GATOR!!!!!

Today, I am on Ossabaw Island, with my three good friends: Carla, Chantal, and Leanne.  I have visited Ossabaw many times before. It is a wonderful, unspoiled barrier island off the coast of Georgia near Savannah. I have seen many alligators here before, but today was a halcyon day. We were driving in one of the island trucks to look at a possible new place to paint. As we rounded a bend, there was an enormous alligator on the edge of the road. Usually, they skedaddle as you approach, but this one held his ground, and seemed to be challenging us. As we approached, it commenced hissing loudly, but remained unmoved. We stopped, with me riding shotgun, and having a view better than bird's eye. I hung out the window of the car, snapping away, wondering how high the damn things can jump. These images are the result.

photo class

Much of my art making time has been taken up with photography lately, as I'm taking a class at Showcase Cameras. I am finding it challenging. For starters, I can't see the image in the little viewfinder very well, so I keep  making fuzzy images. Then there's the aperture/shutter speed thing. I feel so clueless. We had a field trip to Oakland cemetery, and  I've been back twice trying to get six images I'm proud of for class on Thursday. I liked the one above, but boy have I shot a lot of garbage.  When I'm painting, I think composition is my strongest suit, probably because of an obsession with art history, I don't really have to work too hard to make the eye flow over the image. When I'm looking through the viewfinder, there's too much to think about: what the heck should I be setting it on, the aforementioned seeing problems, the fact, with creaky knees, I'm usually uncomfortable, all of which means frequently what I get is not what I thought it would be. Plus even when I check it on the camera after I've taken it, glare frequently makes it difficult to see. Anyway, I'm having fun, but I'm really stressed out over it. It doesn't help that everyone in class is younger and seems more experienced, or better equipped than I am. Oh well, I firmly believe that learning anything is important, and something one should do every day, plus I got to find out how beautiful  the cemetery is in autumn and early in the morning, so I count myself very blessed, but reserve the right to whine/wine.

Rest in Peace

Lucy died yesterday at 5:30 . We will miss her.

Saying Goodbye to an old friend and family member

Yesterday I got very sad news. Our dear old cat, Lucy, nearly twenty, has inoperable cancer. The tumor is wrapped around her urethra, explaining why she keeps visiting the Kitty box to little effect. The vet says the kindest thing is to put her to sleep. She still wants to snuggle, still wants to eat a bit, still yowls insistently for anything she wants, but she's only five pounds, and so incredibly fragile. Having the power of life and death over a creature I've loved for so long is very, very difficult.  I need to do the right thing, but I don't know if I have the courage. We have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. God give me strength to do what is needed: to say farewell, and ease the passage of a very dear old friend.

Waiting for Red

In my sketchbook, and here using paper, and acrylics on a small canvas board, I am continuing to think about Red Riding Hood and other fairy tales. So many of the tales have woods and scary things trying to get children. I think about how ancient,and primal the wish to protect our children from the scary things in the woods and elsewhere is. It certainly speaks to my heart. Telling the tales, and painting pictures are both ways of letting them go, and trying to deal with our fears for them.

I have noticed most of my paintings for the past year tend to have a fearful element to them, even when I wasn't consciously thinking about them as scary. I am interested in what comes from ones unconscious mind, unbidden and often unwanted into ones work. I guess I'll quit giving Georgia O'Keeffe a posthumous hard time about denying her paintings were sexual in nature. You just never know.

Bear With Me

This is a scratchboard of the Goldilocks tale I just finished. Again, I am not using the traditional point of view. I like this looking down thing, like a key hole view, or maybe a child, or someone peering from the closet. I think it makes the whole thing more intimate, and forces the viewer to complete the story. Because you can't see the faces, you are more responsible for the what comes next. I particularly enjoyed dressing the bears for their roles, particularly Dad's garish spotted tie, and baby bears sailor blouse. I think the scratchboard works well for this, making it more mystereious, and spooky, plus hooray for scratchboard and fur. In my sketchbook, I am thinking some more about Red Ridinghood. The archetypal quality of the tale, the possible symbolism, the color. I have no idiea if I'm going anywhere with this, but I'm having an interesting time exploring.

Red

This is a scratchboard illustration I did, continuing the fairy tale series.. Since I am still learning about this medium, I was tickled to find how easy it was to get realistic effects for grass and animal fur. I guess some would say, "duh!" , but this is all new to me and I felt like a kid with a new toy. Making all those little marks is rather slow, but I got into the Zen rhythm of the thing, and enjoyed it. I intend to make archival quality copies of this, fix them, and hand color them, as I think a red hood is really needed to make the story more obvious. Today David is sick, and the fence guys are coming, so I don't know how much progress I can make on the one I'm working on, from the three bears. Anyway, nothing will be accomplished if I don't get going.

