Paper and Threads

We were in Washington DC over the holiday weekend visiting our grand daughter Annabelle.  When she was born, I decided to keep a separate watercolor journal just for my daily sketches during the days I was visiting her. 

This journal page shows the helicopter magnetic puzzle - the smallest Christmas present that we brought in her big, full Christmas gift bag and a window seat that houses her toys in a group of storage baskets.

Some of Annabelle's clothes that I wanted to remember - and her special infant backpack - that she put on and took off repeatedly over the weekend.

On Sunday morning we went to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles - an amazing place with an incredible number of planes, helicopters, missiles, and space vehicles.  Annabelle loves to run through the gigantic hangar, so this sketch was done from a photo that I took as we ran with her.

On Monday morning we took the Metro to the Commerce Dept - and the National Aquarium.  It is a lovely, small collection of tanks - and I was captivated by the seahorses.  Their tails were so much longer than I had imagined and were wrapped around the tank plant holding them all in position.  Annabelle wasn't nearly as interested in fish as she was in airplanes!

Posted by Shirley at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

We visited our youngest grand daughter, Annabelle, this past weekend and I added more pages to the watercolor journal I dedicated to our visits with her.  Previous pages are visible by clicking on the Washington DC category.

I rarely sketch my grandchildren because it never looks like them.  Annabelle is much cuter than I made her in this drawing.  The small sketch shows her running around the Natural History Museum with us on Friday.

Saturday we had breakfast at Eastern Market and enjoyed the many flower vendors - everything was so bright and fresh.

We then went to Oktoberfest on Barrack's Row, the highlight of which was the childrens' petting zoo.  There were two very small goats there with their Mother that all of the children loved. 

The goat on the left was drawn with a Pilot Varsity Pen, but the watercolor paper in the Cachet Linen Journal was too absorbent and it was difficult to wet the ink to shade the goat.  The one on the right was painted with a neutral gray watercolor wash.

Posted by Shirley at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

We just returned from a short trip to Washington, DC - part business and part pleasure.  Our youngest grandchild lives there and I have a dedicated sketchbook to use each day that we are with her.  Annabelle will be one at the end of this month - and we don't see enough of her!

Saturday afternoon we went to the new Capitol Visitor's Center to see the space.  We didn't have time to look at Exhibition Hall, but the main area is wonderful!  There are many statues, but the cast of the Statue of Freedom which sits on top of the Capitol Dome is the most important one.  Here is her head - and an eagle logo found on many of the items in the Gift Shop.

Annabelle pulls herself up on everything and is cruising an entire room very quickly.  These are quick sketches of her in her PJs.

There was alot of snow when we woke up on Monday morning.  We kept Annabelle home from Day Care to play with us while my son and daughter-in-law went to work.  She loves playing with the Noah's Ark and animals that she received as an early birthday present, so it was immortalized on this page.

We all love her really warm winter hat and she looks really cute in it.  We're sad that it probably won't fit her next winter.

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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)