I am an artist who loves (and lives) to sketch and paint in watercolor, gouache, oils and digitally.
Michael made a delicious Father's Day brunch with the help of Nora, Kevin and Maeve. The orange scented pancakes and oatmeal/cherry scones with cherry jam were heavenly. What joy to sit around the table and learn from the wit and wisdom of his offspring, to talk about music and art and to see them blooming and succeeding on their chosen paths.
The photos for the Weekend Drawing Event on Wet Canvas this weekend came from a "smallholding" (a small farm) in Newfoundland, Canada. I've been doing a lot of loose and free sketching lately so it was fun to focus on the details of the crenulations around his bill. They call him B.D. for Big Duck and he's a Muscovy. It's so much fun having a different person post pictures from their life from different parts of the world each week, and then seeing the paintings the members of the group have made from the photos they've chosen. In just the past few weeks we've had photos from the Netherlands, the Virgin Islands, a farm in North Dakota, and now Newfoundland. I've heard of armchair travel books where you just READ about traveling…I guess this is armchair painting!
Polar Bears: Dancing on Thin Ice
Polar Bears are at risk of extinction due to global warming-related starvation (they can’t get to their food all spring and summer as the ice retreats). If the current rate of ice shrinkage and related weight loss continues, bears may become so thin by 2012 (SIX YEARS FROM NOW!) that they may no longer be able to reproduce. “Once the population stops reproducing, that’s pretty much the end of it,” said Dr. Lara Hansen, chief scientist, World Wildlife Fund. Click here for some surprisingly easy and simple things that individuals can do to make a difference (on the “Inconvenient Truth” Climate Crisis website). Let’s do what we can before it’s too late!
Today was my last day of work until July 5! I'm really happy to have wonderful weather, good health again at last, and more than two weeks of time to just wallow in Jana's world, enjoying painting, relaxing and playing. After dinner I looked out my window saw that the sweet kids next door had their tricycles lined up in my driveway. Before I could draw the third one the little girl rode off on it. So there's only two in my sketch. Yippee anyway! (Micron pen, watercolor pencils in Moleskine watercolor notebook.)
I met my photographer friend Mike for lunch today and we took our cameras for a walk near Lake Merritt and Snow Park. He was teaching me how to take pictures without looking at the camera, just holding it at our waists and shooting, trying to get our subject in the lens–it's really hard to do! I took a picture (using normal method) of this fellow wearing 3 hats and knickers, carrying a chair and a conversation with himself. I liked the contrast with the guys in suits in the background. I did this drawing in my sketchbook at home from the photo with ink and watercolor. I think I'll make a full-sized watercolor painting of it later.
I dreamt Jennifer Aniston was giving a party dressed in a life jacket and matching mini-skirt–another new fashion trend seen first in my dreams? First Bling Bling suspenders, now life-jacket party wear. Meanwhile, my blind neighbor sent her German Shepherd out for a chicken sandwich. (I don't have a blind neighbor.) Amazing what those guide dogs can do! I have no idea what this dream means (other than don't eat popcorn at bedtime).
Marsha was cleaning up her garden and had a couple hydrangeas she didn’t want anymore so she brought them over and we planted them in my barren side yard.
Once we got them planted I decided to sit and draw one even though it was very wilted and shaggy looking and the sun was setting.
Hopefully they’ll like their new home and will make pretty blue popcorn ball flowers for me. I used to think hydrangeas were plants for old ladies but now I think they’re cool!….uh oh…are they cool or am I just turning into an old lady?
Busby taking a Sunday afternoon nap on the studio window seat and giving off that addictive kitty-sleep aura that always makes me want to snuggle in and take a nap too. (Quick sketch–Ink & watercolor in Moleskine watercolor notebook).
Here's this week's Wet Canvas Weekend Drawing Event post. The original photos available for painting this weekend all had that grey sky look that I'm so familiar with here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's been winter again in my neighborhood for days–nothing but gray foggy skies and constant wind blowing in from the Bay.
When I was in the rainforest in Costa Rica several years ago I saw what looked like a long green ribbon trailing through the jungle. It turned out to be leaf cutter ants that chew off and carry pieces of leaf that weigh at least 20 times their own body weight–like a human carrying a tractor. Leaf-cutter ants don't eat the leaves–they use the leaves to feed fungus that they cultivate and eat (yum). They live in colonies with three to eight million ant buddies. A friend of mine who lived in a small town in Guatemala for a year had problems with leaf cutter ants coming into their little house and stealing their vegetables piece by piece. Since the jungle had been cleared in their area, the ants had learned to shop for their greens in people's kitchens–made easier since there were no refrigerators and the produce was sitting out on the table. And I thought I had an ant problem! (Ink and watercolor in Moleskine watercolor notebook.)
Jana Bouc, Artist 
