Flowers from Tom

Art Journal

Pen and Ink

Flowers from Tom

Left hand pages is scrapbook paper

This is my 2nd floral sketch today.  Tom sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I am happy enough with the sketch and have decided not to add color to it.  Instead, I've attached information from the florist which has a pretty water color pattern on it.  I used my sewing machine to stitch the card on to the page ...that was a challenge as this journal is cumbersome and I'm not adept on the machine!  I used washi tape to attach the art to the journal page. (the corners)

  I didn't want to glue the card on top of the drawing and thus lose some of it so this way you can lift the card and look at the rest of the drawing underneath.  

When you open the card, it has Tom's message.  And below is the bouquet itself.

Tori's Gift

Sketchbook

Water color and ink

This is a sketch of a birthday gift I received this week from my young, former colleague at work...a beautiful Gerbera daisy.  I started a book just for sketches this morning and selected her flower as my first entry.  Below is the ink sketch I started with....

and then I went over it with my water color pencils...

and this is the photo of the original flowers!

Now I'll always have Tori's gift, saved in my sketchbook!

Memorial Day Weekend

Art Journal

Water colors and pen

By The Sea

Memorial Day Weekend kicks off tomorrow.  To me, this is one of the most important holidays on our calendar.  I have to say, I always feel odd saying to someone..."have a Happy Memorial Day"...what is really happy about Memorial Day?  Yes, it's what we think of as the start of the summer season...but it's really about those who have served our country...those who died serving our country.  God bless them.  

My art incorporates the beginning of the season...and pays homage to those who have served.  

A closer look...

Playing with Colors...more

Art Journal

Water colors

This is the page opposite the one I posted yesterday, studying colors.  Plates are from Pottery Barn catalog.  I love these colors....to me, art has to have color.

Playing with Colors

Art Journal

Water soluble crayons, water colors, pen

I'm not inspired by any particular "thing" today, not feeling the frenzy of a thought that I have to get in my journal.  So I pulled out a couple of pages I tore out of a Pottery Barn catalog as well as House Beautiful to play with color.  I only went with colors from the left photo for this exercise.

I started with my crayons and put down shapes on the page

Looks like my kindergarten self coming to life.  I say to myself, there's no pressure here because I'm not trying to replicate a face or animal, etc. (Seriously, I'm always thinking about how something is going to turn out, but I shouldn't...this is a journal)....play!

Once I start moving the crayon around with water, the colors to me become luscious.  At this point, I also added some water colors to the background.  I suppose I could have ended it here.  But as you see in the top photo, I started using my black pen and my Bic white pen.  

I will say that doing this exercise....is meditative.  It's quiet time.  I think a lot as I'm going through the motions.   I might not be done with this page.....I see more opportunity for adding color.  I knew a woman once who was a rug hooker and she was quite good at hooking and even dyed some of her own wool.  Unfortunately, she didn't have a really great sense of color.  I would look at her work and think about how much time it took to create it...but only if the color choices were just a bit better.  The important thing though...it was her work and she got such pleasure from it.  What we see in magazines and catalogs is not random...a lot of thought goes into the colors that have been chosen.  I know I can learn (continue to learn) a lot from studying them.

Room Service

Sketchbook

Pen and Water Soluble Crayons

In Boston last weekend for my son's graduation from grad school, I had a yummy breakfast in my hotel room.  This art is in a 4 x 6 journal that has craft paper pages.  Craft paper isn't the best for wet media, but I didn't need to use that much water with the crayons.  I love the "sketch" look of art and it's something I'd like to continue working on.  I did a couple of more quick drawings....

The Fairmont at Copley Plaza

This could use a few more tweaks....practice, practice, practice!

Another quick sketch, the focus is the street sign where Tom lives.  We walked for two hours around Boston and had a great visit.  

Nostalgia...

Art Journal

This is the time of year when many graduations are taking place.  Tomorrow, I'm headed to Boston for my son's graduation from grad school.  This particular page in my art journal takes me way back to my high school days, back in the '60's.  High school...an important time in our lives.  The Beatles were going strong and I love their song...."In My Life".  The art above takes me back to a neighborhood I lived in back then.  That's me with my little black poodle, Sachet.  I'm not going to go into the details of the importance of that time or that place....suffice to say I have wonderful memories.  When I was writing the lyrics to the song on this page, and had almost completed the page....I realized I had left a line out and had to paint over all of the words and start over.  The words are important, so I couldn't let it go.  I had to fix it.  If only all of life's issues could be fixed so easily.  Memories...scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind...aah....but that's a different song, isn't it.....?