Happy Solstice!

 "Solstice Sun, Shining Bright!

Shortest Day & Longest Night.

 

Solstice Wish of Hope & Cheer:

 

Peace on Earth, throughout the Year!"
-   Selena Fox 

Lots of projects going on around here. Many plans for our winter break have been made, including a healthy amount of "down time". We are enjoying the peace. Celebrating the turning of the year and so ready for the days to begin to grow longer again. In order to fully attend to the festivities and my many projects that I hope to accomplish, I am going to take a short break from this space. I plan to return refreshed and with new ideas and art to share. May you enjoy peace and light during your holidays and throughout the coming year.

Sketchbook Tuesday - Buddy Hollyday

This is Buddy Hollyday, one of our Christmas decorations. When Kiddo was small she acquired many stuffed toys. The ones that were Christmas themed have remained as part of our decorating for the holidays. I don't remember exactly when Buddy joined the ranks, but he gets to come out of the box with the ornaments and other decorations each year and spend a few weeks sitting on a shelf observing the seasonal festivities.

And it wouldn't be Christmas for Kiddo without baking cookies. Lots of cookies. This first batch is oatmeal chocolate chip. Next up are decorated sugar cookies, then snow balls, and I think ginger snaps are on her list too. Did I mention fudge? Yes, there will be fudge. Oh my.

(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 

Details

 After posting this piece a few days ago, I was asked by Revelle of Image Maker to post a few detail, close up images. I know I always want to see art works up close and am often disappointed when artists keep their images too small to enlarge on blogs. You can click on the images here to see them even bigger if you like. Above is from the lower left where the water is splashing on the rocks.

This is from the center, where the water is rushing down between the rocks. I used my erasers to lift pigment for the white areas, and colored back into places to define the darker shapes. I used both kneaded eraser and a white plastic eraser stick.

In my previous post I had also asked for ideas for a title. You all gave me wonderful suggestions that inspired me to think more about the energy and movement. Which led me to Water Dance for its title.

Water Dance

colored pencil on Rising Museum Board

7.5 x 9.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

 

I have also added a page to this blog, Works in Series. Here I have put together my recent colored pencil pieces into two series, Finding Water, and Shaped By Water. To me, they all seem to make much more sense when seen together.

Sketchbook Tuesday - New watercolor pencils

I received an early holiday gift, a set of 12 Prismacolor watercolor pencils. It has been a little while since I worked with watercolor pencils, and the ones I have are not Prismacolor brand, so I got this new set out and gave them a whirl. First I made the color chart shown below in the back of my sketch journal. What I immediately liked about these was the way they laid down on the paper. Very creamy and smooth, just like you'd expect from Prismacolors. They did dissolve nicely when touched with a water brush. I also played around with them sketching Christmas tree ornaments last evening. I discovered that the black is very intense and that drawing the snow man in graphite first was a bad idea. To brighten him up I went back in with a white gel pen, which I also used in a few other places on the other ornament sketches. And a little brown Micron pen too.

The range of colors in the set of 12 is okay. I love that dark umber and the Copenhagen blue. I can see replacing a couple of the others down the line though, if I continue to use these for sketching. I do like that every pencil mark doesn't wash away, leaving some saturated linear elements here and there. And again, I loved the creamy, soft feel of drawing with these. All in all, I believe I could have some fun with this set!

Stream - finished!

Stream

colored pencil on Rising Museum Board

7.5 x 9.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Betcha thought I'd never finish this one! Well, I have come to a stopping place and I am ready, more than ready, to move on. I must admit, that I haven't worked very consistently on this piece. More about that later. But I do feel the need to take a break from drawing water images for a bit. I've been thinking about graphite, trees, and snow. We'll see.

The thing about not working consistently is really due to a number of factors. One is that I have been more interested in just working in my sketchbooks these days. Another issue is that homeschooling kiddo has been taking more time this year. Her lessons require more time for her to do and more input from me. The realization that 7th grade is almost 8th grade, which is almost high school (yikes!), and skills need to be mastered, topics explored more deeply, and will we ever find success with a foreign language program? Then there's all of the other stuff I have been enjoying. Like helping Kiddo learn to cook, and working with her on her crocheting. All of this is probably one reason why a sketchbook format is more appealing for me now. Yet I do have lots of ideas I want to try, like what I mentioned above. I could easily fill several more hours each day.

