Tiny Teacup

Pilot G-2 Pen, Yarka St. Petersburg watercolor and white gouache w/Niji brush pen, colored pencil
This is a piece of handmade pottery that sits on my desk at work.

New Work and Art Show News

colored pencil, watercolor, oil pastels
5x7 on Fabriano Artistico Hot Press

I began this painting last night from a photo I took a few summers ago. I finished it up this evening. I keep wondering what would happen if I concentrated on just one medium or combination of media. All my life through this artistic journey I have continually returned to watercolor and colored pencil either alone or in combination. I tend to combine watercolor with something else to give it more solidity - it seems too vague and watery without something to anchor it down with detail and line. I like using acrylic on canvas, but my small space makes that difficult and I love the portability of watercolor and drawing media on the small size papers or in sketchbooks.


This afternoon I attended the reception for the Mount Airy Art League's (http://www.ma-artleague.org/) Annual Art Show. Pictured below are Donna Jackson, The Gallery Group (http://gallerygroup.biz/) Director, and Jan Lucas, Mount Airy Art League Coordinator.



Below are my two paintings (top and bottom) hanging on the panel. The bottom painting "Morning Joy" won Third Place in Mixed Media! Juror for this year's show is Dr. Leslye Bloom (http://www.leslyebloom.com/).







Below is the beautiful refreshment table with one of three flower arrangements by Art League Member Judy Gammons http://gallerygroup.biz/judygammonsbio.html and picked from her own garden.

An Update at Last

I've been going through a bit of a transition/down-time with my art and blogging. Maybe it's the arrival of spring. I spent one weekend organizing my art supplies and cleaning out a closet to store seldom used supplies so that my kitchen/studio would be less cluttered. I've been feeling wonderful and able to stay busy, which has kept me off the computer. The migraines have all but stopped thanks to a new doctor and new medicine. I am so very thankful! I have my life back!

I spent this Friday night and yesterday entertaining my twin nieces, who will turn 7 in July.

Saturday their cousin joined them. He will turn 7 in October.

They pretended I was their teacher and called me Miss Deborah. We had a day of art, playing, and learning.

They were amazing students and were completely enraptured by art for most of the day. They created masterpieces on every white piece of cardstock I had in the house!

I did the little sketch below in my Aquabee one month ago today. I sketched it in sepia colored pencil and added watercolor with touches of white gouache. It's such a simple sketch of the corner of my bookcase done while watching TV in the living room with my husband.

This sketch started me in a whole new direction. I am growing tired of collage and feel the need to simplify and go back to my first love - watercolor and colored pencil, or watercolor and pen sketches. Simplify... which is one of the reasons for cleaning out and organizing the studio a bit.

This is a sketchbook I started a couple of years ago on trees. I collaged the leaves on Saturday. In this photo they are just randomly laying on top.

Tonight I did something I haven't done in a very long time. I packed my Yarka watercolor palette and my colored pencils and went driving on the backroads, pulled over and sketched this. I realized how very out of practice I am. I felt hesitant and nervous when I began. But the end result was that it was relaxing, exhilirating and so therapeutic.

It's as if I'm caught between two styles and I can't decide which to claim as my own; which to concentrate on. I think they're both me. But entirely and completely different. The drawing below is the result I get when I have no model and I'm just drawing from my imagination. I love both styles and can't imagine leaving one for the other, so there you go...