prescience

Still waiting for the wonderful baby today. I made these illustrations for Wild Animal Baby magazine sometime ago. These are from the series about Skip the goat that I wrote and illustrated for a May issue.





















I was prescient when I drew these, I put myself in this art as a grandmother holding a baby.
The mother-type woman in a straw hat holding a plate of strawberries is probably me also. I tend to put myself or my family members (and my pets) into all my illustrations. Sometimes consciously, sometimes not, to my surprise.
At the time, none of my four children were even thinking about starting families, none were married either. The older ones were busy with graduate school and studying abroad. Now, three of them are married and all that has happened in rapid succession in the past few years. And so, a new era in my life begins, I will be a grandmother!

waiting for baby

I made this drawing on gessoed paper from a photo I took while in the Philippines. I don't think I have ever mentioned in this blog that I grew up in the Philippines. (More on that another time.)
Well, my real point in posting this drawing is that my oldest daughter is at the end of nine months of pregnancy and just about to present me with my first grandchild. Any day/hour now, we are just waiting for that wonderful baby.

currently on display

My artwork is currently on display at the DuPage Art League in Wheaton, Illinois.
The theme in the gallery this month is "Night song".
I have titled this painting "Hibiscus After Dark".
acrylic on canvas 30x34 framed.

The Lilies

THE LILIES!
THE STEMS, JUST AS THEY ARE.
THE FLOWERS, JUST AS THEY ARE.

haiku by Matsuo Basho~ 1694             "Lilies" watercolor by Janice Skivington 2012

greeting cards

I am making a series of greeting cards out of these daffodil watercolor paintings. Original art by Janice Skivington and handmade cards too.

yellow birds

When I wrote a post about the color yellow dominating our landscape, I forgot to mention our bright yellow finches. We have four (at this moment) bird feeders on our deck, and two birdbaths, one heated in the winter and one out in the garden, for summer. All this results in plenty of bird activity. One of the most pleasing sights is around the finch feeder which has special thistle seeds just to their taste. In the spring the males of this species change from a winter grayish brown to a bright over-the-top yellow. Females get a tinge of brighter color on them too but it is easy to tell them apart. The males are so eye-catching, they look like  yellow plastic toys, or candy, the color is almost artificial in that shiny hue.

   I sketched this yellow finch on my ipad using the app called ArtRage.

Once in a while, over my cup of coffee at the breakfast table, looking out to the deck, I get a primary color jolt of a treat. I will see a Blue Jay grabbing a peanut at one feeder, a scarlet flash of a male Cardinal at another station, and a gathering of crayon box purest yellow finches at the thistle feeder.

Mother's Day

These delicate pure blue flowers always remind me of my own mother. She loves blue and white and  chooses that combination for decorating often. I gave this painting to her last year.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

my favorite Mother's Day poem

Here is a Geranium.
To ease the pain in your Cranium.
Happy Mother's Day.

Adam Wood 1991

Drawn on the ipad using ArtRage and the Zen brush app.

sunbathing in her sunbonnet

This is part of my painting from a 3 hour pose during Life drawing class last week. It was my idea to pose the model in a sun hat, reflecting the sunny day outdoors. Acrylic on paper

I was most pleased with the feet! I think that little bit of painting described her feet just right.
*Update: This painting is now hanging in the May art show in the DuPage Art League gallery.

a daffodil a day keeps the gray clouds away