Ink Bottles

For some reason, I woke up this morning thinking about these bottles of watercolour ink. I bought them a couple of years ago, tried them out, and put them away. Out of the blue (groan...that's a lousy pun), I just felt like trying them again today.

I loved it! The colours are very pure, and somehow much juicier than the ones I mix from tubes. I loved dripping one colour into another and watching a third very-bright colour emerge. And it was fun to smoosh them together into browns and greens.



You can see that I had to invent some ivy so I could get the greens in there. Anyway, I ended up with some exciting "accidents." I'll definitely play with these colours again soon.

Year of Days - Happy Halloween!

Oooo! Have a spooky wonderful one! I'm sending scary good wishes.

Charlie's Weed

It's too chilly to sketch outdoors, so I picked a couple of weeds from a vacant lot and brought them inside. The next thing I knew, my cats were rolling and drooling on the table. Had I accidentally picked some catnip? I still don't know. But the cats thought they'd died and gone to heaven!



Sketching the weeds was challenging enough. Sketching them through glass was even more challenging! I'm not sure whether I succeeded, but it was a good exercise. If the cats keep reacting this way, I may get a lot more practice at it!

Heading Home

All week I've been gazing at the ocean. Plenty of other stuff was happening in this house: tons of creative work, critiquing, much laughter, good meals and companionship. Meanwhile, people were dropping like flies. It wasn't the you-know-what, thank goodness. But we did pick up some sort of super-contagious 24-hour cold/flu, and more than half of us succumbed. Ugh.



From my seat on the sunporch, I saw the colours of the water and sky change dramatically hour by hour. Not one of my sketches even came close to capturing those beautiful moods. But here are a couple, anyway.



Tomorrow we head home. WHERE did the week go?

On Retreat

After several weeks of deadlines, work and getting-ready, I'm finally here beside the ocean. Several writer-friends and I have rented a house for the week. Each of us has settled into a chair or a corner of her own, and mine seems to be this wicker love-seat in the sunroom. I drew this sketch during the rain and wind on Sunday morning. Now the sun is blasting through the windows and bouncing off my computer screen. It's time to get up and out the door--we're off to the library!

Year of Days -- Happy Thanksgiving!

The turkey's in the oven, the vegetables are waiting to go in the pot, and I'm grabbing a moment to wish you a Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving! What a glorious day. Storm clouds are doing dramatic things to the sky and the sun is making the trees so bright, it almost hurts to look at them. I hope to sketch them soon. In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures called "Twelvey Ate the Turkey" and "Howling at the Moon." Have a good one!

Happy Anniversary

I hope you'll have a splendiferous day! I'm sending much love to both of you. See you soon! xoxoxo

Skeleton Park

Its real name is McBurney Park, but in the early 1800s this place was a burial ground. The bodies were relocated to another cemetery a long time ago, but once in a while construction workers still unearth bones. So around here it's known as Skeleton Park.



No place could feel less spooky--especially on a hot day, with kids running around. While I was sketching, the little girl in the pink shirt actually hugged the tree.

Back in June I sketched and coloured this picture on-site. But you can see what happened. The sun seemed to suck the paint right off the page. No matter how many layers I added, the picture just looked more and more anemic. It even felt gritty to the touch. It was a big old mess, so I put it away.



Tonight I pulled it out and tried to fix it up. It felt great to pick up the markers again. And it felt great to re-visit that hot June day. Meanwhile, I've been toasting my October toes in front of a space heater!