I did this one fairly late at night using Pigma Micron pen and Peerless watercolours. The blue wash was already on the page, and it happened to match my bathing suit which was hanging up to dry. I am fairly happy with this as I was very tired and wouldn’t have drawn except I could ink in all the zebra stripes while I was watching tv, and then just a wash. So this is a case of I wouldn’t have drawn, but I did something quite fast.

This weekend I took part in the very first Bear River Holiday Spirit Craft Show at the Rebekah Hall.

The tables were 6 feet long.

I had stressed a bit before the show about what I would display, whether I should even participate, did I have enough stuff, how would I display things, etc. , etc.

It’s not like I’ve never been in a show before, but I guess it has been a long time and my head has been in gardening not in art and craft shows.

It was SO MUCH FUN!!  In fact, I’d forgotten about how much I enjoyed the whole process of a show. The fun parts are:

• Seeing a body of your work together

The chaos of creativity in the studio can hide the previous weeks’ pieces. Placing your work together gives definition to your direction.

• Seeing other people’s work

It’s lovely to see other people present their work. It’s inspiring because hand-made work is so unique to the creator. It’s like a signature. It has an energy.

This detailed ornament is made from paper by Apryl Surette.

• Seeing the work of your friends in the village

When I know a person it’s even more interesting to see their work. It’s a window into their being.

• Visiting with your village friends

This is the first show I’ve ever participated in where I knew or knew of 80% of the vendors and many of the purchasers. It’s like having a show with all your friends and that’s an art party!

The people even dressed like works of art.

• Buying other people’s stuff

“Supporting the arts” is never so sweet as when you are buying beautiful things and tasty food from old friends and new friends!

• Selling your own stuff

I paint to satisfy an inner need to respond in colour to a scene or an object that moves me. It’s always a thrill and a surprise when someone else responds to a piece, especially when its creation was such a personal experience for me. It is wonderful to know that my paintings are enjoyed by others. Money is a good thing too!

• Absorbing the energy of others

Most vendors and participants at shows are in happy moods and the happy energy vibes are in abundance and are contagious.

This doll called me, but I had to leave her behind for now.

• Sharing tips and techniques with other artists

I exchanged printmaking stories and techniques with a storyteller artist  Sheila LeBlanc-Joyce. The photographer across the aisle from me shared his tips about digital photography, photoshop manipulation, printing, and paper preferences, all worth gold!

• Uping your own creative force

The end result of all of this is to send the artist home with new ideas and some inspiration for new work

Lots of people came through..like hundreds. Many of us were happily surprised to see such a crowd on a rainy day. It was an excellent turn-out for a first-time venue and it bodes well for the future.

Fabulous stories, photos and dolls by Ken and Amy Flett

And what did I buy? There were lots of beautiful things I wanted to buy, but I restrained myself. When I got home I noticed that all of my purchases were very practical and often food related.  I bought:

• Some coffee from Sissaboo Coffee Roaster, a new, fair-trade coffee roasted here in Bear River by Jon Welch.

The aroma alone is out of this world!

• An  especially-for-artists  week by week calendar that will help me organize my life if I cooperate with it. This was developed by artist Helen Opie who was frustrated with what was on the market and designed and printed her own.

• Some wild, handpicked cranberries from organic market-gardener Gilbert Doelle at Wild Rose Farm in Gilbert’s Cove.

• The tastiest loaded-with-fruit-and-nuts fruit cake I’ve ever sampled made by Barnwood Inn in Bear River.

The fruitcake is so fresh and so tasty.

I forgot to mention that there was also live music and carols. It was quite a fun event. I can’t wait for the next time!

Emily added some of her Deer to the table and they were a hit!

Thanks to the organizers of Jennifer Quercia, Erin Schopfer and Jon Welch!

Rusty Bolt - watercolor painting

This is a painting of a rusty bolt. Overall I am happy how it worked out. It is about 9 x 12 on hot press. The thing I am working on is to keep the washes really light and build up the values slowly in this manner. One trick that Rey Milici told me about is to alternate the layers of wash with cool and warm, rather than just repeating washes with the same colors. The background is alternated with washes of cad red/indigo and aliz crimson/indigo. I also mixed different grays depending on whether they were in the light or not. So the grays in the sun were warm gray – cad red/cad yellow/ultramarine, and the grays in the shade were cool grays mixed with aliz crim/lemon yellow/ultramarine. I probably will touch it up a little bit here and there, but it is pretty much finished. I alternated warm cool layers on the dark shadow as well. It makes it look a little more interesting than just using a flat black or gray wash.

