Watercolor Paintings, Illustration, Inspiration and Creativity

crocus-minded

(I'm posting an older entry from 2005 today - it still really speaks to me. Maybe it's something you need to hear today as well.)

Crocus-Minded
by Jo Sorley

It takes courage to be crocus-minded.

God, I’d rather wait until June,
Like wise roses,
When the hazards of winter are safely behind,
and I’m expected,
and everything’s ready for roses.

But crocuses?
Highly irregular.

Knifing through hard-frozen ground and snow,
and sticking their necks out,
because they believe in spring
and have something personal and emphatic to say about it.

God, I am by nature rose-minded.
Even when I have studied the situation here
and know there are wrongs that need righting,
affirmations that need stating,
and know also that my speaking out may offend...
for it rocks the boat...
Well, I’d rather wait until June.
Maybe later things will work themselves out,
and we won’t have to make an issue of it.

God, forgive,
Wrongs don’t work themselves out.
Injustices and inequities and hurts don’t just dissolve.
Somebody has to stick her neck out,
Somebody who cares enough to think through and work through hard ground,
because she believes and has something personal and emphatic to say about it.

Me God?

Crocus-minded?

Could it be that there are things that need to be said, and you want me to say them?
I pray for courage.

Labels: faith, nature, painting, watercolour

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painting for haiti relief (part one)

With everyone else in the world, I'm struck by the news from Haiti and the desperate desire to be able to do something, however small, to help. In the past, I've auctioned two new paintings for charity and donated all of the proceeds to help those in need. It's time to get out my trusty paintbrush again.

Here are three sketches - I know I want to paint something calm and peaceful, and to me trees show strength, safety, and stability. Right now I'm leaning towards sketch #2 but I figured I'd show a little bit of the creative process too.

Anyone else have a preference one way or the other?

Labels: art, drawing, nature, painting

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a giraffe (and a half, to make you laugh)

Continuing the reveal of finished Christmas paintings, Angela's giraffe and baby. Eating leaves, as per her art direction, she was very firm on that.

I've enjoyed painting giraffes in the past... check out this one and this one (both on paper bags, for some reason).

(Throwing this into the Illustration Friday queue as well for "Wilderness". Hi i-Fri-ers!)

Labels: art, family, illustration friday, kids, nature, painting, watercolour

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christmas present work in progress: angela's giraffes

I've been so crazy busy plugging along that I haven't even gotten to scan in or keep up with it all! So here is Angela's giraffes in progress. Angela was originally supposed to have a painting of Beethoven, but after looking at reference material with her, she started to get madder and madder that she couldn't find anything that looked exactly like what was in her mind. Hearing that I could take cues from different pictures and put them together only got her angrier so a diversion was needed.

Enter Panda Cam!

From there it was a short step to Panda Kopanda (or Panda! Go! Panda!), and for a while she wanted Papa Panda and Baby Panda with candy canes... and somehow we got to giraffes. I don't quite know how that happened, but I'm so glad that she chose something fun and relatively easy. She has a thing for giraffes (and zebras, and ponies, and unicorns, and unipegs, and in general cute four-footed beings).

I think this is close to being finished, just want to go over it all and give it the details. I think I'm going to look to Richard Scarry for inspiration on this one.

Labels: art, family, motherhood, nature, painting, watercolour

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Now at your library: lots of fairies, coffee, and glitter.

Oh hi. I didn't notice you there, I was so busy reading this book about Cezanne and sitting under MY PAINTINGS!!!

It's been quite an exciting day! I will post more photos soon, (and larger) but in the meantime, can you recognize any paintings that are up there? Every one of them has been on this site.

Meanwhile, if you're in the area: Westfield Memorial Library.

Labels: coffee, drawing, every day in May, fairies, illustration, nature, painting, watercolour

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leafy art

On the day I made my leafy hat illo, the kids were creating some leaf fairies of their own:

Note the copy of Faerie-ality open for inspiration.

Sophie's fairy.

Angela's fairy. There were two others, one with a flying "V" leaf guitar.

Peter's leafy friend.

