More Sketches for the 31 Day Challenge
More Sketches for the 31 Day Challenge
Category: Palette
About my drawing and painting.
Three More Sketches
Here are three more of my recent sketches for my 31 day challenge:
More of My 31 Day Art Challenge
Here are three more pieces I have added to my art journal.
My 31 Day Drawing Challenge
My 31 Day Art Challenge to Myself
I decided, after viewing some wonderful daily art challenges done by artists, that I should set myself that kind of exercise. Therefore, I have challenged myself to produce one sketch a day all month. Here are some of the sketches I have done in the last eleven days. Altogether I have done eleven sketches – twenty more to go. I hope to see some improvements. Let me know what you think.
My Cover Art for a Friend’s Book
My Cover Art for “Where Bluebirds Fly” by Shirley Nichol Hellam
I have done cover art for magazines and books before. This is the third cover I have done for my friend Shirley Nichol Hellam. We have known each other for some time, have attended the same lay ministry classes and have worked on a magazine called “s.m.i.l.e.” for seniors in hospice, residences and nursing homes. In the past Shirley has donated all of the funds resulting from her book sales to charity, but this time she has published her book for herself and I applaud her.
Shirley Nichol Hellam is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who served in the Canadian Armed Forces, was the director of a local food bank/thrift shop for many years, and is a lay worship leader.
She pours the wisdom and compassion gained into her sermons and short stories. I am very proud to be the artist she chose to illustrate her book cover. I wish her all the best in her book promotion.
Praise for Trees
I painted the picture above at the cottage owned by my late mother-in-law. I was sitting on the dock when I painted it. I loved those trees and I am happy to say that they are still there, although we are not. The cottage was sold when my mother-in-law moved into the nursing home. The new owner has changed it a bit, but not so drastically that it is unrecognizable. In fact she even framed some of my father-in-laws fishing flies. She let us go through the cottage one day and I was heartened to see how much of it remained unchanged. Especially the trees.
Whatever caused God to imagine trees? They are so amazing with their beautiful boughs giving us shady places to sit in the summer and giving us shelter from the winter winds. They provide squirrels and birds with homes and food. They start out so small, the size of an acorn or a maple key, and within a few years grow to tower above us. When we look at trees we have to lift our heads and look up. In looking up we see the sky and are reminded of how very immense God’s artistry is and how small we humans are.
The perfume from trees is wonderful. Lilac bushes are sweet smelling, pine trees have a spicy scent and fruit trees have such a variety of aromas, depending on their fruit. Trees come in so many varieties from the ancient old forest giant redwoods to the swaying palms and vivid maples. The sound in the woods is so very musical with the wind moving the branches and leaves.
Most of all, God provided us with a unending supply of oxygen, the breath of life, from trees. Don’t you notice how easy it is to breath deeply in a forest?
In 1998 Eastern Ontario and western Quebec had a terrible ice storm that brought down so many trees. At first the icicle laden trees shone in the sunlight and the landscape took on the appearance of a crystal fantasy land. As the days wore on, the ice became menacing as we could hear the crash of falling branches and tree trunks all around. I remember in particular, one large tree looking like a huge glass chandelier, hanging over our back yard. Our youngest son, took the dog out for a slippery walk and came back in to warn us about the hanging ice. A short time later we heard what sounded like the crash and splintering of crystal, when the tree branch chandelier fell onto the ice covered snow banks in our back yard. So many trees were damaged it brought us to tears.
We must appreciate our natural surroundings and pass on the value of every living thing to our children. Everything on earth has its purpose and part of ours is to be good caretakers of the temporary home we have been given so that when we leave what we bequeath to our children and grandchildren is what God intended.
Autumn’s End
Autumn’s End
by Mollie Pearce McKibbon October 2012
The golden gowns of Autumn
Are tarnished now and shed
By Octobers scathing winds;
In tatters they are spread.
Scarlet robes vainglorious
Lie trampled underfoot
As bonfires bright burn up the night
Turning all to ash and soot.
The burnished moon of harvest
Is shrunken small and wan,
And all of summer’s singers
Have flown their nests and gone.
One of These Things is Not Like the Other
I was inspired to do this drawing one day after falling in love with a photo of a Parisian garden. I love the leaf patterns and the contrast with the deep brown of the soil. After doing this sketch I wondered if I could do something like it in acrylics on canvas. I hemmed and hawed a bit and then decided to try it. The photo below shows the results of my attempt.