I also photographed this in the sun (thanks to a suggestion from Leslie of Lesliepaints) so the colors are a little better, plus I was able to use a higher shutter speed so its not so blurry.

Below is the drawing for this painting. This is my new process. I had a photo I took of the bolt and I use a transparency with a grid on it that I tape over the drawing. Then I make the drawing based on that. Once I have the drawing I put a bunch of graphite on the back of the drawing and then trace the parts of the drawing I want on to the watercolor paper. The graphite on the back is transfered where I draw. I like this method because I can mark up the original drawing with notes like what colors I mixed or what the different values I am shooting for are.

Here is my second watercolour attempt – a pear! Its abit ragged round the edges but I am quite pleased with it. I did it using the wet on wet technique which is fun.  Next week I have to take some open mushrooms to the class so the tutor can show me some other technique.

Feeling miserable today as have fluey cold so tucked up on the so with my youngest’s laptop catching up on blogs.

I went to the 25th World-wide sketchcrawl last Saturday. There were twelve of us (or maybe more). This time it was at the Botanical Gardens and I went straight to the cactus garden because I wanted to draw the cacti while there were still strong shadows (about 10.15am). I had to sit in the sun to do that one, and after that I stayed in the shade because it was very hot.

I used an Artline pen and Peerless watercolours.

I saw this website last year and have finally gotten around to making a painting for it. It is called the Virtual Paintout and it is run by Bill Guffy. Every month he selects a location and invites people to submit a painting of that place. How do you decide what to paint? Simple – just go to Google Maps street view and find something you want to paint. I did a quick watercolor yesterday of 54 Water Street, Chester, Nova Scotia for my first entry.

This was pretty quick painting. I was mainly doing something quick because I have been spending a lot of thought on my rusty bolt painting that I just wanted something fun. I also have discovered that the way I was putting down washes was not correct. I wasn’t using enough water and not holding the paper at the correct angle. So I wasn’t establishing a healthy bead of paint at the bottom of the wash, so that area would dry and when I put the next row down it would darken the paint that had already dried beneath it. So I have been practicing with really getting a lot of water on the brush and managing the bead of water. Also it is important to mix a little jar of plenty of paint before starting.

Below is the drawing I did for this using my new process for drawing. I’ve made a transparency with a one inch grid. I put it over the computer screen. I have some drawing paper with a matching grid. Then I draw the image from the screen. This gives me a lot of leeway with the drawing – I can make tonal values & notes on it, erase it, and don’t have to be too careful etc. I transfer this image onto the watercolor paper first applying a big area of 6B graphite over the back of the drawing. Then I place the drawing on the watercolor paper and trace the parts of the drawing I want and it transfers the image onto the watercolor paper.

This is a quick way to do it, plus it keeps my hand in the drawing. Even so, I messed up the docks they were tricky – but once again, it was mainly a quick thing I did for fun. I am going to email the drawing to the Virtual Paintout website – it might take him a few days to add it to the gallery.

* Dewi magazine, June 2005

The debut opening of Roy Petley’s gallery in London caused an uproar in the West End, with people seen queuing down the street to get in. In fact, that wintry October night saw so many people in the gallery that the fire department responded four times to heat alarms going off in the building.

Roy Petley (photo: Titania Veda)

This dream of an art gallery began many years ago by a boy abandoned to a children’s home. Trapped in a dark and dreary world, even the beatings by his guardians could not curb Roy’s irrepressible spirit. “My escape was painting and drawing, the reality was horrible. I quite liked the fistfights but I didn’t like the beatings,” he confides. Becoming the first ever to receive a scholarship at the children’s home at the tender age of sixteen, Roy left for Brighton University but after his first semester he decided to go to Florence in the arms of a beautiful woman. His thirst for the foundations of art, well-drawn, well-coloured and well-painted works naturally drew him to the Italian masters of old; Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. Several years later, after living through his work in Italy, he returned to his homeland, England. There, he exhibited on the Green Park railings, a then melting pot of would be artists.

A chance meeting with the Duchess of Kent was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with the British royal family. The late Queen Mother and the Prince of Wales are collectors of his works, the late Queen Mother being particularly fond of his Norfolk landscapes. A whirlwind romance with an adoring public commenced, with sell-out shows following him wherever he went, from London to Barbados, Dublin to Dallas.