One more thing about this drawing. .  . I am not entirely satisfied with my uninspired choice for the title. Any ideas would be most welcome!

(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 - Poinsettia blossom

Last weekend, I played around with trying to capture a blossom of our annual poinsettia plant in watercolor. Those reds were not so easy to match. At times more orange, then pink in places, it seemed they were changing hue while I sketched. But sketching a poinsettia is something I have done in my sketch journals consistently for the past few years. Gets me in the holiday mood every time.

(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 - a weekend of sketching

I hope all of my American readers had a good holiday this past week. We sure did. It included a wonderful visit from a great friend who in addition to bringing photos and sketches from his travels also brought a new recipe to try for our Thanksgiving dinner. Mashed parsnips with carrots and parsley. Yum! Of course we all had to sketch the parsnips. Mine is above.

As is our tradition, we headed over to our local tree farm to pick up a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. It was unusually sunny and warm, about 60 degrees F! Above is a view looking across the road from the entrance to the farm, sketched from a photo once home.

This is a view from the tree farm, again sketched from a photo. The pine branch I added later from life, one of the clippings from our tree. And yes, our tree is now up and fully decorated. Just in time too. With the snow we are getting here today it really does feel like the holiday season has begun.

(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 - a lesson in seeing

This is the second sketch that I did in my sketchbook of this bowl of apples. I am not going to show you the first because it did not make me happy. When I first sat down at the table with this bowl of apples in front of me and started in with my watercolor I was thinking about a billion things, none of them having anything to do with sketching. So I began by painting the bowl. I then looked, and had placed the bowl right in the middle of the page. Why did I do that? But, still without thinking I continued to paint, putting the apples into the bowl. It was awful. A struggle, to say the least. So I put my sketching gear away, disappointed with my lack of attention and my failed sketch.

The next day, feeling calmer, I decided that I really did want to try to get a sketch of these apples in this blue glass bowl. So I started in again, only this time I began by looking at the apples. I painted in the apple shapes one at a time and when satisfied enough then I began to concentrate on the bowl. Even though the perspective isn't perfect, by looking at the apples first I was able to get a sketch that pleased me, the one posted above. I suppose some days are like that. You are either looking at the bowl containing the apples or seeing the apples in the bowl.

(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 - Two for one

Two sketches today, just for one visit. Above is a sketch from a photo that I took through the car's wind shield with my phone's camera while driving home one evening last week. With the moon rising the light was magical. I posted the photo here.

I had been wanting zucchini bread for breakfast for some time now and finally made some last weekend. No one complained. It's a recipe that I have had for so long that I don't even remember where it came from. Back when we could grow zucchini I used to grate it and freeze in baggies in 2 cup quantities, since my favorite recipes using zucchini call for 2 cups. In this way I could make zucchini patties, muffins, and bread throughout the winter. Here's my zucchini bread recipe :

 Zucchini Bread

(makes 2 loaves)

~ 3 eggs

~ 2 cups sugar

~ 1 cup oil

~ 3 cups flour

~ 1 tsp. baking soda

~ 1 tsp. salt

~ 1/2 tsp. baking powder

~ 2 tsp. cinnamon

~ 2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini

~ 2 tsp. vanilla 

~ optional ~ 1 cup oatmeal

Cream together eggs, sugar, and oil. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Bake in 350 F oven 1 hour to 1 hour + 10 minutes or when tested done with a toothpick. Cool. 

This bread freezes beautifully.

(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 

The next step

Here is my current colored pencil drawing in its next stage. That point when I am already looking forward to the next piece that I will do and really wishing that I could get this one to a state of completion. But drawing this way is not something that can be rushed. Since I posted the last WIP of this drawing, I have filled in the rocks in the upper right and begun filling in areas of color in the water at the central part of the composition. These shapes of color are then further defined and altered by drawing the white shapes back into them with either a kneaded eraser or white plastic eraser stick. Then I go back with more color to deepen the contrast or adjust the shapes. As I expand the areas of color I tend to go back and further define previously drawn areas. Kind of like two steps forward and three back. But eventually I get there. Somehow.

