I have lived all my lifein different variations of this skinny body. This narrow frame,this fragile form,this constant whisper of not-enough… I was …
BONES ARE BEAUTIFUL TOO by Wachira Florence
I am posting this poem for my friend Florence who lives in Kenya. She has written a very powerful poem that needs to be read, which is why I am reblogging it in the US. Thank you, Florence!!
House on Bullock Street in Brattleboro -acrylic
House in Wilmington, Vermont – pen and ink/ watercolor
House on 120 Western Avenue, acrylics
The old Sauers Market on Chestnut street, acrylics
House on Elba Island in Italy, watercolors and pen/ink
House on Chase Street in Brattleboro, acrylics
House and exterior, acrylics, in Marlboro, VT
House on Cherry Street in Brattleboro, VT acrylics
House alone on Green Street in Brattleboro, acrylics
House of a friend in Redhook, NY acrylics
Another Western Ave house in Brattleboro, oil paints
Another House nearby on Western Avenue, Brattleboro, Oil painting on gessobord
Rear view of a house on Tyler Street in Brattleboro, commissioned and sold! Oil painting on gessobord.
The top two photos are the finished versions of two large houses I painted in Brattleboro before I left for France in mid September 2024.
The three pencil drawings were done in France, the one of my hand was drawn in Rouen when I stayed with Geneviève for 2 weeks, and the other two were made after two different excursions with Geneviève, the first to the Aitre of Saint Maclou, loosely you could say Saint Maclou’s boneyard, but it went back to the Bubonic plague and others.
Damn I hate wordpress! I can’t edit any paragraph once I click return and it is driving me up a wall. But that said, the final Pencil drawings were done was done of the wheels in the barn behind the broom makers workshop, where he showed us how he makes brooms of all different sorts, entirely by hand or with human powered tools, nothing electrical.
The final little painting in acrylics was done recently, just 6” square. Nothing much to say about it, but after I finish my last house portrait, the final oil painting and house portrait of three I started back in June, (see the finished 2 above) i will have to come up with a new project!
These last two photos were spontaneously snapped by Ruby, another artist in the collective, who saw me walk in the gallery door with Josette, She was enchanted by Josette! And even I loved the photos she took!
I see I completely forgot to explain the simple black and white painting/ drawing of the two dancers. That was originally just black paint splotches on good white paper but I challenged myself to make a picture out of it and lo and behold I did, just in adding a few lines.
At first Jo was just a paper mâché torso I had made last year, with a body stuffed with newspapers and plastic bags. But I decided to give her a body worth waiting for. The arms were separate, from a Halloween display I had slapped together a few years before.
Below, this is Jo as she first ended up. Just a minimal torso with a head.
Josette is part papier mâché and part polyfill-stuffed cloth and part Apoxie-sculpt, plus other materials. Here she is before I dressed her.
Josette is almost finished here (just need to do a little tinkering.)
Although I’ve been making jewelry, I only have a little art to show this time. A big paper mâché tortoise and an oil painting of a house, which isn’t quite finished because I’m waiting to see what the foliage in front and back looks like when it’s summer. My only photos were from the dead of winter, and there’s a small tree and hedge in front that I may add. There are still a few issues that I need to touch up but I can do those later. This has taken me much much longer because of needing to wait for the oil paint layers to dry. An acrylic painting takes much less time to complete in terms of drying time.
The tortoise I started on impulse, just to prove to a group on FB that I could build a giant tortoise using trash like recyclables and things that I already had on hand. For this tortoise I used an old “flying saucer” sled, packaging paper, a torn old sheet, and mailing tubes and various empty food containers. That plus paper mâché solution, so the only true art supplies used were the Apoxie-sculpt I used for the toe nails, given to me for talking with a university class, and acrylic paint that I already had.
Carolyn (lynnie) and Phoebe (formerly Pammy) in 2006. In photo above this one we are in reversed positions. Both were taken during book tour in 2005 or during a joint presentation, book-related, in 2006.
This is the original Robin. But below is the new updated Robin as they are today:
Although I had wanted to stay away from paint, the colored papers I used in the original Robin faded in the light very quickly, so I ended up opting to paint the clothing and sneakers and a bit of the facial features, but not the skin or hair.
I have lost the photo I took as a reference photo, probably in a hurried effort to give myself more space, so alas, you cannot see what I was looking at. I call it Breakfast Tray With Meds, but I may change it just to Breakfast Tray because it seems everyone now takes some medication with their morning meal, yeah, even young people! Anyhow, as you can see, I’m rather enjoying drawing from this overhead perspective. And black and white is a challenge. Since all who know me know I love a challenge, expect to see more of these! (Maybe)
Bone bud vases or candlesticks for slender taper candles. Handmade paper roses. Have made 8 bone bud vases and a dozen or more roses.