To satisfy his love of beautiful sports cars, three Alfa Romeos, engine red Ferraris and an E-type Jaguar once decorated his backyard. He even appeared on Good Morning Texas, flanked between William Shatner who “was on before me trying to promote a video game for Star Wars”, and a piano-playing-pot-bellied-pig who refused to perform. “It wouldn’t play the piano because it was camera shy”, Roy deduced.

Roy’s rags to riches story caught the eye of both the BBC and Sky Television, resulting in documentaries on his life and his art, and forced a change on his outlook on life. “I used to have people lining up to buy my work – but once the BBC did their documentary on me, they ended up banging on my front door trying to buy a paintings, it became a nightmare!” he exclaimed. Once dubbed the Best Dressed Man in London, this sort of major publicity was not in line with Roy’s solitary nature. In the early nineties, he chose tranquillity over fame and moved to a lonely farmhouse in the south-west of France. “I left England to become an unknown, to have a peaceful life”, he said. He quickly applied his energy to rebuilding his new-found home, which was soon to be featured in House & Garden, Homes & Gardens and Interior magazine.

the last of the sun by Roy Petley (courtesy of Petley Fine Art)

An impressionistic painter, he finds inspiration in his surroundings. In the summers, he is often found by local fishermen knee-deep in water, drawing models draped in flowing white dresses and adorned with wide-brimmed hats that Roy is known for collecting, or painting his neighbour’s children licking ice lollipops in his rose garden.

Self-taught, Roy experiments with all mediums, disclosing how he changes “mediums when I want to change my mind-set”. At his leisure, he moves effortlessly from pastel to oil, watercolour to sanguine. He speaks of each medium with equal passion, stressing on the ability to draw well being essential when working with any medium, particularly watercolour – “There is no changing it…there is only one chance”. He continues on saying, “watercolours are my reference for my oil paintings, an oil painting becomes a fuller version of the watercolour on a canvas.” He describes how Degas used to work with charcoal before drawing in the pastel, but prefers himself to draw with colour immediately. He is also is quick to illustrate that “pastel is a dusty medium and after a short period of working with it, I am always happy to return to my natural medium – oil.”

The subjects of Roy’s works are as varied as his mediums, drawing upon inspiration from anything and everything – portraits, still life, cityscapes and landscapes have all felt the touch of his brush in his paintings. “I usually have an idea of what I want to do before I begin, I see the world through my paintbrush and palette – all that remains to do is to recreate the image that I see in my mind.”

Whether it be landscape or still life, light and shadow are the basis of his works. There is a certain light and youthfulness, a grace and joyfulness that emanates from his paintings. He depicts an untouchable innocence that is reminiscent of childhood and days gone by. Although it may seem an old-fashioned and romantic world, this is Roy’s world as it exists today. Each painting draws you in, engages you with its subtle colours and soft lines.

sunlight in the dark canal by Roy Petley (courtesy of Petley Fine Art)

It is said that once you have had a show in Cork Street, you have made it in the art world. Having exhibited in galleries on the street for over a decade, Roy had reached a point in his life where he wanted to give something back. In his youth, Roy himself had approached gallery after gallery, carrying his portfolio, and had been turned away. In later years, the same galleries would beg him to exhibit with them – he wanted to provide artists with the opportunities he never had, with “a gallery they can trust, where artists feel comfortable”, where the open doors and laid back atmosphere would encourage artists – especially the younger ones. In the autumn of 2003, he did just that. “I started up the gallery because I was really fed up with how artists are treated”, he explained.

Petley Fine Art sets itself apart from other galleries because as Roy proudly states, “this is the first time an artist has owned a major gallery promoting work other than his own”. True to his word, Roy has raised the bar for the whole area by filling his gallery with only the finest paintings and sculptures from an international pantheon of artists. “We have famous artists, infamous artists, and also young artists just starting out in their careers – regardless of where they are in their careers, it is their talent that attracts us to them.”

It is this refreshing concoction of artists that gives the gallery its lively character and explains why artists enjoy exhibiting there. Neil Forster, an artist of Petley Fine Art and an established portrait painter whose sitters include The Prince of Wales, speaks highly of the gallery. “I thought this gallery opening in “the” art street of London and offering art with no over-intellectualizing or posing, is so refreshing that it must in time be one of the most visited galleries in London.”

Roy is also quick to point out that a lot of effort has been made to ensure nothing distracts from the paintings. His long-standing motto being, “the art is foremost, the gallery secondary and all emphasis is on the artists”.

