Day 42 - France

 Journal

Continuing the 75-day pen challenge by Brenda Swensen. This is another architectural sketch I'm continue to practice ...

I love those outdoor cafes, especially when covered with flowers. I wish there were more outdoor cafes where I live ... nothing beats sitting under one of those umbrellas, drinking coffee, chatting with friends, sketching, enjoying the views ...

Along the Beach

Another small demo for my watercolor class.

Still haven't made it to the NC beaches this year ... guess I need to be content with visiting the beaches through paint!

I am really enjoyed this 'not-so-stiffling' summer ... what a change from last year.

The Pond

Continuing my 75-day Sketch with Pen Challenge. I did this first with pen, then followed-up with watercolor.

I am really enjoying the relaxed sketches in my journal ...smaller scale, a bit faster, and more a sketch than a finished painting ...

Rose of Sharon

While I love these pretties in my garden, they sure love to spread their YOUNG EVERYWHERE!!!  In bloom now.

Day 29 - Flowered Window

Journal
Ink and Watercolor

Day 29 -- Almost a month of a 75-day challenge to sketch directly with pen !! WOO HOO!!!

Another flowered window ... my favorite kind of window!

After the Rains

Sketchbook Skool session "Seeing" has ended -- but it has been one incredible, magnificent, learning experience.  I'm still involved with the 75-day Pen challenge posted by Brenda Swensen and will continue my daily pen and wash practices.  I am learning so much and the painting block, thank HEAVENS, has been lifted.

I want to share some of my more 'successful' sketches because I'd like to encourage you to look into the classes the next time they are offered (another session coming soon).

This sketch of mushrooms was painted after all the rain we experienced ... the 'shrooms popped up EVERYWHERE on the property, and I walked around and sketched the varieties I saw ...FUN!

Bone China Tea Set

Journal - Sketchbook Klass with Liz Steel

I've been working on tea cups and tea sets for this portion of Sketchbook Skool with Liz Steel.  Buildings and Teacups -- it is -- here, the tea set given to me by my sister Pat -- A very delicate bone china set.

Carolina Wren

Continuing work with Sketchbook Skool and working in my journal. My assignment this particular week was to sketch a bird ...

Orange Sunset

Painted as a demo for this month's class on sunrises and sunsets.

Day 10 - Avenue of Live Oaks - Magnolia Gardens, Charleston, SC

Day 10 - Magnolia Gardens Avenue of Live Oaks
I'm continuing to enjoy the sketch and journal practice I'm doing for Sketchbook Skool while also participating in a 75-day sketch with pen challenge. I'm finding the smaller format relaxing and the simple washes over penwork a wonderful practice.

This is a sketch of part of the live oak avenue at Magnolia Gardens, Charleston, SC. I LOVE that tree and its associated history and folklore and the many uses it has.

Island Reflections

Watercolor
Arches 140#CP

My August watercolor classes will focus on sunrises and sunsets ... this is the painting I did for the class demo ... from imagination ...

Our temps have been incredible for this time of year .. mid 80sF!! What a joy to be outdoors!

Day 6 - Sketchbook Skool with Cathy Johnson - Nature

I'm continuing my work in Danny Gregory's Sketchbook Skool. This week's lessons are with Kate Johnson -- and we're using sketchbooks to sketch various nature sketches. Though we were asked to try birds, with 5 outdoor cats, I fear putting up a bird feeder - my 5 are very good hunters ...so that means taking photos of birds or observing birds is relegated to those times I visit my neighbors. Instead of a bird, I chose to sketch my 3-legged cat Pepper when he was a kitten. Once an outdoor cat, after his injured leg, he now resides indoors.

Flowered Stairs

Been a busy time here ... I"m working on a Memoir Writing Class, teaching watercolor and have been enrolled in Sketchbook Skool and getting back to my sketching. It's helping to focus more on the lines rather than the paint .. and in retraining my eyes to SEE and OBSERVE.

This is a quick sketch done in pen and washes (done outside of class!! LOL).  Drawn from a photo provided by Dreama (dreamatolleperry.com/).

Oxford Barn
Watercolor
Journal


Continuing my watercolor journal work. Most of the hay has been collected from the fields by now -- but every once in a while, I'll pass a farm that still has their rolls out in the field.

Love the farms I see around North Carolina!

A Week of Selfies

A week of Selfies

As part of our assignment for Sketchbook Skool, we had to do a week of selfies -- some from our image in a mirror, some from photographs, some as contour drawings with a single line, and one from imagination.

I have always avoided drawing faces - fearing my lack of sketching ability would offend whomever I was attempting to capture. As myself as subject, this week of learning had me in a world of self-discovery, awareness, appalled at all the wrinkles and sags I found, and hysterics. I don't think I've had such a good laugh in a long time!

My favorite is the one I did from memory -- (large - far right) ... I could easily forget all those age lines!

Melville Park

Melville Park
Watercolor - Plein Air
Sketchbook Journal

While visiting my mom a week ago, my friends Joan and Susan kindly took me to a local park to do some plein air sketching. We sat on the bank of this wonderful lake and painted....

It was a wonderful afternoon spent with friends and an introduction to a place I'd never been!

Thank you both - Joan and and Susan!

Fast and Slow Petunias - Sketchbook Skool

Slow and Fast Petunias
Watercolor
Pen and Wash

I'm participating in Danny Gregory's Sketchbook Skool -- and our assignment is to do a 'fast' painting with one medium (I chose watercolor), and then go back for a more meditative, slow approach to the same subject using a different medium (I chose pen). I love the effect of the 'off-placed' lines and washes ...

Wonderful experience to really begin to 'see' ...

More from my ABC Journal.

Alphabet Journal - B

Another page from my alphabet journal.

I've been in New York visiting my family. The weather was incredibly mild! I returned to North Carolina to temperatures in the 90s with heat indices over 100 -- hot and humid -- whew. Sure miss having the windows open and the ocean breeze keeping us wonderfully cool.

Alphabet Journal - A

A bit more from my alphabet journal.