Category: sketchbook
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Awakening
Mornings of late are a cacophonous riot of beautiful birdsong. Whenever possible, even on brisk spring nights, I keep a window cracked to be the first to hear their morning call. It has been a strangely long and cool spring, with time enough for some rearranging and weeding in the garden beds before the great…
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The Bedside Book
Recently I’ve participated in some online workshop-gatherings of a sort. Neither have been “classes” per se but rather more intended as an artistic shot in the arm – a path to creative exercise that isn’t my own regularly trodden path. It is good to get out of one’s own way sometimes. In this strange era…
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Comfort and Joy
“There is another world, but it is in this one.” ~W.B. Yeats Recently, we spent a week away in another world. Down to the low-country coastal barrier-island of Tybee we traveled, as I was feeling a bit sorry for myself for my lost (or at least post-poned) month’s work in Ireland, among other things. Both…
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Golden Pond
It is our last full day here at camp. I’ve been for a long walk this morning, some exercise before the day begins in earnest. There is a heron out on the swim dock which is great to see. Up to now, our dock has merely been a pit stop for ducks and sea gulls. …
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Weekday
By day, my porch-based co-worker Poppy and I work on some sketches and picture post-cards to send along to my trusty pen-pals. We also sketch. Crows caw in the trees above, but Poppy pays them no mind. Technically I am on vacation, but art-making is not merely work for me, but play. This line being…
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Rambling ways
As any of the long time readers among you here already know, much of the focus of my work involves the art of keeping a travel journal. I am often found wandering the world to my favorite depth-filled places to capture a bit of their magic and bring it home with me, in my journals…
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Processing carrots
Start with the shape of a carrot. “ish”. Add a “head” to your carrot shape. And then a wee shadow to ground your developing figure in space…. (for the record, my sunshine is found in the left of my little world.) Once your carrot is feeling like a figure, time to clothe it a bit. …
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Una semana mágica
“Deep peace of the running wave to you. Deep peace of the flowing air to you. Deep peace of the quiet earth to you. Deep peace of the shining stars to you. Deep peace of the infinite peace to you.” A Gaelic Blessing. It is a liminal time. Alone with my thoughts and a well…
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Stay and Wonder
There is a lovely and welcoming new gallery space situated right downtown where things are busy and fancy like. Some of us “urban sketcher” types have wrangled a few of our recent drawings into proper frames and are having a show. There is even an Opening. Join us from 4-7 this Thursday afternoon at Columbia…
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A measure of quiet
Raw December day, wet, dripping with rain and fog. Last night’s few inches of snow turn to slush and mud. I opt for a day home sketching and drinking tea after a busy weekend of music-making, and other such peopling. I am deeply grateful for a flexible schedule. The paints have been fairly ignored recently,…