a slender fellow in the grass

This fellow was sleeping under an up-turned flower pot in my yard. He stayed still just long enough for me to sketch him, then slithered off into the leaves. It was almost as if he waited for me to finish his portrait.

A sad day in the neighborhood

This baby squirrel had been hanging around my yard for a few days and Saturday I spent a couple hours phographing and sketching him. He had a crippled right front paw and didn't run or climb very well. I fed him pieces of apple and he stayed close by. I went inside for a few minutes and heard my nextdoor neighbor yelling frantically at his dog. I knew what had happened. The little squirrel's back was broken but he was still alive so I got the shovel and put him out of his misery. With his crippled foot, I know he wouldn't have lasted very long but is was horrible to have to kill him after spending so much time with him. Needless to say, I had a good cry.

Photos from 33rd SketchCrawl

Here are photos of the sketch crawlers from Saturday.

My sketch from the 33rd International Sketchcrawl

There were 6 of us and we started out in Market Square. I chose to sketch the backs of the row of shops that face William Street. There was a lot to sketch and I plan to go back. Beautiful day and lots of fun. I had pulled a back muscle but I didn't feel it as long as I was sketching. Talk about therapy! If you are interested in seeing more sketches from yesterday's crawl, be sure to check out the forum at www.sketchcrawl.com
There were people from all over the world and there is some fantastic work. Just be warned--it's addictive!

33rd Sketch Crawl

Just thought I'd mention the next International Sketch Crawl date is Saturday, October 15. We're crawling in Fredericksburg if you'd like to join us. Meet at Hyperion at 10 a.m. Write me if you've got questions. Check it out at http://www.sketchcrawl.com

Greek Church

These are tracing paper sketches I did for the painting of the Greek Church below. It is a long and tedious exploration (and I haven't even included all the sketches), but in the long run, it made for a better painting.


Here is the final outcome. It was done on hot-press illustration board using watercolors mixed with white gouache to make them opaque. The sky took 6 layers of paint to get the coverage I wanted. I think it was worth the trouble. The painting is 4 1/2 " x 3".

(Note to Phil: hope this helps explain my email ;-)

End of Summer

As summer begins to fade here in Virginia, I often cut flowers and leaves to bring inside to extend the season. I'm taking an online course in water-color pencils with Cathy Johnson and had great fun layering the colors in this sketch trying to match the coleus.

August 28th--the day after Irene

This poor dragonfly got wrecked in the hurricane. I found him clinging to a branch unable to fly.

Sacred Datura

This is a sketch I did yesterday of the Datura plant in my front yard. I counted 40 buds on it! It blooms at night and smells like vanilla. The seed pods it's named for have not developed yet but I will add them to this sketch when they do. The Latin name is Datura inoxia and is sometimes called downy thorn apply (from the Hindi dhatura), Indian apple, and sacred Datura.

32nd International Sketch Crawl

Yesterday was the 32nd sketch crawl and 2 of us ventured out into the heat. We lasted a few hours and here are my pages.

sketch crawl pg. 1

sketch crawl pg. 2

Catitude

This is a little painting of Alice I did at camp this summer. That's her signature look.

Red-spotted Purple Butterfly

This fellow was in the parking lot at work the other day. The top of his wing was iridescent purple/blue and the under side was dark with orange-red spots. So different and so beautiful.

A leaf for Elizabeth

My friend Elizabeth commissioned me to paint this Japanese Maple leaf for her grand-daughter. I have about 12 glazes on this little painting.

WV weekend

Here are some sketches I made this past weekend in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.

Another Botanical Workshop

I took another botanical illustration class with Lara Gastinger at the wonderful William Cox Inn. This time we worked on spring flowers and I attempted a native columbine. I didn't have as much luck with it as I did with the seed pods in the Fall but it was still lots of fun. Unlike the dried seed pods, the flower kept changing so that by the end of the workshop, it was rather sad looking. I guess the trick is to paint on site and don't pick the flower. And work fast. I will not be posting an image of this painting. You'll just have to wait until I do a better one.

Abstract, abstractus, abstracti

I finally got an image of the abstract I did in Steve Griffin's workshop. It was accepted (along with another one) in the Abstract Show for May at the FCCA. Thank you Steve!!! I titled it Ode to the Gryphon. Hopefully someone will "get it."

Beware the Ides of March

That is today, isn't it? I'm just so excited that it's almost spring, I'm already way beyond March.
Have done some fun things since my last post. I took an abstract painting workshop with Steve Griffin a few weeks ago. It was a real stretch for me--abstracts, acrylic paint, large format...
I really kind of enjoyed it. Acrylic still is not my favorite medium but it worked for this application. I even did one that I might enter in an upcoming show but best of all, I'm now thinking about doing another one. I've been planning it in my head but it probably won't end up looking anything like I expect. That's kind of what I like about abstracts--there's always a surprise. Maybe that's just because I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but I like being a beginner.
I'm also going to teach an Illustrated Journaling class in June. Just a quick, one-day workshop but I'm hoping it will get more people interested in sketching. We had a good time at the last Sketch Crawl but it would be more fun with more people.
I'll post my abstracts for your to see soon. I'd just like to do one or two more, so stay tuned.

30th International Sketch Crawl

Hi everyone! I just uploaded the four pages from my sketch book from yesterday's 30th International Sketch Crawl (Fredericksburg's 3rd). There were four of us on the crawl and we had a good time. It was far too cold to work outside (I don't think the temps got above freezing all day) but we found warm, welcoming places inside.

After meeting at the coffee shop, we walked a block to St. George's church and spent some time there. It was a busy Saturday with the altar guild arranging flowers and the cleaning lady sweeping and dusting and the jazz (really!) band rehearsing. Those Tiffany windows are always amazing but with the new organ and new decor, there was lots to see and draw.

From there we went to LibertyTown Arts Workshop where crawler Ruth Ann had a still life set up for us to work on. Risa and I did that for a while then joined Bob in Betsy's studio where I sketched Betsy's work table.

We were going to make our last stop the library but we ran out of time so we all met up at Eileen's and had a lovely lunch. After lunch, Risa and I went to see the realism show at Belmont which was fantastic. It was the 2nd time I had been there for this show and I was even more impressed. Be sure to see it if you get the chance.

I uploaded them a little out of order but couldn't figure out how to rearrange them without re-uploading all of them. If any of you have a clever way to do that, please let me know. Thanks.

Meanwhile, hope you enjoy my sketches below.
P