Little Landscape Painted for a Friend

A cheer up gift for a friend...

From the collection of Maine coast sketches 

that live in my mind. 

Sketching While Waiting in the Car

 

 Sketching is my favorite  way to pass time

while waiting. My doctor lets me wait in my car, 

this was the view. But, drawing this car 

didn't come easily. So this is version #4,

done with the assist of an online photo.

Why was I persistent?

Just for the exercise of drawing.

The training & development of this skill is ongoing. 

Vegetarian

  

I'm grateful to be able to eat highly nutritious, organic food, 

bought at our coop & especially bought from nearby farmers. 

. 

Yesterday I baked butternut squash for the 1st time

in a long time. I was blown away by the vibrant taste 

and juicy texture, 

all the better knowing that I was absorbing

so many vitamins & nutrients. 

I buy fresh rosemary, just for the scent!

Once it's dry enough, I put it in an air tight container.

Now I'm wondering how to use it in my cooking...

Microgreens & pea shoots are divine!

Local apples are still available & delicious!

This was my first vegetarian meal this week 

after picking up the farm produce.

I got some vegetarian cookbooks from the library recently

& am enjoying exploring some new meal ideas...

(I am not a gourmet cook, haha!)

Why am I attracted to vegetarian cuisine?

I just read The Omnivore's Dilemma. It influenced me

in the way that Diet for a Small Planet did years ago.

Fountain Pens & Ink

 I spend a good deal of time in the company of fountain pens. 

Writing in my journal/s, writing anything & everything 

that needs recording or processing.

I'm old fashioned. As much as I love word processing,

it is pen, pencil, ink, & paint that I adore using

(and scissors & glue).

This was a photo that I posted on a fountain pen site. 

It's interesting to be among fellow pen enthusiasts.

I am not the collector that many of them are,

but I do have, well, more than one pen (ahem).

Something new is to draw & paint using inks,

inspired by some of the artists on the site.

 

Goulet Pens sells small vials of ink samples, 

a great way to try out luscious colors & various brands. 

More Card Making Process

I have fiber artist friends

who experiment wildly with mark-making, 

 media & formats. 

I love their work 

& love learning from them, trying some of their techniques.

But in the end, I come back to drawing

&  "coloring" (Gasp!!) as my favorite mode.

These days I use watercolors & Prismacolors, 

but I'm still connected to the childhood pleasure 

I had with Crayola crayons.

I pulled an image from an older journal sketch for

December greeting cards.

In the end, what I love most is 

that I be authentically expressing myself

& finding pleasure in my process,

ignoring that old inner critic.

Recently I did a jigsaw puzzle of an illustration

by my favorite illustrator, the French Sempé.

 I found great joy in learning more about how he uses

ink line & paint & felt affirmed in my way of working.

I am fascinated by grids & boxes lately. 

In the end, my idea for Christmas cards, 

(in the above photo)

evolved to these trees without the boxes.

 

Christmas Cards

Each year at this time I enjoy making cards.

These are for my art group postcard exchange.

I scanned & printed multiples of  the black & white image.

Then I hand colored each with Prismacolors.

Clearing Away November 2021

A great sunny morning for doing home tasks: 

Early morning grocery.

Dishes. Laundry. Accounts. Tidying.

It's time to clear away November,

 and to make a space for December. 

The tractor pumpkin farm drawing is by Nora McPhail,

whose work I adore. She has a blog here.

Two post cards are from a fellow Art Grouper. 

The lady behind the candle 

who is cooking a stew in a giant pumpkin, 

she is someone I created some years ago. 

The embroidered pumpkin pillow was made

by a fellow French Grouper, also some years ago.

Things are different again this fall (pandemic), 

but I still love this time of year! 

I'm leaving replies to your comments, 

so please leave one & come back & check.

Still Sketching After All These Years

 

I've been away from Sketchbook Wandering for awhile 

& I'm sorry. I've missed the camaraderie I enjoyed here.

This covid thing, the climate thing, & the unstable world thing have shaken up a lot of our lives. 

Sketching & recording in my paper journals continue to bring pleasure & meaning. 