Sketchbook Tuesday - here again

How can it be so long since my last post? Well, I was kind of busy doing other things and before I knew it an entire week had flown by. Even though I had done a few sketches and worked a little more on my current colored pencil drawing, I just didn't feel that I had anything significant to share. But I do plan to be back on track now. Anyway, here are a couple of things found in my yard on a November day, watercolor in my handmade sketchbook.

(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?

(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 - Season's change

With the change of each new season I begin a new sketch journal. This pumpkin came home with us from the grocery last week so it marks the first sketch in my Autumn sketch journal.

Here is my now retired Summer journal and my newly begun Autumn sketch journal is the blue and white one on the top.  It makes the eighth journal that I have made myself for my sketching use. Since the very first one that I began in the winter or '09-'10, I have consistently made and started each new journal with the beginning of each season. At first it just worked out that way. Now it's something that I have to do. Every quarter turn of the year I am planning and constructing a new sketchbook. I have never run short of pages yet I don't always fill every page before the next Equinox or Solstice arrives. And sometimes I think I should just wait until I completely fill the current sketch journal before moving on to the next, but I don't. The urge to start again with the new season has become too great. It's my ritual now, I suppose.

In case you are wondering, my handmade sketchbooks wouldn't win any prizes in bookbinding, that's for sure. But they do work very well for me. The pages are 5.5 x 7.5 inches. With this size I don't have any paper waste when tearing down the paper for the signatures. It takes two full sheets (22 x 30") to make one sketch book. I also like working with this scale and proportion as a sketching format. I have seven signatures of Canson Edition paper, which is a sturdy, multi-media paper that I enjoy. I have used bright white, cream, antique white, vanilla, I like them all. I also have a signature in the front and in the back that have one sheet of Canson Edition on the outside and plain, old copy paper, about 10 sheets, inside each. So there are 9 signatures total in my sketchbooks. In the first signature (with the copy paper) I paste in calendar pages and use these as planning pages. In the last signature with the copy paper I keep a written journal, reflecting on what has happened during that season. I use fabric for the covers of these books, mining my stash left over from sewing days. I may actually have to break down and buy some more fabric soon though. I have used various papers for the end papers inside the cover, most often Mi-Teintes, again, because I happened to have that sitting around. A pocket inside the back cover and a ribbon bookmark makes it complete. And that's how I make my sketch journals. For now, anyway.

"All my journals are like strangers to me when I meet them 

and are my best friends by the time I have to say good-bye."

Caatje of Caatje's Artsy Stuff

More information and inspiration on book making
Paper and Threads
Trumpetvine Travels
(I use her instructions for stitching my signatures)
Creating Books and Boxes by Benjamin D. Rinehart
(I follow the instructions in this book for making the covers)

(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 - Marsh Memories

Sitting here in our mountains on these cool, wet foggy days, I find myself longing for the Low Country. A wide horizon with a watery view. This is a quick sketch from one of my many photos, done with watercolor pencils and a little colored pencil over top.

(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 

Sea Urchin

Sea Urchin

colored pencil on Rising Museum Board

5.5 x 7.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

A little here and a little there and I have finally reached a stopping point with this drawing. It still needs a bit of cleaning up, and I may still do some tweaking, but I am ready to let this on sit a while.

This little sea urchin is one of our beach finds and now lives in a pretty glass bowl on a table near our front entrance, along with other treasures from the sea. Now to select my next project. I have been thinking about getting those oils out again, but do I really have the time? Hmmm. . .

Sketchbook Tuesday - Trees

Busy days lately. I still haven't established a workable routine for myself since we started back full time with our homeschooling schedule a few weeks ago. I suppose I was spoiled with summer's lack of structure. Now that we are back at the books my days just slip away. When I realized how long it had been since I had scribbled anything in my sketchbook (or work on any other art), I stole a few moments last Saturday to sit in the sunshine on the deck and play with watercolor.

(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 - Pickle day

It poured rain all day yesterday, as tropical storm Lee made its way up through our Southern mountains. So we did what any family would do on a washed out Labor Day holiday - we made pickles. I've had my mother-in-law's pickle recipe for years but never tried to make her delicious bread and butter pickles. Thinking about those pickles recently inspired us to give it a try. We bought a ton of locally grown, organic cucumbers (because you know we didn't grow cucumbers ourselves!) and pint jars, and set to work boiling jars and heating vinegar. Several hours later we had 10 pint jars filled and just a few left over cukes. It was a good pickle day.

(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