Calmtober: thread

I drew these before leaving on our trip. It seems like there has always been various threads in my life, from the card-and-string toys I “sewed” as a toddler to sewing my own clothes as a teenager. Later, I sewed vintage-style teddy bears and spent years doing embroidery and cross-stitch. 

These days, the only sewing I enjoy is making my own sketchbooks. I don’t do that nearly often enough.

just playing

When I was 6 years old, we lived on a farm in Illinois. The tiny farmhouse was on a hill; half-way down the hill was an old oak tree. I used to play tea party on a huge rock under that tree, using acorn caps for cups.

For this little painting, I was just playing around with Natasha Newton’s folk art style. She makes it look so easy but it is not at all easy for me.

Grandma’s snack set

When my brother and I were children, our grandmother would sometimes serve us snacks on her set of glass plates with ruby-red colored glass cups, made by Anchor Hocking in the 1950s. And we never dropped or broke a piece!

Later she gave the set to me — and sadly I lost it. When we moved from the 1913 bungalow we once lived in, we forgot to check the tiny cupboards in the kitchen near the ceiling. After all, they were only hiding some vent work, right? Wrong! Years later I remembered that these dishes had been stashed up there when I needed room for something else. For all I know, they may still be hidden up there. And I don’t know the buyer’s name anymore. That was well over 20 years ago.

I looked them up online to sketch this memory page from the photos.

letters, a thing of the past

With my father’s passing away last year, I no longer write real letters. I miss that somehow. When I was just a child my father’s aunt, my great-aunt Lucile, became my pen pal. How I loved getting letters from her! A teacher who began her career in a one-room schoolhouse, she always showed an interest in what I thought or felt. We shared many interests as well, and she made the best strawberry preserves!

Emails and texting is more immediate these days, and multiple-people texts can be fun conversations. But there was something special about real pen and paper.

my latest ebook

As a kid I fell in love with the Classics, books mostly written in the 19th century, after reading Charles Dickens. Our school library books of this genre had a list on the back of other Classics to try — so I did.

But somehow I missed Wilkie Collins. Recently I read this ebook and loved it, but the “cover art” looks more to me like the 1920s rather than the 1850s. Fun to try drawing it though.

a little baseball

Our local rural electric coop publishes a monthly magazine full of coop news, recipes, and Texas history articles. The July issue included a story on the history of sandlot baseball, illustrated by a photo I used for this sketch.

Generally, I’m not a big fan of sports but baseball is special — as a young man, my grandfather played professionally in the minor leagues. I remember watching televised games with him, sharing a bowl of Spanish peanuts.

Years ago our son Jason took me to see the Astros play at Minute Maid Park. People sitting around us seemed to come just to socialize, but I actually watched the game and enjoyed it!

I drew this with a Kaweco Liliput fountain pen in J. Herbin Lie de The ink, touching it here and there with a waterbrush for the wash. The text was penned with a Lamy Safari pen filled with a sepia ink I mixed using De Atramentis document brown and black inks.

the old Orpheum theater

 

One day in Kansas, we missed a turn and ended up driving through downtown Wichita. At a red light, I quickly snapped a photo of the old Orpheum theater to sketch from later. My brother and I saw many matinee movies either here or the Miller, also in the downtown area.

Just beyond the building is what I thought was a castle when I was growing up: the Wichita Masonic Lodge. Couldn’t get a photo of it, though.

(I just noticed that I forgot to paint the roof. Just imagine those ceramic tiles are undersea green!)

my favorite pine

My favorite childhood book was Heidi. On my tenth birthday, I was sitting outside on our apartment porch reading it as another gift was given to me: a baby toy poodle which I immediately named “Heidi”. After all, they both had curly black hair!

In the book, Heidi loved the tall fir trees behind Grandfather’s shack that seemed to dance. I “befriended” some tall evergreen trees on the side of my grandmother’s house on the outskirts of Wichita — I often climbed in the branches of one to hide and read.

We have several evergreen trees on our property, my favorite of which is this pine standing at least 55’ tall, behind a shorter cedar tree. Earlier this week, I woke up to a sky full of pink and purple wispy clouds behind the tree, which I tried painting on this journal page —- along with a quote from Heidi. After 55 years, I decided to read the story once more.

time to re-ink

Some of my fountain pens were skipping a bit and some were nearly dry, so it was time to re-ink. I seldom completely clean a pen; inserting the nib and feed into the ink, then emptying and re-filling the converter a couple of times seems to lubricate everything. My pens then write like new again.

This old wooden box that holds my ink bottles (De Atramentis Document, Noodler’s, and J. Herbin brands) and a few pre-filled cartridges is from my grandfather’s print shop, and once held odd type, blocks, and bits for the monstrously big printing presses he kept in his garage. I can remember the smell of the ink he used a large roller to apply. His fingers were always ink-stained. As are mine after refilling my pens!

