33 Robins

Whether or not I manage to submit to this year's juried show at Outside the Lines, it's nice to have a prompt and a deadline to kick-start my studio time again.  Life has been busy, and just when I think that I have a sort of routine set up, then suddenly my violin-playing skills are in demand, and then the smalls get sick, and there's always the grad student support-team role that the smalls and I play most weekends.  Plus, a 4th birthday!  Halloween!  My laptop, cell phone, oven, and clothes dryer all going kaput within weeks of each other!  Surprise eye surgery!  Listing it all here at once, I am somewhat amazed that I've been getting anything drawn at all.

But there have been moments, and first some robins appeared.

And then it started snowing.

And the light was all dim around the edges.

Finished and framed.

Meanwhile we had our first snow.  Halloween pumpkins were procured and carved in the nick of time.

Halloween night my two coughing and feverish smalls still bundled up and made it to the neighbors' homes for a little bit of trick-or-treating.  This year we had a 'Jumping Spider/Monster Spider/Zombie Crab' and a 'Blue Octopus,' which temporarily sported pink vampire fangs.  Hopefully when everyone is recovered we can reconstruct the costumes for a photo shoot.

I've started my next colored pencil.  When I work on it, all I can think about is the digital images of my cerebral vascular system, flashbacks to Moo's birth and my hospital adventures then.  Here I am, four years later.  Happy healthy boy, happy healthy Mama.  Still holding lots of gratitude for every day.

Where We've Been

For the past four months is Outdoors.  Absolutely as much as possible.  And even now, with school back in session and our days framed by a few firm numbers on the clock (8:20am; 3:05pm), we're picnicking at least once a week, and stopping by the park on the way home from school, and taking every in-service day and early dismissal as a chance to roam and ramble and wade.

And the family camera is behaving temperamentally.  So documentation has been light, as well.

But we've had a glorious summer.  And now, as the weather cools and the garden winds down, I hope to center my days around a bit of studio time again.  There are endless trees to imagine, and some more native moths and butterflies to explore, and maybe the flock of chickens needs expanding, and I sense some rumblings along the lines of heirloom vegetables, or maybe just some favorite local scenes.

Not to mention a fall crop of violin music-making opportunities.  And cozy, gift knitting, and a much-anticipated visit from Grammy come October.

I'm looking forward to it.

Posy!

Hello vacation to Seattle and Kauai.  Hello coming  home to budding crocuses.  Hello daffodils that opened yesterday.  Hello finally hitting 70 degrees for the first time this year.  Hello birthday picnic for a newly turned 6 year old.  Hello studio, hello Spring!

It's good to be back.

More soon.  Right now, there is Friday afternoon sunshine and the Beans to collect from school.

Have a good one.

Wintering

Time for a few pictures from the last month or so around here.

Roo made a crown for herself.

A round of viruses has finally made it into and around the family, and this, coupled with Moo's recent variability in the nap-taking department, has made art time slide to the back burner.  Time for a new routine.  One that does not involve (finally!) falling asleep (from utter exhaustion!) at two-thirty p.m., since we have to go pick-up Roo from Kindergarten at a smidge-past-three.

A mild and temporary frustration.  This too, in time, shall pass.  In a blink of an eye, really.

Wintertime visit to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, WI

Also, Michaels has suddenly stopped stocking 12"x16" mats.  Huh.

Density experiment: honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, milk, dish soap, (blue) water, canola oil, (red) rubbing alcohol, (and a metal screw, plastic die, beer bottle cap, and a blueberry).

 
But really, we've been wintering very happily here.

What greeted me when I returned from orchestra rehearsal a few weeks ago.

Hope you are all warm and well!

Luna Moth

Also back in January, I started working on what I hope will turn into a larger series of colored pencil drawings of a few of the many amazing varieties of moths that live in North America.  I suspect it might also digress into native butterflies at some point.

 Here's the wikipedia link to the Luna moth article.  And here's another great site for information on these (and other!) moth and butterfly species.

So far this month I have tried twice to create a satisfactory drawing of an Io moth.  In a few days I'll try again.  Here, at least, is a zoom on a part of the Io moth that I think I got right, (on my second attempt...)

Those eye spots are all right, but those upper wings?  Seriously people.  Bah!

Have a great week!

