'lavinia' ~ acrylic paint on hardboard, 5" x 7"

underneath lavinia lies almost all of the painting that i did for two weeks.  beneath her are two others that i spent hours - *days* on!   i have *glared* at this piece of hardboard, ha!  

watercolors and liquitex varnish in zecchi journal

i don't remember exactly, but i think lavinia was finished for a few days before i had any interest in painting again.  then one night i woke up and decided to paint in a little watercolor book that had a few blank pages left in it.  i looked at some of henry miller's paintings before i started, and then i painted what came to me.

watercolors and liquitex varnish in zecchi journal

i had so much fun!  effortless!   

watercolors and liquitex varnish in zecchi journal

houses, plants, and more houses...    

i've (carefully) covered these with liquitex satin varnish.  i like the way that it makes them look, and, no amount of water will make them run now.  i ordered kamar spray varnish to use in the future (after much going back and forth - to use toxic spray varnish or not).

i'm quite thoroughly under the spell of watercolors at this moment, and i think one reason is the isabey 3/0 squirrel mop brush that i got a couple of weeks ago.  it's a *joy* to paint with!

 

the small watercolor journal that is now finished.  i started it in 2010...

it was beautiful every day last week so i was out walking.  at this time of year i'm mostly looking for wet weather streams;  they're one of my absolute favorite things.  i like to walk beside them, knowing that in a few weeks they'll be gone.

 i was happy to see the first wildflowers!

 and tiny bones excavated from an owl pellet...

i think of last summer as the 'rust summer' because i found so many rusty cans for drawing on, but this spring/summer is off to a good start!

ruth

last fall i resolved to buy a good daypack - one with a hip belt and one that did *not* make my back sweaty!   i was determined to save up for one, no matter what, but i didn't have to because my sister gave me the pack that i wanted.  it's a mira 26, by osprey, and i've named her ruth.  she makes walking even better...

before i go, a couple of artists that have inspired me lately...   takatoshi sano and pablo auladell.

* * *

"Just as there are days when I can't talk or write French, so there are days when I can't draw at all, even a rectangle.  Itching to paint, nevertheless, I concentrate on color.  If I can achieve the color combinations I am after, to hell with the drawing (I can always go 'abstract' or 'non-quasi-modicus.')  So I begin mixing colors.  If i am in a quiet, patient mood I will lay down thin, transparent washes, working on three or four paintings at once, in order to permit each layer to dry before applying the next.  To work in this manner is a joy.  Though the procedure demands patience it also stimulates the flow of ideas.  One works cautiously and cunningly, as if stalking one's prey..."

~ Henry Miller, 'To Paint is to Love Again'

 'untitled' ~ acrylic paint, marks all pencil and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

i was on a terrific parakeet kick for a few days...  

acrylic paint, marks all pencil, graphite, and oil pastels in old book, 4" x 6"

it was after i painted this girl and felt that i really wanted to branch out.  for a while, anyway...

acrylic paint and marks all pencil in old book, 4" x 6"

inspired by lisa graham's rooms i painted this.   oh good grief!  it felt like way too much work!   i have a new-found respect for painters of rooms...

acrylic paint and carbon sketch pencil in old book, 4" x 6"

of course i went right back to faces.  i never think of them as work... 

 acrylic paint and carbon sketch pencil in old book, 4" x 6"

 i'm coming to the conclusion that it's all about layers with acrylics... 

we've had a couple of weeks of rainy weather for which i'm *very* happy,  but it makes for an awful picture taking environment.  these pics are all a little weird looking - and dark.

from my daily planner and  the charvin journal.

i'm sticking with just colored pencil and pencil in both books.

this is what the charvin journal looks like.  kathy brought it back from france for me, but you can buy them online - although i'm not sure that any are *exactly* like this one. the paper is wonderfully smooth and (the best part) heavy enough so that you can't see through the paper at all, even when you use dark colors or press down hard.

'loves trees and rain' ~ colored pencil and pencil on bone

drawn yesterday on a piece of bone i found, brought home and sanded (320 grit, i think), then taken out again so i could draw on it.

hanging two years now...

i'm going back to replying to comments via email if i know your email address. otherwise i'll continue replying here on the blog.  it's nice to reply via email because it feels more personal.  the other thing is that by replying to all of the comments here, the comment count is really high.  it's like a false reading.   or something...

* * *

“I could paint for a hundred years, a thousand years without stopping and I would still feel as though I knew nothing.” 

~ Paul Cézanne

'lil' ~ acrylic paint, fabric, and marks all pencil in old book, 4" x 6"

i started out last week painting acrylic faces, but became so frustrated that i switched to doodling simple girls in pencil.... one day i drew a puffy skirt (like lil's wearing), and then i was off drawing folk art girls inspired by laurie meseroll.  i dearly love laurie's paintings...

'belle' ~ acrylic paint, oil pastels, and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

before that, endless messing...   i was unhappy with the right side of belle's face so i covered it up with white paint, which was much better.   also i tried *many* variations of lips before finding one she liked!

