Goldfinch Secrets

In a far away land, goldfinches whisper tales to fair maidens.

Black Swan

I'm working on a project, and the day before yesterday I started getting sick. Yesterday I felt awful and couldn't do any work. So, today I was feeling somewhat better but I was having such a hard time getting back to work, so I thought I'd do something fun just for myself. I had a small piece of leftover paper, and so I painted this little piece.

Framed

David, my husband, was so great to make a frame for my picture, and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. Now it's all ready to go off to show. Thank you David.

Also, for anybody who hasn't tried it, feeding chickadees out of your hand is just about the most wonderful thing ever. David and I went on a walk today, and he took this picture of me feeding the chickadees. Their little feet felt so funny clutching the tips of my fingers.

More Imaginatings

a peek into the sketchbook

Checking the Cards

I love sketching from my imagination. I'm a bit impatient, and I like to see my picture appear so quickly. Now back to some sloooooow oils.

Participating in Bitter Fruits Show

I'm very excited to say that my painting "Country Gardens" is going to be included in the Bitter Fruits exhibit at the Altered Esthetics Gallery. The show opens January 31 in Minneapolis, MN.

Also, I'm working on giving my website a face-lift for the new year. I'll be putting up a bunch of new work, so keep your eyes peeled. It'll be up sometime in January.

Illustration Friday: Backwards

The enthusiastic but garbled backward chamber players

Country Gardens

The finished product

On My Desk Right Now

Do you remember away back in April I posted a sketch I made of a girl with a great big garden-hat? Well, the other day I was looking through my sketchbooks and ran across it, and I decided to make it into a painting. So here's a sneak peek.

Snow White and the Dwarfs

This is another image from the Snow White group I painted for Core Knowledge. I thought it could work for this week's topic on Illustration Friday, "little things."

Red Riding Hood the Second

This is the second incarnation of Red Riding Hood on my blog; this being the first. I think the second is a little younger, a little more helpless, and a little bit more likely to be eaten.

Home

Snow White finding the dwarfs' house in the glade
Well, I finally feel like we are settled in Ottawa now that we have internet service. It's wonderful to not have to go anywhere for awhile, and to be using hangers again, and especially to feel productive again. It's been snowing regularly, and I'm looking forward to a long winter and lots of new paintings. Good to be home.

Snow White and the Woodsman

It's been pretty quiet around here lately. We are still waiting for our internet service to become active, so I'm relegated to coffee shops and the library. I'm working on a new project for Core Knowledge illustrating the story of snow white.

Gone

I had a bit of heartbreaking news yesterday. My husband and I are in the middle of a BIG move from Washington state to Ottawa, Ontario, and we've had to make multiple driving trips across the Sates and Canada. We left quite a bit of our things in the basement of our Washington house and just came back for them, only to find that much of it had been set out for by the road to be taken for free. I was hoping I had already taken a couple large portfolios full of watercolors to Ontario, but found out that I hadn't, and that they have disappeared. They contained almost every watercolor I've ever made. Everything from college, every personal piece I've made since are gone. I'd been very careful to keep everything together so that nothing would be lost while moving, but that seems to have ensured that everything was lost. I hope I feel better when I am finally settled and can paint some new pictures. I'll miss the old ones though.

Fishing Hole

Just a little somethin' somethin' for the blog. I've got quite a few ideas for oil paintings bubbling in my head, but they are going to have to keep on bubbling for a little while longer. It's very difficult, almost impossible really, for me to get out my oil painting things right now, while things are so unsettled. Moving is always a chore, but moving across a continent into another country is more like the end of the world. So I'm very much looking forward to finding our own little place and settling in for a good long stretch of going nowhere.

Alice

a recent sketchbook item

Goldilocks

Here is a last minute contribution to the Illustration Friday topic of the week: alphabet.

Sketchvolution

Here is a great example of how most ideas for pieces are generated. While working on a commission, I chanced to look up at the light fixture above me, and saw it had a neat pattern of lines radiating from its center, and I wanted to draw the pattern (you can just barely see it in the scan). After I drew that I thought it would be fun to draw one of those old-fashioned circular mouldings. Then I thought I'd make it into a full room and draw the tops of walls. I thought the effect of looking up so steeply was interesting and drew a face looking down, then immediately thought it felt like lying on the floor. So I thought I'd draw the person lying on the floor.

It would be nice if I could just pick an idea straight out of my head, but most of they time they come from this type of meandering doodling. Even when I feel like an idea pops out from nowhere, I can usually trace it back from mental "doodling". Making pictures for me is usually a lot like a free-association game.

Cats in my pencils

It's funny, I'm more of a dog person really, but I absolutely love drawing cats. They are just about the most fun thing to sketch. If I feel like drawing but don't really have anything specific I want to draw, I'll usually end up drawing a cat. They just seem to come out of my pencils on their own.

So here's my cat for the day. He's a bit ugly and fat, and I bet he's a drooler, but he was fun to make. Tabby cats are the best for drawing; the lines really help define their bodies, and you've got to love that eye-liner look they so often have.

Illustration Friday: Captain

I think this captain is a freelancer, brave enough to captain and man his own ship, albeit a small and possibly leaky one.