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

st. john

Cinnamon Bay, 22x38, oil

This is from the park where we camped at St. John- Cinnamon Bay National Park a few years ago.  I took a early walk each morning when it was quiet.  The clouds though were already on the move rising with the heat of the day.  I've started covering the first layer of acrylic paint with a medium that has very fine sand in it.  Then I finish the painting in oil.  The medium gives the painting a little texture and subtly changes the way the paint moves when it is applied.  It has more drag- dry brush effect. Here is the pastel sketch I worked from:

time

Domestic and Wild Metronomes                                        

                                                                            

 After years of digital

I have a moonbeam clock

in the bedroom now

the sound touch 

is kitten soft.  I only hear it

when it's quiet

and I'm awake.

A metronome, external heartbeat,

time is divided into seconds

with chef's knife precision.

This morning outside my window

a cardinal spoke with insistent language

a repetitive message

similar in frequency and volume

to my quietly ticking clock.                                               

As I woke I heard

first one and then the other

their voices overlaid each other

then alternated.

I, dipping in and out of sleep

surfaced finally to look out

at the blue light

of early morning.

It's snowing today, tiny sleet and narrow slivers for snowflakes. 

urban sketching

Or in my case small town sketching.  I have been very inspired by the urban sketchers website and decided to begin sketching Fredericksburg.  My goal is at least one drawing a week.  As I look more carefully at the houses around town I've noticed many of them have plaques with names and dates that I can research and learn more about the history of ordinary people in this town.  

I

micron pen, watercolor, 1 hour

I sketched with a friend yesterday while sitting in front of Hyperion coffee shop.  The house across the street is 312 William Street and the little building next to it is Vivify, a new hamburger place.   I found out that Robert Ellis (1781-1843) owned a large milling business, and construction business.  He built and owned this residence.  He was buried in the Fredericksburg Masonic Cemetery.

 

new work

Here is the painting finally:

Hyacinthe Fields, 30x40

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are two new pastels: