Thursday, February 4, 2010

Mid-winter mini-posting!

My eye searches out color in mid-winter. I’m sending this mini-posting to all mid-winter people, especially those about to get another huge snow storm. The ground is white here in New Hampshire, but we have escaped blizzards, knock on wood.


A wonderful, sweet smelling, spring smelling, and extremely long lived bouquet of hyacinth blooms, bought in the grocery store, grown in greenhouses in Canada. Thank you, Canada. Again I draw my pitcher, with the hand painted scenes of Tallinn, Estonia.

An assortment of objects on the dining room/painting room table. These include the pitcher and a holiday card from my friend Mary Jo Tydlacka. The setting for her painting (simplified here) is of the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City, Maryland. (This is the ruins of a 19th century boarding school for girls. Real studies too, not just ‘finishing.’ I used to work here as a docent.) The play is Cyrano, performed by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

Today I found color in my art supplies. Koh-I-Noor Colored pencils and Pigma Micron pens from Japan. Included is the drawing just described above. Similar to a play within a play.

The view of our ridge from the living room. I tried to draw ‘alpenglow.’ This is when the setting sun in the west shines on a ridge in the east providing a kind of reflected sunset. This golden/pink/green effect only lasts a few minutes and was gone before I finished drawing. The red in the front is our sofa. Its color pleases me too. With a house with so many large windows, some furniture must back up against the glass.