Iris at the cemetery

Sacramento has a lovely old City Cemetery. Famous people such as John Sutter (think of the discovery of gold), Stanfords (railroads) and Virgil Earp (Wyatt Earp's brother) are buried there. They have a heritage rose section which is maintained by volunteers. Yet, it was the Iris that caught my eye today. I took an "artists day" and spent time wandering, taking picture and painting. There was no deadline and there were so many lovely flowers and plants. This was a very calming experience.

Believe that the top Iris is named Root Beer. I drew with a Pitt Pen and used Inktense watercolor pencils.



Zentangle Moleskin

The journey continues. Here are sections 2 and 3 of this adventure. My goal is to fill an accordian fold moleskin with my zentangles.

I was trying to figure out my motivation to do this project and decided that this is a gift to me. This project is different than realistic drawings that I struggle to compose.  

Zentangle Moleskin

Many of us are enjoying doing zentangles. I have admired the journals where one person does some and then passes it on to the next. Well, it seemed like to much work for me to connect with people who really want to work in that format. So, I bought my own journal and have started doing zentangles just for me.

I really don't know where this journal will lead. I am sure than my style will evolve. I hope to enjoy the process. It's funny, I keep reminding myself of the freedom to do what I want. There are no absolute rules. I can create to my heart's content. Amen.

Sketch quilt

The quilt that I've titled "Generations" is finished. This was my entry to a challenge presented by my art quilt group. The guidelines were that it should be 15" x 24" vertical and monochromatic. We drew color chips from a bag and mine in a rosy sepia color. I know that most will have an array of colors, but I wanted to challenge myself to using a minimal span of colors. Maybe because of the sepia color, I jumped on the idea to do my grandparents wedding picture. The project snowballed and I also did my parents, my in-laws and on the bottom, my husband and me. The quilt has been quilted by machine and by hand.

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The figures were drawn with a Pitt pen and I brushed on color from oil paint sticks. The close-up is of my in-laws, Betty and Don. OK, there is something "off" in each portrait, but the love is there. In fact, it was a more emotional project than I have anticipated. I kept thinking about how each of the ancestors were married "until death do us part", the shortest was about 35 years. Really, there is no formal picture of my parents, so their drawings were done from a 1943 picture-they were married in 1939. I had on a silly headpiece that you can see was crooked in this picture. How unimportant the clothing-what is important is the marriage. A fancy wedding is no guarantee of a successful marriage.

Later this month, I will be able to see how other met this challenge. I've sure that there will be a wide variety of designs.

What one person can do

My friend, Ron, used to jog around his neighborhood. He began picking up trash. Then he realized that there was a strip of dirt between the sidewalk and wall that was just begging for some attention. Since he is a Master Gardener, he decided to plant a garden. He improved the soil and planted California poppies (our State flower) and iris. Oops! twice the city sprayed for weeds and killed the new plants. After going to the city council, he got them to realize that something good was going to grow.

People will stop and thank him or honk as they go by while he tends his garden.

We call it RON'S WALL. This is what one person can do.

Sketchcrawl in Davis, CA

Saturday, under the leadership of Pete Scully, we met to sketch at the Davis Arboretum. A delightful treat was meeting Barbara whose blog is One Happy Fool. She drove over an hour with her trusty sidekick dog, Demi to attend her first Sketchcrawl.

If you check Pete's bog you can see a drawing of me, Barbara and Demi. Below is the piece I drew while he sketched me. I was afraid to reach for another tool, so I left it as a pencil sketch.

No matter where we go, our eyes are opened to new scenes to draw.The journey continues.

Zentangle

Today we went to a birthday party and we were not to bring gifts. However, I made this zentangle card for our golf buddy. Happy Birthday, Shirley.



Within the next few days,  I'll post a few pictures from the unofficial Sketchcrawl.