Wings and things

A quick share as I send off a small job to Augsburg Fortress Publishing which had me creating spot illustrations of the four Biblical Evangelists in symbolic form: Matthew as an angel, Mark as a winged lion, Luke as a winged bull and John as an eagle. Like drawing birds with different bodies! I liked Marks the best.

Peony Envy

A thoughtful host

I'm reading a collection of Vincent Van Gogh's letters to friends and family (mainly those to Theo). I learned Van Gogh created his famous sunflower paintings to decorate the guest room, in anticipation of Paul Gaugain's visit. We know Van Gogh was an intense individual and tragically unbalanced, but the pleasure he seems to have taken in making Gaugain's room cozy and bright touched my heart.

Here's a sunflower to warm this cyber space in welcome.

Just add water

A very wet spring has swollen the local rivers, and our midwest community is poised again to flood. In 2008, so much destruction was caused by powerful water surges. Time and tide have healed many of the locally affected areas, only to perhaps be undone within the next few days. At this point, we wait for news from the hydro-engineers on what to expect, prepare our sand-bagging muscles and pray for clear skies.

Tea is always a comfort. My mom concludes an exchange of any bad news with, "Ah well, go make yourself a cup of tea", and I do and it does make me feel better! And so I gravitate towards my kettle right now.  Recently, I've been visiting my herb bed first, before I make my tea...

Due to all the rain, I have a bumper crop of mint in the garden. My friend Simone showed me how she pours hot water over a good handful of fresh, clean mint, lets it steep for a few minutes and viola! (Simone is French!), a lovely light green hued tea awaits your taste buds. Use a clear glass teapot to really enjoy the tea color the best. Add sugar if you wish. And if you have those little colorful Morrocan teas glasses to pour into, you will feel like you've taken a trip to Fez! At least I feel I've escaped out of the rainy ol' Iowa rain for a bit.

Posters afield

Working on a little series of these, inspired by some vintage British subway posters I once ran across. First one, red-tailed hawk.

Morel Dilemma

To eat or to draw, sometimes that is the question.

I helped a friend dig up some bulbs around her new garden. She gave me a couple morel mushrooms we happened upon. This year I have heard is a good one for finding morels. They are such remarkable plants, so architectural and vascular looking, right from a fairy tale. The brown hues in their catacombed flesh are complicated shades indeed.

The larger mushroom was fairly dried out already, but the other still plumb and edible. I couldn't help but leave it next to her sister (the Morel Sisters- like character names from a southern novel!) to draw and study. Soon, the smaller morel was dried up, too. But not before I immortalized "her" in scratchboard and watercolor. Tried to make a real-time print from the larger one, inking it up with a brayer, but alas, the results were unconvincing. I may try a simple rubber stamp print of one, stylized, when I get a chance.

Next time, I'll create my morels with a palette of garlic, spring greens and butter!

Children's Book Week

Hoep you enjoyed it this week!