Now, looking at these photos, would you even know that there was a two-and-a-half-hour complete off-the-wall temper tantrum going on before this? I was so upset from the aftermath that I couldn't even make dinner and we had to order out. This was an act of trying to make peace after the storm...

Labels: fairies, family, kids, NaBloPoMo, nature

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who....

paints on carboard t.p. tubes?

That would be me.

Labels: NaBloPoMo, nature, painting, watercolour

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Illustration Friday: Unbalanced

Some scoffed and called the group "unbalanced" for their preference of wearing silly hats. I say, who are we to judge?

Labels: illustration friday, NaBloPoMo, nature

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leaf lady

I love Fairie-ality. I would so happily wear anything from that book. And sadly, I spend most of my days in jeans and a big soft grey sweater! This leaf lady clearly doesn't have to do anything as mundane as pick the kids up at school, though. There must be a happy medium...

Labels: fairies, illustration, NaBloPoMo, nature

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amigurumi, part two, or, birthday lessons

Looking back over the summer, it's amazing how little I painted and how much I crocheted! I posted earlier about amigurumi and the bunnies I made for the new babies in our circle of friends. This post is about the second wave - my birthday presents. Not presents I got on my birthday, but the presents I gave to my family, on my birthday.

Let me explain.

One of my favorite illustrators is Tomie dePaola, not only for his gorgeous linework, luminous palette, and sense of humor, but also because of how his life and his art are so intertwined. If you are a fan, you know all about his family and heritage because so much of his work contains bits of his life; from his grandparents in "Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs" (I cry every time I read that book), the 26 Fairmount Avenue books, his own love of art and how it was nurtured as a child in "The Art Lesson", and his love of God in countless books, "The Clown of God" being one of my favorites. (And don't even get me started on Strega Nona. She rocks!)

I've been really enjoying Tomie's website where he shows new work but also reminisces about pretty much anything that strikes his fancy. I was struck by this story in particular, where it's his mother's birthday but she begins the tradition of giving to others to celebrate her special day.

"With that simple but magnificent gesture of giving all of us presents on her birthday, Flossie taught us the depth of the old cliché, "It is more blessed to give, than to receive." As the years went by, the real fun of each of our birthdays was not what we would GET, but what WE would GIVE."

The following are the presents I made for my kids for my birthday this summer:

For Peter, a turtle with a rainbow shell.

For Sophie, a finger puppet mushroom.

For Angela, a family of baby birds in a nest....

who went with this mama bird (already made).

Sophie loved her mushroom, but when she saw those baby birds, she just couldn't keep her hands off the tiniest one, and kept trying to sneak it out of the nest and take off with it! So I had to make her another bird, one she called "the teeniest bird of all." And that's the wee bird next to Angela's foot in the top photo.

Patterns for pretty much everything:
* Tiny Turtle
* Baby Birds in a Nest/Teeniest bird of all
* Mama Bird
* Happy Little Mushroom finger puppet

Labels: crafts, family, inspirations, kids, motherhood, nature

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5 amigurumi bunnies and a cuppa

This summer was a great summer for new babies! I spent my spare (!) time whipping up some small friends to go to the newest additions to our circle. I love amigurumi because they're quick to make up, easy to modify/make up your own pattern, and because the kids totally love them. The cuteness factor again is also a big encouragement.

Patterns:

Bunnies: available on Ravelry, free pattern.

Little rabbit: I modified the the pattern by crocheting around in a lace sort of pattern to make a dress. I also made longer legs instead of little balls for feet so she could stand up. This was the companion bunny to go with the yellow one - the baby got the soft yellow bunny, and the big sister got this sweet brown one. According to their mom, she says that it has superpowers. ;)

Coffee cup: Peter is a rather uncomplicated lad. He likes, in no particular order: trucks, art, and food. He plans to be a baker who also drives trucks and paints when he grows up. Sounds good to me, especially if he makes deliveries to my house. This pattern was so darned cute and when I showed it to him, he asked for it right away. He also has an amigurumi donut to go with it, which will be coming in a later post.

Any other great amigurumi links to share?

Labels: diversions, family, inspirations, kids, nature

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a house for fairies

Keeping in line with the creativity running through our summer, we crafted a fairy house in our backyard.

