Paper and Threads

This is a child-size, really soft, light blue bear - really gentle and cute in spite of the scarey face I seemed to give him.  Between grandchildren visits to our apartment, he sits in a little car that we gave Henry (now 4) for his first birthday.  When Henry outgrew it, the car came to our apartment for all of our grandchildren to use.  I take them for walks around our busy Manhattan neighborhood when we don't need to have a stroller with us.  It is a perfect toy for an urban baby! 

Posted by Shirley at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There is nothing that I appreciate more than my programmable coffee pot.  The coffee is ready every morning when I wake up and I thoroughly enjoy my first mug of coffee of the day while slowly waking up and planning the day's activity.     

Posted by Shirley at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I try to practice sketching figures whenever possible and love to use my recycled Michaelangelo sonnet book (1948) for inspiration.  These were all done from museum sculptures or photos using a Derwent medium wash pencil (gray) or Albrecht Durer watercolor pencil (walnut brown).   

Posted by Shirley at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

We took our grandchildren Henry (just 4) and Sydney (2 1/2) to the Central Park Carousel this week.  We arrived just before 10AM so we were able to see it before it started running.  I even took Sydney to see a nice little horse - but there was no way this otherwise adventurous child was going to get on that horse!  So grandma had a ride on a big horse, all alone, hoping to change her mind - but no.  "When I'm bigger" was all she said!  Henry was also very cautious and rode in the cart behind one of the horses with Grandpa. 

Tonight's dinner salad.  I really did have to sketch and paint it before eating.  I wasn't looking forward to this, but like most EDM challenges I'm glad I did it. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I recycled an old book on Elizabeth I, encorporating many kinds of watercolor paper for experimentation.  Since we returned from our last visit to London, I periodically play with the image of Big Ben from countless photos I took during our visits and use this recycled book.

Big Ben, even just a silhouette, is as much an iconic symbol for London as the Empire State Building is for New York.  I posted Big Ben #1 on May 24th.  Here are Big Ben monthly entries #2-5 from my Elizabeth  I book.  I'm curious how far I can take this - since I'm not someone who has even been able to work in a series.

Posted by Shirley at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)