Life drawing class

I have a style and it is fairly illustrative. It's just who I am. However, in today's life drawing class we had assignments which took me out of my comfort zone and away from my old friends pen and ink.

This one I had to create the form with shading and to try not use too many lines. Damn, look at all those lines.

For this assignment we had to first use chalk to establish the negative areas and then add lines and shading with charcoal. I made the biggest mess! Blue chalk and charcoal everywhere and then look at that pitiful drawing...

I'm back home now with my friends pen and ink.

Our villa entrance

Bali is filled with statues from very small to quite large and imposing. Many are wrapped with a black and white checked "Poleng cloth" which signifies mutual dualism that makes up the world. Two opposite things that depend on each other to exist, such as day and night, dry and rainy seasons, bitter and sweet and black and white. The Balinese believe that the balance of this mutual dualism will bring prosperity and peacefulness to mankind.

I love this stone statue that greets me whenever I enter our villa. I think it might be Buddha, but I am not sure. I always give it a friendly pat with my hand as I walk by.

Woven Voices~Messages from the Heart

My good friend Sarah Haskell is an artist who specializes in weaving. One of her recent projects is Woven Voices~ Messages from the heart. It is an interactive global art project inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, Shinto paper prayers and the Buddhist concept of impermanence.

People send positive messages of hope and renewal, dreams, wishes or prayers written on paper or cloth. These messages will be read aloud in a public place and then woven into brightly colored prayer flags. the flags are then sent back to those who sent messages. The hand woven flags will hang outside in communities around the world to fade, unravel and release the message of hope, peace and renewal.

She gave me three flags to bring to Bali. They are now hanging from a Frangipani tree here in Sanur.

It's pretty cool! Check it out.

http://www.wovenvoices.blogspot.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wovenvoices

Hot, tired and glowing in Bali

It took me 36 hours to get from Maine to Bali. The bus to Boston and flight to JFK were easy peasy lemon squeezy. Even the 6 hours to Vancouver was okay. It was not full and I stretched out a bit. The guy next to me popped a hand-full of Ambien, put on his eye shades and he was gone. It was the totally full 14 hour flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong that was the killer, except for "Ambien guy" who woke up ate some noodles popped another hand-full of Ambien and was out until Hong Kong. I watched movies drifted up and down the aisle and managed the above sketch. Did I mentioned that my lower back started hurting before I even left Portland...

I finally got to Hong Kong and fell asleep at the gate. Luckily the 4 hours to Bali was not full and I managed to sleep a bit more. Arriving in Bali where it is 100° and humid has made my jet-lag even harder to overcome. So I have been glowing and lazily drifting around the villa for the past week. Maybe tomorrow I will do a little more...

Fright night flight to Bali

It's that time again to pack my bags and to head back to beautiful Bali. It's not easy to get there from here and by the time I arrive in Bali it will have been over a day of traveling. A tiring event and with the 12 hour time difference, there is serious jet-lag recovery time. Wide awake in the middle of the night and then there is a desperate want to crawl into bed mid-afternoon. It takes about a week of this craziness and then it all seems to even out and be normal...sort of...

See you in Bali

Happy Halloween

The Pink Tulip Project

The Pink Tulip Project was founded in 2006 by breast cancer survivor and friend, Robin Whitten. It is a fundraising project that benefits the Women's Cancer Fund at the Maine Cancer Foundation. Gardens are established to raise funds, create awareness and support those affected by breast cancer. Each garden plants seeds of hope and beautifies the community. So far, 30,000 Pink Tulips have been planted and 80 gardens bloom every spring.

My friend Patti coordinated the planting of this garden, so her husband Jack, cousin Pam and I met in Freeport early Sunday morning to plant 500 bulbs. We developed a "system" where Jack used a stick to create the holes and we followed by dropping in a bulb and covering with the soil. We had the 500 bulbs planted in a little under an hour. You got to love a "system".

You too can have a beautiful Pink Tulip garden in your town. Go to Pink Tulip Project for more information.

A lovely time in Georgetown

When we weren't out on one of our daily 8 mile walks, we were hovered over the jigsaw puzzle we started when we arrived. This day on our walk we meandered around Indian Point along Sagadahoc Bay. Most of the summer people were gone so we were able to walk along the shore and peek in the windows of all the cottages.

Elizabeth and Patti heading back to the jigsaw puzzle.

Georgetown sunrise

My last day in Georgetown was a warm sunny day that started with this amazing sunrise. I was mesmerized as I watched it rise over the ocean. Not having the energy to break out the oil paints I used Neocolor 11 crayons to capture the moment.

