Category: Chatter

Joshua Tree

Joshua trees are a strange and wonderful plant.  The US National Park Service runs the Joshua Tree National Park, which is now closed because of the government shut down.

Joshua trees are amazing.  You see a flat desert, and then these odd plants, which are members of the yucca family, popping out in all sorts of strange and eerie shapes.  Driving through the southeastern part of California, along the Pear Blossom Highway, they are everywhere.  David Hockney immortalized them both.  Be sure to take time to visit the park and drive the highway when you are next in SoCal.

North of Here

This morning we are experiencing rain – a rare event in Southern California.  Strange as it may sound, it made me think about painting something without lines, wetting the paper first, and working wet-in-wet, just to see what would happen.  As a kid, I lived in upstate New York, out where pine woods and lakes were more common than people.  I miss that solitude – walking in a snowy woods, flakes falling, listening to the silence, all alone in a cold, lonely, and intensely beautiful environment.

Poinsettia

Another morning with sewing ahead of me – but not too much!  Just a touch here and then, thread trimming, ironing, and finally wrapping.

To start my day – after coffee, breakfast, a review, and the news – I decided to use my watercolor pencils, InkTense blocks, and Neocolor II by Caran d’Arche to draw the classical Christmas / holiday poinsettia, and some permanent black ink.

Did you know the red is really the leaf and the little yellow dots in the center are the flowers?  Poinsettias are not only crimson, but come in pale pinks and whites.  And, they are easy to grow – just take a cutting, let it dry out until hollow, and stick in some dirt, and you may be ready for next year!  I think they may also be poisonous . . .

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Shorelines

This morning I saw a photo of a shoreline at dawn.  A lake.  A sunrise.  Twigs.  Grasses.  Mountains.

I have spent the last two weeks making Christmas presents, sewing mostly, but also baking fruit cakes (brandied and bourboned), and shopping for this or that.  Today I have more sewing scheduled, and a few “must do” things.

The fact is, while I love sewing, I love other things as well.  I have done little if any drawing or painting.

Why do we get caught up in the “must do” so easily, so easily that the simple pleasure of an hour spent with paper, pen, and ink becomes something of a crime, one so self-indulgent that our Puritan ancestors shake their fingers at us?  Pleasure?  Nay!

But, I gave in!  I’m happier for it!