Browsed by
Category: keeping a sketch book

Mixing Fun with Fun

Mixing Fun with Fun

Helen and I traveled to France, Spain and Portugal to paint and do a bike tour.  We took our watercolor art journals along with us and found fun places to relax and paint.  One of our first stops was Saint Jean-du-Luz, a cute fishing village in the southwestern part of France.  This area is known for it’s Basque influence, sea food and beautiful, sandy beaches.  We painted postcards to send home to family and friends.

Postcards from Saint Jean-du-Luz
Helen’s postcard of boats in the port.
The Moon was but a Chin of Gold

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold

Here is my post for this month’s Sketchbook Challenge:
  This month’s theme is about those captivating celestial bodies – the moon and the stars.  They remind me of a much-loved poet, Emily Dickinson and her lovely poem, The Moon was but a Chin of Gold.  I often include snippets of her poetry on my watercolor journal pages.  I love how she puts her words together to form sparkling strands of lyrics.  Here is a peek in one of my journals where I used parts of this poem.  If you would like to read her poem in its entirety, I posted it below. 
Do you have a poet or poem that inspires your art?


THE MOON was but a chin of gold
  A night or two ago,
And now she turns her perfect face
  Upon the world below.
  
Her forehead is of amplest blond;
  Her cheek like beryl stone;
Her eye unto the summer dew
  The likest I have known.
  
Her lips of amber never part;
  But what must be the smile
Upon her friend she could bestow
  Were such her silver will!
  
And what a privilege to be
  But the remotest star!
For certainly her way might pass
  Beside your twinkling door.
  
Her bonnet is the firmament,
  The universe her shoe,
The stars the trinkets at her belt,
  Her dimities of blue.
                                 By Emily Dickinson

   
Greetings from France

Greetings from France

It is always a long journey to get here but so wonderful to be back.  Marie and I started out with a 6 a.m. flight out of Oregon and arrived in Paris 18 hours later.   As our jet was flying low and beginning our landing, we were passing endless beautiful checker board fields of bright, lemony yellow, interspersed with green fields.  We decide that the yellow flowers blooming must be fields upon fields of mustard!  Wonderful French mustard!
We gather up one of my students at the train station and all took the same train down to Avignon.  After filling our little car with groceries for the upcoming workshop we headed down to St. Remy de Provence passing fields of red poppies blooming!  Even though it is raining, we take a evening stroll through one of my favorite towns in France.  The streets are deserted from the rain but the lighting is beautiful.   This is Sally’s first time to Europe and it is so wonderful to hear her exclamations of joy about the charm and loveliness that we are surrounded by.  Her awe and delight reaffirms my love of Provence.  We peek in the shop windows, drooling over the colorful stacks of tablecloths and napkins from the region.

They have obviously been having lots of rain here as the rivers are high.  It has been raining hard since we got here.   The rain has brought more flowers this year than in the past and will give us colorful scenes to paint.  We may have to make up the shadows on our paintings if the sun is not out but that is part of fun of being artist!