Sunday's sketching in church

While jotting down notes on Sunday morning, I had an urge to draw a lion to illustrate the message. So I googled a photo on line . . . Later on, I plan to do a watercolor of the lion so I decided to leave this as just an ink sketch. 

As a child, my favorite animal to visit at the zoo was a lion named Rufus. This was at Wichita's old Riverside Park zoo. The year I got married (1972) and moved to San Diego, CA, Wichita was building a new zoo and sent Rufus into 'retirement' to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. So my old friend followed me! I remember a photo in the newspaper of him afraid to come out of his travel cage. He had been captive in a concrete cage so long, he didn't know what freedom to roam the new park was like. Also, waiting outside the cage were several young lionesses checking him out!

teatime

So many online sketchers have drawn lovely tea cup & saucers, especially after taking classes with Liz Steel. But I don't own any real tea cups with saucers, preferring to drink my tea from large mugs.

Unless you count the tiny tea set pieces left from Bill's grandmother's childhood set. I have several mismatched pieces that will be passed on to our granddaughters.

For years I have steeped tea leaves with the diffuser drawn on the upper right, balancing the little handle on the edge of my mug. But the handle broke off and tea leaves get loose in the mug. So Bill found this new diffuser for me --- Oversized to allow leaves to expand and it dimly clips onto the side of any mug. An added bonus: the attached handle forms a drip-tray so I can set it down anywhere without making a mess.

a little help from my friends

On Sunday between Sunday school and church three of my new friends drew pictures with me in my sketchbook. Thank you Kathleen, Evie, and Blake! I had fun with you.

When I was little, my great-aunt Lucille gave me the gift of her time. She spent moments with me that made me feel special. I think of her now when I get to interact with children. Hopefully passing it on.

a bit of ink and gouache

Bill needed to pick up some electrical connection bits for his woodshop at the hardware store in Somerville. The parking lot was full so I thought I would have a good chunk of time to sketch.

Bill found his items, paid for them, and was back in the car in less than 10 minutes. So much for a leisurely sketch!

My grandmother had chairs like this glider -- that's what drew me to sketch it first.

This morning I did a quick continuous line drawing of my breakfast. I had just picked more strawberries from our patio garden bed to go with my cup of tea. They are very good with a dab of chocolate almond butter on them!

Gouache was added later on both sketches, after the initial 10 minute sketches.

random sketching this week

Sometimes drawing directly in ink works; sometimes not so well. The small planter of grasses and a corner of the clinic's waiting room were drawn directly in ink without a problem.

The sketch of my old sewing cabinet began well . . . . until I started on the iron support structure. I tried drawing it in single wide lines with my Hero M86 pen --- as I proceeded, I saw how truly wonky it looks!

I remember sewing at this cabinet as a young girl. It held my mother's machine then and was hidden under layers of ugly brown paint. When she gave it to me, we stripped off the paint and found it to be solid oak with carved designs, without the veneers that so many of these cabinets have.

I'm trying to get rid of things no longer needed or used, so I'm giving this to one of our renters -- a sweet college girl who loves vintage furnishings. I know she will cherish it. (I kept my machine but use it so seldom, it can live in it's portable case in the closet.)

EDM #270 - something I'd like to preserve

I miss my great-aunt Lucile a lot. She was my pen pal when I was growing up, and always did such interesting crafts. And she grew the most amazing strawberries, to make the BEST preserves ever!

Aunt Lucile was the crafter and family history buff -- she traced our genealogy back to Scotland. Her younger sister, my grandmother, was the family artist, painting in pastels. I take after both of them. (My father takes after Aunt Lucile; he traced his dad's side clear back to a knight fighting under William the Conqueror!)

After stopping for over 2 years, I am once again drawing some of the Everyday Matters challenges. Currently, I am doing them in an Earthbound Recycled sketchbook with brown kraft paper --- this is the second of two sketchbooks that were devoted to EDM challenges. I began drawing these challenges in 2007; this is what gave me the experience and confidence to draw nearly anything I want to.

memory of an old friend

The doctor's office where my mom's eyes are treated have lots of small stuffed animals for sale, to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. I couldn't pass up this sock monkey, remembering all those hand-sewn by my great aunt Lucile. Of the many she made, only one was left in our family -- one she gave to our daughter. I was hoping that Kristen would forget about it when she went to college, then on to Texas to begin her career.

After all, I have so many memories of my great aunt, who was also my childhood pen-pal and one of the only family members who regularly encouraged me. But after Kristen & Michael bought their first home, she asked me to bring her monkey to her. Still, I have the precious memories, if not the actual monkey. And this new little guy can remind me of them.

eating out

I love wee bottles and containers -- my grandmother used to save them for me to re-use with my dolls. Here, one held maple syrup and the other fudge.

Pentel pocketbrush pen, white Sakura gelly roll pen, & watercolor pencils.