'madge'~ acrylic paint, oil pastels, and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

next i painted madge, and she gave me no trouble...  as with the other faces, i used my fingers, a palette knife, and scrubber brushes.   i really *love* scrubber brushes.  thank you lisa for telling me about them!

untitled ~ acrylic paint and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

this was the last face i painted before i went off on the folk girl track;  i got completely stuck on this one;  just could not find my way to a happy ending.  so, after a ridiculous number of layers i gave up.  notice i tried The White Paint On One Side Of The Face Trick to no avail...   if she weren't on a fragile old book page i'd scrape a lot of the paint off and see what showed up, but since i can't, i'll leave her as is. 

pencil and colored pencil in charvin journal, 5 1/2" x 8"

i distract myself frequently with colored pencil drawings - it's fun, it's easy!   some of these drawings were inspired by katherine dunn's book 'creative illustration workshop'.   i'm crazy about that book...

 

pencil and colored pencil on part of page in charvin journal

pencil and colored pencil in charvin journal

me talking to acrylic paint, ha ha...

pencil and colored pencil in moleskine weekly planner

 bits from my moleskine weekly planner...    since the space for each day is about 3" x 5", i usually draw small so i can fit a bunch in.   the girl on the far right is a little over 1" tall;  if you're a small face drawer you know that getting the lips right can be challenging.   you need a very sharp point on your colored pencil... 

tuscan red and poppy red verithin pencils

i now use prismacolor verithin pencils for tiny lips...  they're hard and they keep a sharp point for a long time...  i *need* deco pink and orange!

'delia' ~ acrylic paint, cloth, oil pastels, and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

it's been great to draw legs and arms at crazy angles; to lay down the task of learning how to draw figures more realistically.   i'm not sure i'll pick it up again...

'cornelia' ~ acrylic paint on 100# bristol

i went away on a big adventure for a month, and now i'm back...   i drew every day while i was gone, but by the time i got home i really wanted to paint messy.  so that's what i did with 'cornelia' and 'loraine'... 

'loraine' ~ acrylic paint on 100# bristol

i started painting 'cornelia' with my fingers, and finished 'loraine' with them.  i think that more than anything else i've done with acrylics, it helped me *know* just how much time i have before the paint gets tacky and stops moving easily.  it literally and figuratively gave me a 'feeling' for them. 

pencil and watercolors in pentalic bamboo journal

mostly i've been drawing figures - learning how to draw them.  it's not easy...  i seem to have no intuitive know-how on this matter!

pencil and watercolors in pentalic bamboo journal

but little by little i'm beginning to see how the shoulder falls or the foot sits...

pencil and watercolor pencils in stillman and birn 'gamma'

it's not as agonizingly difficult as it used to be.

pencil and watercolors in pentalic bamboo journal

and i don't want to draw perfect figures, but i do want to know how the parts of the body relate to one another.

pencil and watercolor pencils in stillman and birn 'gamma'

i've tried learning from books and that goes nowhere.  practice seems the only answer.

my new favorite drawing thing is a 2014 moleskine daily calendar/planner.   i love this! 

these two pages are last week... for someone who likes to draw small, it's perfect.  :)

* * * 

“Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.” 

~ Henry Miller

solstice heart ~ colored pencil and pencil on a shell from the outer banks of NC

on this beautiful solstice day i want to wish you a happy solstice - or a merry christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate!

i'm still getting out when the weather's warmish, wandering and visiting trees.  this is the tree i sat beside today,

drawing, listening to music, dancing - going barefoot!  my favorite things!

me

i wish you the most joyous of holidays!  and for those of us in the northern hemisphere, here's to more light!

'madame butterfly' ~ acrylic paint, soft pastels, mica, and caran d'ache neocolor II crayons on canvas panel, 4" x 6"

a few weeks ago i took the plunge and ordered enough acrylic paints  to give them a fair try...

acrylic paint in stillman and birn gamma

this was my first painting.  i figured the writing could only help...  :)

 acrylic paint in stillman and birn gamma

hours later, this was my third.   i think i quit for the day after this - exhausted from the effort of learning!

i ordered all heavy body paints, mostly sennelier.   these are the 'face colors': white, titan buff, flesh ochre (i am unable to resist an ochre), yellow ochre, raw sienna, brown ochre, raw umber and payne's gray.

and this is the masterson's sta-wet palette (i got the small 'handy palette') that i learned about from gillian.   it makes *all* the difference - you can paint with no worries about your paint drying out.   most of the paint on the palette in the pic has been there for days.  flesh ochre and raw sienna dry out overnight no matter how moist i keep the sponge, so i only put tiny amounts of them out at a time.   the palette 'paper' seems to be indestructible.  i use a palette knife to scrape any dry paint off, and then put fresh down.   it took a while to figure out how wet to get the sponge - too wet and your paint gets watery, too dry and it starts to dry out.  with a little practice, you can figure this out, though.   i add a little water to the sponge every day, which seems to work best once you've got your paints on there.

'short story' ~ acrylic paint, caran d'ache neocolor II crayons, and soft pastels on canvas panel, 4" x 6"

i'm having a blast with them...  it's so easy to put down a bunch of layers and play.  i like that i have to work way faster than with oils or watercolors.  i think it helps keep things spontaneous.   and if i don't like what i've done, i cover it up.

now i just need more colors...  :)