Tag: Pen and Ink

Categories
Drawing Flower Art Gardening Glass Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Zen & First Spring Roses

First spring roses

Ink & watercolor, 9×6″ (larger)

When I picked these roses yesterday evening, they were heartbreakingly fresh, new and beautiful. I put them in a vase of water in the kitchen, planning to paint them today. This morning I found them laying on the counter where they’d obviously been without water too long and looked limp.

Either they jumped out of their vase or my cats had a hand (er… paw) in their escape. After a few hours back in water they plumped right back up and were a joy to draw. I only had about an hour and that was just enough time to make a happy ink and watercolor.

But why do I feel so sad seeing the beauty of my seven rose bushes and thick patch of irises all loaded with flowers? It’s as if I’m already mourning their demise, knowing how temporary their burst of color and vibrancy is before winter comes again.

Is it my enhanced awareness of the cycle of life and death as I approach one of those milestone birthdays this June? Or is that time seems to be moving so fast these days that I can picture the blooming season flying by like those time-lapse films where the flowers sprout, bloom, shrivel and die within moments.

Instead of feeling sad about their demise (and my own, for that matter), I need to remember the Buddhist teaching of being in the present moment, accepting that everything changes, everything dies; that desire and clinging cause suffering and that letting go relieves it.

So with that, I will allow my flowers to live and die as nature sees fit (as if I had any other choice!), and will enjoy them while they’re here. I’ll try to make the most of my own moments while I’m here too, with as much acceptance as I can. And maybe I’ll finally return to my Zen meditation practice which always brought me such joy and peace, and made all of life more vibrant.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Greatful vs Grateful & Terrific Tools: Toto Toilet

TOTO WC

Ink & Kremer watercolors (larger)

I’m probably going to regret this post tomorrow so I apologize in advance if you find the image unsavory. It’s just that I was so tired tonight all I wanted to do was curl up with a good book and a big bowl of popcorn. To avoid the carb overload and squeeze in a little fun after a long work day, I tried to inspire myself to draw a bit. Looking for a subject, I wandered through the house and saw my shiny, excellent Toto toilet.

I highly value competence, good design, and well-made tools (from cars to combs, to clocks to computers–anything that helps manage my daily life I consider a tool). My Toto toilet is a terrific tool. It never has the problems my other WC does (which requires keeping a plunger nearby it at all times).

Here are some other tools I use and appreciate regularly for their great design and functionality: Soltek easel, iPhone, Toyota RAV 4, electric teakettle, Canon MP610 Scanner/Printer, TiVo, Canon Power Shot SD800IS camera, Photoshop, caller ID, Cheap Joes Golden Fleece brushes for watercolor and Robert Simmons Signet brushes for oil, ancient Eagle Creek backpack, my slippers, my bed…

Just writing this list makes me realize how lucky I am and how much I have to be grateful for, and this is just in the tools department, not the really important stuff of life, like friends, family and health.

That’s the great thing about drawing. I start out grumpy and tired and end up feeling grateful. So maybe I won’t regret this post after all.

One last thing: why is grateful spelled “grate” and not “great?” Grate is what you do with cheese or carrots. Great means good. Full of great makes more sense than full of grate.

OK, I had to look it up on Dictionary.com, another wonderful tool:

  • Grate in grateful comes from the Latin, grātus, which means pleasing.
  • Grate (framework of metal bars) comes from L crāt- (s. of crātis) which means wickerwork, hurdle or crate.
  • Grate (as in grating cheese or grating on your nerves) originally comes from German, kratzen to scratch.
  • GREAT comes from Groat, which was a silver coin of England, equal to four pennies, issued from 1279 to 1662 and which was larger than other coins in former use.

Oh the poor English learners! What a complex melting pot the English language is!

Categories
Drawing Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Hotel Mac, Pt. Richmond Plein Air

Hotel Mac, Pt. Richmond, Ink & Watercolor

Ink & watercolor, 8×6″ (larger)

When we had all our paintings lined up to view after our plein air paint-out today, a very cheery homeless man passed by, examined everyone’s work, and announced that my oil painting (below) was the only one he would buy, repeating this several times. It wasn’t as high praise as one of the others in the group got: this is the third week in a row she’s sold her painting right off her easel!

I started the day with the oil painting below, trying to make use of some of the color mixing theory I’ve been studying. I was hungry to do some more detailed drawing too, so after the critique, I put away my painting gear and got out my sketchbook to do the ink and watercolor above.

Hotel Mac, Pt. Richmond, Oil

Oil on panel, 8×10″ (larger)

Brick buildings are rare in California as they do not tend to survive earthquakes. But Hotel Mac, this three-story, red brick building in Pt. Richmond, a quaint, bayside community, was built in 1911, and must have weathered many quakes over the years.

