Paper and Threads

I picked up this leaf and nut from the sidewalk in Capitol Hill, Washington DC, last weekend.  These huge trees lined the street all around the park and there were multiple nuts that looked like acorns until you noticed that the caps were really spiculated - not at all like a traditional oak acorns.  On the left is the inside of an empty cap  and on the right a drawing of a cap with the nut facing up.  The cap actually has the spicules covering it entirely.

The leaves were as long and narrow as I depicted, but the veins were actually symmetric - and I didn't manage to keep them that way when I painted the leaf.  I have no idea how the leaves were placed on the branch or what the bark looked like.  None of the tree identification web sites helped me identify this tree, so I'm hoping someone in EDM can do it.  Lin? 

Posted by Shirley at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We spent the Columbus Day weekend with our youngest grandchild in Washington DC.  When she was born I started a Cachet Linen watercolor journal for our visits to DC - the same journal that I used for my 3 London travel journals for my other grandchildren.  I try to do a visual journal page for each day of our visit,

We went to the annual Navy Day when we arrived Saturday, but Annabelle slept through it while my two oldest grandchildren, who were also visiting DC, had a fabulous time climbing on huge military vehicles.  But she now loves her Exersaucer and while we were babysitting for her spent many happy minutes playing in it.  Here is a cropped version from my position in a nearby chair. 

Sunday morning we took Annabelle for a really long walk around Capitol Hill and saw Halloween decorations whereever we walked.  One house even had pumpkin vines tied up to their wrought iron fence and many pumpkins in various stages of growth.  I captured one of the bigger pumpkins and the vine in one of my drawings.

On Monday we took Annabelle up Pennsylvania Ave to buy some new books for her and then I visited Capitol Hill Books (in a row house across from Eastern Market) for the first time, to survey their incredible collection of used books.  I found a book about the history of Chelsea - in London - which is where we stayed during our year traveling back and forth to London to visit my daughter and her family.  It was a great read for the train coming back to NYC.  What is not in my drawing are the stacks of books that completely obscure the front windows upstairs and down.  Yet inside the collection is wonderfully organized over 3 floors.  A must visit now for me for all subsequent trips to see Annabelle.

Posted by Shirley at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

We were in Washington DC this weekend visiting our youngest grandchild.  I took some great photos of floating vehicles at Navy Day in the DC Navy Yard, but when we got back to my son's house, I found this really cute Dr. Rubber Duckie among Annabelle's bath toys and decided that this would be my answer to the challenge.  One duck - 4 views.

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My three year old granddaughter Sydney loves to draw and color.  She was exhausted last Friday evening - after running at least a mile through Central Park climbing the big rocks while we brought her to our apartment from Nursery School.  After dinner she went to bed, and then about 30 minutes later carried out this fabulous lion drawing! 

Yesterday I met a good friend between the New York Public Library lions and quickly sketched one to post with Sydney's lion.  I used a watercolor pencil to do the drawing and then "painted" it to get the shading.

Posted by Shirley at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

My daughter and granddaughter brought me a lovely bouquet last week and I managed to draw and paint two of the 3 types of flowers while it remained fresh.  I have no idea what type of flower this is - it really was almost hot pink and I never quite achieved the correct color.

They mixed in many ornamental cabbages among the roses and the flowers painted above and these were really fun to paint.  I used a watercolor pencil to add the purple veins.

We have flower beds around the trees on the sidewalk in front of our New york City apartment and the summer flowers are overflowing the space.  It is getting cool enough that they won't last much longer and holiday greens will be spread over the area this month.

I love Margaret's doodles and especially how she frames many of her paintings.  So this is an homage to Margaret who inspires me as I take this journey.  I will never be able to share her patience doing fill-in pen work,, but would love to learn her use of color and composition.

Posted by Shirley at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)