Filled with boundless energy and enthusiasm, Roy floods his gallery with the same vitality he fills his paintings. Now with three galleries spread across Europe, Petley Fine Art seems to be going from strength to strength. As for Roy, does he miss the good old days when he was a struggling painter? “Well,” he laughs, saying, “I have artists ringing up at 4 AM telling me their problems with their wives who are jealous of their models. One artist calls up and says can I come see you now? I think, what’s going on here?”

Petley Fine Art
9 Cork St
London
W1S 3LL
+44 207 494 2021
http://www.petleys.co.uk/

OK, so it seems I am into a short phase of finishing half done paintings, and this is another watercolour that has been lying dormant in my portfolio for around 15 years. It’s somewhere in Wiltshire, that’s all I know. Basically it’s a triad colour scheme as can be seen from the highlighted colour wheel below:

I’m not a slave to a colour wheel, but it is helping me to be more disciplined in colour and restricting the number of pigments I use. Invariably I am happier with the result. I guess it’s important not to get enslaved by a formula.

The next photo shows a lot more of the developed watercolour, and I’m getting more of where I think it should end up. This of course is now done from imagination based on what I have from the original work on site.

At this stage I am not happy with the pale green sunlight in the distance – it needs strengthening to draw the eye in. The tree on the right is too flat, and the bushes behind it are also flat and lacking a convincing base. A few white highlights will help to bring focus here and there. Also the blue of the sky needs to go a little bit towards purple to harmonise better with the road. A weak wash of ultramarine plus indian red over the whole sky, diluting towards the bottom and adding a little more indian red to the water should improve things. This was the final result:

Watercolour 14"x20" on "Arches" paper

From the series ‘Six’. Watercolour and pen on paper, 210 × 297 mm, 2006. Private collection.

I am in a sketching phase. And especially scenes, not things or objects. Scenes like buildings and architecture, streets, les places, small shops. I don’t think I’m particularly good at these type of “scenes”, but I’m having fun!   I sometimes feel I will never be a proper artist. I  feel too much  like a changeling for I have too many phases. Maybe it is the winter.  Or the atmosphere in the streets, the lights coming from buildings, the reflection of streetlamps…how can I work alone in my atelier when there is the smell of coffee and hot chocolate in the bars, the intimate talks around candles, the festivity of people with shopping bags in the streets, the  creeping deeper into your woolen hat and coat…

Some last sketches from Paris: The first from le jardin du luxembourg with its hordes of trees and chairs.

…trees in jardin du luxembourg…

…a corner of st Sulpice and a sentier off rue des archives…

…la fontaine de st. sulpice…

All sketches done in pen/pencil and watercolour in sketchbook (15.3×25cm)

Based on a visit to see the Henry Moore exhibition at Kew Gardens.  I’m sure that for some his sculptures are curiosities or just invite curiosity.   Infact when we visited another exhibition on farmland near Dumfries, we read that when one sculpture arrived the farm manager had no idea what it was and decided it was the new spare part for his tractor!  Apart from the tree, the background was kept deliberately soft to try and keep the focus on the sculpture.    Trying to copy Moore’s lines have been a bit of an education in its self.

‘Walking the dog’

‘Loss’

‘Let’s Dance’

I added colour and some more pen to the drawing that I started the other day. I’m pleased with the result. This is a really cool and colourful corner of a cool and colourful city; the view from City Lights, in San Francisco’s North Beach, down Columbus, towards the Sentinel Building, the Trans-Am Pyramid, and the Financial District. I love it down there. This was drawn partly from a photo and partly from a similar drawing (so you wont see this on urban sketchers), both from a trip made last March, when it rained a little. I had just had a doughnut for breakfast. It was very good. I might give this away. Not to you, unfortunately; sorry. To someone else. I am however likely to be making prints at some point (my famous words, ‘at some point’). But I think with this picture I will, because I want one. Know any good print makers?

This was drawn with Copic pen on Canson watercolour paper.

What to do when your head feels like this…

I donated this 16″ x 20″ watercolor painting to my church this weekend for a silent auction or any other fund-raiser they may have. For months I have been thinking that I should be using my ability for charities and church but really didn’t know how to approach it or whom to contact. The sad thing is that now days there are so many laws and regulations, on who or what they can accept, and the threat of law suits for every little thing. So churches and charities have to be careful on what they accept. But I decided to take my painting to church Sunday and just let them make the decision on whether they wanted it or not. They not only accepted it. but was thrilled and have other plans for me (not sure what that means) but I will help as much as I can. For months I have been thinking that there is a path, a direction, that has been set for me to use my abilities in helping the church and the mission work that they do around the world. After saying this I will now tell you what the message in church was Sunday, the message was about the Path that God has set out for you. Coincidence, I don’t think so. Now, I’m not very good with the bible, but my understanding of the service was that we are given a path, that path has no walls keeping us on the path and obstacles along the way that may tempt us to veer, and it’s our choice on what we do along that path. Most of my life paths  look like the trails used by deer in a woods, yes they do use trails, but they create new ones in different directions as though they’re not sure on which directions they should be going. They’re not lost, but walk with no clear direction. I have decided to take that path given to me and I’m excited about it. I’m not saying there won’t be bumps, and some decisions made might not be the best, but I will fight the urge to wonder off into a different path. Because the path given is the best and most exciting path that I can take.