Pt. Richmond is only a 15 minute drive from my house but I’d never been there before. I was pleasantly surprised by this little town on a hill. The street is lined with charming cafes and just over the hill is a huge, beautiful waterfront park (Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline) with gorgeous views of San Francisco across the water, a lagoon, and a railroad museum. I’m definitely going back there to paint again!

Categories
Drawing Faces Painting People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings Watercolor

I just love to draw

BART riders

Ink & watercolor in Strathmore Drawing 6×8″ sketchbook (larger)

A tall, overstuffed, nerdy guy sat down beside me on the commute home, opened his laptop and started watching a bloody horror movie. It was one of those movies with a creepy doll in it.

I turned away from him, tired from my first day back at work after being home with a cold,  and feeling disgusted by what I saw on his screen. But once I started drawing, I just felt happy.

I added watercolor this evening at home and that made me feel happy too. I really like this sketchbook paper for drawing with ink and then adding light watercolor washes. Although I usually prefer Cheap Joes inexpensive Golden Fleece watercolor brushes, tonight I grabbed an old friend: the first watercolor brush I ever bought: a Winsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brush, with peeling paint, loose ferrule and no point.

I’m glad to be 2/3 over my cold, out of my pajamas, showered and dressed after a couple of days of being housebound with no energy to do any of the above.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Still Life for a Spring Cold

Still Life for a Spring Cold

Brown Micron Pigma ink and watercolor in homemade sketchbook, 5×7″ (larger)

Need I say more?

I had a quiet, restful weekend, got enough sleep, didn’t stand out in the wind painting, and what do I get for it? A cold! That will teach me to slow down. Maybe if I just keep moving as fast as I usually do, always staying busy, the darn bugs don’t have a chance to take hold. The minute I slowed down they went to work.

Or maybe the cold was already taking hold and that’s why I chose quiet indoor painting this weekend?

With some Vitamin C, tea with lemon, and chicken soup, I’m usually able to kick a cold in 24 hours. That’s what I’m counting on this time.

Categories
Drawing Faces Other Art Blogs I Read People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

More Portrait Swaps: Andy (& Nel again)


Andy

ANDY by JANA
Ink & watercolor, Aquabee sketchbook, 12×9″ (larger)

Andy of “Drawn to Running” emailed me and invited me to do a portrait swap with him. I think he’s quite adorable and looks like someone with a very kind heart. I exaggerated in my sketch of him but had great fun doing the drawing, which was a relief after my struggles in the studio earlier this week.

Here’s his excellent portrait of me: an amazing likeness!:

Andy\'s portrait of me

JANA by ANDY

I’m still working on painting Nel and I’m determined to succeed to capture her image from one particular photo without making her look unattractive, which she most definitely is not! Here is another attempt (3rd of those I did today, the first two not worth posting!).

NEL #6
Ink & watercolor, Aquabee sketchbook, 12×9″ (larger)

Nel 6

Drawing in Sharpie is great fun. You have to move quickly or it starts to bleed; you can’t erase, just have to redraw the lines. I enjoy this kind of “take a chance and go” drawing and quick painting so much more than careful labored work these days.

Categories
Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Help! My House is Haunted! (A true mystery)

Haunted Bird Clock

Ink and watercolor in Aquabee sketchbook (larger)

When my father was dying several years ago, I flew to Maine to help with his care and say goodbye. I arrived in late October, on a warm, fall day, and he was still eating and talking and trying to finish his last book, which I helped him edit those final days. When I left a week later on Halloween, winter had arrived with an icy blast and everything was covered in snow. He died two days later, on All Souls Day.

Before I left, the only thing of his I asked to take was his bird clock, pictured above. It chimed with the call of a different bird each hour from the wall above his writing desk. Even though the birds are now all faded to pale gray, I’ve had it on my wall ever since. Until this week, that is…when it apparently led to the haunting of my house.

I never was able to get the proper birds to chime on their designated hour. The two owl calls were supposed to chime at 6 and 12 but when the hands pointed to the Oriole it played the call of an owl, and when it pointed to an owl you might hear a blue bird or a cardinal. But I digress…back to the haunting.

A week ago, at exactly 4:00 a.m. I was awakened by the sound of the owl calling out from the clock: “Whooo whoo whoo. Whoo whoo whoo. Whoo whoo whoo.” The clock has a light sensor and is not supposed to chime in the dark, and had never done so before. I got out of bed and walked toward the clock in the dining room, but the sound stopped before I could reach it. The next day, groggy from disturbed sleep, I removed the batteries that control the bird calls.

But the next morning at exactly 4:00 a.m. the same thing happened again. I removed the last battery. The clock stopped and I put it on a shelf in another room.

The next morning at exactly 4:00 a.m.: “Whoo whoo whoo…etc.” I lay in bed wracking my brain trying to come up with what else could be making that sound but could think of nothing.

That day I put the clock in my garage, which is down a long driveway from the house. The next morning, 4:00 a.m., the owl was back, singing away from my dining room, without need of clock or batteries.

owl.jpg

(Click “Continue Reading” below for the rest of the story.)