As you can see the two pictures do have some things in common, but don’t look exactly like each other. The acrylic painting has a much darker background and fewer flowers. Now I wonder if I had done the painting in gouache or water colours would I have captured the “sunny” aspect better. Which painting do you prefer? Perhaps, I will try to do it again in a different medium.
I’m not disappointed with the results, but they are two different paintings. I didn’t set out to exactly duplicate the drawing, but I didn’t expect the two pictures to turn out so differently.
Colour, Colour, Colour!
I revel in colour. I love colour. I enjoy painting and the natural world around me is a constant source of richness. If everything were black and white or just grey or even only one colour, I would find life very bland. Poor Midas who turned all he touched into gold. No more scarlet or azure or violet. What a sad world! I feast upon colours and I am a greedly little pig about it. I’m not a gardener of any sort, but I gorge upon the gardens of others. I even love the spring dandelions that most homeowners hate. My office is red because red is my very favourite colour, but I’m a fair opportunity employer when it comes to palettes. Bring on the rich purples, the opaline whites, the chocolate browns and robin’s egg blues.
And that brings me to our feast of colour today. Birds. Lots of birds. Birds preening, birds flitting in and out of trees, birds nibbling at the bird feeders and birds strutting their colours. My husband and I had spent the morning at a nursing home where he led the service and we both took part in the choir. Our choir leader and other members had kindly consented to sing their hearts out for the seniors today. After a wonderful morning praising the Lord, my husband and I went on to the tire shop to change our car’s tires over from winter treads to summer. It just so happens that the tire shop is just a few seconds away from a delightful antiques shop/bed and breakfast/tea room. So off we went to enjoy a delicious two hour lunch with a picture window view of their lovely garden full of bird feeders and birds. We had the best seats in the house and while we feasted on cream of lovage soup, salad and quiche (me) and Montreal smoked meat sandwich (Bud,) we watched the passing parade of colourful feathered performers.
While we munched, we observed spectacular rose-breasted grosbeaks, pretty house finches, sunny yellow goldfinches, robins, starlings, blue jays and shiny black/blue grackles. There was a mourning dove as well ,fluffing up his breast on the wrought iron fence. At one point six goldfinch, three males and three females, clung to six different perches of the feeder full of niger seed. It really was a feast for the eyes. We spent our whole meal exclaiming over the beauty of the birds. It was my pre-Mother’s Day treat and I ate up every scrap of my meal and my colour banquet. The two pictures above are my versions of two of those birds, the rose-breasted grosbeak and the gold finch. Wish I could do them justice.
By the way, if you are ever in Williamsburg, Ontario do stop in at the Bed and Breakfast Tearoom and ask for the table by the picture window that looks out on their patio. Be prepared to indulge your eyes and your stomach. Bon appetit!
Drawing On My Family
What does an artist do when there are no models to pose? Why we draw upon our family members, at least I do. I had this photo of our youngest son taken in a coffee shop and felt inspired to try and capture what is a familiar gesture. Drawing family members has its own difficulties as one’s preconceptions often get in the way. Our mind’s eye is often in opposition to what we actually see. Consequently we rarely can draw the person as we truly see them. However, I think this time I came a bit closer than I have before.
It was the first time that I had used oil pastels in a long time, but my way of using them, blending and layering came quickly back to me. I like working with oil pastels because they smudge less than chalk pastels and they aren’t as hard to clean up after as oil paints. When I’m drawing or painting I go into a trancelike state of pure pleasure. Even when I am struggling with part of a drawing I am enjoying the process. Now that is something I couldn’t say when I was struggling with an algebra problem. Whenever I hear numbers my eyes glaze over. I have to say, though, that I admire and envy those for whom mathematics is an art. Despite the number of engineers in my family tree, sadly I was not blessed with those genes. Consequently I write and draw.
Of course, I can see a lot of places where I have need of improving. I’m not a patient artist, spending days on one piece. I can certainly see the value in it though. I am not so much on details as on the overall patterns and gestures. I admire those who are. My favourite artists from the past are from the Group of Seven and the French Impressionists. I can spend hours in front of paintings by Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, August Renoir and Marie Cassatt. I am entranced by J.E.H. MacDonald, A. Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris, not to forget Emily Carr. Their paintings are so inspiring, but now I have met even more amazing Canadian and American as well as other artists around the world through Facebook and Mixed Media Workshops. Once again I feel the desire to express myself as well and it is a great feeling. I wake up every morning excited to begin the day.
I have posted the photo and the drawing so that you can see what I was trying to convey. Please let me know what you think.
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