A Mindful Life

Today’s effort was a random (and ineffective) experiment with watercolor (I so don’t know how to work with watercolor paint). I didn’t have time to really get into something and wasn’t coming up with ideas. This is the kind of creation that may someday be reincarnated into another work, like this one, which also started [...]

Claire and I found a leaf on a walk at Central Park yesterday. It was distinctive, and I thought immediately that I should try drawing it.

“Found Leaf” / 7×10″ sketch paper with colored pencil

This is watercolor paint on sketch paper then drawn with ink. For some reason, lately I find drawing hundreds of tiny circles to be relaxing and meditative. This is how I spent my two hours while the babysitter took care of Claire.

I debated adding color to this but didn’t want to mess with the crisp clean look.

“Starfish” / 7×10″ sketch paper with pen

I’m raising a little sponge. Claire has more words now. What’s so fun is she is game to attempt to say anything. If you ask her, “Can you say [insert word]?” she will try it. It’s uncanny how well she pronounces words too. Here are her latest acquisitions:
achoo, back, beans, book, boom, bounce, bubbles, bunny, [...]

“Harvest” / 7×10″ sketch paper with collage, stamps, charcoal, marker, and inkThe usual metaphors are included here: tree of knowledge, enlightenment, dawn of understanding, etc.

This week’s theme for Illustration Friday is wise, and owls were my first thought. Claire adores owls and loves to say the word, though she has yet to catch on what they say (who? who?). So here is my attempt at drawing a barred owl. Owls have such improbable faces.

“Wise” / 7×10″ sketch paper with [...]

I’m thinking about autumn, and transformation, and what we just did as a country.

“Transformation” / 7×10″ sketch paper with oil pastel and colored pencil

For the first time in eight years, I feel hopeful about the future of our country. I am thrilled with the historic presidential election results.
In his famous Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln urged every American to take on “the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far nobly advanced.” That work remained unfinished, though, [...]

California Country Morning
This is an experiment using ink, stamps, and a brayer to spread color, and colored pencil and ink for detail. I drew this on 7 x 10″ sketch paper.