beautiful blue water

I will do water - beautiful, blue water. Claude Monet

I am painting a series, I have a passion for water and waves. I can sit and watch the motion of water endlessly and I want to translate the beauty to my art. So far I have worked up a number of watercolor sketches and oil paintings while on the beach in St. Joseph, Michigan. More to come.

back and forth

02-02-2020

I just wanted to be able to write that on my sketchbook page!
A palindrome number for the date sounds and looks very cool.
Yesterday's Super Bowl party was super fun, snacks, pulled pork sandwiches, guacamole, more snacks and the commercials and half-time. That's why I am here.

I sketched like crazy but it was really hard to catch that action, everything on TV seems to happen faster and faster every year.

who will you vote for?

No I don't mean that election. 
I mean who are you rooting for during this SuperBowl 2020 game?
Let's see last year I was for the LA Rams and my support did not give them any help.
Seriously, I am a very  indifferent sports viewer.
I will be at the party for the snacks, a glass of wine and the interesting commercials.
 I'll bring my sketchbook and see if I can grab an action sketch moment like this one.

such friends

You that would judge me, do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland's history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man's glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.
The Municipal Gallery RevisitedWilliam Butler Yeats

Irish music

We had stopped at a random inn to grab a bite before traveling a few more miles to our hotel in Cork City. As we ate our fish and chips the pub changed from a quiet room to a crowded circle of musicians. This was not a specially scheduled evening performance, these are all local musicians who gather informally to drink a pint and have a fun session. One fiddler picks up a tune, another instrument takes it further and then all join in.
I love Irish music.

And just a note, it's hard to draw musical instruments and musicians in action.

music and magic

“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!”
– J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)

“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.”
– J.K. Rowling

Ireland blessing

“Ireland, it's the one place on earth that heaven has kissed with melody, mirth, and meadow and mist.”
― Irish Blessing

sketches

"You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh." John Singer Sargent

wet and wildness

“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
― Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Complete Poems

garden party

I was in Ireland in late July and August. Our hosts lamented that the weather had been very hot, possibly dooming the potato harvest!
We live in the Midwest and are accustomed to hot summers and so the misty rainy mornings and gentle sunny afternoons seemed green and delicious.
I picked flowers wherever I could and made little paintings in my sketchbook during evening teatime.