Pumkins and Fairy Godmother Feet

This is a pen and ink drawing I did of the Cinderella story, from a slightly non-traditional point of view. I meant to do it on scratchboard, but I liked my preliminary drawing and had never worked in the new medium, and so I chickened out. I may still redo it now that I've had a bit more experience, as I like the expressiveness of scratchboard, and the wood block look , plus I would like the ground to be a middle value, and I'm not entirely satisfied with the pumpkin. That said, I had a lot of fun with this and am relatively happy with it. Revisiting fairytales is something I've been doing, inspired by a book on children's illustrators. It takes me to a very happy place while I'm working, and makes me think of my daughter, who is a really big fairy tale buff. I also like drawing feet!

Pop-up Book Gods, and Technology Hates Me

Went to the Decatur Book Festival and saw the Picasso's of pop-up books, Robert Sabuda and Mathew Reinhart. It was wonderful, and inspiring.  Also saw wonderful handmade books, plus a lot of things I want to read. I would have loved to have stayed longer, but it was brutally hot, and I melted. Maybe tomorrow. In more depressing news, the printer/scanner and computer aren't getting along again. The tech guy says sometime this weekend, or Monday. I remain dubious. I am not making art right now, because my kids are here for the Labor Day weekend, which is better  than art. I have really interesting and amusing people for kids and I really love hanging out with them.

I've been having such adventures, getting this thing up and running. First, printer/scanner, old computer, and I were at odds. Enter Computer geek; leave $130.00. Problem solved. Then scanner reproduces images in tif. format, which this blog wouldn't accept. Several hours of futzing and figuring, and many thanks to Photoshop Elements, and here is my first image, at last. This is my first scratchboard effort. Recently I was layed up after knee surgery, and resistance weakened, I succumbed to an internet sale on scratchboard. I really enjoyed working on this little thing. The scratchboard I was using was only 4 X 6 inches, which made my thoughts turn to something small and precious. I cobbled this together working from several source photos. I think working negatively, by scratching out black to reveal white is in many ways easier than adding black to white. The process is slow, and might be tedious, if you didn't kind of focus on the Zen quality of it. Anyway, I wasn't too unhappy with this, my first effort.

in which a fairy tale beginning grinds to a halt.: Think Dorothy and Poppies.

There will be a slight delay getting this enterprise underway, as the scanner printer has decided to enter a vegetative state. Frustration rules. Also, I am ill, and not feeling witty, humorous, or profound.

A Fairy Tale Beginning

Today I'm taking one more step out of my comfort zone and into a brave new world by starting a Blog. I hope to share my drawings and paintings with friends and potential friends, and to talk about my creative journey. There is a lot of learning that will have to go on for this thing to be a success. For starters, I have to figure out how to get images onto this thing. Right now, I am working on some sketchbook ideas about fairy tales. Recently, laid up after knee surgery and feeling picked on, I ordered a quantity of scratchboard and tools to play with it . I have really been enjoying experimenting with it.  Scratchboard is illustration board coated with a white clay, and then india ink. To use it, you scrape away the black. You need to think much more about negative space, and use textures and mark spacing to achieve value. The result looks a lot like a wood cut, but is a lot easier to do. My first effort was a little index card sized illustration of bees, taken from rearranged photos.

When I paint I often listen to books on tape. I like young adult fantasy and science fiction because it is plot driven, and undemanding, so the painting tends to flow, while I am transported to worlds beyond, and back to my childhood. The combination of Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke and scratchboard led to thinking about fairy tale illustration. I started brainstorming with my sketchbook, and have rough ideas for two Cinderella illustrations, Red Riding Hood, The Princess and the Pea, The Frog Prince, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Snow White, and Rapunzel. My ideas are a bit skewed though, I'm only showing the stories from the waist down. I drew the fairy godmother's lower half in crisp, lace trimmed apron, with black buckled shoes, and striped stockings beside a pumpkin and surrounded by mice. Red riding hood's booted feet are on a path next to a picket fence; beyond which are wolf feet. 

When I went to tackle the first drawing, Cinderella, the new medium scared me, and I retreated to more familiar pen and ink. I like my drawing , but now that I am working on Red Riding Hood on the scratchboard, I think I may redo it. I really like the more muscular, and mysterious feeling of the scratchboard. I have had a great deal of fun working on these two drawings, but this medium sure is slow! I am working 9X12", and each one has taken 2 days plus. I hope I get faster with practice!