Today: The Mountain!

Testing the wild clay.
It passed!

I woke with an unending desire to walk in the woods. It's been months since I've gone for a nice long walk up the mountain and today there was nothing else I could think of doing. I couldn't seem to justify just dropping all my work to play about on the trails though, but the more I thought about it the more I longed to field sketch. I wanted to take my paper and water colors and just study various interesting items in the field.

I figured if I opened up my Beatrix Potter book Id look at the plates on her field study, do a few copies and then be done, but it didn't work. I wanted to find my own sticks, bugs and fungus to draw so I packed my backpack and was off.

Before I even stepped onto the trail at the bottom of the hill that leads to the very top of the mountain I noticed that the huge puddle/pond that had always been around the one bend was now just a bunch of wet clay. Yeah, I stood there mouth agape just taking that beautiful sight in.

Clay.
Wild clay.

I conducted a test and the moment I put it to my hands I could tell it would pass the test. It passed. I came ill prepared to harvest pioneering clay but will be back before the rains this coming weekend. My mind is off wondering how it will react as-is on my wheel or if it will be better suited for hand building esp building some jewelry. Is it low fire or high fire? And I wonder, what color will it fire too? Perhaps its a terra cotta like the other samples I found in the gully? Finding clay like this is like instant Christmas!!!

Of course the mountain revealed more presents of color, shape and oddity that pleased every sense. I took a ton of photos but these are the images that really stand out in my mind as having been wonderful finds. Oh, and there were so many hearts to see along the way and of course, I always love to share those too.

A fantastic morning recharging creative batteries.
Here are some of the images I loved from the morning.

Loved the contrast between the
tree and the fungus growing on it.

Loved the shape and color of this fungus too

The swamp on top of the mountain
offers hours of interesting things to look at!

Paws

Hearts were everywhere today.
This one right at my feet.

This heart right at the root!

Set up in the field



Best sketches in the field from this morning:

T-shaped branch with fungus.

A beautiful mushroom from
the floor of the woods.

Flowers are just starting
to bloom.

Another flower study.

Branch study.
I LOVED the color and the wrinkles it had.

The Wheel....

My wheel...

I've been avoiding one section in my basement studio since June. The pottery section has remained untouched since I moved in. For the past two weeks however I have been eyeing my wheel. Today I decided to go over and see how messy it really was and estimate how long clean up would be once I started in on cleaning. It's going to take a while. But, all in all I have to confess Im missing my wheel and playing with clay very badly. It's not going away either. Perhaps once I get more caught up with commissions I can pull out some clay (hope that it is still good) and pull a few pieces just for fun.


Detail of a Recent commission

Maureen Love foal in bay roan.
Set to go on sale this week

"Quiet"
Graphite, watercolor and acrylics on paper

Birthday Cake

The little ones come out
to play on my son's birthday

I seem to have misplaced (or lost) many things in the move from Brooklyn to Pennsylvania. This time around I discovered that my grandmother's bundt pan is missing, lost or gone. I've searched the cabinets, the studios and several unopened boxes to no avail. A few months ago I remember thinking to myself that I hadn't seen that pan in a while, but thought nothing of it till this morning when I went to make my son's birthday cake. No pan. No nothing to bake a cake in really, except a flat square pan used to reheat food.

Panic!

Being creative means becoming adventurous and inventive in the face of necessity. I managed to create a fairly lovely cake with that flat pan and even iced the finished product without ripping it to shreds. But as has been the case, the little mice popped into my brain while icing and before I knew it I was up in the studio creating little paper toppers cause well, I've misplaced all the action hero and Nicelodeon cake toppers....somewhere.....in either this state or the other. By the way, Strathmore Watercolor paper (sold in the pad) makes a very sturdy cake topper.


They moved around the cake
a bit during the party.

Gourd

Gourd on the desk

Remember those gourds from October? They are even more fun to look at in April! I've left three sitting in my kitchen near my china cabinet cause I was even more curious to see what would transpire decay wise and this one gourd was perfect for a sketching frenzy this morning.

When I really started to look at this gourd I was overwhelmed by the bumps, colors and shapes this decaying gem had to offer. In the end my sketch didn't really come out the way I had hoped because I was fairly overwhelmed, but it was still a fun exercise.


Various steps in the drawing. Media used: Strathmore Water color paper, watercolors, and graphite.











My favorite part of this
rotting gourd

Finish. Not exactly
how I wanted it but a good exercise.

Beauty in Decay (Part II)

Quick shot of the baby bird
before being drawn

Some days just walking down the street can be difficult for an artist. Composition, color, value, arrangements, textures, and a myriad of other tantalizing visual spectacles hit the eyes at lightening speed from all directions, dance in the mind and urn to come out through the hand in pen, pencil, oils or even clay.

Today my tantalizing spectacle was a dead baby bird lying on the sidewalk. Fascinating! I walked away and walked home. Opened the door to my house and then promptly grabbed a napkin and went back to retrieve the baby bird. It was a plethora of color, shapes, composition, value and unending interest for me for several hours this morning.

Used watercolors and acrylics
for this study

Study (finished) of baby bird

Many artists throughout time
have been fascinated by decay.
Study of a dead stag by Beatrix Potter from
one of my favorite and cherished art books.

There is beauty in decay. All you have to do is look silently and closely without a judgmental eye.

Beautiful People

Sketch of my beautiful cousin Bianca.
One of the many wonderful people in my life.

There are many beautiful people in my life. Some seem to come in and go out at various stages of my life like waves of the sea. Some are there in the background always beaming bright like sunshine. Still others pass quickly like a shooting star. The purpose of their presence is brief, only to pass along a message I may have needed at the time.

For all these people in my life, I thank God every day. Because of you it has been and continues to be a beautiful journey.....

Well?

Crinkly illustrations get ironed
in my house

Well? What do you use yours for?

In this household I'll use whatever I can to make the art work. In this case, this poor illustration crinkled and crinkled badly. I have no idea why, but I thought maybe a little ironing would help. It did! The crinkles did move outward but the main image area is now crinkle free.

Badly crinkled illustration

Ironed and nice and crisp

Remaining crinkles can
be hidden with a matt