(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama 

Sketchbook Tuesday - soup time

One of the many things that I love about autumn is making big pots of soup. Soup keeps us going on busy days. For our family of three I make enough soup at one time to feed at least twelve. Sometimes more. Leftovers are frozen in serving sizes appropriate for the three of us. Then I am afforded days when my most difficult task preparing dinner is thawing and re-heating some of that goodness. This past weekend was the first pot of minestrone for this season - a favorite with the Professor.

I was catching up with one of my favorite blogs of late, Beauty That Moves, and am now inspired to make some changes in how I shop for groceries and what I keep stocked in our pantry. Because we are omnivores, I know we could never meet her $400/month grocery challenge, but perhaps some planning ahead beyond just one week could stretch our grocery dollars a bit further. Maybe it's the cooler weather that has me wanting to stock up, be prepared, ready to make lots more soup, of course!

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama 

A little progress

I have made only a little progress on this piece that I started here. (it's 7.5 x 9.5, colored pencil on Rising Museum board) Still quite a way to go but I am beginning to get a feel for how to draw the rushing water. Somewhat the same yet also different from drawing oceans and surf. With this drawing there is not only the water and the foamy splashes, but also the various colors and forms barely visible beneath the surface. So even though the water is moving very fast, my drawing of the water is very slow. That's okay though.

Sketchbook Tuesday - Beach stones

I'm back from a few days away visiting with family. It's funny how just a few days can turn into a week with the preparing to leave and then the resettling once home again. Although the days away were a flurry of activity we did get out to look at the ocean for an hour or so. On that wide expanse of beach there were no shells in sight. I did pick up a few stones from the surf and dropped them into my bag. Back home, I dug them out and sketched then last evening. They seemed a good companion for this poem I came across a while back.

Tangled 

We return to hear the waves

rolling onto the beach one

after the other connecting

us like blood.

We were listening long before

we came here, remembering

wind spinning salt through

interrupted sunlight.

This is a place where dreams

return as fish bones

tangled in seaweed.

Whatever sorrows come

are folded into the sea,

rinsed clean and kept

- unbearable secrets.

-Marjory Heath Wentworth-

South Carolina Poet Laureate

Sketchbook Tuesday - Autumn

It was such a gorgeous weekend here that we played tourists and joined the "leaf-lookers" for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The colors were amazing, almost impossible to capture with a camera or sketch. But we tried anyway. I did this sketch from a photo once home.

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama 

Sketchbook Tuesday - Falling leaves

 

And falling they are. It is starting to get really pretty here with the Autumn colors of the leaves. These were leaves that blew onto our deck.

This was a leaf that I found in a parking lot and brought home to sketch. I know, I'm just a little weird that way. But with the colors of the trees changing daily, how can I resist?

It's a start

Yes, I have started another colored pencil drawing. I began with a loose grisaille in warm grays, mostly to map in the darker areas of the rocks and shadows in the water, to keep from getting totally lost. It measures 7.5 x 9.5 inches. I have started with the local color from the top left. As I move along in the image I continually go back into previously drawn areas to make adjustments. This back and forth dance will continue until I have the entire image covered. Then it's more tweaking before I call it finished. However, this is one of those subjects that has me wondering, what must I have been thinking to take this one on?