pencil and oil pastel on paper
4 3/8 x 6 inches
This is just a sketch, not something I am planning on putting up for sail. It’s just too fragile. If you look at it sideways, it will smear. But I like the way it turned out, and I’m thinking of ways to make similar pieces that will be more sturdy.
gel ink and watercolor pencil on 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper
4 x 5 1/2 inches
Sharpie pen on 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper
India ink and Neocolors II on 90lb Stonehenge paper
9 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches
This is for a coworker. Whenever someone has a big number work anniversary (20th, 25th, etc.), there’s usually a party and some sort of memory scrapbook. Since I cat sit for her two tabbies, I thought a cat drawing would be appropriate.
Fiddlehead Fern
gel ink on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
collage (anatomical illustration, map, child’s dress pattern, and library book card), drawing (ink, graphite, and charcoal) and found art on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches
Asian Pear (detail)
I (sort of) tried the pear crisp recipe, as promised. I used Bartlett and d’Anjou pears, and substituted sucanat for brown sugar and old-fashioned rolled oats for quick oats. It worked fine. The oats were a bit chewy, which is to be expected, but it was damn tasty. However, in the future, I think I’ll dust each layer of pears with flour, because the juice was pretty runny.
Pear Crisp
1/2 C rolled oats, uncooked
1/4 C packed brown sugar
2 Tbls flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C cold butter
3 sliced pears
2 Tbls lemon juice
Preheat oven 375F
Combine first 6 ingredients in bowl, cutting butter with knives or a pastry cutter. Toss sliced pears with lemon juice. Layer pears in 9 inch pie pan and top with oatmeal mixture. Bake for 20 minutes.
Bosc Pear (detail)
I used graphite on another page from the patent book, but this time, I primed it with a thin coat of gesso.
Every time I see a Bosc pear, it makes me think of the Gothic S curve. If you look at the figure of the Virgin, you’ll see that it’s just about impossible to stand in that position. Her hip is thrust out in the opposite direction from both her feet and shoulders. Bosc pears have much the same sort of, um, stance.
(Apologies for the moire. I tried descreening the scan, but the image of the Virgin and Child was taken from an auction catalog, and the print quality was pretty bad. You can easily see the dot pattern with the naked eye.)
d’Anjou Pear (detail)
This one didn’t scan very well. I may try to get a photo of it tomorrow, to see if that works better. I didn’t do a very good job of spacing the stamps, but that’s how it goes sometimes. If were smart, I’d’ve done the checkerboard first, then centered the text stamps in the spaces. Alas, I am not smart.
About half the pears are finished drying, and the other half is about half dry. I picked up ten new pears at the grocery store: d’Anjou, Bosc, Bartlett, Red, and Asian. I also bought cranberry muffins, but we won’t talk about them. Ahem.
I timed my store run perfectly, because as I was driving down 3rd street, I got to watch the most spectacular sunset. The grocery store was kind of crowded, so there were lots of people milling around in the parking lot, and not a single person even noticed the beautiful sky. Look up, people!!!
[Edit: I reworked this one a little rescanned it. My scanner just does not want to cooperate with blues, so it’s still a crappy image. Better, but still crappy.]
d’Anjou Pear (detail)
I used Faber-Castell Pitt pen (brush tip greys) to block out the values, then used Portfolio watersoluble crayons to add thin layers of color. I buffed away any excess crayon with a paper towel. This sort of sketch goes very quickly, if you do a good job of getting the initial lights and darks in the right places.
The lazy R was an accident. My alphabet stamps are square, so it’s easy to get them misaligned if you aren’t careful. I added the lazy 7 to match it, because I totally meant to do that.
The checkerboard pattern is another quick eraser stamp, and the recipe came from a fussy, fancy-schmancy cookbook that I will never get around to using.
red paper boat 