Getting Closer

Just had to share these cute German Christmas ornaments... check out the guitar section in the back:) Happy almost winter solstice!!

A Little Christmas- ing

This year's ornaments for the Spokane Art School show going on through the end of December

 A favorite Madonna by Botticelli

Christmas lights at the Manito Conservatory

Jars of Honey

Just a little Janet Fish love today... she is such an amazing painter and one of my favorites.  The distorted honeycombs and reflections on the glass jars blow my mind.  Happy Sunday.

Looking Back

Just a little flashback today... looking at old work.  Here's an acrylic painting of my Underwood typewriter.  I consider it sculpture.  I sold it to a lady in Missoula, MT who wanted to give it to her brother ~ a writer.  Happy Wednesday

A few of my favorite things (October version)

 Botticelli painting...

Slinky black cats

 costume illustrations my kids sketched and handed me... they want me to make these for Halloween

Good news... they still make life savers in rolls:)

Patterns patterns patterns

Almost finished with this vanity set.  It was white but I painted it for my daughter's room in her favorite color.  There's a skirt that goes around the table too.  This was my mom's, then mine growing up and now, third generation!  Next up... painting a masculine one for my son.  I've been scouring the junk stores looking for a simple desk but no luck.  Will keep up the hunt...
Happy Monday!

A Friend's Living Room

This little drawing doesn't do her beautiful house justice.  But.. here's a little snippet.  I'll add some more shading, etc.  De LaTour is still waiting for me to add color... maybe this weekend.  Happy Friday;)

De la Tour

Messing around... drawing some figures from a beautiful Georges de La Tour book.  Unfinished and thinking for now.  Will soon add color! More over at my Flickr...
 Happy Autumn:)

After Dinner...

Still in vacation mode even though school has started!!  Dallas road, Victoria B.C. 
Happy September:)

Open Door

Here's a little update of what I'm painting right now...  I love the gothic arches and gates.  The color scheme may get completely made over.  It's all in limbo right now.  Posted a few ink drawings over at my flickr:)  Into the garden today...  Happy Friday!!

The Ocean...

These things say summer to me because they are all about the ocean.  And the beach...  I love specimens, especially from somewhere like the water where it is so uncontrollable and wild.  These are just footnotes, fragments and little jokes really.

We are stretching out summer as long and far as possible.  A few more visits to the water and then back to school.  This summer has gone by way too fast.  Hope your summer is going well:)

Holly

Today we said goodbye to a very dear friend far too soon.  Holly was a 37 year old mother of 4 children... ages 20 months, 5, 7 and 8 years.  She had the unlikely diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer when her 4th child was just 6 weeks old.  She never stopped fighting and never gave up.  I will carry her memory with me always.

We just returned from a trip to my childhood home of  Sequim and also traveled  Victoria BC.  At a castle I've been visiting since probably first grade, I saw this window I'd never noticed before.  Holly.  If you are a person who prays, please pray for Holly's children, husband, Matt and their family.  Thank you :)

Random Goodness Round the House

Making our own scrapbooks...out of book board leftovers

Drying summer flowers

Painting with Ravi in the background

Snooping in son's sketchbook

Reading perch

Daughter's 'Overwriters' markers sampling

 

It has been so hot here... and our air conditioning has been broken for over a month.  We are experiencing the slow, stifling summer madness. Fingers crossed, the new part will be installed tomorrow.  How's your summer going?

 

Sideways Wing

Here's a painting in progress at the moment... it is evolving by the day.  Our air conditioner is still broken and it is hot, hot, hot!  Murphy's law, I suppose.  Just settling into some kind of summer groove though none of us are sure what that is yet.  Funny how it always takes time to find your way.

Happy Wednesday:)

When YOu Don't Feel Like Cooking...

Go to the bakery.  Bread, cheese and fruit in the morning.  Bread, cheese and wine in the evening...  a person can live on these things.  (woodblock print) 

School's almost out.  The mind boggles ;)  Happy almost weekend

Portrait of a Young Man...

Someone special from the pages of my sketchbook.  Colored version over at my Flickr...

The Etsy shop has new prints in it... it's been a long time since the last update!

Happy hump day:)

Dry River Bed with Butterfly

I have this amazing friend who lives out in the country...  she's been showing me things around the area I've never seen.  Hikes, local lore and her own stories.  Why I have not ventured out earlier escapes me... except now I know, I needed a friend to show me.

Haven't seen any butterflies yet, so I'm painting my own.  There will be lots of rain today, and I'm grateful as the allergies have been running my life!! 

Happy hump day:)

Come On, Summer

Just a peek at a painting by Richard Diebenkorn...  love his work.  (sorry don't have the title for this painting.)  Happy Monday:)

The Last Best Place

Helena

Amazing Taxidermy shop

 

Anaconda...

My first trip to MOntana.  Wow, it was so beautiful and awe inspiring.  Lots of ideas for paintings and tons of old family stories to file away forever.  (my husband's side)  More later... happy MOnday!

First Ride

My son on his first bike ride...  woodblock print.  We are ready for bike riding now!!!  This year = hitch and bike rack on the car :)  Let the adventure begin... 

The Lazy Susan

Revisiting a few drawings and paintings from the past... here's the Lazy Susan Café in Cannon Beach, Oregon.  Happy Thursday... happy spring:)

Sweet Loretta...

A friend of mine is having a milestone birthday... but she does not want a party.  Her lovely husband decided to write to many of her friends asking to make, draw, write, photograph... anything to commemorate her birthday.  Another friend is putting it all together in a scrapbook for her and it will be presented on her big day! Now that is a sweet husband:)

Happy Friday..

Elizabeth Peyton

Just a little random goodness... Marc Jacobs by Elizabeth Peyton.  Happy Friday:)

My Boy...

My boy...

My boy doing a time out at the hardware store - a real scenario, drawn from a photograph. (freshly printed woodblock)
He is so full of personality, mischief, charm and fills up a room with his presence like no one else!   I hardly remember what life was like before he came along.  So, here's yet another little homage I'd like to share with you...

Selfie

This is my ultimate favorite way to spend an evening... me and my guitar.  Getting ready for recital next month.  (why do I keep saying yes to these things?!) 

Happy long weekend:)

Winter Night

Just sharing this lovely woodblock print by Sabra Field.  Welcome Februrary!

Quilt Fight

I dragged my kids to a quilt show in October. They were not into it.   Each quilt photograph I took, my daughter photo-bombed...  Towards the end of our visit, fights kept breaking out for camera time and close ups.  I think of this one as a still life:) 

Happy Sunday!!

A Little Goya

Just thinking and feeling in images today. This etching is by Francesco Goya... I think it's from his series, Los Capricios. (probably the wrong spelling.)