new work

Buena Vista, Colorado, PASTEL

Here is the oil painting from the pastel sketch of the yellow house

St. George, Bermuda, PASTEL

experimentation in sketching

     I drew all the time for fun as a child, at home, at school, mostly animals.  In second grade I was obsessed with horses and drew them constantly.  Somewhere along the way I lost that.  Not enough time as an adult, or maybe it just didn't seem like it served a purpose so I dropped it.  Recently I've been inspired  looking at the urban sketching website to get back to an old love.  The nice bound sketchbooks that can be kept and serve as a personal record of my life sort of give the endeavor a sense of the purpose I seem to long for.  I'm using a large watercolor sketchbook as a place to record thoughts and events and to just play at the end of the day.  I feel joy in sweeping a brush across the page, just for fun.  Really it's doodling with paint.  What could be more fun than that? 

     I draw or paint things that have significance for me and probably nobody else outside my family.  Like my new paintbrush.  I like using an enormous fuzzy mural brush that I bought about ten years ago.  Recently the bristles have come loose so I decided it was time to get a new one.  

     I have always been interested in houses.  I want to use drawing as a way to look closer.  I was given A Field Guide to American Houses for my birthday and am working on learning to recognize the different styles and what time period they were built in.  I'm also exploring a variety of mediums to sketch in.  The brushes were done with a micron pen and a little watercolor.  This house was painted with two Pentel brush pens that I loaded with ink in two different strengths.

     I love the beauty of ink brushwork.  I've taken one lesson so far with a friend who is a master of Asian watercolor, Hsi Mei Yates.  I admire the economy of brush stroke and graceful line that is possible.  I have a lot to learn! 

  

And I still love sketching animals!   Ballpoint pen in a cheap notebook

yellow houses in Bermuda

pastel

oil