Shade and Sketch May 4, 2015

Under the shade tree

Cows, sheep, and goats roam, while the

Farm tells us stories.

Art Prescription:  A day for all the senses. Blue skies with puffy white clouds, the smell of fresh hay and grass, lambs bah, a red apple to eat, the feel of a wooden picnic table. Field sketching at Hogan Farm.

8 1/2 x 11 watercolor

Barn fall

Watercolor Trees: Expressive Painting May 3, 2015

Student, you teach me

Trust me to a blank paper

Then your muse responds.

Art Prescription:  I taught a great class today at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens. It is a wonderful thing to encourage people to be expressive. To give adults permission to play and respond to the paint and not their brain can be a challenge. It always amazes me to see each person tap into their voice…

Here are my finished demonstration pieces:

Trees expressive blown

Blown trees with sumi-ink and watercolor.

Trees expressive

Loose wet into wet watercolor trees.

Backyard May 1, 2015

Squirreling away seed

Little “hands” work to gather

Sunflower seed pet.

Art Prescription:  It’s hard to feed the birds and not the squirrels. They are master-minds at breaking bird feeders. So I enjoy watching their acrobatic antics.

8 1/2 x 8 1/2 watercolor and chop that says “hope”

Backyard squirrel

Old Barn April 28, 2015

Framed by a fence line

The old barn can tell stories

About time before.

Art Prescription:  I’ve been driving by this barn for years. Here before all the traffic and houses, here when life was simpler. She stands in a field documenting her stories.

Watercolor

Old barn

Northern Parula April 25, 2015

Northern Parula

Steady song in the forest

Lulled by the soft rain.

Art Prescription:  Early hike at Mason Farm and the rain caught us. It was quite peaceful walking under the canopy of trees while the rain pitter-pattered on leaves.

Collage, colored pencil and graphite:

Art journal Northern Parula

Crickets April 24, 2015

Field crickets chirp, court

Call out for a female mate

Wind carries their song.

Art Prescription:  Ending my week sitting in the middle of a field with horses and crickets. Most of the song you hear from crickets are the males serenading the females…sound familiar? And it’s their wings that make the sound not their legs. Beautiful to just sit and listen to the breeze, a couple of cardinals, sounds of horses chomping grass, and a distant caw of crows.

Art Journal Sketchbook

Art journal crickets