Sunshine

Lots of new Copic markers to play with. Still trying to get the hang of them so I can understand their huge appeal.

Staying young...

Hope everyone has had a fabulous weekend. Linking to Sunday Sketches for a great start to the week!

Happy birthday!

This week, my wonderful sweetie, turned 40 and we had a grand old time celebrating his youth! He definitely helps keep me young... And this quote seems very apt this week! Although it's late in the day, I'm linking up to Paint Party Friday and can't wait to see what everyone's been up to this week!

Daffy days in Dallas

I've been traveling this week and have not had a whole lot of time to create. Couldn't even find a really decent art store that would cause me to need an extra suitcase for the trip home. Just this one little drawing. My big accomplishment this week was FINALLY figuring out how to upload images from my iPad. This has been plaguing me for months. Sometimes it's the little things that make life good. Life will be truly grand when I get back home to my sweetie tomorrow!

Hope everyone on this side of the pond, well, at least within the U.S., has a great holiday weekend... And a great regular weekend to everyone else. And don't forget to check out Paint Party Friday!

The earth is still laughing...

For some reason, I've been really loving this quote lately. Perhaps it's because we've had such a beautiful spring this year. Although we have had quite a bit of rain-- from humid drizzly days to big bang thunderstorms and even to powerful hailstorms--  it's been well worth it as we are now surrounded by beautiful, lush gardens filled with bright, colorful flowers.

As part of my relaxing day yesterday, we had a very laid-back date night last night. We went out to one of our favorite restaurants and sat outside, basking in what was left of the beautiful day as the sun began to sink. It helps that this restaurant has the best sangria in five states at least.

From there we stopped off at the garden center and bought some pretty pots of hanging daisies. I just love daisies. They really are the friendliest flowers.  We also got several containers of gorgeous lilies in deep, dark colors.

The highlight of the night for my sweetie was when we stopped to get some of his birthday gifts. We are now the proud owners of yet another new television and Blu-ray DVD player that streams Netflix, Pandora, connects to your Internet and Smartphone and, I'm hoping, will pop some popcorn and brew me a cup of tea before it's finished. Of course, I have to laugh about our getting all these electronics just after we were talking about how beautiful it is OUTSIDE. But I guess we're ready for that next rainy day. And he only turns 40 once. In the meantime, I'm still breathing in the gloriousness of the gardens before the brutal summer heat melts them away.

Linking to Sunday Sketches for some great inspiration!

Relaxing in the peaceful jungle of linkland

Perhaps I am revelling too much... No doubt it will backfire.  But for the moment, I am savoring the fact that my daughter will be going home from school with a freiend, spending the night and won't be back until late tomorrow evening.  My sweetie has a busy weekend with work.  I will have practically the whole weekend to myself.

No doubt, by tomorrow evening, I will be anxiously waiting for him to return home for date night.  But this evening, I have plans to relax with a big cup of tea and a few art books I've been dying to have time to pour over. I'll also have all the time in the world to draw inspiration from all the artists at  Paint Party Friday. (Isn't it amazing how rich the internet community is???  I sometimes I picture myself swinging across the vines of a lush jungle linking from one glorious site to another...)   And tomorrow, I'm spahh-ing it up with several appointments, not the least of which is a desperately needed haircut.  Next week, I will be traveling which will be hectic. So, this weekend, I'm going to luxuriate in some quiet alone time. 

Happy Mother's Day

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

For some great inspiration, check out what else is happening at Sunday Sketches!

Lovin' the letters

Inspired by Joanne Sharpe's LetterLove class!  Lots of fun lettering and color.  My favorite things!

Linking to sweet Sophia's Sunday Sketches.  Please take a peek at what my brilliant artist friends have been up to this week!

The Graceful Envelope

Each year, the Washington Calligraphers Guild sponsors the Graceful Envelope Contest, which draws participation from some of the most amazing lettering artists from around the world.  This contest, in its 18th year, was originally created and sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum. In 2001, the Washington Calligraphers Guild took over as sponsor and, starting in 2003, the National Association of Letter Carriers has co-sponsored. 

Its open to all ages (separate judging category for children) and there is no cost to enter.  I'm not sure how many people enter, but I've been amazed at the talent and creativity of those whose entries have won in past years (each year's winning envelopes can be linked to from the Graceful Envelope Contest page).  According to the website:

Designs that incorporate postage stamp(s) into the theme are encouraged. Judges look for skill in lettering, effective use of color and design, and creative interpretation of the theme.

This year, I decided to join.  Not in the hopes of having a winning entry, but just I love the idea of this contest and I wanted to be part of it and to show my support of it.  This year's theme focused on creating a graceful envelope around something that begins with a D.  Pretty wide open there, huh?  So broad that it took me a while to come up with a theme that was meaningful, but I ultimately settled on the the idea of donors. Here is what I submitted:

I had a lot of fun with this and can't wait to see the winning entries!

