The Road

One of my assignments in last semester's Creative Drawing class was to illustrate Cormac Mccarthy's The Road. I began this assignment with trepidation because of the intensely dark nature of the work. However, when I got in to the book ,I fell in love with McCarthy's use of language.His spare style is reminiscent of Hemingway but his apocalyptic subject matter is, of course, much different. The stark simplicity of the language illuminated the text and brought to mind many images.

You would think delving into such a dark subject matter would be depressing but figuring out the visual problem was very engaging. I really loosened up here and my one drawing turned out to be 5 drawings 22" x 30" placed side by side. (Hence the slide format)This ended up being one of my favorite assignments and provided a visual springboard that helped me with my residency work at the police station. You'll see later in the week what I'm talking about.


I applied oil paints with a knife and very little pre mixing. I mixed colors right on the paper. Oil paint become wonderfully "splat-able" when thinned with terps and I used a short haired brush.

Has anyone else illustrated a book? If you have, why not leave a link in the comment section so others can visit? It's an interesting problem to work out as long as the writer used richly visual language.

A Card This Season

I found this game over at Vivien's and played it twice. Came up with the same card twice even when altering a couple of the answers.
Better not let this go to my head!

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate this holiday!

You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Winter Solstice: Thatcher Woods 08

Watercolor and ink with stick and brush
12" x 9"

I want to wish everyone a lovely, light filled, restful holiday. This is the time of the year I need to remind myself to S-L-O-W down and pay attention to my inner life. Starting tomorrow, the light will return!!!!

Thank you all, Dear Readers, for the gift of your encouragement and support. You've made blogging fun and helped me to keep moving forward with my art making.

I'm taking a blog break for a week or so. My next couple of posts will be discussing the Residency I'm beginning at the Oak Park Police Department. Stay tuned for some new work (and really different work for me.)

One More Bag

Like most artist's I have a number of drawing bags in which to carry gear with me. Maybe unlike other artist's I have over a dozen bags because I can never find just the right one for the right occasion, size of journal and media. So I've reconciled myself to just being an owner of alot of drawing bags. This is my latest version of a one to go with my dress coat and it fits my 9" x 12" journal.

This bag is a simple rectangle but instead of inserting the zipper along the top edge (which always creates unsightly puckers at the edges) I've folded the top edge down a bit. I used an invisible zipper that was 22" long and hung the tail and the neck way over the edges of the fabric on the long edge. This insures I'll have a clean shot sewing the side seams up and no zipper stop to interfere with my needle. I've made a number of bags with this placement and it works very well and is easy to do.

The fabric is a scrap of upholstery fabric and I pirated the hardware and strap from a truly awful bag that I no longer want.

Roz of Roz Wound Up has also made a new drawing bag in her amazing and personal style

Our international moleskine project is moving along. Have a look at the newest contribution to Vivien's and Gesa's traveling mole here

Des Plaines River Trail: Lake Street Bridge Nov 08

25" x 17"
64cm x 42cm
I have not had as much time as I wanted this fall to work on my Waterways Project but now that school's out, I'm back into things watery. This piece is done in oil on printmaking paper. I'm enjoying all the freedom of color working with tube paint again. The Oil Pastels are hugly convenient when working on location but I'm wanting to get more expressive with paint application. I've used splattering, smooshing, flip flop strokes, pallet knife and wadded up paper to apply the paint.

I wanted to give you an idea of some the artist's who have been influencing me lately:
Brice Marden

Larry Rivers

Joan Snyder

Thatcher in First Snow

watercolor and ink
sketchbook
9" x 12"

This week, the first snow blanketed the woods in quiet and light. Normally, the lightest part of the landscape is the sky. With the arrival of snow, the light bounces around on the ground to stunning effect. Snow gives me a little "green" relief. I love the visual linearity of winter.


I'm working with a stick and ink here. I love the accidental marks,splatters and drips of working with such a crude tool. The side of the stick also chatters over the cold press paper when dragged sideways.

Surfing Lake Michigan

Well, OK so we are not Hawaii but the Lake can yield some pretty wild surf. These guys are devoted!

My teaching term ends in ONE MORE WEEK! I'll have lots to show in the next few weeks.

Des Plaines River Late November Afternoon

watercolor and ink with stick
9" x 12"

I'm responding here to the sudden leaf drop that occurs with certain trees. It creates a halo of color at the base of the tree and lights up the drab gray November woods.

I used a spritz of alcohol on the ink here to create some textural interest



Excuse me for a moment of maternal boasting but our son has just won an acoustical physics award and we are all very pleased!! He is only on of 175 recipients to receive the award since it was begun. Now, all fingers and toes crossed for grad school applications!!




Finally, if you don't know about the site Artdaily have a look. Today there is a short video documenting the photography collection at the New York Public Library.

Announcing Watermarks

watercolor and ink
9" x 12"

Water, water everywhere. Come and see what we are all about!