Cape Cod Sunset

I spent the holiday on Cape Cod and had a chance to get outside and do a little drawing since the weather was so mild. There's a nature preserve nearby, with some paths that are well-traveled by the locals.


There are also some beautiful views of the water. And of course, the sun was setting!



Here's to more and better in the new year!

Happy Holidays 2014

This angel goes with one I did a couple of years ago, another member of the angel orchestra, if you will. You can see the old one here. Whatever you celebrate, may it be merry and bright!

Autumn in Central Park

A few weeks ago I went out to draw in Central Park with Carly Larsson (who is much faster to post than I am!). The weather was perfect for sitting outside and getting chilled, and then going to get a cozy tea.

Incidentally, this is my 100th blog post! Yay! When I started 100 posts ago, I found it really hard to share my work. I can't say that I never look at my work and say "Ugh, who could like this" anymore, but I definitely think it less often because people *do* come by and tell me they've liked this or that post. So thanks for following or stopping by, and thanks for your comments and encouragement.

Fall Is My Favorite

The leaves here in New York have been disappointing this year. I think the weather hasn't been cool enough for the leaves to change so they've just stayed green, then turned brown. Ew. But in the park next to my house, there's one circle of trees that went bright yellow. They had already dropped them by the time I made this thumbnail, creating a carpet of yellow underfoot.

There's a playground there under the trees, and for the kids it's time to go back to school no matter what the weather does. Fall will always be bound up with school for me, probably one reason I love the season so much. They only had thirty or forty minutes to run around, which was plenty of time to do a quick watercolor.

Swedish Summer

I recently took a vacation in Sweden and was completely charmed by the natural beauty as well as the graciousness of the people. I've never met people who talked more about the weather, or cherished the summer sun more, I guess because the country is dark and cold for so much of the year. While I was there, they were having an unusually spectacular Swedish summer, I was told. It's true enough that the days were mild and warm, and the evenings cool and crisp. One of the things I noticed was that the Swedes are always ready for a swim. Even in Stockholm, I spied bathing suits and towels tucked into work bags in case the opportunity for a dip presented itself. The water felt COLD to me, but they just called it refreshing and jumped right in! So here are some Swedish swimmers on the Stockholm archipelago island of Grinda caught taking a dip during a midday break.

Sunset Series III

Remember back in February when I shared those sunset watercolors? I've kept at them, and I thought I would share a few I did this spring. They've gotten a bit bigger. The ones I posted last time are only about 4"x6" or so, but these have grown to 9"x12" or even 12"x16" or larger. I just felt like I wanted more space! And though it might be unusual for an artist working in New York City, I usually ignore the buildings, although occasionally, I'll put in some of their lights. Mostly I just concentrate on the sky, or a small group of clouds. I really enjoy the daily doing of it. Watercolor feels just right for the ephemeral nature of the clouds, and the their ever-changing colors. And in the end, I have a record not just of that day's sunset, but also how I enjoyed it.

Sunset Series II

Since I've had the watercolors out so much, I've been using them to do my sunsets. I thought I wouldn't really have time to finish each one before the light changed, but it's actually been perfect. By the time the light's changed, it's usually time to start the next one anyway. These are from last month, and I have a whole lot more to share. Those of you who know me IRL will know that I like to go in order!

Year of the Horse

The Lunar New Year has just passed, and so I sat down with some watercolor and a roll of very thin paper to do a little horse watercolor. The paper's not really meant to take all this water, and you can see that in all the wrinkles and marks of the water evaporating. I don't know if I just like breaking all the rules, or the impressionistic effect.



Once I amp it up in Photoshop, of course, it takes a more intense feeling. I couldn't decide which I liked better, so I'm posting them both.



Here's wishing you and yours health, wealth, and prosperity!

One Watercolor a Day

Some of you might be familiar with my friend and teacher Veronica Lawlor's book One Drawing a Day, a book of drawing exercises for the artist and non-artist alike that grew out of the blog of the same name from the artists of Studio 1482. They've recently put out new book on watercolor. The first exercise in the book is an easy one: just play! It's been a while since I sat down with the intention of just playing, and it reminded me how fun and how necessary it is to do. January's a great time of year for bringing yourself back to good habits!

I was surprised as I did these, that so many of them took on the feeling of landscapes or still lives. This first one is especially landscape-esque to me.







Get your own copy of the book here, and Happy New Year!

Upper West Side Café

In case you haven't heard or live elsewhere, New York is COLD right now! As in, single digit temperatures! When winter comes around, I try not to let it affect my social life too much. In the warmer weather, there are plenty of outdoor activities, but on days like these a café is my most likely destination. I'm lucky that every neighborhood in New York has its own cafés and each showcases the personality of that neighborhood. In this case, I went to meet April of Brass Ring Studio on the Upper West Side where we found a very Upper West Side crowd. It was a good chance to break out my watercolors and work on my people!

There was a college student working on her paper.



A couple having a very thoughtful discussion. I know it was thoughtful because he kept stroking his beard.



A couple of older ladies talking about mutual acquaintances and holiday plans.


A little girl dressed very stylishly and complaining about her hot chocolate as her harried mother tried to work out their schedule.


Hope you're staying warm, wherever you are!

Happy Holidays!

I can hardly believe it's that time again already, but all the Christmas decorations are up, so it must be true! Wishing you the best of the holiday season and all good things in the New Year!

Carousel Dreams

Lately, I find myself thinking back to some of those unfinished projects from years ago. I feel like the time might be right to try to finish them for reals. One of those projects was this story about a little girl who falls asleep in the car on the long drive to the amusement park. She has a dream, heavily influenced by medieval tapestries (that's just the kind of girl she is), about a magical day at the park. She gets to meet the knights and spend time with the ladies. I envisioned it as an accordion book and this scene is right in the middle, so it's really one part of a looooong illustration, but it's also made to stand alone. They're taking a break to pick some wild flowers while the carousel horses fly in the sky above. I mentioned it was a dream, right?

Montmartre

Montmartre is one of my favorite neighborhoods of Paris. Since it's on the outskirts of Paris, it managed to escape the attentions of Baron Haussman, the Robert Moses of the 19th century, responsible for the homogeneity of many arrondissements. Montmartre became the refuge of those possessing a more down at heels aesthetic than those of the buttoned up, if grand, boulevards. It still retains the pre-Napoleonic charm of winding, cobblestone streets with their rich, mismatched jumble of buildings that lean against each other in long-established camaraderie. It's a tiny neighborhood, but all the streets are so twisty and hilly with surprises (a vineyard!) around so many corners, that you can easily spend a whole day exploring it.

This is the parenthetically aforementioned vineyard. Sadly, it wasn't open the day I visited, so I had to draw it from behind the fence. It looked like a little Rackham cottage up on a hill. I think I might have to make it into a wine label at some point, though, to appease the literalist in me.



I didn't get to finish this drawing of Sacre Coeur, glowing in the light of the late afternoon, but maybe I like it better this way? It seems to slowly grow out of the cloudy page (or screen), and in a moment, the mist will obscure it again and it will just be a memory of Paris.



Also, you can check out my friend and fellow Dalverian Julia's drawings of Montmartre.

January Drawings

Here are some drawings from earlier in the month to ring in the New Year. Happy 2010!!

Day Three

Some of these drawing day photos are a bit blurry because, well, I took them with my phone. If they look really bad to me when I get back, I may repost with better pictures of them.

Resolution #1

Post more! No, really!
But just before we look ahead, I'm taking us back, back, back to Paris!