Small Daily Sketches

Some small, quick daily sketches of regional wildflowers and grasses, studies for an upcoming portrait commission. Enjoying my Pro Artist Watercolor Travel Kit by Windsor Newton and brushing up my skills for September travel journaling in the EU!

Hawk weed? and clover with grass. Ink and watercolor.

Lamb's Ear - ink. I did add watercolor later, but don't have a photo

Wild grasses and ants and a bee - ink and watercolor 

"Dove and Peonies" Commission

"Dove and Peonies"

 

 

 

Commissioned charcoal drawing on beige paper with white pastel pencil. 10 x 8"

Botanical Drawings Book Project

 Beginnings ~ a book of botanical drawings. 

"...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?" ~ Vincent van Gogh

Unique vintage handmade sketchbook by Ericka Schmitt, an inspiring gift from my lovely friend Jane Guill. It's beautifully made and embellished - a pleasure to draw on the cotton rag paper.

 

 

 "...and the naiad - like the lily of the vale..." ~ Shelly 

Lily of the valley - Majalis "of or belonging to May." Mayfly naiad

walnut ink on 100% cotton rag, 5 x 7.5"

“So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds,                                  And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.”

~ Countee Cullen                          "Bleeding Heart and Goldfinch"

Magnolia triptych

Charcoal and pastel on prepped and toned board, (3) 8 x 8" panels
prints available on Society6

This and one other work have been accepted for the Outside the Lines Gallery "Tree" juried exhibition, Dubuque, Iowa, January 2014.  

“Like the magnolia tree,
She bends with the wind,
Trials and tribulation may weather her,
Yet, after the storm her beauty blooms,
See her standing there, like steel,
With her roots forever buried,
Deep in her Southern soil.” 

~ Nancy B. Brewer

Magic Time

 
Dusk - I live in the most beautiful place on earth.

I walked at dusk to a spot on the top of the hill - overlook to Horseshoe Mound. Bunnies emerge from the woods and stand stark still - then turn fluff tails and run wild eyed into the lush blue green underbrush. Storm brewing - muggy - but the brisk breeze blows off the day's dust and the buggy gnats. Jitterbug Perfume scented air - fading May Mother's day lilacs, pre-June bridal wreath dropping snow-petals to the damp earth, honey locust blossoms, dogwood. Snoopy the Afghan hound takes a walk with Grant - the wood turner.

Dusk and another late spring storm brewing over the Grant Wood-ed view down the Galena valley - neighbors low conversation murmurs up to me but I only catch a word or two - they are so far below. Maxfield Parrish deepish aqua sky and pinky yellow clouds. Yes, there is a storm brewing and now the scattered cooling raindrops come dropping slow.

And I do live in the most beautiful place on earth!!! I know this and I am grateful to have had just this one perfect moment before dark, before I am old, to breath in the perfumed air at twilight. Loveliness in every direction, knowing nothing more perfect ever existed - turning around slowly taking in every detail. And then - my eyes adjust to the woods gloom and see a young doe up the path - gazing calmly directly into my eyes. Both knowing we are in the most gorgeous and perfect place and moment ever imagined.

Blessed to have lived and witnessed magic time.

"Call it nostalgia, I don't mind
Standing on that windswept hillside...
In that magic time"

 ~ Van Morrison Magic Time

"3 Graces" triptych

Charcoal on Mylar film, side pieces, 20 x 16" center piece, 30×20." From the "Black Butterfly: The Muse" series.

The 3 Graces: Aglaia (radiance) Euphrosyne (joy) Thalia (flowering) It was the poet Hesiod who named the Graces in his Theogony: "Then Eurynome, Ocean's fair daughter, bore to Zeus the three Graces, all fair-cheeked, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and shapely Thalia; their alluring eyes glance from under their brows, and from their eyelids drips desire that unstrings the limbs."

From reference photos of San Francisco groupies, 1968 - 69, by Rolling Stone magazine photographer Baron Wolman.



3 Graces ~ section 1 ~ Aglaia (radiance): groupie Karen Seltenrich, San Francisco, Nov. 1968. Image was used in a New York Times article “When we tell you what a Groupie is, will you really understand?”



3 Graces ~ section 2 ~ Thalia (flowering): groupie Sally Mann, San Francisco, Nov. 1968. (No relation to the photographer of the same name) Sally married Jefferson Airplane's Spencer Dryden in 1970.



3 Graces ~ section 3 ~ Euphrosyne (joy): groupie “HARLOW”, San Francisco, Nov. 1969.

Here is a quote from Baron about the groupies:

"As concert promoter Bill Graham has given me all access to any of the concerts he produced, I spent quite a bit of time backstage with the bands, their roadies and their women. What fascinated me were the lengths to which the women, the groupies, went to prepare themselves for their backstage appearances. Because I also wanted an excuse to photograph them, I suggested to Jann they might make an interesting story. He agreed and Rolling Stone Magazine No. 27 became known as "the groupie issue." It was widely promoted, read and commented upon, even turned into a book." - Baron Wolman

I saw these photos in an old book picked up at a resale shop. I fell in love with the groupies, and Baron was so gracious to allow me to use them for the drawings. The feminine effect of the references are enhanced with the flowers and butterflies. I decided to draw Sally Mann, the subject of the centerpiece, holding the lilies, as she married soon after the photo was taken. The center piece is considerably larger than the side pieces, on these the flowers and butterflies are from a pattern I saw on scented drawer liner paper. It's all about peace & love & hippie-ness, baby. :)

While the rest of the models I've used in the series are in the arts themselves, I was intrigued with the idea of groupies - and their intrigue with rock & roll artists of the late 1960's. It seems to me they were using their own bodies and persona as an art form to attract their artistic "muses."

I guess you could consider some of the works in my Black Butterfly series "Cover Tunes." I believe the borrowed references are vital to the series to relate the idea of inspiration, and its relation to talent and celebrity. These "tunes" well deserve a stylish, honorable replay. Many thanks to the talented people who have loaned their vision of the muse to aid me in illustrating my ideas.