Saying Goodbye to Tica

Yesterday I had to say good-bye to my precious little dog, Tica. She passed away suddenly yesterday morning from what we believe was congestive heart failure. She had being slowing down for a while and had gone deaf over the last year but still seemed to be pretty spry for her age. She was almost fifteen. I'm really going to miss my "Bubby."

I know people say it all the time but it's true, our pets really are part of our family and when they leave us they take a little piece of our hearts with them. R.I.P. Tica, wait for me at the Rainbow Bridge.

Every Day in May

Just to change things up a little and to improve my quick sketching skills I decided to participate in the "Every Day in May" challenge. The idea is to draw a different predetermined subject each day in May and then post your work to the Facebook page and/or the Flickr page of the group. It is fun to see all of the different interpretations of the subject each day.

Unfortunately, life gets in the way and I have missed about half of the 15 days so far. I am not going to let that stop me though. I am going to keep on going, attempting to make up the days I have missed before the end of the month. One thing I found right away was that it was really hard to post the first couple of drawings because they were not "finished." I quickly determined that if I was to accomplish this goal, I had to let go of ego and just draw!

Anyway, here are my first five drawings for the month.

Supermoon - Take II

To be honest, I have no idea how frequently this happens. I just know that is the second time I have said "Wow, I have to get my camera!" when I heard the Moon was going to appear closer and larger than normal. Because as we all know, I love photographing that bright round orb in the night sky. I'm predictable and weird, I am aware of this, thank you...

Super moon over the Desert

Before It Goes Away

Here is a glimpse of what's left of my winter garden. We planted spinach, lettuce and broccoli for our inaugural crop. The lettuce did well, the spinach did so-so and the broccoli....eh, not so much. Not sure what went wrong, but at least I got a few photos out of it. Anyone with veggie gardening experience in the Southwest with tips on what (if anything) grows in the "warm" months, please give a holler.

Choosy Mothers

Choose Jif of course...actually I prefer the Laura Scudders.

Night Time is the Right Time.

Or my other title for this photo, Moonlight/Streetlight.

New Drawing!

Just finished my submission for the ArtHouse Coop 4x6 Exchange #2 Project. I can't wait to see what I receive in exchange! I love the idea of swapping an art piece with a randomly selected unknown artist.

The Moon Never Bores Me

I do hope my (seeming) obsession with photographing the moon does not bore you... I can't help myself. Before you say anything, I do realize that this photo is ridiculously noisy/grainy. Setting my ISO to 1600 seemed like the right thing to do given the darkness and I was too lazy to get out the tripod. I will keep experimenting with that. Noise aside, I thought it was lovely!

In other news, it has been an interesting week. The weather appears to finally be giving us a break; temps are dropping slightly. Not a moment too soon for my electricity bill either! With the change in the weather I am happy to see an improvement in my energy level and mood. Summer in Phoenix can suck the life right out of you!

Page 1 - Pie in the Sky?

I have started working on my sketchbook for the 2012 Sketchbook Project. My theme is "I Remember You." I will illustrate memories of people and experiences that have made a lasting impression on my life. This year I will complete the book. I think I have a better handle on budgeting my time...(we shall see). Here is a sneak peek of my first page (click to enlarge). One of the few things that can cause me to stop & ponder is a beautiful sky full of clouds so I figured what more appropriate subject for the opening page. I have also decided to start working through  The Artists Way again, if only for the sake of completing it. I have a small problem with finishing things that I start, can you relate?

Last night while trying to avoid working on my drawing (it takes a lot of energy) I was scanning through a few of the blogs that I follow and came across this article that centered around the idea of making changes in your life by changing your focus, "focusing on the No to become clear on the Yes, defining the Yes to clarify the No." Although I am not a follower of Zen philosophy, I do try to be open minded. There were some very interesting concepts, you can read that here.

Time to have a rare (these days) early evening cup of coffee and walk the dog, I need to relax, it has been a stressful day!

Image Transfer/Tip Jar Thursdays

I just came across this Facebook post from Arthouse Coop. It is an installment from their blog called "Tip Jar Thursday." This weeks feature is on image transfer; a technique which I will be including in my 2012 Sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project. Hope this information is useful to you. I know I needed a refresher on the finer points. After reading the post, it is all coming back to me. Needless to say, I had a flashback to Mrs. Yen's Intermediate Art class way back in 1975. Whooh.... You can check out a few pages from my 2011 Sketchbook and some random portfolio pieces here. I am just getting started on the 2012 Sketchbook but I will be uploading to this site as I get pages done. Maybe you should sign up for this project too, come on, whaddayasay???

Inspiration

Closed out the Sabbath today up on the roof watching the wind blow the magnificent clouds around in the sky. The beauty of creation is really all around us if we take the time to see it. Thank you to the Honduras crew for a wonderful program today at Camelback Church. I haven’t been that inspired in some time. It thrills my soul to see the changes that are going on at Camelback and I am grateful to those who had the vision to start turning us in a new direction.