Happy Thanksgiving to those that are celebrating the holiday and be thankful everyday for things given.

Visiting our eldest daughter Marinell in Paris this past week….

Paris was sunny and stunningly beautiful! Our weather is still very mild and everybody is out and in good spirits. The waiters are witty, the cars are their usual impatient selves, the women typically autumnal chic and elegant and the children street wise. It is always an experience for me to go into Paris. Once I get used to the traffic, the street hustle and bustle and and Paris noise, I fall into the rhythm of the city, revel in taking on my new pretend-role of la Parisienne.

…place de la sorbonne…

I have my few secret corners that I drop by every time (you’ll have to visit me to know what they are!) and for the rest, I walk and walk and walk, discover new quaint little shops and petits chemins, drop in to buy my regular edible gold leaf and to see what other delicacies are new. Discover bars and bistros and boulangeries and chocolateries, roam the markets, linger in the bookstores and art stores, enjoy lunch with Marinell at my one of my favourite bars outside the centre of Paris, L’usine Charonne. Tea at l’heure du gouter at Le Fumoir, meet Hartman at night on our romantic spot on Pont neuf,  read for hours in my favourite jardin de luxembourg where something happens every minute and each stroller is living his/her story. And always, always  held captive by the  incredibly beautiful architecture of Paris.

How I love Paris. How I love France!

See photos here:  Travel at Myfrenchkitchen

…st amandé – place de la mairie…

My sketches are all a bit tight, but maybe I am a bit uptight lately! I have done some more sketches which will follow in the next post and they are a bit looser and messier…the way I like it.

…le marais…

…place de la nation – statue…

All sketches done in sketchbook with graphite and watercolour.

Handle House. Watercolour and auto touch-up paint. 12"x17"

I’ve not painted for nearly a week. I’ve been working on finishing an oil painting, and it’s a mess. I get discouraged when this happens and don’t know how to progress, and then I just don’t paint. Anyway, that was then, and now is now. I’m cheered up because I’ve had a good session working on the painting shown above. I started it I think in 1982 and haven’t touched it since. This is how I left it:

I don’t suppose I’d been painting for more than a couple of years. My drawing was OK, but everything  else was very tentative – like the trees on the right. I suspect the sky was a bit like this when I painted on site – a watery ocre, but for today I have gone over it with a strong cool pthalo blue to set off the orange of the rooves and bricks. In every other way I wanted to increase the contrast, using the light from the left, and deepening some shadows with a mixture of Payne’s grey and burnt sienna.

I needed to pick out some white highlights (such as on the water) but my permanent white is in truck and it’s wet and cold outside; however I found this in my art drawer. It’s white enamel auto touch-up paint left over from when we had a white Honda about ten years ago.  It worked a treat, and seemed entirely appropriate for an abandoned old painting. I think this qualifies as mixed media…

Out of curiosity I’ve just googled “Handle House Trowbridge”  and found this photo that dates from the mid to late 1980s when some restoration work had been carried out on the river. Another more recent picture appears to show the building in the middle of a highly insensitive restoration job. I hope I’m wrong. It’s one of maybe only two teasel-head-handle drying houses remaining in the UK.  This post is dedicated to my former colleague Pat (nee) Tidy with whom I worked in the Planning Department in the early 1980’s, and who I recently and unexpectedly met at a mills conference.  She will know this building without a doubt.

Second and final drawing of my short sketchcrawl yesterday, which was interspersed with getting hair cut, shopping for Christmas cards, and generally cycling round thinking, ‘oh I’ve drawn everything in Davis, I’m so uninspired’. So I stopped for lunch. A beer (New Belgium 2 Below, if you’re ordering), and a mountain of garlic fries.

