This pretty guest room, which used to be my daughter’s when she lived at home, is a beautiful, serene space with a high ceiling and a tall arched window looking out over the woods and fields to the north of our house. This antique dressing table was a lucky flea market find whose pale aqua […]
Category: Around the Home
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Day 46
My house is surrounded by hydrangeas of all shapes, sizes, and colors. They start blooming in June and don’t stop until the first frost in October. All through the summer, I’m treated to those gorgeous blooms of periwinkle blue, deep pink, and soft ivory. This beautiful blue lace-cap grows next to our front porch, surrounded […]
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Day 44
Recipe for a perfect summer evening: A big front porch White wicker furniture with comfy cushions Wooden rocking chairs A porch swing Pots overflowing with flowers A big goofy dog At least one cat Birds Fireflies A good book A glass of wine or iced tea A gorgeous sunset Time to enjoy all of the […]
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Days 43 & 45
Here are a few more glimpses of spots around the house, drawn with my Noodler’s flex pen and Lexington Gray ink in my Stillman & Birn Alpha series sketchbook. The flex pen allows me to vary the lines in a drawing from thick and heavy to barely there. What it doesn’t do is correct lettering […]
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Days 24-25
Day 24 was almost over, and I hadn’t had a chance to do my sketch yet. I picked up my sketchbook and, pen in hand, wandered through the house looking for something to draw. Suddenly I spied my husband sitting on the couch doing some paperwork. Hmmm, this looked like a great opportunity to practice […]
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Days 18-19
This sketch challenge is definitely keeping me busy! I’m managing to keep up with the drawing, but have fallen behind in my posting. We’ve had power outages to contend with after last Friday’s damaging thunderstorms, and four days of no phone or internet, but things are back to normal now, and I’ll try to catch […]
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Days 11-17
I’ve been sketching up a storm and managing to stick to the challenge rule of drawing directly with a pen. I occasionally bend the rules a tiny bit by using a pencil to lay out the lettering, like in the sketch below, but the subject matter is all drawn in ink. (All sketches are done […]
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Days 6-10
I’m already reaping the rewards of the 75 Day Sketch Challenge… and I’m only on Day 11! It’s becoming second nature to draw directly with a pen. No more fussing around with a pencil drawing first. Now I simply observe closely and record what I see. It’s saving me time and energy. And I think […]
75 Day Sketch Challenge: Days 1-5
I’ve accepted the challenge – the 75 Day Sketch Challenge, that is! Artist Brenda Swenson came up with the idea as a way to encourage people to hone their drawing skills and gain confidence as an artist. You can read all the details on her blog. Basically, the challenge involves doing 75 sketchbook drawings in […]
Mug Shots
Everyday things, collected over time, tell the story of our lives. They’re reminders of the people we love and places we’ve been. It makes me happy to use things that hold memories for me, like these coffee mugs, which I painted the other day in my 7″ x 10″ Canson Montval watercolor sketchbook. Watercolor with […]
