concert tomorrow

die vogelfängerin (bin ich ja)

Here again one of Teryle's magical Magic Flute birds, this time done in acrylic gouache.

pepper gazes at a spirograph

Actually, it is the imprint of a spirograph pen on the next page of the book, which I covered over lightly with graphite and then added color.

I sketched Pepper in the lower corner and then laughed, because it looks like she's contemplating some model of the universe, or the inner workings of an atom, up above her...

springside farm

This weekend Ansel and I met our friend Alicia at Springside Farm in Fabius, NY for the sheep and alpaca shearing festival. It was a perfect day for it: sunny, not too hot. Lots of kids running around making noise. 

I got to hold a lamb in my lap. 

We saw pot-bellied pigs, and chickens, and bunnies, and of course sheep and alpacas. 

Alpacas never cease to amaze me. Their funny heads, their alert but odd stance, their big eyelashes. And of course their beautiful fur.

I thought I might draw some of them, but the crowds (and I suppose my residual shyness) were a deterrent to my getting out sketching materials in the barn. 

Instead, I plopped myself down in the grass outside and drew: 

Ansel, from a distance, wandering around a pond:

A blossoming tree:

And a view of the whole picturesque farm.

flowers at Pour 2

I thought you all might enjoy seeing the first, fainter version of this, done in watercolor pencil and a little bit of watercolor.

flowers at Pour

These flowers were in a small stoppered bottle on a table at a coffee house here in Rochester. I didn't paint them right away; I took a picture and this morning tried to depict them in watercolor...

playing with gouache

Since I have a new potted Gerbera daisy and a notebook that I'd not yet found the right use for, it seemed like the time this weekend to play around with (acrylic) gouache. It worked marvelously on this thick paper.