Being Drawn Out

Every time I see an artist who is fine and talented at drawing, I resolve spend more time drawing. Of course, I've also resolved to start practicing the clarinet again and to learn to speak the Spanish of my father, but thats gotten no where either. But I guess I don't have to beat myself up over it. It's ok to keep resolving. Certainly if I give up resolving it will absolutely never happen.

So I resolve to spend more time in my studio this year.

Yesterday I spent some time on the landscapes that I started. I didn't get any pictures, but I did make some good progress. The trees are finished on one of them and I'm in the middle of the second one. I'm debating about using a ink to add the hints of budding leaves. Our Maple trees have red buds and the Lilac are green. I was also considering using beads. I'll have to see which works best.

What's in The Works

A discussion came up on the Quiltart list about "what's on your wall". My design wall doesn't usually have my current project but more likely the project that I am waiting for inspiration. When I get stuck I hang the thing up so that I can stare at it for a while and sometimes I'll get ideas for it while working on something up.

So here is the state of my design wall at the moment. The red/blue/white piece is from the Nancy Crow workshop of last year. I have some ideas for it, but it will have to wait until I'm done with my current work. On the bottom is the latest of my winter landscape series. Above the and partially hidden is a piece called Winter Leaves II. It's waiting for a frame.

Then above that is my drawing/pattern for rabbit to be used in the future and a photo of the harbor scene that I used for my Kingston Festival piece.

Here is the real design "wall" - the table next to my sewing machine.

I'm working on two more winter landscapes. I've completed the backgrounds and now they are ready for trees.

This one is sort of a February/March landscape as I've added some more pinkish color to the landscape.

Then this one is moving more towards Spring. I used some light greens in the foreground.

And while I'm giving a tour of my studio, I might as well show you my inspiration bulletin board.

Ok, so it is not so much just an inspiration board as a collection of stuff!

On the knitting front, I'm working on another sweater. This one is using a wool/cotton blend yarn. Nice and soft and fun to knit. Really shows the pattern. It is the back of the sweater.

And, of course, I always have some socks going. These are in a wonderfully soft alpaca yarn from Misti Alpaca. Love these cool blues and greens.

On something totally un-fiber related, Mark finally had his bonfire last night. I don't see the attraction of setting things on fire and watching it burn on a cold cold night, but it did create this one interesting design. Doesn't it look sort of like a horse in the flames?

How Could You Go Wrong with a Blue Rabbit

I am trying out a new blogging application called Blogo and their logo is a blue rabbit! It is suppose to be super simple to use and you don't need to be in a browser to create blog posts.

You can also just drag and drop photos to the blog from anywhere on your computer, and then drag them around in the blog post until they are where you want them to be. Cool. Here is my test pic. This is Mark and I on our wedding day - we eloped to Reno! That was in 1992.

It also lets you crop the photos in blogo.