Enjoying Arizona...

which, because it knew we were coming, gave us sun, but not too much; breeze, but not too substantial; warmth, just the right amount, and the color "sky," the blue one not the gray. A lot of games  and laughs with our pals, a Cubs game to cheer, a day to catch up with family, a day in artsy Scottsdale, and neighborhood walks to enjoy the prickly things.

 

You're right! I never would have thought of that!

Day 44 in the Sonheim 365 class I am participating in. 

More men and women in black...

Work in progress...

Women in Black, continued...

I have a few more of our friendly waitresses from on the road...missing a few details (Allyson, Tamarack Restaurant, Green River, UT) but good enough to post before I get too far behind.

We are staying here

in the heart of Santa Fe. And feeling pampered.

Having fun.

I've started a magazine project. Have an idea for the cover of this issue...very much a draft right now, but mooo-ving along. Fun and cows pretty much. Big learning curve, but my experience with developing newsletters digital and in cut-and-paste (Plum Pudding days in the 80s, when all the ads and brochures were cut-and-paste!) is helping a bit. Trying to find the right vehicle for it that won't cost too much to keep the magazine affordable. Probably digital, too.

I think it will be fun to build. Where my web site is All Things Art, and the blog is focused on art also, the magazine will be All Things Fun.  Why not?  I'm a fan of fun when you can get it or search it out.  It will still have an art focus, I suspect, since, because of copyright issues, it will need to be
pretty much my photos and artwork. Hoping to get some permissions from fellow artists along the way, too.

Wish me luck in my endeavors. Like any good resolve, I'm putting my intentions out there to keep me focused!

One fun thing I am doing is taking Carla Sonheim's Y is for Yellow year-long online class, because, not only is she a proponent of fun (Imaginary Animals, imaginary flowers, sidewalk crack animals, fairy tales, ummm...you think?), but the theme this year is alphabets!  Alphabets are my passion, one indication of which is on my book shelves where I combine my love of visually enchanting picture books with alphabet books illustrated to my cuppa tea.

If you've not tried a Carla Sonheim class, you might just want to go to her site and check 'em out.

Having some fun with A. Just a starter.

Deck the hall

Finally....5 days before Christmas Day...we have a finished tree.   A couple of years ago I cleaned out the ornament bin of ornaments I didn't like anymore. (Bob has no opinion on the ornaments and leaves me to my executive decisions regarding Christmas decor. Good and bad. But I digress.)  What is left are all my favorites. Last year we took a break from having a tree, opting for decorating the house.  I need the break because it comes around so dang fast; really, it seems I put it all away (hours of work on both ends, isn't it?) and it's time to take it out and start over again. And find a place for the autumn things, which replaced the spring things. And the wheels go round and round.

This is one of my favorites. Looks like carved wood, love the jester he's holding. Probably one of the only more traditional ones on the tree.  I'm instead into shoes and spheres and whites. More than you needed to know.

AND over at the web site home page, the Daily Amazing highlights a 3 meter long children's book that struck my fancy. Where's Waldo on steroids.

Wise words from Rick

It is fitting that in today's paper is a column from Rick Steves on the virtues of travel,  here.

"Traveling thoughtfully, especially in challenging times, is one of the best ways to put current events in perspective. It forces you to see that global victims of poverty and natural disasters aren't just faceless staistics...but humans. You can't help but feel empathy."

As I pack (see below 😄) for a three-week adventure down the rivers of Europe, I am reminded how valuable travel is to thoughtful perspective and tolerance. It doesn't have to be a grand and glorious journey. I have always marveled at how even a short weekend in the other part of our state or across a state border widens my knowledge of how the world works. Sometimes it helps me cope with a problem or stress by the mere act of getting away from it. Traveling to the Southern U.S. - a whole other world from the Pacific NW  helps me understand - if not agree with - the existence of a wholly different perspective on the issues of the day. A reminder of assumptions incorrect. An opportunity to connect. A dependence on kindness of others (lost, anyone?). Partly because I am on the farther side of my life and partly because I am drawing the everyday details  of life around me, I am enjoying travel more and more every trip I take: I watch for new things, for the unusual or quirky, for children at play and grown-ups at coffee. Some things are the same elsewhere; some are quite different.

