~Mark Twain

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One week of me being a slacker and posting nothing.  The kids are off this coming week and I’ve been longing for things to be just the three of us again.  I guess my mind has been in holiday mode already.  Grateful moments a plenty:

1. make paper mache Easter baskets.  Huge mess, huge amounts of fun.

2. Watching the siding slowly make it’s way up the wall to the point where one side of the new house is now brown.

3.  Sketching on a date night.

4.  Watching The Hunger Games.

5. Vegetable lasagna.

6.  Re-reading The Hunger Games.

7.  Only missing one day of sketching/drawing this week.

8.  Having great things to look forward to.

9.  Naps.

10.  Easter Bunny excitement.

I’ll try not to be so silent this coming week.

Cheers,

B

~Albert Schweitzer

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Last Sunday came and went in the blink of an eye.  I had the best of intentions to do a post about the little moments in life I’m grateful for, but the next thing I knew it was late and I was heading to bed.  Oh well, I’m here today.

1. making a relief mold of my face.

2. Hearing from spiritual leaders, it buoys me up.

3.  Getting all the house stuff picked out.

4.  Being led to new doctors.

5.  Meeting new people.

6. Veggie burritos.  Oh yum.

7. Making new friends.

8. Possibilities.

9. A clean house.

10. Sunshine!!!  Oh the weather has been wonderful!

11.  Long, long walks.

12. Time for playing at the park.

13. Sketching.

And oh so many more, but I’m going to save some great moments for the upcoming week, I know I’ll need them then too.

Cheers,

B

All art requires courage.

~Anne Tucker

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I always thought I wasn’t artistic growing up but though I wasn’t exactly encouraged to do it I’m starting to remember being drawn to it and having it be a big part of my life during three years of high school where I lost my best (and only real) friend and my grandmother only a couple months apart.

One such thing was an art summer camp I went to.  I felt like a total fraud there by all these kids who could really draw and paint (their work then would put mine to shame even now) but I tried to fake my way through it.

During that week I remember a class where we were told to draw a still life with white conte on black paper.  Now, I’m not a natural drawer, it’s hard for me and I don’t do it a whole lot, but there was something about drawing the light vs the shadows that really struck me and it came with ease.

Conte has a smooth feel to it, I really like how it feels putting it down on paper.  I wish there was a sketchbook with grey paper out there so I could just sketch and play with it a little more.

Cheers,

B

~Thomas Merton

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I’ve been doing a lot of searching, losing, and finding recently.  Not because I’m looking, but because it’s just what seems to happen when I do art.  It’s just a part of the process.

Cheers,

B

Drawing is a frame of mind, a loving embrace if you will.

~Susan Avishai

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I’ve been trying to get more sketching and watercolour going on in my life because it’s something I crave, but I usually push it off to the side.  Why do we do that to ourselves?

One easy way to do it more frequently is to have my stuff on hand throughout the day.  My kids eat way slower then I do, so while they are still at the table eating away I can bring out my stuff and get something done.  It may take a little time stolen during lunch, or between cutting and stirring dinner, or while I watch my kids play, but adding those up equals more finished pages then not starting at all.

The sneaker was done while I was waiting somewhere and didn’t have kids to keep me from getting too bored.  ;)  It was a big, bold move for me to sketch and pull out my watercolours in public.  I really don’t like people watching me.  But you know what?  Who’s really watching?  I’m thinking probably a few hundred people less then I imagine.  It’s one of those things I need to get over and the only way that is happening is if I make myself do it.

My little sketchbook is not a watercolour journal so I’m a bit limited as to what I can do with it.  It takes such a small amount of washes or playing about before I’m pulling up wee bits of paper, but it’s what I have to work with.  As my son would say, “oh no, oh well.”

Cheers,

B

All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.

~Richard Avedon

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You’ve seen the pictures my son took while he and I were out on a walk so I figured I’d share a few of the ones I captured.

Cheers,

B

It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

~Henri Matisse

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Talk about serious impact.  When I read this quotation from Matisse I stopped dead in my tracks.  How many of us feel like this?  Sure we many not all paint but there is something internal that we do well that at some point or other in our lives we wish we did it like everyone else.

When I first started painting I thought that, I wanted so much to paint like this person or that and was bothered and disappointed that I didn’t.  Then I had a moment where my brain shifted gears because I suddenly wanted to paint like me.  I admire the style, feeling, substance, and beauty shown in other people’s art work but rather then wishing I could imitate it I want to do the same thing but in my own way.

This has led me on a journey, one I am in the middle of right now.  It’s been paved with so many huge moments that have left me feeling cracked wide open and raw, but exhilarated at the same time.

Are you on a journey right now?

Cheers,

B

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs… since the payment is pure love.

~Mildred B. Vermont

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Last year I gave my son my old camera because he wanted to take some pictures.  He and I went out once before it got too cold to do much without losing fingers so we tucked it away.  Suddenly his interest in his camera came back with a vengeance.  While he and I had some time alone on Friday we went for a walk and took our cameras.

I had so much fun being with my little man and seeing him explore his world through the camera.  There were just shy of 700 pictures needing downloading on Saturday and I picked some and sent them off for developing so we could add them to his book of photography.

Like I was last year I was really impressed with some of the pictures he took.  I love seeing how he views the world.  All these pictures you see in this post were taken by him (no editing and no help from mama).  Obviously we’re going to have to spend more time letting him play this year.

Cheers,
B

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I’ve been MIA on Sunday’s, along with the rest of the day’s in the week, but it’s time to do it again.  If for no other reason then I need to see the great little moments where I had sunshine beaming down on me.

And I will have you know my son snapped the pictures I’m sharing today.  He’s 3 and he rocks.

1. New friends.

2. New experiences.

3. Opportunities to grow and learn.

4. Journal writing.

5. Painting in flip flops.

6. More light!  Bring on the spring!

7. Ah! moments.

8. Alone time with my boy.

9. Bringing my camera along for a walk.

10.  Seeing the pictures my son took with his camera on our walk.

11. The freedom from learning to release expectations.

12. Seeing so many things I don’t like about myself in my daughter and loving them in her.  Let’s me put things in perspective.

13. Dancing.

Cheers,

B

~Edgar Degas

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Another paint.

More bold colours.

More letting go and letting it happen.

I’m loving this adventure.

Cheers,

B

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