A road trip to Georgetown Maine

Sophie and I took the opportunity to get out of the city and enjoy a few days with friends at their beautiful home up the coast from Portland in Georetown Maine.

The front yard of my friend's house are these wonderful rocks and tide pools, crashing surf and open ocean as far as the eye can see. Their house is actually bolted to the rocks.

Lobster boats on my way to Georgetown, Maine.

Saturday in the city

Sophie spends most of her days sleeping and much of that time is on her back with legs spread and paws in the air. This is how I found her Saturday afternoon before we took our walk. This Bulldog is one of the "wild things" we met on our afternoon walk .

The leaves are turning

The brilliant colors of fall foliage have finally come to us in Southern Maine. The mountains are past peak and the leaves are probably off the trees. Around Portland about 50% of the leaves have turned. Fall foliage is one of those things in nature that is so beautiful, but so fleeting. One minute the leaves are just turning and then they are gone—it makes me sad. I sometimes have to remind myself to stop and look, so I will really see.

Crocheting

These were sketched while I was working on my most recent crochet project. I actually like the act of knitting and crocheting better than the final product. That's odd isn't it?

My grandmother taught me to knit and crochet when I was quite young. She would give my sister and I each a ball of yarn and those really long plastic needles and we would practice our knitting. We would spend the weekend at their house, knitting, watching TV shows like "Queen for a Day" (that dates me) and eating our favorite foods like 1/2 an avocado filled with her wonderful homemade dressing. They had a Siamese cat named Herman, who liked to eat wool. So, we would have to hide our knitting and of course all our sweaters. If he got to them, we would end up with large holes chewed in our sweaters and we were in trouble!

Often when I knit or crochet I think of my grandmother and those days so long ago.

"Biking the dog"

A beautiful fall day for "walking the dog" or "biking the dog". On our walks, I consistently point out to Sophie well behaved dogs, like this sweet boxer trotting along side his owner. Sophie is basically a good dog, but sometimes she just does bad things...

Waiting

Quick figure study using ink and markers.

Who let the dogs out

It is always interesting to meet other dogs their owners and I am curious as to what kind of dogs people have. Often, we will stop and chat while our dogs get to know one another...or not. Sophie is a 14lb tough guy, except when we see a German Shepard or any very large dog. I guess she just knows, because she will go wide.

It's true, sometimes people look like their dogs...

...and sometimes they don't.

Figure studies in oils

I spent part of this afternoon on small quick figure studies from photos.

Self

This is me, from a photo taken this summer on our sailing cruise. Always wearing my favorite big dark sunglasses (HA—I didn't have to paint my eye)s. These sunglasses are especially cool because the bottom half is a reader for my aging eyes.

Ibu

Balinese woman taking daily prayer offerings down to the waters edge.

The last days

Lately I can't get myself to do more than random sketches here and there. So today, instead of agonizing over the lack of creativity energy, I decided to just freely slop around with watercolors, ink and pencils on this waning bouquet of flowers. Maybe tomorrow I will have more energy...

Casco Bay Ferries

Another sunny crisp fall day here in Maine, so I grabbed a very unused small Moleskine, some pens and colored pencils and wandered down to the waterfront to sketch. Not much time because of apartment duties and Sophie's constant interest in all the dogs and people wandering along Commercial St, so I ended up finishing the rest of the color at home. 

Nasturtiums from Sarah's garden

We had friends for dinner this weekend and after a 4 mile chilly walk along the bay we settled in for a delicious meal and lively conversation. Sarah brought some of the last of the tomatoes, green beans and herbs from their garden along with this sweet nasturtium bouquet. I had to work fast because when I finally got around to getting out the paints, the petals were starting to wilt. Thanks Sarah.

I think I "sketchercised"

Yesterday my energy was quite low, so instead of pounding my body into the ground with a run to the bridge, I headed out on a fast walk with Sophie. A walk with her is never quite as fast as I would like because she is very busy being a dog—we stop a lot. I do, however, manage to tug her along so we can get our heart rates up. At the last minute, I decided to jam my small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, a pen, bijou box and a waterbrush in the pocket of my fleece. Not at all confident that after all the effort to get it all in the pockets, I would actually sketch. However, I saw a granite bench overlooking the bay so after agonizing about stopping and quite a bit of tugging, I finally got the sketchbook out of my pocket and did a quick sketch of a tanker across the bay while Sophie watched. We then walked home and I told Sophie I think we just "sketchercised".