Rising or setting, this brings with it best wishes for a creative and happy 2007.
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Just in a mood to paint my feet yellow green tonight - not sure why.
Plan to roast this tomorrow. That, or turn it into a salad with the other one which fell on the floor and split open. But roasted is more fun, if I remember to start them in time.
Yesterday's painting involved so many layers of paint and color that parts of it ghosted through to the other side of the page, forming the basis for this day's drawing. I love the way drawing teaches me new techniques and new ways of seeing all the time.
Anniversary note: before December 28, 2004, I did not draw at all. I took photographs and wished I could draw, but I had not really tried to draw anything since middle school. Today marks two years of drawing every day for me. Every drawing has been posted to this website. I'd like to thank all of you who come to visit - some of you leave comments and I get to know you, some of you are more quiet and I know you only by the name of your home city in my server statistics - but your visits and thoughts and comments are heartening beyond all measure. Thank you for visiting, thank you for returning, thank you for linking to me and for sending me thoughts and words of encouragement. I wish you all the very best in your endeavors in the coming year - I plan to keep on drawing, and see what happens!
Left on the coffee table late in the evening.
Painted by putting the damp teabag down on the page after drawing...
Probably not the only tired person tonight - but after a day of delight, of family and friends, of phone calls and visits, rest is good.
Two cookies (for Santa) and eight bites of carrot (for the reindeer) were left out on the hearth. We've read "The Night Before Christmas," and the last stragglers have gone to bed. I have a little picking up to do from our evening party, and then it is to bed for me. In the words of the poem, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
Ahem. A post about the weather. Blue skies and partly cloudy. Nothing much to see here... a house full of secrets and not enough wrapping paper. Kids wound up? Of course. No snow, and none in the forecast. Rain is likely instead. Still, we can run the last errands, redd up the house, and track Santa's travels tomorrow.
Somehow overlooked after dinner, when we were sharing around what we thought were the last two. We will get more tomorrow, if we can.
A bright taste on the shortest darkest day in our hemisphere. After you've peeled it and can smell the peel on your fingernails, try to leave one of the sections in the air for a few minutes before eating it. In the dry air of our house the outer membrane of the section will become slightly crisp. It fractures at the slightest pressure against the roof of your mouth and the juice and flavor and texture are light and sweet and sudden. (I think M.F.K. Fisher wrote about this - or was it megnut? - or am I imagining that one of them did?)
Lights along the window sill in the living room in a joyous tangle. A first for us this year - usually it's all I can do to get a few sets onto the tree.
It's a short sideways hop from garlands to chain letters (and we'll be back to garlands later this evening) but every so often along comes a blog meme that appeals to me.
Sat down at the table to paint a pensive still life - a bowl of clementines, a vase of greens, a candlestick. But this caught my eye and seemed to suit the end of a day full of half-finished projects. So a contour sketch of a stepped-on empty tape reel it is. (And the projects will continue tomorrow.)
Continuing to deck the halls...
Easy to make with craft store pompoms, needle and thread.
Voice still mostly gone, but the cold is receding. Optimism rising. No snow on the ground and none predicted. We make do with paper snow - both the cutout flakes and all the little cut bits that we don't quite get off the floor before bedtime.
So now I've lost my voice, but it is officially vacation. Not much talking needed. I fold paper, and she cuts it. Snowflakes will be taped to the glass of the front door. (To paint a snowflake you paint the parts that aren't there. With no voice this is somehow comforting.)
Hoping vitamin C will help, as I try to shake off my cold before vacation starts tomorrow afternoon.
Saw a sprig of holly on the sidewalk, kept walking... then turned around, retraced my steps, and picked it up - slightly muddy. Brought it home to stick in the wreath. But I drew it first.
Let the record show that I was not the one of my sisters who used to sing, "Happy Birthday, Dear Party Shoes."
More work with the new watersoluble pencil. I love that when I begin to use this dry, the lines are very light and sketchy - I can see the grain of the paper interrupt the color, and at the same time, the lead is soft and easy to move across the page. Then as soon as I add water - wow - the darks are powerful and the washes easy to pull from them. Lots of contrast, lots of strength. Can't wait to see what direction this takes me.
I remember ribbon candy from when I was very little - I think one of my grandmothers would get it for us. Today we saw it in the corner drugstore, so bought it for a special after supper almost-holiday treat.
Set the poinsettia on the hearth as holiday decoration continues. Want to have things looking festive when our eldest returns home for Christmas vacation, so we are getting oursevles organized earlier than usual.
New materials. Saw a really cool-looking mechanical pencil at the art museum's gift shop, marked 50% off - so I got it. Wavered among various colors, and chose black. Thick lead goes on soft and dark. Decide to draw the sleeping child. Does it erase? Nope. O.k., fine. Let's add some gouache to put color around the page. The wet brush gets slightly too close to the pencil line, which suddenly gets silky, inky black. Mmmm. I will be playing with this a lot, I predict. Replacement leads are available, too....
She was asleep when I got home tonight.
This little tree shrugs off most of its leaves in horror when we bring it into the house for the winter - semi-deciduous, I guess.
Not a flower out of season, but a crumpled Kleenex - very much in season, as too many people are trying to shrug off their colds.
Painted larger than life.
We haven't gotten to putting up holiday greens, but after drawing yesterday's shiny red ornaments this earthy green sprig of ivy may be a response.
In a favorite cafe, when we pause in our Saturday errands, I see that someone has hung red ornaments from almost every corner of the dropped ceiling.
Friday night at home... listening to carols... enjoying opening a new sketchbook... trying to keep things simple.
