Turning

November
colored pencil on pastel board
12 x 6 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Lately the air has a touch of crispness and leaves are beginning to turn. Tomorrow marks the Autumn Equinox. Fall officially begins. This year the change of season finds me dragging my feet. I don't know why. Autumn has been my favorite time of year for as long as I remember. I enjoy the cooler days, bright blue skies and the explosion of color. Autumn festivals, apples and pumpkins, big pots of homemade soup and getting out the sweaters and warm comforters. It has always marked a time of beginning for me. The start of things.

Then there is November. November is much quieter and unassuming. A time for turning inward, indoors and bundling up against the chill. It wasn't until I began studying painting in college that I really paid attention to the colors of the seasons. November has all my favorite colors. Muted blue skies, ochres and russets to contrast purple branches and deep warm pines. This scene is from a photo I snapped while at a nearby farm last November. I have been meaning to do a drawing from this image ever since then. So I started it last weekend and finished up yesterday. Getting myself ready for the changes this turn of the seasons will bring.

Sketchbooks

Is it Thursday already? I've been feeling a little uninspired this week. Oh, things are generally fine here, everything is moving along nicely really, with our homeschool and activities, our day-to-day routine is good. I imagine it's everything else that has me down. The world in general. Each day brings something more distressing. More and more stuff to worry about and so little that I can actually do about it. Sigh.

So I decided for a brief escape of all that I would post about artists' sketchbooks. Those visual journals that give a narrative peek into an artist's day-to-day, the real stuff of our lives. As you know I have been practicing a bit with watercolors in an attempt to become more comfortable with the medium. My goal is to keep an illustrated journal like so many artists that I admire. I have begun carrying my sketchbook along most places. And at home, using it for visual journaling and practice sketches. Even sketching along side kiddo while she works her lessons. So here are some sample pages of what has gone into my sketchbook recently.

For a peek into a just few of the many artists' sketchbooks that inspire me with their visual journaling, here is a brief list. Always a pleasant way to escape the cares of the moment, I hope you enjoy visiting them as much as I do.

Anita Davies
Jennifer Lawson
Sandy - My Fiddlestix
Gabi Campanario-Seattle Sketcher
Margaret Storer-Roche - Waterblossoms
Elizabeth Perry-Woolgathering

(Oh, I know this last sketch is dated incorrectly. It was done last weekend, on 9/14. Maybe I was just wishing for calmer times. In which case I should have changed the year as well.)

Now that the weekend is nearly here I plan to try to avoid the news shows and instead fill more pages in my sketchbook. Continuing to make my little corner of the world as nice a place as possible.

Ducks in a row

Ducks at Bass Lake
colored pencil on pastel board
8 x 10 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Ducks' Ditty

All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!

-excerpt from Ducks' Ditty by Kenneth Grahame

One of my favorite poems since childhood, that I kept thinking about while working on this piece.
But this one didn't turn out to be as successful as I first thought it would. What attracted me to this image was the abstract quality of the composition. Those diagonal bands, each with a different texture, intrigued me. However, once into it, I began to wonder what the heck was I thinking. All that grass making a big triangle lacks interest, takes too much space. Sigh. So I finished it up anyway and in doing so became less and less interested in the piece. I began to get ideas for new pieces to work on, making me even more anxious to have this one completed. So there it is. Does this ever happen to you?

Pastel Monday

Moses Cone Trail
pastel on sanded pastel paper
6.5 x 4.5 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

This image is from one of our recent hikes over at the Moses Cone Mansion off the Blue Ridge Parkway. An extensive network of old carriage trails provide excellent hiking paths and many wonderful views of the surrounding mountains. This is one of our favorite destinations on the Parkway.

Turning

ACEO Leaf I
colored pencil on paper
3.5 x 2.5 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

I found this little leaf on our walkway the other day. It reminded my of how the season is beginning to turn to autumn, however subtle the changes. I liked the curl of this leaf, turning inward, with just a touch of green still remaining, a remnant of summer days now nearly gone.

Pastel Monday

Looking North
(Along the River at Brookshire Park)
pastel on sanded pastel paper
6.5 x 4.5 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

Pastel Monday has returned! Hopefully I will be able to continue with these pastel pieces for a while. I missed doing them. Working in pastel is so much more immediate than colored pencil that it makes for a nice burst of spontaneity for me.

This is a scene from a nearby park where we often take the dogs for a walk. There are rarely any other people there and the walking path is really a quarter mile track. So kiddo gets to ride her scooter and once around is just enough distance for Sara dog's short little Corgie legs. She always refuses to go around the loop a second time.

Bye bye summer

ACEO Yellow Butterfly
colored pencil on paper
3.5 x 2.5 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

It's already been a busy week here. Looking at my calendar I see that August is almost behind us for another year. The remnants of Fay have been dumping much needed rain on our mountains but making for a string of gray and gloomy days, a foreshadowing of the seasons about to shift.

