Month: March 2010

I recently spent a week in New Hampshire, pet-sitting part of the time, visiting part of the time, and having a delightful mother-daughter time with Arielle for part of the time. It was a refreshing and restful week, during which I spent much of my time painting and reading. The weather was beautiful the first few days I was there, so the dogs and I spent hours outside together.

Most of the painting and drawing I did was in my sketchbook journal. Working in my sketchbook sometimes helps me be more relaxed than painting on sheets of paper, plus I love being able to look back over my sketchbook journals as a pictorial record of my days. Just like my day to day life at home (or especially when on retreat), the pages aren’t polished or even all that carefully cropped (mostly because it’s hard to get them flat for a photo). As such, my journals reflect more of me being in the moment and in a meditative frame of mind than on the go and externally focused, as I am when I’m out and about.

I always love to see other artists’ casual sketchbook pages and find them inspiring, so I figured I’d post mine here. All of these sketches were done from life with no preliminary pencil sketching. (If you click on the images, you’ll see a larger version and can read the entries.)

Jennifer was up in New York for our mother’s 80th birthday (we had a party for her last weekend), and yesterday Jennifer spent the day here so we could paint together. Because she lives in South Carolina we don’t see each other very often, and we always enjoy the chance to paint together. Jennifer has been painting far longer than I have and has provided inspiration and encouragement for me often since I started painting seriously. Also, our shared interest in art is one of the things that has drawn us together as adults, so it’s always a pleasure to spend a day painting together, whether attending a workshop, sketching from the car on below-freezing days, or painting a variety of subjects in a warm house. We share ideas and enthusiasm and we help each other with our paintings. Thank you, Jennifer, for a fun day yesterday!

Here are the sketches and paintings I did– no great art, but all great fun:

A quick sketch of Silver, who was sleeping in my studio

And a quickie of Bituminous, from a photo

Snowdrops from my yard

Canadian Sunset, from a photo by a friend who lives in the frozen north

Sharjah Sunrise, from a photo by Pat Southcombe who lives in the United Arab Emirates.

Sophie, a friend’s beautiful baby granddaughter

I lifted my eyes from my book without moving my head to watch the Chickadee alight on the log in front of me, cock his head, then straighten up and sing a few notes of Spring. He again cocked his head my way, then hopped forward to select a seed, considered a second seed, then flew off with a slight whir of his wings. A second Chickadee immediately landed and studied me, while I studied her. From 30 inches, each feather, even every barb of each feather, was clearly discernible, so small, so complete, so perfect.

I can’t quite come up with the word for how it makes me feel, but it is somehow soul-filling to be able to watch so closely. It’s the same feeling I have when I smell the fragrance of hemlock needles drenched with warm sunlight or listen to a Winter Wren warble it’s fairytale song.

Most of our yard is still covered with about four inches of snow, but the bare patches are growing daily. Yesterday I discovered a clump of snowdrops, still closed but nearly ready to open. They still weren’t quite open today, but have expanded enough that the green on the inside is now partially visible– a promise of warmth, sunshine, and the coming greening of the earth.

I opened the door to let Rowan out then, as I was closing the door, I turned to head back to my desk. Out of the corner of my eye I saw stars twinkling in an inky black sky. That’s a sight I can’t resist, so I stepped outside… and heard an owl hooting from the trees at the base of our hill. That’s a sound I can’t resist, so I shut the door behind me and stood in the crisp night air, enjoying the peace and richness of the moment.

I almost missed that wonderful sight and sound because of my rush to get back to my desk work. It was good work I was doing, but it was better to take a minute to stop, observe, see, and hear what I miss more often than not, and best to use that as a reminder to be mindful for the rest of the evening.

I’ve been musing on living in a mindful manner and one key element, for me at least, is to slow down and fully live each moment, each opportunity. I’m sure it’ll be a long time, if ever, before I fully live every moment, but I hope to become more aware and slow down my rushed thoughts that try to carry me into a new activity before I’m even finished the previous one. I think that is what has to happen in order for my movements, thoughts, and words to become more conscious and imbued with grace. And that, in turn, should help me tread more lightly through life, so that I can observe without overwhelming and interact without interfering.

Dog on my easel
coming to life with color
I’m eager to see your face

I’m still painting dogs. I just love trying to capture on paper the feeling of connection in the expression of a devoted dog looking at his or her person. I also like to play with colors or sometimes with just one color to capture the feeling of a dog, whether looking at his person or sleeping contentedly.

Sleeping Beardie

Shaggy Dog– this is my second painting of this Shaggy Boy. I enjoy trying to get the feeling of the bright sunshine on his fur.

Here’s the start of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I don’t usually start with the eye, but on this one I did. Often the eye is the last part that I paint. On this pup, though, his eye is really the focal point, so I decided to start with that.