As you can probably tell, I am once again experimenting with stippling. Results have been mixed, both because I don’t really know what I’m doing and because it’s very hard to concentrate while a puppy is crying and trying to climb onto the table. Hence, these drawings and last week’s window swap were done under duress.
It was chilly last night, 17 F with a biting wind, and the puppy and I went out at 4 am. I stared up into the moon and the dark shapes of trees against a cloudy sky while she pounced on dry plants sticking up from the hard shell of snow.
Suddenly, hundreds of crows flew over the house, so low I could hear their beating wings. For a moment, the puppy and I stood frozen, watching. The crows called to each other. They filled the entire sky above our little yard. And I would’ve missed this if it weren’t for her.
So good riddance to sleep, I’d rather be outside, nose numb, barking my head off at the crow-dark sky.
I got a trio of POSCA markers with extra fine tips; white, and a metallic gold and silver. I wish you could see this in person; how the stars shine, and how the breaking sunlight is catching on Triangle Head and her cat.
The sunrise is coming along. I enjoyed laying the clouds in. They came out almost as I intended. I’m in love with this combo of volcano violet and indigo for the clouds. I added some cadmium red hue around the sun on the second page, and I think I’ll use it to show where the light is falling before I add the next layers.
We’ll get to that next time. All the blades upon blades of grass. The shadowy stone monolith and lush orange-guava ferns and two tall trees, down by the water.
Yesterday the temperature rose above freezing for the first time in weeks, and the cat and I spent some time outside, investigating the rows of icicles forming along the new gutters, and the deepening tracks of the rabbit road. The snow was melting in soft, wet heaps, and the cat made nose prints and paw prints while the sun shone out of a clear, blue sky.
We had company last week and through the weekend, which ratcheted both the cozy festivities and my usual holiday stress to new heights. I miss having that full house, but I think we’re all glad that things are back to normal.
Whatever that means.
I wanted to share a little piece of writing from this time last year, when the cat and I were only eight weeks into our acquaintance, and just embarking on our outdoor adventure together. The photos are both from our walk a few days ago, ft. the garden’s lovely final show of the season. Stay tuned for how it started, how it’s going.
Someone told me recently that I should be working on my art for me, not to seek recognition. Huh. Does it mean something bad about me that I see no reason to make art that I don’t intend to share? To seek recognition implies, I think, a desire for accolades. I do seek recognition, but literally just that — to be recognized. I see no reason to tell this story to myself, as I already know it. I want to tell it to you.
I recently ran across this advice while doing hundreds of hours of research before adopting a cat: start as you intend to go on. And by recently, I mean over a year ago, around the time I decided to start this blog. The purveyor of said advice, whose identity I have unfortunately forgotten, stumbled upon it herself in a parenting book, but felt it had a broader relevance, and I quite agree. Because while I don’t remember where exactly I heard it, here I sit, one year later thinking yeah! That is how I should start this blog!
Exactly as I . . . intend to go on.
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