We have also had a shift in our routine from summer to the start of fall. Fall semester has begun for hubby. Kiddo's dance, art and other activities are beginning again for the academic year. And we began a new grade level with a change in curriculum last week. All of this is much more time consuming, especially for me on the homeschool front. Each jump in grade level places not only more demands on my student but more from me as the teacher as well. More subjects to include, more projects to do. Kiddo is doing great. I'm wiped out by the end of each day! It will take some getting used to, some settling in before I have a rhythm established for my time, as I am taking it in stages. Get the homeschool routine established first, then fill in the cracks of time with making art. Revisit my goals. Evaluate my time and plan a schedule. I am being nudged into autumn whether I like it or not.

An apple a day

Here is another of my watercolor practice studies. Yesterday Kiddo had an upset tummy so while she was camped out on the couch I set up shop at the kitchen table and spent the day practicing with watercolors. From my spot in the kitchen I could easily keep an eye on her and fetch her ice chips and popsicles. She is much better today.

I had a comment on a previous post about staying focused from Hibbymom. She is also my sister-in-law, a very creative painter and photographer. She asked, "Can you do a whole post on how you stay focused? I find myself struggling at times." So here you go Roe!

Actually, I don't know that I do the best I could be doing at staying focused with my art, but I do keep trying to make it all work. Like most people, I have other activities that severely limit the time I have available for working on my art. However, I do have a few strategies that help keep me on track to make the best use of my valuable art time.

1. Set goals. My goal for my art in 2007 was to make art. That worked up to a point. You know that I wasn't really making any art at all for a very long time, so by just acknowledging that I wanted to make time for art in my life again gave me some motivation to do so. My goals for 2008 for my art were more extensive. I occasionally review that list of goals and revise when necessary. For example, I have moved from doing the Everyday Matters drawing challenges in graphite to using watercolor for some, as I have added the goal of learning to become comfortable with watercolor for journaling. I also realize that even though I may not do one finished colored pencil piece in a given month, there may also come a month when I finish two, or more, so I don't beat myself up over it. These goals are a guide, they aren't written in stone.

2. Which brings me to my next point. I also know that I go through a cycles of productivity. There are times when I only want to work on art and other times when even though I have time for making art I am not so productive. Kind of like Sammie dog needing to circle around several times before settling down, I go through the paces of circling before I can settle in to begin something. I see that as all part of the process, a kind of natural ebb and flow. And even though those less-than-productive times don't result in a finished product there is a mental processing happening that leads me to the next thing.

3. So what do I do while circling and not settling on the next project? I look at art books and magazines. I read artists' blogs. Seeing the work of others, reading about their processes, is one way I keep art in the forefront of my thinking. About a month ago Maggie Stiefvater had a great post on motivation over on her blog, Greywaren Art. Whenever I need a good butt-kicking, Maggie's sure to come through with sound motivational advice!

4. I also belong to a couple of online artist communities. Wet Canvas is a valuable and vast resource for artists and a good place to share art work with others while learning from other artists in any media. And they are all represented there so you can jump around from watercolor to collage to photography and more. It was through the Wet Canvas site that I learned much about techniques with colored pencil. Their monthly challenges gave me projects to work on all the while developing skills and getting feedback from other members. Visiting the websites and blogs of other members opened up for me the potential of sharing art online.

5. Keeping a blog of my artistic journey has been hugely motivating. I have a chronicle of my process over the past year and writing about my work for others to read helps me to stay focused on my intentions with my art work.

6. Another online venue that has helped me stay focused is the wonderful community of artists that belong to the Everyday Matters group. Where Wet Canvas excels at support when concentrating in any one media , EDM is a place where artists of all different levels of experience working in a variety of media come together to share ideas and offer support. Doing the weekly drawing challenges has helped me not only expand my drawing skills but also move outside of my comfort zone. Not only with subject matter but also with different media, sometimes trying the very things I would have avoided just a year ago.

So Roe, that's my advice. Set some goals. Make creativity a habit. Accept that you will have very productive and not-so-productive times so be prepared to go with it by using your time to your best advantage. Join an online group or two. Start posting your art and photography on your blog. Visit other artists blogs, websites, and local art galleries. I know you have tons of stunning photographs and I remember when you did beautiful watercolor paintings. Do you have a sketchbook? Get one. Maybe I'll even see you over at the Everyday Matters group!

Pets

Lately I have been using the Everyday Matters drawing challenges to practice with watercolors. Colored pencil works will return soon, I promise! The Everyday Matters challenge this week is to draw a cat. I don't have a cat but I used to. Her name was Esther and she was all white with green eyes. I did this sketch from an old photo taken of her sometime between Nov. 1990 and March 1991, while she was playing with a catnip mouse. It is in my small hand.book journal.

