Daily Painting

Beneath the Surface

Roger Williams University is still offering family swim on Sundays from 1-5.  It makes for a fun afternoon.  We brought the submersible camera.

Mee-moo

A relation of The Pickle.  I like her dramatic eye make-up. 

The Drawing Room

 I had great fun yesterday kicking off another semester of The Drawing Room at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.  We made thumbnails sketches in the Grand Gallery.  It is such a pleasure: to meet new artists, see everyone's work and individual approach, have the honor of encouraging them in their endeavors; to be in a galleryful of people inquisitively examining the paintings and intent on their drawings; and simply to get to spend a couple of hours luxuriating in a few pieces of art.  It never fails to amaze me how a mere minutes puzzling out a piece of artwork with pencil and paper can so drastically change my perception of it and appreciation for it.  (This course is sold out but you can get on the wait list for next semester by filling out the form here.) Above are some of my rough thumbnail demos.

Imago Gallery

I forgot to mention that I had a few paintings in the Community Exhibit at Imago Gallery in Warren, RI.  This particular show is down but if you are in the neighborhood check out the gallery.  36 Market Street, Warren, RI 02885.  Hours:  Thursday 4PM - 8PM  |  Friday and Saturday Noon - 8PM | Sunday Noon - 4PM

Blue Bird

Yesterday we went to a blue bird house building workshop at the Powder Mills Audubon Wildlife Refuge. (See the RI Audubon Events Calendar for February here.)  It was a bring your own hammer event.  Captain Spectacular had a great time driving in the nails and learning about the nesting habits of small birds.  These blue bird paintings were made with pencil, watercolor and marker.  The old glue gun made quick work of our felt bird, inspired by ornaments in the giftshop.  Crafty.  

Too Excited to Paint

Here are a few things in progress.  All excited about Morocco I am having trouble concentrating.  Also I am currently on a sewing binge (some flowy linen dresses and art supplies bags for the trip).  Its also vacation week and just now Captain Spectacular is beckoning me to the couch to read "What Happened at Midnight",  #10 in the Hardy Boys series. (Do you know that the Hardy Boys went to Marrakech?  They did!  In #54, "The Mysterious Caravan".  A copy of which just happened to fall into our hands a few weeks ago; it was on sale at the library for pennies!)

Imagining Morocco

"From her hand, ice cold, held deep in the sea, there spurted up a fountain of joy at the change, at the escape, at the adventure (that she should be alive, that she should be there).  And the drops falling from this sudden and unthinking fountain of joy fell here and there on the dark, the slumberous shapes in her mind; shapes of a world not yet realized but turning in their darkness, catching here and there a spark of light.”

 Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

 My book of sketches, Imagining Morocco, begins with the above quotation.  You can now download the book for your ipad/iphone or purchase a hard copy here.  

 

Garden Fountain Window Room

Watercolor and pen and ink on paper, 9"x12".

The Pickle

Multi-Shirking

Today I diligently and completely avoided 4 (four!) commissions. You will be glad to know that I did, however, tidy up the studio, clean out files, test the new mini printer Elizabeth and I got for Moroccan Sketchbook, work on the 2013 PDF, double check the international carry on luggage standards, pack my swimsuit! (well, I was wandering around down there in the basement with the suitcase and the summer clothes handy so why not?), set up new studio lights, wash all the dishes, do another sketch of the Jardin Majorelle, and etc.  But I didnt do the work that has been on the top of my list for several weeks.  (I heard the term multi shirking from Martha Beck.)  Tomorrow is another day.  Maybe I will clean the fridge.