Botanical Abstracts

The Botanical Garden in Balboa Park was lovely today - an oasis in August!

I sketched outside the greenhouse, but inside the lighting was so magical my camera came alive. The visitors seemed so sedate parading around the paths observing quietly and talking in hushed tones. Suddenly there was a tiny girlbaby laughing and splashing her hands in one of the little floor-level waterfall pools. Sweet!

Left: Is this "the hair of the bog?"

Underwater Cooling Facility

Where else can you click to enlarge and dive in?

a little jazz...

...never hurts.

Bird of Paradise (watercolor)

Where does this guy go for an afterlife? maybe he rises like a phoenix and becomes himself all over again...I will try it with paint.

Scenic Sketchbook #2

These are the first two sketches in Book #2 - a piece of Spanish Village and a piece of Laguna Beach where I wandered last week with Younger Daughter on our way to the Pageant of the Masters and the Sawdust Art Festival.

It took me two years to finish Scenic Sketchbook #1. I think I'm getting better at it! While I was drawing in Spanish Village a woman went by me, did a double-take and said, rather incredulously, "You're doing that in pen?" I proudly said yes. I don't use any pencil underlay, and that's my excuse for the wobbly lines - not my advanced age (ahem).

Reflections in a Vase

Hang in There!

I'll be back...

How Much Wood Would I Woodcut If I Could Cut Wood?

A lot, maybe, but it's too rough on the hands, so this is a cut of another substance - no wait, it's a another mermaid!

Sailing San Diego

Sometimes a good notion!

Just For Fun!

"Picasso's Mermaid" (he let me sign it!)

I still think not going somewhere exotic on vacation this year was a good idea. But I miss the artistic excitement and coming home with photos begging to be painted. So I went to Bazaar del Mundo where I haven't been since it moved from the original space in Old Town (I was protesting), and the vividness of the colors there were like an exploding bowl of candy. I realized that for me it's the people who "draw me" to paint them, not just the colors. Business was slow and there were no people! Well, the flower-making lady just wouldn't sit still.

These are paintings (two watercolors and the beach scene is oil) from long ago photos of Guatemala, making me want to change my mind and go somewhere...

Su-u-perLemon!!!

Somehow Grami left this portrait out of the display of Elora Art (The Real Deal). Next time I get to interview her I will find out more about this scion of the Citrus family.

Haiku

Watch the seagull soar

shrieking over the cool bay,

freer than a kite.

Have a Happy Sunday!

Have a cup of coffee...

play with the cat...

take your spider for a walk!

Moon Over Mermaid

I made this aquatint in a Sibyl Rubottom class at Bay Park Press several years ago. Anyone interested in printing and/or artist books would love her classes. Last night the full moon made me think of it.

Dreamscapes

reflecting on our time with our children...

My Sea Horse

It might be nice to ride in a watercolor world

The Real Deal

If you want to see expressive art you can't do any better than these from the brush of the beauteous eight year old (grandaughter) Elora, also a Cocooned Artist, who has been painting me out of house and home all weekend.

Cheat Sheet:

First, there's the Waterslide Restaurant:

" You go in the door and take the elevator up to the waterslide, get on, and go 'whooop!' down the slide into the pool and then into the hot tub, then you get out and go over to the Hot Cocoa place where you get hot cocoa and food!, then you take it to your table and sit down and have it!"

speaking of roses

I'm on this new kick about the "spirit" of flowers, what they look like after they die and go to flower heaven. Very abstract and probably ridiculous, but fun. After communing with the spirits of roses i discovered that their dearest wish in life is to unfold absolutely flat. They are so tired of being folded like origami flowers all cramped into shape. And they all want to be pinkish, but people keep messing with them. They would rather be breasts. Here is "a rose by any other name". (I may have to work on this one!)