In an effort to procrastinate packing chores, I sketched:

Every Day in May

An annual event, this is the first time  I've signed on to this "assignment' to myself. We are provided a daily drawing task, similar in format to Everyday Matters and Sketchbook Skool. Since  I will be cruising down some European rivers starting in mid-May, I thought it would be fun to sketch or draw something each day in a different location. We'll see if I can keep up with this and how well the internet cooperates. It's so much fun to look at what other participants do

Today our task was to draw a favorite food. I have oh so many, but the artichoke reigns. If a dish or recipe includes artichoke, I usually look no further. With melted butter?  Oh, my.

On the left, drew first in permanent ink (Uniball vision), then watercolored. On the right, painted green shape first with various greens. Then inked it. 

Faces in the news

Today's Seattle Times:

As far as has been announced, only one of these speaks French. 

Answers to the questions lie below:

Starry starry sky

While listening to Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Hogan, I drew "Louis" - Robert Louis Stevenson.  I think I would have liked that handsome, skinny guy….

You're only young once, Francie.

I drew Francie Peterson-Baugh with my  "Pencil" and Paper 53 on the iPad. Bit of a learning curve.

How to Write Your Name….

...in case you didn't know.

I wrote a slew of draft posts waiting for one thing or another I never seem to get to or complete. Here's one I started a ways back. I imagine I held it back until I could post a photo or two of  the books I had just received from her direct from the UK.  Love this artist. I have mentioned her several times here. I could never replicate her style, nor would I want to. She is her own style, as it should be. And I do not have her patience and deliberateness and if the good Lord said either draw like that or eat liver, I'd have to eat the liver.

But oh I do admire her talent and humor and approach to life's little treasures. And since she is a featured artist in Sketchbook Skool this semester, I'm sharing this with you now.


http://youtu.be/0NJcMc4QYAo

Quick sketch at Starbucks

This woman was a serious worker at her computer the whole time I was there. Even after I drew her using Paper app on iPad. Still on a learning curve with the app.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Assignment: Selfies

On both of these sketches, I used regular sketching pencils and a dark wash pencil. I did a few others in ink but then miss being able to shade for the depth and curves of a face. 

In Sketchbook Skool, we are drawing selfless - in real life with mirrors and from photos. Here are a couple of my selfies with my new goodies from Zazzle: a Sketchbook Skool hoodie (I love hoodies in the winter - so cozy!) and my bumper sticker. I also got a mug. Thankfully, I cleaned out my mug shelf a few weeks back in an effort to downsize it. So I had an empty space.

Do they look like me? A little. Parts.

Thoughts of friends, Back to Skool today, and a Happy 4th to you all!

I am thinking of my southern California friends today and wishing we could be there to enjoy the visit of another migrant (but to the other Washington). Old times rehashed, new experiences shared, glasses raised to future adventures. I tried. There is no such thing anymore as a last minute air fare deal. Trust me.

Here's my sketch to start Semester 2 of Sketchbook Skool on "SEEING."  These are what I see with. Not the same as observing, mind you. As is pointed out so well in these Klass sessions.

Here's a link to some cool sketches from last semester's klasses.

Thinking pink this week

Two things today…to let you know that there's a link on the right to a PDF of the zine Carla Sonheim put together of art by participants in the Fairy Tale Year class. You will find so many creative versions of the Princess of the Pea there. You should go. It will amuse and inspire you.

The other from my sketchbook is my first contribution to Sketchbookery, Mary Ann Moss's class, and an update on our cat, Rose.

I was wearing figuratively, at least, pink last week. A very good friend had breast cancer surgery. She is doing well and the outlook is good; I am grateful and delighted she will be fine and she found it in time. Ladies, do your self-checks!

