Down Under

And I'm off!!

Perspective and the Garden

I'm still sketching perspective studies. Sat waiting in front of my daughter's house on Wednesday 

and caught this one-looking up at a boxy shape.

Sketched this one quickly while waiting for my headlight to be replaced.

And now on to the garden. Eating flowers, kale, spinach, etc.

The plant above is broad leafed kale. Very nice in our climate.

The tomato plants from seed. Getting big.

Ditto with the pepper plants.

The rhodies are out at least 2 weeks early this year. It's our weird, dry, warm weather. Sunny. We 

don't know how to adjust to that.

So everything's popping at once. Roses, rhodies...

Ever so fragrant lily of the valley.

More colors of rhodies ...

artichokes forming (look in the center for the little guy)

Mountain Bluett

The garlic is very happy this year.

After hiding for 2 years the deciduous azalea decided to bloom.

She is a welcome, fragrant variety.

Rainbow chard that winters over. Lots of green stuff just keeps

going year round.

We have a lot of rhodies.

This is our compost set up beside a baby fig tree. The circle at the bottom will have 

strawberries behind the rabbit fence.

Golden showers rose.

White rhody.

There's so much more but I'm busy packing and getting John set up for time without me here. 

This will be my last post before leaving on Monday for Australia. I'll maybe post from there 

but probably not. I'll be 100% there while I'm there.

See you on my return. xo

Pen Love

I've always loved pens. I literally have hundreds of them. But that didn't stop me from ordered a bunch more. Flex pens. Pens with odd looking tips. Inks. I've been drawing.

I'm not one of those people who draws with precision. I have a brother-in-law who can freehand a building with cupolas, windows, all sorts of architectural features and not get a line out of place. That isn't me. I wish. But no.

I'm going to show you some pages drawn in the last few days in my new Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook. I'm trying out new pens, new inks, new approaches. The spiffy clean sketchbook is rather intimidating.

The first sketch is wobbly and tight.

So I drew the second one with a stick. ha ha. But no.

Drew another one so tight I can hardly breathe looking at it.

And don't make the mistake I did of looking at all the other sketch artists online. Especially those Urban Sketch Crawlers in Singapore. Don't look!!

 

Compare and despair. But I'm not giving up.

I want to sketch and I want it to be fun.

It isn't fun when you're trying too hard. It's only fun when you're learning along the way and seeing improvement.

You have to kiss a frog or two.

And just accept whatever comes.

So I'm just going to draw. Like a mad photographer capturing images good and indifferent.

I'm going to ride this pony until I've had my fill.

Danny Gregory and his guests entertained me today.

Liz Steel is a real inspiration - enthusiastic and fun. She visited the Singapore Urban Sketchers and I added another item to my bucket list. (yeah, I'm dreaming.)  If you click on the link you can hear a great interview. I've listened to it twice now.

Here's a peony for anyone who doesn't have one. The rhodies are popping, we have new fruit trees, and I'll try to do a garden post next time. But no promises. I have some sketchin' to do. xo

The Sap's Finally Rising

Don't you love the way blogger scrambles up your photos? Hey, I'm going with it.

I love nothing more than snooping in other people's journals. So I show mine too.

I ordered a new fountain pen, ink and sketch book just for drawing. They should arrive this week. I'm watching the mailbox.

These pages go back to the time in Oaxaca.

Lots of people have been talking online about travel. One woman who travels alone spoke of dining alone.

I responded that when I take my journal out to a restaurant or coffee house I am never alone.

The journal is like a home, my turtle shell, that goes with me and keeps me grounded.

One of the reasons I want to get back into drawing practice is that I've been lonely for my watercolors.

They're so easy to travel with. And I love to travel.

It's still cold in Oregon but the flowers are forging ahead.

John's been putting up cold frames and planting fruit trees. I'll show you more of the garden before I leave for Australia in 3 weeks. From today. Eeeeee.

It's time to get those tomatoes in the ground. And the peppers too. 'Taters went in yesterday.

I'm going to take these babies for a ride today. Mmmm, watercolor.

I'm still yearbook sketching. 

Two lips.

Today I mail the taxes and accompany John to a remote oak grove to release squirrels from our squirrel traps (they decimate our walnut orchard so we trap 'em and take 'em to Molalla - ha ha, don't hate us Molalla!). That's what shakin' in my hood today. Later! xo