Working Small & Fast

My current purse sketchbook/planner is only about 7" (17cm) tall. Very small for me.

As I'm giving midterm exams, I have to grab very small opportunities.

A couple of fast sketches of the tops of heads was all I could manage. If they figured out what I was doing they wouldn't have paid attention to their work!

Coming Up for Air

As usual, inching along in the wee hours of the night.

And slogging through midterm exams, I have been wondering about 

my decision to go back to teaching. Sooner or later, I'm going to have to come to grips with my priorities. The artwork has been shoved aside, which is painful to me...

Color Study of a Butterfly

A butterfly was trapped in a crate by my kitchen door and so I found it in a state of rigor mortis. I had never really noticed this species before.















So beautiful. I wanted to see it closer--digital camera to the rescue.

The touch of blue with the rich red-brown, and oranges that lean toward an apricot/gold color, plus the starkness of black and white are all very pleasing and dramatic as well.

Nature has her reasons for such a wonderful display of color, but, I will be content to admire her extravagance.

Every Picayune Leaf?

Yeah, yeah, I know. When you sketch or paint a tree you're not supposed to draw every single leaf on the tree...leave something for the imagination. Proof that I know this--last night I added watercolors to a blind sketch in my sketch club agenda book. Just fooling around with the paint and colors, no expectations. 














Well, now, I feel like I'm drawing every picayune leaf on the Pomegranate Tree Quilt and I'm chafing at the bit.

This piece has been sitting under the presser foot for the last couple of weeks (or is it several weeks?). The size, of course, makes the going s-l-o-w as I stitch down all those oddball green shapes with a soft green thread. However, the idea that the machine stitching/appliqué adds another layer and more lines pleases me. And so I persevere. 

M-a-n, am I stubborn...












Linked to Nina's "Off the Wall Friday."