Summertime, and the living is….HOT!

My life recently has been showing up mostly in my sketchbooks. We went to Kansas to bury my Father, and I sketched on the trip. I also sketched the very small town we lived in for a few years when I was young, from a few photos my brother took. (below)

 

 

July is apricot season at our house, so I sketched some, based on a Cezanne painting that was probably peaches. The rest of this 2-page spread was done at our cabin, where dragonflies were busy (hopefully eating mosquitos) at the lake and caterpillars were busier than usual at the cabin (sign of another big winter?)  You can tell that the fishing wasn't great, because I was actually sketching in the boat, with my pole in the water, attracting nothing at all.

 

 

 

I have been trying to sketch more, and to fuss less with the outcome. In fact, I have not been using a pencil or eraser, but have been jumping right in with ink or paint, as I did on the spread above at the cabin. I've also been doing as much from life, not relying on photos. The end sketch is not great art, but I really believe it captures how I feel about whatever I'm sketching much more honestly, than it would if I were sketching from a photo and being concerned about making it 'look good.' 

Yesterday we went out to the County Fair. Every year, for a long time, I'd said I wanted to go sketch the animals at the fair, but, with parent concerns, etc. it just never happened, so I was determined to go this year, in spite of the heat. I only took a small sketchbook, a black pen, and 2 charcoal pencils; a black and a terracotta one. I sketched the 3 goats and the pig onsite, but added the girls with their animals when I got back home, with colored pencils. I am not very experienced at sketching in public, so wanted to not draw a lot of attention to what I was doing, and sketched the animals very quickly and simply.

 

 

In addition to sketching quite a bit, I finished and cut off the large tapestry on the loom. It is resting on the dining room table, waiting for me to complete the finishing process. I have also warped a small loom to weave a tapestry postcard to be mailed to another tapestry artist when it is complete. 

I am trying to find my way back into the world of creating, after long years of primarily being in the caregiver role, and, in many ways, I feel like I'm starting at the very beginning once again.