This head and torse made for a friend, Judy, who wants to keep her Halloween headless person throughout the year. Arms were slapped together years ago just to hold a bowl of Halloween candies but Judy insists they are good and go along with her new friend Jo’s head. Otherwise I would make new ones.
Window at Harmony Artists Collective Gallery, with all my art on display.
two different paper flowers very time consuming.
Paper flowers in most recent bud vase.
Front of most recent bud vase/candlestick
With this still life drawing, similar to the one that I ended my Inktober drawings with, i used the same view point but instead of cross hatching I used grayscale pens to achieve deeper contrasts and bolder shadows. I also lit the still life better, with only one source of light not multiple sources. I took the reference photo below, but made some changes to the drawing itself.
The word was Massive…I think this drawing fits the bill! (Even though as a ink drawing it wasn’t very successful.)
The word was Rush and as I said on Facebook I didn’t draw much more than a rush with a burgeoning inflorescence, wanting to spend my time practicing the architectural style lettering I am teaching myself.
Again, as I posted on FB I had lots of fun with the last Inktober word, Fire, but I forgot to light the still life properly, so instead of dramatic darks and lights I had complicated weak shadows from light from multiple sources. Not good! I’d like to draw this again, but with better lighting. Once again however I got to practice my lettering, explaining why my still life fit the word Fire.
The word was Chains,, so I drew a bank of fast food store chains, all in a row. I could not find any photos for this so I had to imagine it.
The word was Shallow. My cat scratches the word work, and me, when I walk too fast past her, so she’s my Miss Scratchy Baby!
The word was Shallow. Sea turtles are swimming in shallow water when you can see their shadows on the sea floor beneath them.
The word was Dangerous. This drawing depicts a young man singing in the bathtub while radio blasts out music, but little does he know the vibrations threaten to topple the radio into the tub…and we all know what happens then!
The word was Remove, so I drew an eviction as that’s how landlords remove an undesired tenant from their properties.
This time the word Beast suggested a young girl, understood to be beautiful, who looks in the mirror and sees only a beast. I don’t think this beast successfully captured what I wanted to depict, but there you have it.
This time the word was Sparkle, which stumped me until a friend said “eyes sparkle” and suggested I draw a detailed eye. Thank you, Mizzy!
Destroying Angel is an extremely poisonous mushroom in the Amanita genus.
Demon or Daimon can mean a god or deity so i chose to draw the Venus of Dolni Vestonice found in the Czech Republic and perhaps as old as 29,000 years. One of the oldest ceramic objects ever found.
Saddle shoes are full of nostalgia for me whereas saddles that go in horses etc mean little.
The word Plump brought to mind a plump ripe fig nearly bursting its skin with sweetness.
First frost of the season is coming soon and there are not enough shelters for all of these fellow human beings…
day 14 is Castle. I drew the school in Sançerre, France, where I went in 2019. Cœur de France is actually situated in a small castle.
Monday’s prompt will be Angel, so I drew two Destroying Angel amanita mushrooms. (Below)
day 13 the prompt was Rise…
Day 12 the prompt was Spicy, misspelled as Spicey…I couldn’t think of anything to draw except spicy hot peppers
Tomorrow’s prompt is Dagger.
prompt on day 5 was Map
prompt was Fortune on day 10
prompt for day 11 tomorrow is Wander, of which I did two versions.
This is the month for Inktober, that means an ink drawing a day for 31 days. So far so good!
The prompt for Day 1 was Dream.
The prompt for Day 2 was Spiders
The prompt for day 3 was Path and for Day 4 was Dodge… in the sense that we both dodged a bullet , deer and driver!
All the clocks below are made from paper mâché (plus a clock or just a clock mechanism ) . They range from about 9” across for the round white clock with the multicolored face, to the the fish clock which is about 20” from head to tail fin. All are for sale at the Brattleboro gallery of the Harmony Artists Collective.
Ceterum censeo MAGA esse delendam.
The opinions expressed are those of the author. You go get your own opinions.
Kate Greenough's daily drawings
Apprenez les langues !
Not your third grade paper mache
Portrait Art and Paintings by Jon Amdall
Books, papers and blogs by Joanna Moncrieff
"While I breathe, I hope"
My Life After Narcissistic Abuse
An intellectual, emotional and spiritual spittoon.
The latest news on WordPress.com and the WordPress community.
Everything Matters
Ceterum censeo MAGA esse delendam.
The opinions expressed are those of the author. You go get your own opinions.
Kate Greenough's daily drawings
Apprenez les langues !
Not your third grade paper mache
Portrait Art and Paintings by Jon Amdall
Books, papers and blogs by Joanna Moncrieff
"While I breathe, I hope"
My Life After Narcissistic Abuse
An intellectual, emotional and spiritual spittoon.
The latest news on WordPress.com and the WordPress community.
Everything Matters
WAGblog: Dum Spiro Spero 