I don't go out sketching as often as I used to 

(there is the tick thing & the not being around people thing.) 

but I do play with art materials here at home more.

 I'd be leading some sort of art gathering at my library, 

but gatherings aren't allowed for now. 

I attend a library art Zoom gathering, & love it,

 but I'm wanting it to be in person again.

I wonder how you all are doing? If you stop by here, 

I hope you'll leave me a little note. 

And now, I'm off to read some of your blogs. 

Artist Trading Cards

I continue to sketch, but recently I got into 

playing with media & designs on Artists' Trading Cards.

Have a pre-cut 2.5" X 3.5" pile of heavier weight paper handy,

& as the mood strikes, Play!  I've been enjoying

some shimmering watercolor gold paint &

a white Sogno pen along with my usual Daniel Smiths.

    

Artist Trading Cards are 2.5" by 3.5", 

You never sell them, you trade them, says the originator

of this format/tradition.

They remind me of baseball cards, or,

the  "Funny Valentines" in my childhood that 

we collected & traded.

They fit nicely in my Chic Sparrow mini "Nano" journal cover,

so I can carry them around & give them away as 

I run into people.

I miss communicating with you all here...

I will try to post & read posts more often...

Daily Sketch Diary: Food & Nutrition

The Daily Page Sketch Diary continues, 

separate from my Daily Master Journal. 

Lately I have a focus on my food & nutrition. 

I eat in smaller quantities than I used to.

 There are some wonderful rewards

I eat less food but I draw it more.

I'm very grateful to be able to eat in a healthy manner.

Wow! This was the stem of a head of lettuce.

My little essay on broccoli & vegetables.

Why are humans more drawn to things like

sugar & alcohol which aren't nutritious than to broccoli? 

I don't have the answer, but I have had to accept it, and to learn 

to work at making healthy, mindful choices. 

How about you? Do you have any healthy practices 

around food & nutrition?

Illustrated Sketch-Diary: A Series

It's a new series of pages, diary pages with illustration. Lately it's been about material objects here at home in a blank book called Stalogy. 

The paper is like tracing paper, thin, crispy, doesn't take much water, so I've been using my Prismacolors over very light washes of color. 

 

 

Dream Come True: Speaking French, France. Dream to Fulfill: Art

 I enjoyed May's series with daily prompts on "Mindfulness" &

Mental Health. All of the prompts were positive & uplifting during 

a month which is always uplifting here: Full springtime! 

I longed to travel during the covid quarantine time. 

I'm still not ready to do it, but there is hope.

Stay tuned for a new sketchbook diary series 

that I began on June 1. 

On Beauty & Fashion

More in the series on Mindfulness...

The prompt was asking us to think about Beauty...

Which got me to thinking about fashion 

& the role it's played in my life. 

The subject of beauty in human beings is complicated.

It's much easier to contemplate beauty in nature & art.

But it's a definite preoccupation. We have our own versions of 

the Greek gods & goddesses...& beauty industries. Wow!

What do you think on this subject?

Grateful

 

The prompt was: 

How are we helpful to other people?

Big topic. I focused on one aspect:

How J and I are "inter-helpful" to one another. 

(or would it be "intra-helpful", it it were even a word?)

I sort of tidied us up here. I think we look older

than in this sketch,

but we often feel younger than we are.

Grateful here.

Good Sunday to you, thanks for stopping by...

Journaling As a Tool for Spiritual Growth

 

I'm participating in a group journal activity 

during May which is "Mental Health Month.

One prompt per day. 

Above, it was about loving oneself.

This was a response to a question about 

what we learned & experienced during the quarantine year.

Journaling in my paper books became more important 

than ever as a way to nurture my mind & spirit.

Thinking about what we are good at. 

Congratulating ourselves. What I like about writing prompts

is that anything that gets sparked is OK. Tangents

can become major themes. It's about discovery,

& in this case, self-discovery. At any age...

Le 1er mai. Un brin de muguet

Happy 1st Day of May!

I've missed you. 