I made it a little over halfway through the mountain of garlic fries – I’m still suffering, next day – before going home. A big trough of garlic fries, it’s so unlike me. But I came in here – Uncle Vito’s, on the corner of E and 2nd – to draw the bar, so draw it I did. You can see me in the mirror there. There’s a bit of beermat philosophy that was going through my head as I made my way through the garlic fries surplus.

This place is fairly new, and occupies the space formerly tken by the Davis Driving School, and a little (cheap and not particularly good) chinese place called, I kid you not, Wok and Roll. They didn’t do garlic fries, but I can’t say they didn’t do stomachaches.

I did a quick drawing in part of my lunch break, sitting in the foyer looking across the Parramatta River because it was too hot outside. I’ve done some more scribbling and added more colour since I got home. Composition terrible, but it was a rush job and at least I DREW. I started working from left to right, without any planning (no time) and that little shrub just ended up in the middle.

I ‘enhanced’ the drawing with more colour when I got home. In fact because it was so hot, everything was very dull and grey, so I’ve used some artistic license.

Today was the day of the 25th Worldwide Sketchcrawl – in fact it was also the fifth anniversary of the first one. I was pretty busy today, getting my hair cut and other important stuff, so wasn’t able to really take part, but I brought my sketching stuff with me (as always) downtown and managed to knock out a couple (by that I mean, draw two pictures, not actually knock out some poor unsuspecting couple). The second one was done while having a beer and some garlic fries (some! it was a mountain, I barely ate half). The fries made me feel sick, but they were tasty. I haven’t added colour to that one yet so you’ll not see it here just yet. I didn’t manage to meet with the main Davis sketchcrawl (I forgot to check the forum before I left). It was cold today, cold and bright. My micron pens were feeling it. I managed to draw this one (very typical pete, tree coming out of the top of the frame) in a quiet courtyard on C street, behind the Davis Community Church and away from the throng of the Davis Farmer’s Market. What a wimp, I thought to myself. How can I be cold? People all over the world are sketching in colder and probably wetter places than me. But I made sure my next sketch was indoors. Am I becoming a Californian?

Guggenheim Museum Watercolor

I’ve started a new process for working on watercolors, and this painting is the first result.

I’ve decided to work on smaller paintings – 9 x 12 inches, 140lb Hot Press Arches paper. I’m leaving them in the block so I’m not worried about stretching etc.

I’ve made some transparency grids and I can place these either on the computer or on a photo and use that to make a drawing. Once I have a drawing, I am applying 8b pencil to the back and then tracing the front part while the drawing is on top of the watercolor paper. This way I can  work on the drawing as much as possible and really work it without worrying about scuffing up the watercolor paper too much. I can also make notes on the drawing for reference as I do the painting.

I am planning on using images that I can put light layers of paint on and build them up, focusing on warm & cool areas, and tonal values.

The Guggenheim painting is based on a photo I took last spring. I like how the shadows are. I am working a lot on trying to see the warm and cool areas better, as well as the colors that make compose those areas.

I have to figure a way to get better photos of the finished work – this is a little blurry. I could scan them at work but it seems like a little much carting the paintings around and all the extra work just for this blog. Maybe I can get a real bright light so I can use a higher shutter speed. I don’t really feel like getting too elaborate. The flash works, but it bleaches out the paintings.

My entry for Illustration Friday, prompt word of “music”.  I worked hard to come up with this.  Actually, I worked hard on another entry before this one,  it didn’t work at all and therefore I painted this.

Lately, I have been listening to Simon and Garfunkel greatest hits over and over again.  Their music is a good choice to have playing in your head if you have to have music playing in your head.  And seems like I have to.  Do you wake up with a song stuck in your head, too?  Better “I am a rock, I am an island” than “I stepped in glue, I stepped in glue, my feet are stuck ’cause I stepped in glue”.

watercolour  7″x10″

He stands outside Chipotle and Peet’s Coffee n E Street, busking on his twelve-string at lunchtimes when I am there, sounding like Dylan, Nelson, Haggard; his music is very nice. He has one of those harmonicas you can play while guitaring; no cymbals at the knees though. Very distinctive with his long white hair, moustache, sunglasses; he has a long feather in his hat. One of the characters of Davis.  He was singing a song about watercoloured wine while I was drawing this, munching on my burrito. It was cold outside; November is really kicking in. The Fall Colours have just exploded all around us, the trees have suddenly turned the colour of flames, and there’s no way I’ll keep up with them.

Watercolour portrait of my young great-nephew, Will.   Cutest little thing with an even littler brother who looks just like him.   

Image size 5″x7″

Three evenings of watercolouring.  Wonder what tomorrow holds…