{Meaning I really wanted one there.}

We went along the lines of this school of thought and tried to use things only found in nature, though I couldn't resist recreating this acorn-marble lantern - you all know I would totally have one in our house in a heartbeat.

The fairies haven't had a chance to leave a thank you note yet as it's been sooooo rainy! Maybe a couple of them got to take refuge from the grey and drippy weather and sit out a storm while they wonder if their furnishings would fit inside. It's small, but cozy, with a lovely front lawn:

More resources to build your own fairy dwellings:
* Drool over the amazing furnishings here. I so totally would live in a house that looked like this.
* Make over a dollhouse as a fairy house
* Sweet! I love the bed.
* Or put "fairy house" into Google image search and get some great ideas!

and....
* Bookmark this now: Notes from Halfland. I've been a longtime reader and admirer of Shelley's work as she crafts an entire miniature world for her stop-motion animation film. I am in awe of her creativity and stick-to-it-ness. She is the real deal.

Labels: creativity, diversions, fairies, family, nature

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every day in may: thirty

I painted but some over-zealous gardening led to complete exhaustion... so I didn't post this last night.

Labels: every day in May, nature, painting

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every day in may: twenty-nine

Getting closer to the finish line... in many ways! I can't believe there are only a couple of days left in May - how have you all been doing in your Every Day endeavors?

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting

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every day in may: twenty-eight

Again - yesterday's painting progress. You can hardly see the hair, phooey!

Before I paint tonight, I'm going to do a little photoshop work to test things out before I go in and paint. That was the gist of my main computer class in college - not the classes for Quark and Illustrator and all that, but for art on the computer - that the computer was a tool and did not have to be the last word. I like to step back and do just that from time to time, use it as a tool to quickly try out new colors and effects before I do them for real in paint. My final project for the class was a puppet I had made (for my puppetry class) that I had sketched into the computer, photographed and changed colors on the computer before deciding to paint him red, and tried out several different wardrobe changes before committing to the final outfit. So - you who work on computers all day - remember that they are merely tools to bring about your creativity. I promise you'll look at your work a different way.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature

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every day in may: thirteen

And we're done! I'm quite pleased with this one! Tomorrow's picture is going to definitely be something comPLEEEEEEEEEEEEtely different. I also might be working on two paintings at the same time.... so stay tuned!

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: twelve

More surface work (notice I had to move the box on the right to see)! I am so close to finishing this... I think tomorrow may be the last work on it. I'm happy with the way it's come out.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: eleven

Veerrrrrrrrrry subtle changes today. Working more on the surface of the water.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: ten

It was remarked upon at this year's Mother's Retreat that the verse in Paul's letter to Timothy that says "you will be saved through bearing children" could be interpreted a new way. Because of your children and all the things you do for them (show patience, minister to the sick, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, etc.) you are fulfilling the very things Jesus asks us to do. And as a Mom (or Dad, for that matter) you do it every single day. Helps me put things in perspective on crazy days.

Happy Mother's Day, all you creative mamas! Hope your day today has been a lovely one.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: nine

Closeups:

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: seven

I'm finding that I have to paint first thing in the morning - it sets the tone for the whole day. Hooray for golden morning fish. :)

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: six

I may come back to my frog-haired friend another day, but for now, it's time for a change. Remember I said that I hoped to finish off old paintings? Well, two years ago in EDiM, I painted this, and you can see the original photo I was working from here. Allyson, remember, when this one is done, it's yours! Sorry you had to wait so long....

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting

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Every day in may: five

Today was one of those "Mama said they're be days like these" days. Painted anyway.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: four

At LAST I got to the whole reason I wanted to do this painting in the first place. Way more detail (and creatures) tomorrow, and then I might be done with this painting and able to move on to a new one.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

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every day in may: three

Lots more work on the face today. I've been especially enjoying this book - I'm working through the "painting eyes" exercise as this isn't from a photo, just off the top of my head. The next painting's gonna be using some photos for reference again, that's for certain. :)

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

ART, iNSPiRATiON, AND WHY LiFE iS LiKE FRENCH TOAST.