I've been posting in my paper journal lately,

 & experimenting with some new materials, 

mostly pens & journal notebooks & covers. 

(Here: Uni-ball Signo, white ink.)

I will try to come visit you on your blogs. 

For now, I'm not able to post comments,

don't know why... 

Journals Dioramas Boxes Handbags & Postcards

I've been away from the blog world for so long. 

Thank you Catherine with a C for your sweet note 

on my previous entry.

Above, an illustrated journal entry 

in the form of a diorama foldable card.

A lot of my writing & art has been in my personal daily journal. 

It serves as a modified bullet journal/organizer. 

It grounds me each day. 

It's a place where I collect & sift through 

my thoughts, feelings & observations.  

Rough & Tumble handbags also help me to organize my life.

I love them as art objects & for their wonderful functionality.

They are designed & made here in Maine, one bag at a time,

though they sell online worldwide.

I've been creating in postcard formats lately.

I copied the Irish blessing from a postcard 

that someone in my art journal group sent me. 

The bottom part, "For Today"

is an excerpt pulled from that day's personal journal page.

In the art group it was my turn to present an activity. 

I taught folded boxes 

& during the week we used our boxes to collect

words, ideas, images & expressions. 

Another form of personal journaling.

I made mine from paste papers that I'd painted 

in some workshops during the last several years. 

I was introduced recently to the white ink Uniball Signo pen

which creates beautiful lines over color. Love it!

So, I've missed you all & over the weekend I look forward

to reading & commenting on your blogs. 

 

Things are looking more hopeful than in 2020.

Someone reminded me recently,

"Spring is a process, not a moment."

So I can wish you a good Spring before the official 1st day,

with a virtual card.

For the Love of Penmanship

What do all these images have in common?

I wrote a letter to my 3rd grade teacher to thank her for teaching me cursive.

(It's not one I can really send). But it was a great prompt for journaling/memoirs.

I've been refining my cursive writing with a book, The Art of Cursive Penmanship.

A Test of the Pens in a new Quo Vadis Journal.

Clairfontaine dot grid but on white instead of cream color

like my favorite Rhodia Web Notebooks.

 

Pages from my Daily Journal

A different sort of art journal. Folio collage in which I'm using up snippets, little drawings

& watercolor washes & designs from my stored stash.

Yes! Handwriting with fountain pens! Love!

PS My favorite source for pens, ink, journals, paper:

Goulet Pens. Variety, customer service, yes,

but also education & inspiration of how to further 

their use & enjoyment.

Do you write/draw with a fountain pen or did you?

Sketching at the Little Beach

Finally, an outdoor sketch! 

We weren't exactly outdoors, we were eating 

takeout sandwiches in the car,

 overlooking the little beach that is just south of here.

 

The seagulls are way too big, 

but it was they who dominated my attention. 

Six of them,

hanging out, swimming from pebbled sand, 

then riding tiny waves,

then just floating & bobbing, 

together. 

One was often apart from the group, 

but eventually joined the others...

Blue: Folio Book with Pockets & a Pamphlet Booklet

 

I promised myself & you, blog visitors, that I 

would glue up my painted Blue papers (previous post) 

into a folded folio.

The pages of the little tied up booklet 

have become ink swatches

of 5 favorite fountain pen inks in blue: 

Diamine Polar Glow, Noodler's Midnight, Sailor 940, 

Sailor Yonaga, & Noodler's Blue. 

The sentence in the lower right middle, on vellum says,

"Blue, réconforte-moi." Translated: "Blue, comfort me..."

Gift Giving & Receiving

I've been creating postcards, folios & little booklets

to give as gifts. 

I also enjoyed receiving a few gifts this season

like this fine pottery vessel made by Maine potter,

Mark Bell.

The blues are so dreamy.

They inspired some watercolor painting...

These are now elements ready to glue into

another folio/envelope/pocket accordion booklet.

Stand by for the finished product...

I'm feeling renewed & hopeful in this new year

while also weary of the virus restrictions.

I know that restoration & healing will take time.

In the meantime: There is Art.

I hope that you out there, Dear Visitors, are 

safe, content & hopeful too.