Continue reading “Help! My House is Haunted! (A true mystery)”
Categories
Drawing Faces Other Art Blogs I Read People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Portrait Party Pics Part I

1st Sketch of N.

Nel in Sharpie and watercolor in Aquabee 12×9″ sketchbook (larger)

Two art blogger friends and I are swapping portraits for the Portrait Party‘s Happy Birthday Party. You can see there pictures of me here on Nel’s blog and here on Rita’s Flickr page.
Anyone can join in the drawing fun. Just grab a friend and sketch each other; follow the directions here. To be included in the Happy Birthday Party contest, you need to submit your sketch to the Portrait Party by March 31.

1st Sketch of R.

RITA in Sharpie and watercolor in Aquabee 12×9″ sketchbook (larger)

My painting group met at my studio tonight and we finally caught up with each other after a month of way too much busyness to meet regularly. Lea finished illustrating her latest children’s book (which I think is going to become a classic) and shipped the last of the paintings off to her publisher. Susie shared some beautiful watercolors from her trip to Hawaii. Sharon was working on an abstract watercolor and while she painted, Judith surreptitiously sketched her. To get even, Sharon did a quick watercolor of Judith.

Then we uploaded their portrait swaps (below) to the Portrait Party. On the left is Judith’s sketch of Sharon. Sharon’s quick watercolor of Judith is on the right. They both captured each other’s essences in a powerful way.

2362446255_ed9630a476_o.jpg 2362446327_7fba9dc46b_o.jpg
(click images to enlarge)

It’s been a while since I’ve sketched with those very unforgiving Sharpies and it was fun and somehow liberating to just start drawing and see where I ended up and then loosely add watercolor. I was working from photos I was sent by N. and R. I’ve never met either of them in person but I find it’s often easier drawing someone I don’t know intimately. One of the photos N. sent me was so intriguing that I plan to attempt a more serious portrait from that image later.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Time to Reflect Without TV

Carved folding Buddhas-inside

Ink in Moleskine (Larger)

This is a pocket-sized, hand-carved, portable altar. From the outside, when it’s closed, it appears to be two hands in prayer (see below). When you open it there are two serene Buddhas in meditation. (Unfortunately in my drawing they look less than serene.)

Carved folding Buddhas-outside

(Larger)

I watched no TV today and was astonished by how much more time I had, and everything I was able to fit into the day. Instead of watching TV while I ate my meals I read the art magazines I subscribe to but had barely glanced at. As soon as a meal was done I was up and off to something else instead of sitting and finishing watching a TV show.

After lunch, instead of having my afternoon cup of coffee in front of the TV, I sat on my sunny back porch and reflected on this and that, watching my baby hydrangeas grow. That’s when it struck me how little time I’ve been spending with my mind free to wander and ponder.

When I was a kid I loved to lay on my back in the grass and watch the clouds drift by, seeing different creatures in them. As an adult, I had a Zen meditation practice that got squeezed out of my schedule a few years ago. Somehow TV had gradually taken the place of that kind of open, meditative time. Now, without TV, it feels like there’s time for real relaxation and getting things done.

Today I finally cleaned up the junk I’d piled on the counter in the studio kitchen months ago and had been ignoring. This evening, when I gathered up the sketchbooks that had piled up on my drawing table, I discovered a Moleskine with only two blank pages left. Today’s sketch is of one of the items that needed putting away from the kitchen. Now I’ve finished the kitchen and the sketchbook and a really great day.

Categories
Drawing Faces Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Life: NOT as Seen on TV

NOT as seen on TV

Ink & watercolor (Larger)

“Life is what passes you by while you’re watching TV.” I used to have a little sign on my TV with those words, but back then it was a reminder to my kids, not to me. Now I need it for me.

I was chatting with my friend Lin [View from the Oak] about our struggles to find time for everything. Lin manages to paint or sketch every day, post it on her illustrious blog AND leave wonderfully encouraging comments on countless other blogs, all while working a grueling schedule and making time for her husband, offspring and grandbabies.

It occurred to me later that day: I bet Lin doesn’t watch TV! It turns out I was right. Other than the art videos she watches while on her treadmill, she rarely watches TV. She said that sketching IS her TV, her way to relax.

I used to be like that too but somehow, over time, TV has insidiously infiltrated my life. I turned to it as a way to relax when my brain was tired from thinking hard all day at work. But it puts me in a stupor so I just watch another show instead of doing something more satisfying (or just going to bed when what I really need is sleep).

Now it’s time to pull the plug! I may even cancel my cable and TiVo subscriptions and go cold turkey for a while. I bet that not only will I gain time and save money (on cable and TiVo bills), I might even lose a couple extra pounds, since watching TV often leads to snacking on empty calories while burning none!

Have you successfully quit TV? If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them!