In a recent check-up, the vet found a small tumor in our tuxedo cat, Rose, that turned out to be cancerous. She had it taken out last Friday. She came home expectantly groggy and disoriented, and we did our duty, protecting her stitches from her licking in a variety of ways. We started with a baby t-shirt that lasted about 5 minutes. So we cut off the sleeves. No go. Then we bought a Thundershirt (?) made for putting around a dog or cat in anxiety. Caused more anxiety to us; too small to fit her fat belly and trying hard not to touch her sore belly. Then Bob went across town to find another bigger one.  Well…it fit, and she couldn't lick anything, but she also couldn't walk very well. Not sure whether it was still some grogginess from anesthesia or a constricting of back leg muscles, but, after a night's sleep and falling off the bed unable to right herself, I took that thing off promptly and came up with a few knit scarf versions - tying, pinning, and finally stitching.  Let's just say we put it on again often in the next few days. It kept falling off her butt end!  Becoming wise to us, she started resisting the sweater and it was taking two of us to get her recalcitrant legs through.

It isn't pink but it did have a nice round bulls-eye :)!

It took a hot day like Tuesday (record heat for this day in Seattle) to convince me to leave it off and hope for the best. We got GOOD NEWS from the vet about it; we think we have it licked. Pun intended.

I keep reminding Bob it's cheaper than college.

Do you know what a math lattice is? No you do not.

I drew this from the photo which accompanied the article below. Am sure it doesn't look like her (the photo was oh-so-small) but I liked making a woman who could fit the description anyway. Should have put her in a big hat, though. Maybe next time. 

I also have spent lots of time through Sunday papers of today and some past weeks. What a news and essay junkie I am. It's a curse. I know it. I get so much pleasure from finding all this stuff; but my piles of that Stuff grow more than I can handle. There is SO MUCH interesting going on in this world to, gladly or sadly, take our minds off the bad news. Of which there is SO MUCH.

On my Sumday Papers page, I've posted the links or summaries of what I've captured just this week. I know many readers have not the time or interest. But if you don't go over and look, let me just warn, you may miss stories that contain these gems.

The residents and shoppers of Abbot Kinney, the trendy Venice retail and restaurant strip, know her as the tall redhead who emerges in an evening dress and a big hat to police behavioral infractions big and small.  
   Scene Stealers, Brooks Barnes, NYTimes 22 June 2014

I was 31 before I got my heart broken...I had loved and lost plenty of times, but I had never let myself feel it. I numbed up....I fell for him so fast, and as if through space, no planet in sight. (But then), it was over...I would sob and wail in my car...crying in public, crying as I wrote in my journal at Dunkin' Donuts, as I biked home...but I marveled, too. I marveled at the feeling of being heartbroken.
          Modern Love, Lily King. NYTimes, 22 June 2014

'I think of myself as an intelligent, functioning adult,' says the writer Julie Klam, who has a daughter who just finished fifth grade. 'But my God. Do you know what a 'math lattice' is? No, you do not. The way basic math is taught now, it's not like A plus B equals C. It's more like A plus B, and then you run out for oranges, and then you take the subway. My daughter's recent assignment was like a buffet of confusion.' Several years ago, my fellow parents and i got so involved in an assignment that I suggested it would be best if we kept our kids home and just showed up for their classes.
            Opinion/Judith Newman, "But I WANT to Do Your Homework." NYT, 22 June 2014

Sketching coffee and tea house

Loving the Roosevelt Arts District in Phoenix. As I did last year, I stopped for coffee at the Songbird Coffee and Tea House, a cozy place I remembered from last year. I sketched for Skool. I met Taylor, who was interested in the sketching, and we had a long and interesting conversation about travel, art, work, play, and the places we had lived in which were often the same.

Skool Klass shoes

One of my assignments in Sketchbook Skool...
An assignment in Sketchbook Skool, Danny Gregory style. A wash over the page first, painted general shape on shoes with acrylic pink, then drew in one on the pink.

Hmmmm... They are a lot pinker in real life. A lovely summertime pink!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Eating my way through Skool.

Using only pen today, I drew my first two meals. Frankly, breakfast without color looks like a jumbled mess o' junk.