After a recent life drawing session, I was chatting with a friend about how certain principles in art are useful in so many different applications. For instance, using the full spectrum of tones is important to describe form, and without both the lightest light tones, and the darkest darks, an artwork can seem bland. In […]
Sarah Reading
January 31, 2011 by · 4 Comments
The three of us went out for a relaxing evening of coffee, reading and sketching. I love it when people are so absorbed in what they are doing that they don’t notice me sketching them. I was almost done before Sarah caught on!
Coffee Shop Stealth
June 7, 2010 by · 3 Comments
We spent another Sunday afternoon at one of Portland’s umpteen coffee shops–we’ll never run out of new ones to try. Coffee shops are a great place to sketch people because they sit mesmerized in front of their laptops for hours and hardly even move except to take a sip of coffee. This young woman was […]
Concordia Coffee Shop
March 8, 2010 by · 10 Comments
Portland has an endless supply of funky, hip, and/or quaint coffee shops. I think this one definitely fits in the funky (in the good sense) category! We had a relaxing evening of sketching and reading here yesterday. Please note the “Tardis” masquerading as a British police call box which is positioned against the wall for […]
Massive Trees in Background and Foreground
October 6, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
John and I went out for coffee/tea at Palio’s Coffee House on Ladd’s Circle on Sunday afternoon. Even though I accidentally dipped my paint brush in my tea a couple of times, it still tasted pretty good! Outside the window was this huge Elm tree, which dwarfed all of the patrons inside. Today I decided […]
This blog is about my journey as a botanical artist--what I am learning, what inspires me and what I am currently drawing or painting. My desire is to continually hone my skills to better express my wonder and gratitude for the beauty of the creation around me in the Pacific Northwest (USA).