13 year old boy

Graphite pencil, in a sketchbook while traveling again.

12 year old boy

Simple ball point pen in my sketchbook while traveling on a train.

Another sketch,and another child,that I am especially fond of

This is of an 8 year old, pensive boy. You might notice that I have used the same colored pencil and contour line drawing technique that I use to draw  flowers from life. 

Sketches of children

A sketch of a six year old girl that I have always been especially fond of. I mean to say, I am fond of this particular sketch and also very fond of this elvish little girl.

Lily, symbol of Mary

Merry Christmas!  The Lily is a symbol of the purity of Mary, the mother of the Christ Jesus whose birth we are celebrating today. In medieval art the Angel Gabriel is often painted presenting Mary with a white lily in Annunciation scenes.

line drawing

I made this tight little line drawing of a lily that bloomed during the summer. Tomorrow I will post the painting that I made of it.

fifth grader

I was asked to give a presentation to an elementary school group recently. I brought in books that I had illustrated, talked about sketches, research, drawing and painting process. I showed them my pencils, kneaded erasers,brushes and messy palette. I even had some pieces of original art to show. When it was all over and I asked them if there was something more they wanted to know about, they all shouted "draw pictures of us!" That was the real entertainment of the day.

sketching at the airport

Of course what better time to catch a few faces in the little sketchbook than while waiting at the airport.

The garden of Rodin,Paris

The museum of Rodin is actually the house that the great sculptor owned, and worked in. That was amazing, but the garden was even more so. I sat in front of the immense work, "Gates of Hell"  just absorbing the energy.

lifelong dream

One of my lifelong dreams has been to sketch at the great museums of the world. I was able to quickly sketch in various galleries of the Louvre in Paris. This is from Theodore Gericault's

"An Officer of the Imperial Guards Charging" 

traveling and sketching

I love to travel and sketch everywhere I can. This past year I had a wonderful chance to travel to Paris, France.  I sketched everywhere that I could, sometimes on the dash. Here I sketched at  a cafe while enjoying a cup of expresso. 

sleepy boy

I keep a lot of sketchbooks, and keep forgetting to have one handy. I would like to draw almost  everyone who visits my home.  That might be rude, no matter how fascinating their face might be. Besides, I do have to be busy with hostess duties. On this occasion I was able to sketch my little guest. Here he is at almost two years of age sleepily resting his head in his mother's lap. Which gave me just enough time to draw from life.

the last day

This bouquet arrangement had been sitting in the living room for more than a week now. All but two of the blooms had withered and fallen. I took the last two, placed them in a smaller vase with the remaining leaves. That was when I decided to do one more drawing, a traditional still life. I added a favorite green scarf and watched how the sun lit the table and reflections glowed. The color in the flowers had faded to a muted rosy purple.

my money's worth

I was certainly getting my money's worth out of this grocery store purchase. A day or two later almost all of the buds had opened and I looked at it with a new idea. I drew with my usual contour line method but the blooms seemed to move and dance. I decided to paint with stronger livelier colors.

a day or two later...

The big white bloom dropped off the plant, as did a couple of others. I trimmed the dead leaves and stems, replaced the water and saw that another dark pink bud was opening. 

Later that day I just had to draw it. There was so much force in that one powerful form.

day 3 another flower with a story to tell

Another day, another mood. I focused on the huge white lily that was beginning to curl and droop in an interesting way. Again with a contour line drawing I look at the outside shapes and the interplay with the positive and negative. This bloom seemed to have a story of it's own to tell. The colors that I washed in are more subdued and this is because of the powerful shape of the white  flower.

flowers day 2

The next day I had turned the vase around and replaced the water when I noticed two immense pink flowers opening. I like to draw with various colored pencils, using the contour line method. I am most interested in the edges of the forms and in the shapes and spaces between the shapes.

flowers from the grocery store

pencil and watercolor 16 x 20

Earlier this spring I purchased a bouquet of lilies at the grocery store. I was pleased by the arrangement and found myself coming back to it each day seeing something new that I just had to draw and then paint. A series was created without intentional planning. 

This first day I observed a white lily opening, the rest of the flowers were various pinks and reds and I played with the shapes.

Wheaton, Illinois

I am just beginning my journal and I am going to skip around chronologically for a while. I want to share some of the images that I have created over the past year. As the New Year begins, I intend to post in order of the days.

I was only visiting Colorado for a few days in November. I actually live in Illinois where the landscape is not so dramatic.

I am showing here another plein air session from last August. A warm summer day with some rain clouds possibly coming in. I sat next to a pond listening to frogs and feeling the peace. I painted this with acrylics on a canvas pad.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

This might have been a chilly day in late November but was in fact very bright and pleasant. I climbed up to sit on a flat red rock with my acrylics and a canvas pad to paint from nature. I had to work quickly to observe the light and color and finish in a single morning session. This is a quick impression of a grand scene in a National Park in Colorado. I had to hike around a bit to find this spot.