I got Esther when I was still in college, after I had moved into my first apartment. She endured several moves from one apartment to another, a summer boarding with a friend while I went off to New York, and moving with me to North Carolina for graduate school, back to Cincinnati, and back again to North Carolina. In spite of all that she hated change and was a cat with quite an attitude.

When hubby and I bought our first house it wasn't long before we got a dog. Henry was a brown and white (they are really called 'liver and white') English Springer Spaniel. Esther maintained an attitude of total disdain for Henry. If he so much as looked at her she would hiss and swat his nose. He soon learned not to look at her, even though he developed a strong loyalty towards Esther. He would ease along beside her, all the while not looking directly at her, and manage to settle down right beside her. We often found them together sleeping butt-to-butt on the sofa. When Henry was about two years old we had to have Esther put to sleep due to health problems. I don't think her ever forgot her. Soon after, there was a white cat from the neighborhood that enjoyed sitting on our fence. Henry would cry and whimper whenever he saw that cat.

Henry was the best dog. He had two lives, his life before Kiddo was born, when he was our baby, and his life after her arrival in which he graciously gave over his role as our baby to become Kiddo's protector. He had his eyes poked, ears pulled and was even used as a step stool by a climbing toddler trying to scale the couch, all without one complaint.

When Henry was twelve and beginning to show signs of slowing down we got a new puppy, Sara, a Welsh Corgie. Sara was a spitfire as a puppy. She had had a difficult time at birth, had to be bottle fed, and as a result didn't get her tail docked as they usually do. Well, we weren't going to do that. So she sports a big fluffy tail along with her over-sized ears and ridiculously short legs. She looks like a dog designed by a committee that ran out of funds.
Henry stepped right in and taught Sara the routine of life with us. We believe that having her around gave him a sense of purpose and extended his life by a couple of years. Towards the end, when Henry could barely see and was deaf as a post, it was Sara that looked after him. Henry lived to be 15, quite a long time for a dog that size. The sketch above is Sara napping by the back door, done in my watercolor Moleskine journal.

Now Sara has always been kind of prissy. We believe she thinks of herself as a cat as much as a dog. We call her 'The Princess', deservedly so. When Henry was no longer with us all the spark left Sara. She wouldn't be engaged in play and grumbled, stomping away most times we tried to pet her. We also missed Henry terribly. So we got Sam, another Springer, but black and white this time. Here is one of two pen and ink sketch I did of Sam sleeping the other evening. In addition to watercolor I have been trying to get in practice sketching in ink.
Sara soon perked up after the arrival of Sam, who at first was smaller than she is but soon grew to over twice her size. Sara treated Sam as her own puppy and quickly taught him the ropes. Although she sometimes fusses at him, and he teases her, they are terribly devoted to one another. Sam is big for a Springer, big and goofy and sweet as can be. We took him to obedience school last summer where he was the star pupil. Kiddo took responsibility for much of his care when he was still a puppy and they are now inseparable. Sammie has been very good for our little family.

One of the things that amuses me is the little tidbits of knowledge that seems to get passed from one pet to the next. For example, none of our dogs have ever been feed canned dog food. Esther the cat was at times fed canned cat food. She would come running whenever she heard a can being opened. So Henry dog learned to come running whenever he heard one of us opening a can. Sara scurries into the kitchen at the sound of a can opener, and so now does Sam. So I wonder, what other secrets have been passed down from one pet to the next?

Playing with color

First I would like to thank everyone who so kindly left so many encouraging comments on my last post. You all offer a lot of inspiration and I appreciate hearing from everyone.

I am so inspired by the many artists in the Everyday Matters group that share their beautiful watercolor sketches from their journals. So this summer I resolved to try to get more comfortable using watercolor as a journaling media. With my background experience of painting in oils, I have always struggled with watercolor as it is a completely different painting process. But I keep trying, hoping watercolor will eventually come more easily to me.

Last Friday we went on a short hike up the carriage trail behind Moses Cone Manor on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We found a shady spot and the three of us set up our supplies and did some watercolor sketching. Above is my attempt in my watercolor Moleskine, showing the view we had of Grandfather Mountain from where we were sitting. Some areas are seriously overworked and my favorite part is the area of the painting that goes over into the left hand page, which I pretty much ignored while I was fussing with the rest. Someday, maybe I will learn when to stop!
As we were walking back to our car I snapped a photo of this bench and later sketched it in my small hand.book journal for this past week's Everyday Matters challenge #184, draw a park bench. This bench is made from cut logs, in case you can't tell :) And it's surprising just how much abuse the paper in these hand.book journals can take from watercolor. Just ask me how I know.

And here is kiddo's watercolor from our outing, posted with her permission. As we sat in our shady spot several groups of horseback riders went by on the trail. She was inspired to paint a horse. Now if I could only learn from her how to be that free and spontaneous with my watercolor sketches!