More January Art

The smalls and I went sledding after school earlier in January, and while Moo and I waited our turn I got to look around and enjoy the artistry of the late afternoon sun on the snowy slope.  Our side-by-side shadows stuck in my head until I had a chance to sit down and draw.

I seem to be endlessly fascinated by the colors of shadows as they fall on the snow.  Or maybe, being from Western Washington, I am just still bewitched by the novelty of a climate where sun and snow can coexist.

In any case, right now it is brilliantly sunny and -1 degrees Fahrenheit out, so sledding is out of the question.  I know, because we tried it yesterday when it was 7 degrees out, and we lasted about 10 minutes.  It is much more comfortable to just think pleasantly about it while sitting in the warm sunshine at my drawing table.

Wintertime is going much better for me this year, probably due in part to the wonderfully kind response I've been getting to my recent studio output.  Thank you!  It really means a lot to me, and has kept me happily occupied through these quiet, cold days.

Remember the Mushrooms?

Back at the beginning of the month I picked up my brushes and started a little watercolor.  And I was really not sure where I was going to take it.  After the excitement of the Chickens, I came back at it with my colored pencils, to see what sort of interesting texture I could add.

And I decided it needed a moth.  So I put one in.  And there, once again, it languished, as I started another drawing.

I felt like I was taking it in all the wrong directions.  I had an idea in my head, and this was not it.  This happens a lot in the creative process.  In fact, I think the most inspiring part of making things is how you keep trying, even when things never quite seem to work out the way you intend them to.

So, in the end I went back to my watercolors and added a few more lines and this is where I am going to let it sit.  Until I decide that I like it after all, or I have another brilliant idea to subject it to.

Maybe it's not so bad, and I've just been staring at it too closely.  But also, ever the artist's conundrum, when is a finished piece done?

Many Hats

Well!
Since I posted last, I've gone to my first artists' reception as a featured artist, made my first gallery sale, and celebrated with Stam chocolates and an e-mail to my mom. Her reply?  "Atta girl!  Love, your first cheerleader, M"  That makes a whole lot of smile in my heart.

 Time to resolve that this year will be my year to learn how to be an Artist.  Another hat to add to my collection of varied occupations, interests, and activities.  Still, I am encouragingly reminded that being Mama to my family is my top priority right now.  The littles are my best creative output and my deepest source of inspiration, and I get so much loving support from them and Todd; it's going to be a great year for all of us to grow into.

Since the juried show is now up at Outside the Lines, I thought I would post all the art I worked on for it.

(After attempted repairs... but you can still see the purple 'tornado trumpet' in the background.)

 After smaller small got into the studio and added his creative contribution to my first drawing, I switched gears and style and ended up creating two sketches that I felt enough confidence in to submit to the gallery.

They accepted one of them, the hen, named Mildred.  Henry, the rooster, is still up on the wall here.

And I ended up drawing one more piece, but besides liking the background, we all felt that the hen as a central focus fell rather flat.

 And those're the ups and downs of it, huh?  There isn't a lot of studio time, and sometimes things just don't work out.  And that is why it is so good to have the smalls, and family life, and the violin, and knitting, and baking and cooking and gardening and hiking and canoeing and reading and dreaming to keep everything balanced.

And on that note, it's time to go make some bread.

Beginning Again

It's back to school for Roo, and back to the studio for me during Moo's naptimes!

We had a grand winter break, with a big snowstorm at the beginning and lots of sunny, cold days at the end.  Perfect for sledding and snowshoeing and playing boardgames the whole lazy week between Christmas and New Years.








































Among other knitted gifts that I managed to finish in time for holiday gifting were these mitts for Roo's kindergarten teacher.  (I really like how they turned out, and want to crank out another eight pairs or so to give to various friends and relatives...  So much knitting, so little time...)

Apparently, I'm still thinking about mushrooms.  I gave my mushroom-varieties watercolor to my Mom for her birthday, back in October, and despite carving a new mushroom stamp for our Christmas cards this year, my first project back in my studio was starting this small painting this afternoon.

Not entirely sure where I am going with it, but I am enjoying creating in the studio again.

Also, a very happy and exciting note to all my local friends - I had a piece selected for a juried show running at Outside the Lines Art Gallery for Jan/Feb.  The artists' reception is this Friday, the 4th, from 7-9pm, if you want to stop by.  'Cause I'll be there!

Hope you all had a wonderful holidays and wishing you a grand start to 2013!