, start committing to "real" versions.

There are more from this session, actually, but I need to spend some time writing up one particular story... Stay tuned.

Huntington Sketch Crawl

Wow, it’s been a while. I’ve been working too hard, and alternately running too hard (by choice!), or just plain distracted. So, I’d say that the trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens was well-timed. Five of us lingered in the Shakespeare Garden, the Japanese Garden, and enjoyed all the cactus plants in the Australian Garden. The weather turned out to be bright and warm and we enjoyed a good break in the rain as well. The time went really quickly, and all of a sudden, we were being ushered towards the entrance in time for closing.

So much more left to see, even though I’ve been there before. There’ll be a return trip to enjoy the gardens more fully, and the artwork as well…



My photos and sketches are posted on my flickr site

And more from the group:
Robin’s
Karen’s SketchCrawl, Shakespeare’s Garden, and Cactus/Australian Garden.

While you're waiting ..

.. for the Huntington Sketch Crawl photos and sketches:

Ken will think, "Fine. Just fine".
Robin will think, "Oh, Wendee's been to the beach again".





And I'd have to say:
"Well, yeah. See? All this makes it easy to be inspired to paint",
"Yup. Again. Someday I'll think about bringing my paint along. But today ... isn't that day..."

A nice start to a good, long, really great day.
:)


More photos on my Flickr site.