Clock with basket

Nearly a month without art, except my almost daily ink scribblings. Serious withdrawal. You remember that aphorism "Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once"? Well, like the universe, time is also not evenly distributed, and sometimes things come in clumps. I just had one of those clumps. No, you don't get the details. Oh, ok, some of them: Insane political organizing for legislative day- on phone or internet for 10 days straight. Next: Ugly storm. Car assaulted by telephone pole while it sat innocently in my driveway. No heat, phone, or electricity for a week. There's more, but never mind, you get the idea.

I put paper on my easel, and just sat and looked at it, as if that part of my brain had disconnected. And it had. The first thing I did was so awful I destroyed it. Then I put a tiny piece of paper up, and did the first thing I saw, just to make my hands and eyes and brain engage. Then I went outside. The daffodils are blooming, at last. Yellow!

Soft pastel on Arches white, 300gsm, 10x10cm (4x4 in)

Ophelia

A pastel study of two year old Ophelia. Doesn't she have the look of an angel? Don't you believe it. She is a fireball, always finding something interesting to, um, explore. Another grandchild who lives too far away to pose-- as if that were actually a possibility even if she were here! This is from a photo I took of her when she was two, a rare moment when she wasn't a blur.

pastel on Tiziano cream, 13x18cm (5x7 in.)

Phlox and beebalm

Soft pastel on Tiziano white, 30x23cm (12x9 in.)

You know that saying "Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once"? Well, that's true, but the problem is that, like the universe, it is kinda uneven, and sometimes things clump together. That's the way last week was.

Yesterday afternoon, when I came home, I looked at the five-foot-tall mound of snow next to my house, and imagined the flowers that will be blooming there in a few months. I decided to do a quick sketch just to see if I could capture the feeling of those flowers. Though it still needs finishing, as I look across the room from a distance of about 15 feet, it has the sense of light and color I was looking for. And needed. This morning the temperature is minus 6F and the wind is blowing. So, finished or not, here it is.

This is for my friend Lew.

Copper pot

I miss doing my little teeny paintings, so today set one up. This is not actually a copper pot; it is a copper colander. But in such a little painting, the legs and holes were too fussy, so I took them out. These little paintings are not only fun to do, I get to play with trying things out that I can then use in my larger paintings.

Soft pastels on Tiziano cream, 75x75 mm (3x3 in.)

Tea mug

What did I do yesterday? It appears, nothing. Well, I did, actually-- I organized storage for my paintings so they are not taped all over my walls, and figured out how to keep my paper and other oddments safe from my four-footed paper shredders. And swept up masses of Beagle hair. But no painting. Very strange.

Today I took care of some of life's details and worked on a couple of larger paintings. What to do for my daily painting? Aha, my ever-handy tea mug. I started out to make a simple sketch, but I found myself putting in the pears painted on the mug. This is my favorite mug, so of course the pears had to be there!

Pastel and pastel pencil on Tiziano cream, 8x8 cm (3x3 in)

Little copper vase

It's a simple handmade copper vase 6 inches high, made by a village artisan in Mexico. My daughter gave it to me years ago, and I keep it on my bedside table. This afternoon I was looking at it, and saw all the different patinas that have developed. In spots, it is starting to develop a beautiful copper turquoise the exact shade as one of my pastels. Those tiny spots are like a peephole into some other world.

Pastels on Tiziano cream, 120x130 mm (about 4.75x5 inches)