Please check out what my friends at Paint Party Friday have been up to this week!

Spring has sprung!

I'm just loving everything about this time of year, from the beautiful weather, to the amazing greenery to the colorful flowers and trees in full bloom.  Every time I walk out the door-- or just look out my window-- I'm in heaven!

Linking up to Sophia's Sunday Sketches!

Defining My Style

I've been struggling lately, feeling a bit like a dilettante (well, a lot like a dilettante), playing with "artsy stuff" but to what end?  I've always loved anything with a creative side and have picked up a number of "hobbies" throughout the years.  I get all caught up in them, purchasing every art tool, medium, book and class to feed my obsession, but I have not ever really settled on just one thing, never really defined myself as an artist or created a signature style.  I look at some of the artists who I gravitate toward and they all have a very distinctive style, even when they move outside their go-to medium, their style carries over and shines through. 

In contrast, I feel like my style morphs with each new interest I have, each new class I take. I can't seem to decide whether I want to do lettering, watercolor painting, pencil sketching, portraits, landscapes, urban sketching, etc., etc., etc...  Every time I see someone who does these things really well, it inspires me to want to try it.  But when I focus on one or the other for too long, I start feeling uninspired, like I want to try new things. 

Maybe there's nothing wrong with that.  I'm not trying to foist my amateurish skills on an unsuspecting commercial audience-- although I've been tickled pink that I've had a few requests for that lately-- so maybe just following whatever interests me, without defining a style, is okay.  Or maybe, someday, when I least expect it, I will be able to look at what I'm doing and see some sort of consistency, something that makes it mine.

In the meantime, I'm just going to continue learning as much as I can from those masters who inspire me.  Right now, I'm doing that through Joanne Sharpe's Artful Alphabets class.  Lots of great ideas from Joanne and a wonderful, sharing community of fellow students have me stuck on lettering right now.  Here's my attempt to apply the lettering to something beyond just writing the alphabet (I've got my ABCs down pat now!).

And if you're looking for real inspiration, please check out what my friends at Paint Party Friday are up to this week, too!

The Messy Book

Despite my best intentions, I have been absent from here longer than I wished to be again.  But, no use dwelling and all that... I'm going to just jump right back in.

I recently joined Lisa Wright's Messy Group, focused around a book by Keri Smith entitled Mess.  It is filled with exercises that encourage one to just get messy.  Very liberating... especially for those of us who may have a touch of the control freak in us. 

Several of the other participants got their book a few weeks ago and have jumped in with both feet.  My book arrived a week or so ago and, rather than madly jumping in as I usually do with new books, I peeked at a few pages and then put it down on the corner of my desk.  A day or so later, I picked it up and flipped through a page or two, and then gingerly placed it back on the desk, looking at it out of the corner of my eye every so often and telling myself that I really NEEDED to get going.  I read posts from those more daring than I about placing their book out in the rain and the snow, putting moldy items in bags and placing them in the book, using raw eggs (for what, I'm still not sure).  I began to think that perhaps this really isn't for me.  The idea of an egg on a plate disgusts me.  In a book is just beyond what I can endure!

Last night, I picked up the book again and randomly opened it to a page with grid.  The instructions were to select ten colors in any medium and fill in the spaces of the grid in a pattern.  Here's where it gets kooky, folks.  Somewhere in the grid, you have to INTENTIONALLY insert a mistake.

Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect by any stretch.  I make LOTS of mistakes.  But not intentionally.  When I do make a mistake, I agonize over it. I try to fix it (inevitably making it far worse!).  But, this didn't require raw food so I thought to myself, it's now or never.  I pulled out some new, very juicy Prismacolor markers and went to town on this grid.   I used bold, bright colors.  I didn't care if I stayed neatly within the lines. 

And, horror of horrors, I did not put anything behind the page to keep these bold, juicy markers from bleeding through the page.  I know, I know... you're thinking, "wow, she lives on the edge!"  But it turns out that it created this kind of cool, honeycomb like pattern on the next page, for which the exercise was to use all the colors you have on hand to fill in the 5x5 box on the page. 

Now, I think the fact that I didn't even stay within the 5x5 box should surely grant me a pass on the egg exercises, no??

On a slightly different note, when I look at these pictures on my computer, they are vertical, but when I post them here or to facebook, they are showing up horizontally (rotated to the right). Has anyone else had that problem or know why it is happening (or more importantly, how to fix it?)  I took these pictures with my phone versus scanning them as I used to do (and I never had this problem with the scanned pics).  Any thoughts greatly appreciated!