Travel companions

My daughter is brilliant, fluent in English, Spanish and French. And she knows Paris as well as her own hometown back in Illinois so I couldn't ask for a better traveling companion. My only gripe is that she is wearing my new pink scarf that I had just spent 5 euros on and won't give it back.

I was a free ... in Paris

I was a free spirit in Paris!

In the words of Joni Mitchell , 

"I was a free man in Paris


I felt unfettered and alive


There was nobody calling me up for favors


And no one's future to decide


You know I'd go back there tomorrow


But for the work I've taken on

If l had my way


I'd just walk through those doors


And wander
down the Champs Elysees


Going cafe to cabaret..."

A wonderful gift of travel to Paris in March and my sketchbook  is nearly full.

I have lots of sketches to share in the next days.

This drawing I made while sitting in a cafe on Boulevard St-Germain while sipping a teeny cup of strong coffee.

I thought I asked for it "american style" but it did not resemble my usual mug.

Good caffeine jolt, but expensive.  So I got out my sketchbook and tried to make it last.

You can see the entrance to the Metro here and enjoy watching the bustle of street life.

Man in Paris

I don't think this gentleman knew I was sketching him. I tried to be sneaky and look at the street scene most of the time. 

The intense colors of Spring

Gobsmacked ,my new favorite word, describes my reaction to our first spring days in Chicago.

I looked it up in a British-American dictionary; "surprised - taken unawares or suddenly and feeling wonder or astonishment". 

Those intense moments of color surprise and delight every day  as grey winter creeps away.

My front yard is  carpeted by these tiny cobalt blue blossoms. I finally figured out that they are called Scilla siberica and that they sprouted from miniature bulbs that I planted a number of years ago (and forgot). Now they are brilliantly naturalizing their way across the lawn. 

I am about to start a very large painting of lilies from the latest Easter week. I always end up with lots of lilies in pots in my studio during this week in the spring. The rooms smell wonderful and I am so inspired to draw from the live models surrounding me.

This shade of blue, with a hint of purples makes me want to create a theme with this color for this next painting.  I will be posting as I paint.

In the Beginning, God Created...

And this is how I illustrated that incredible statement. 

In the Anglican tradition the Easter Vigil service is the most exciting and dramatic celebration of the year. The Vigil begins in the dark with the lighting of the new Pascal Candle. Then, Scripture readings and music retell the story of The Bible and salvation. The banners were raised one by one with the reading from each verse from the first chapter of Genesis. 

 I love the part where it says "And God saw that it was good."   "And there was evening and there was morning, the first Day".  It reminds me of (my favorite books) the C. S. Lewis Narnia series, in The Magician's Nephew where Aslan is creating Narnia by singing the stars and trees and creatures into being.

 After the readings, and a sermon, and baptisms, and Communion, the Alleluia! is shouted and sung and a sheer scrim with Alleluia! sewn beautifully by another artist was lowered in front of my banners. It was a joyous celebration and all the art and flowers continued into the Sunday morning services.

My photo above was taken at the end of the Saturday night service.

These are close ups that I managed to get on Sunday morning before we took it all down.

You can't see the whale in these photos, it is covered by the letter a at the end. An unexpected bit of humor came when the fifth banner was raised with all the birds and fish. The whale is stylized and cartoony cute but I didn't expect a huge laugh to occur in the congregation at that moment. A public laugh at my art, how funny!  I loved it.

Process of creation

The past week has been an intense time of creating and then celebration of the final work of art. I thought a lot about creation and the process that we went through.  

This is not about the process of creation with a capital C.  I  give the glory to God of the Process of Creation. 

The six banners that I was in charge of producing for our church celebration of the Easter Vigil were pretty much painted in just six days. Not really enough time, but that is how it had to happen. I began sketching them out and measuring the 5 ' width by 12 ' length here at home in my studio and across my entire living and dining room ( I pushed or removed all the furniture).

 I had a couple of days to use our church hall to paint on long tables, using big jars of acrylics from a hobby store. I haven't ever painted anything this large and it took some learning to mix the colors and figure out the size of brush that worked best. I ended up favoring a 2 1/2" house painting brush. 

During this week I had lots of help from volunteers and family members for which I am very grateful. 

Wednesday night I had to move everything, wet banners and bowls of paint mixtures back to my house to finish because the church hall was being used for Holy Week services!  All the work had to be finished and ready to hang by the end of Friday night as the work team had to set up for the Saturday night service by midnight Friday night. It was a frenzy during the day on Friday! And then, it was all over, I couldn't do another thing about it.  As the artist I suffered some misgivings when I lost a bit of control over how the final product looked. It wasn't quite what I would have envisioned at the end. Another valuable learning experience.

It was a truly joyous moment in the church service when the banners rose with the readings from Genesis that evening. I enjoyed the reaction from the congregation immensely.

How rarely does an illustrator have a big audience to respond noisily and enthusiastically to her work?  

Now it is Monday morning and I have to clean up my studio and a huge mess. This mess is so colorful I took a picture of it.

And, finally, Alleluia!

The Lord is Risen, He is risen indeed.

I painted this in March of 2006 as part of a series of easter lilies. This one is 60x48, almost as large as the banners I just finished. I have some new unfinished canvases of more lilies that I hope to complete soon this year.

Days of Creation

This is my color sketch which I gave to the Visual Arts committee. We all became very excited about how cool it would look as part of the Easter Vigil service as the scripture from the first book of Genesis would be read, and each banner would lower to make a complete visual. 

(However many days God actually spent Creating our Universe is not my concern here, for the sake of Design I have six days and six banners to illustrate a very big subject!)

In the following weeks of enthusiasm, fabric was purchased, and the banners were constructed and sewn by many helpful hands. Six giant bolts of lovely white denim were delivered to me last week and I began some long days of creative intensity. 

I have had some very willing and talented volunteers to help me paint. And the work is still going on today, I still have all the fish in the sea and birds in the sky to draw right now. My feet and legs are very sore from standing and painting for 12 to 14 hours a day.

Future posts to come showing progress and finished project!

Creativity, Creation, Creator

Well, folks, I am back. I haven't been here to record in my art journal for a month. And I have so much to share! March was so busy ; a nice big illustration assignment came in with very quick deadlines; then a trip to Paris! as a chaperon with a high school student French group; and now, during Holy Week I am painting six huge banners for my church to use on Saturday night for the Easter Vigil service.

Yes, three days away and a very short deadline indeed.

How did I get myself into such a tight corner? Not unusual at all for me. Way back in February I agreed to be on the Visual Arts committee, but I have never been a good committee member. I usually sketch and doodle during meetings and as this meeting about Easter week proceeded I began to scribble away on the back of the handouts. We were discussing the Scripture readings and talking about the Genesis chapter 1 creation account. As I listened, inspiration struck me and I am posting here my scribbles that became the six huge banners. Tomorrow I will post my color sketches.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

The almighty daffodil

"Never Underestimate The Almighty Daffodil"

Quoted from the Chicago Tribune Sunday, February 22. 

So I had to do it- go out on a winter day and get some daffodils. From the store, certainly not from my yard as it is still covered with snow.