Fiber Artist
I have just begun a new online sketching class with Liz Steel called Foundations. I first met Liz in a sketching class through Sketchbook Skool a few years ago so I know I am working with an excellent teacher. I have been away from sketching for too long and felt that the best way to […]
I’ve managed to get a couple more sketches done on the junk mail postcards I created earlier here. I saw my first Handkerchief tree late last summer and was smitten with the seed pods which littered the base of this huge tree. I have enjoyed seeing them every day since. The stems of the pods […]
I am having some fun with the blank junk-mail postcards I produced earlier. These cards lend themselves to all kinds of art making and I would like to do more sketching. Here is one that I dashed off and put in the mail to friend. Click on the image for a larger view. Let’s face […]
I spent this past weekend immersed in a botanical illustration class at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) with instructor Lynn Kitagawa. Lynn has worked for the VA Medical Center as a medical and biological illustrator for 30 years. She has an undergraduate degree in biology in addition to an MFA. And she is a […]
Here are the last of the sketches I did during January. I created several on the 25th to make up for missing other days. Click on images for a larger view. For the word prompt ‘selfie’ For the next few sketches I selected my own subjects from around the house. This pin cushion is dear […]
The word prompt for the 18th was ‘pair.’ These dice have provided many hours of laughter with friends while playing Farkle. Click on an image for a larger view. The next sketch responded to ‘cover.’ I participated in the Portland Women’s March. It was a powerful, exciting event. Here is my favorite photograph taken that soggy […]
I played catch up a few times during the month and created more than one sketch in a day — I wanted to end the month with the equivalent of one sketch for each day. Here are the next few (click on an image for a larger view): “Quote” was the prompt for the 13th […]
Here are a few more of the sketches that I created in January. The Sketchbook Skool prompt for January 8 was ‘movie.’ Click on images for a larger view. I went back to this page several times to respond to ‘metallic.’ On the evening of the 10th I had fun with this ‘doodle.’ Here is […]
Several important features of my web site have been broken for quite some time. Getting it fixed finally rose to the top of the list. During the fixing process I also had many other changes made to the site — all with an intent to make it function easily and be more user friendly. I […]
Sunday was a big day for me. Yes, it was the first day of a new year and ‘fresh start’ thoughts were dancing (translation: sounded more like Get with it!). I took on — at least for the day — a sketching challenge from Sketchbook Skool: a drawing a day, prompts supplied for those who […]
I managed to create a few sketches during the last days of 2016. It felt encouraging to me. It felt good to create. Mostly it felt healing to just sit and focus. Perhaps the cold weather shifted my mood to spring. (Click on image for a larger view.) More outdoor thoughts, this time with more […]
Among the hustle and bustle, here are a few quiet moments I’ve experienced lately. The holiday boat parade on the Willamette River. It is fun to share in the joy of these boaters’ inspiration. Click on image for a larger view. Some quiet moments with my sketch book to gather myself. What are […]
Aching for a bit of peaceful creative distraction, I took out my sketch book — the one only suitable for pen or pencil work — and enjoyed capturing some Dusty Miller leaves. I love the shape and color of this leaf. What are you doing to focus on something positive?
I opened a new sketch book in March and I have shared some of the new sketches I’ve done, but not all of them. This particular book is turning out to be a lesson for me. I found this book at an art museum bookstore and I loved the size, the square shape, the ribbon […]
Here are two sketches I’ve done in the last couple days. The pear is done with pen and watercolor. Click on image for a larger view. This blackbird is done with watercolor only. I painted the entire page and let it dry before painting the blackbird. This was inspired by a wine label. And here […]
A couple weeks ago I began experiencing intermittent computer issues so my posting has been sporadic. Those issues have been resolved so I have full use of my computer now. Enough said. Here’s a sketch done in response to an assignment from my recent Sketchbook Skool instructor, France Belleville-Van Stone : Sketch something with wheels […]
Another exercise assignment from Sketchbook Skool: without looking at the page, put pen to paper and sketch a portrait. I used a photograph of myself with David for this blind contour exercise and sketched us individually. The results were pretty funny. If you’ve ever seen Harry Nielsen’s The Point, David might remind you of the […]
Sketchbook Skool is an on-line sketching and watercolor school that I have taken several classes with. While I was away, I received an offer for a class that had just begun at a price I couldn’t resist. When I got home I was eager to check in and take the first class with Jonathan Twingley. Jonathan […]
I’ve just returned from a wonderful visit in Nevada and Southern California. I packed my traveling sketch bag along but didn’t think about the fact that I had just one empty page. Lesson learned. Happily, I had a few watercolor postcards in the bag so I was able to do more than one sketch. I was […]
I purchased a Lamy fountain pen over a year ago and have done little to become acquainted with it. I purchased the pen after taking a course through Sketchbook Skool with Liz Steel, an Australian architect-turned-sketcher who regularly uses her fountain pens to sketch. She discusses fountain pens extensively on her site here. The pen […]
I never tire of these beautiful leaves.
I ironed some dinner napkins and a small stack of hankies yesterday and was inspired by one of the hankies to open my sketch book. Here is the last sketch I had done — I’m not sure why I haven’t shared it here before. Here is what the hankie inspired: When was the last time ironing […]
My studio has been closed down since February — the month that we decided to sell our home and move to Portland. It is still far from up and running and I have been missing the creative surge a lot. I’ve been so busy with all the ‘settling’ activities involved in a major move that […]
I haven’t been here on my usual Wednesday and Friday dates sharing what I’ve been up to. Instead, I have been preparing to put our home on the real estate market and move to Portland, Oregon. The plan was put into action in February and we arrived in Portland on June 22nd. We’ve purchased a […]
A recent sketching date with a friend produced the first bit of art I’ve done for several weeks. Today is a good day to share what I did. Click on image for a larger view. Happy spring!
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This is the last squash from our weekly box of vegetables. I loved the big bold stem on this small pumpkin. Click on image for a larger view. I did, in fact, use it in a pumpkin-chicken curry dish. Yum!
It was chilly today, just right for a cup of pumpkin-spice tea. I could tell — painfully — that I had not been sketching since early October when I set about sketching this teacup. Click on image for larger view. The shape of the cup is not round but isn’t quite as square as my […]
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This sketch was inspired by a notecard that I received which bears Hannah Borger Overbeck’s (United States, 1870-1931) rendition of the blood root (Sanguimaria canadensis), a somewhat rare woodland plant once used by Native Americans to dye their baskets orange-red. My challenge for this sketch was to be able to match the colors she had […]
