New Drawings

For the Teeny Tiny Art Show at Three Graces! 

Illustration Friday: Stripes

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "stripes."  I just can't resist messing around with idioms, Amelia Bedilia-style.  I made this little drawing with graphite on two overlapping sheets of dura-lar:

 In other news, I've finally posted some of my bird egg paintings for sale on Etsy!

First Frost

 A magical white glaze over everything this morning.

 I found two new bits of treasure at the shop around the corner from our house.

Both pictures are from old stage productions.  Ah, they make me swoon!  I can't believe my luck!

Settling In

 We're finally starting to settle into our new home in Montana.  It's a big change for this born and bred New England girl!  I love the house we're renting, with it's big windows, claw foot tub and fancy yard.

And somebody cute turned one this month!

He wasn't sure what to make of the all the hooplah.

 Poor, neglected Birdwoman!  I miss posting regularly.  We're gearing up for a cross-country move to the Northwest Corner of Montana, so I've had to let some things (my blog, par exemple) languish a bit in order to maintain a State of Calm.  The details of our move (exact timing, where, exactly we're going to live, etc...) are taking a long time to flesh out because 1) a large corporation is involved and 2) the company is based in Europe, and therefore its employees know how to take nice long, restful vacations.

I have been working a little bit on a series of small graphite drawings.

I love where the work is headed and I have about a million ideas for more images.  Once we're settled in our new home, with things nicely tucked away and baby-proofed, I expect to have more time to work, and more time to share!

Progress is slow but steady these days.  I blame my baby for being such a fun little guy.  Now that we're all finally getting some good sleep, and spending more time laughing than crying, amnesia has set in and I'm ready to pop out a hundred more babies.  I have only vague, hazy memories of being completely overwhelmed by the newborn and early infant stages.  Was all of that swaddling and yoga ball bouncing just a dream?  I still find the occasional earplug tucked in a pocket, or rolling around the bottom of a drawer, that proves it was all real.

I'm also in the process of packing up my studio.  I've decided not to renew my lease for another year.  There's a good chance we might be relocating out west for a year or so, and even if we end up staying in Massachusetts, it's hard to justify the expense when I'm only going to the studio once a week.  I always thought that if the time ever came for me to give up my space, it would be a sad, difficult transition--a regression, or even worse, the death of a dream.  So I'm shocked to find that it doesn't feel that way.  In the context of everything else, it feels like part of a new adventure.

I've been working on this drawing for the last little while.  Deciding to work in grayscale was originally a sort of compromise.  It's so fast (compared to painting) that I can complete the kind of large, textured, detailed images that I crave in a reasonably short amount of time.  Motherhood is making me practical.  And while pragmatism is not the most romantic source of inspiration, I find I've fallen in love (again) with good ol' graphite.  Really, I think it's just dreamy.