Mary Richmond Design

Running Behind....

Did you ever have one of those days when you didn't know if you were going forward or backward? I'm having one of those days. The most productive thing I've done all day (besides take care of the grandkids and make soup!) is to make my to do list for the week.

First, I wrote down everything I have to do this week, which is a lot. Beside everything I wrote out the approximate time I think it will take. Then I plugged it into the week. Let's just say I'll be working a few nights and all next weekend in order to hit my deadlines.

At least I know what I have to do and have a plan. Often my week gets away from me and I just fall farther and farther behind and wonder where all the time has gone.

This ornament is one of the ones I'm beginning to post at my ceramic Etsy shop. There will be lots more and holiday cards will be in the other shop here. Custom orders are beginning to come in and life is getting busy but it's also fun.

I've joined Twitter, by the way! I'm not sure how all this comes together but I thought it was worth a try. Tomorrow I'll post all that info. Right now I have to stay on task and go put dinner in the oven!

Big Draw #31, Last Day!

Well, this is it, the last day of the big draw. I decided to leave off with one of my absolute favorite drawing subjects, a whelk shell. The beach I walk almost daily has these shells in relative abundance and they make great subjects for all sorts of drawing and painting exercises so I have an expansive collection. Whenever I come home with a new one tucked into my pocket my husband always gives me one of those looks. You know, the 'do you really need another shell?' kind of look. And yes, I do. I use them in my classes all the time and I especially like ones with good holes in them that show the twists and turns of the shell inside. Students have to really concentrate when drawing these shells because any and all inaccuracies will rat you out in an instant. You might be able to fake your way around an old tree or even a flower but not a shell like this one. They're like drawing hands or feet--great practice to keep the old hand eye coordination sharp.

Here are many of the drawings I did over the last month. I'm not sure what I'll do with them now. I may actually put some of them up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Many, many thanks to Bad Faery and Elizabeth for hosting this! Woohoo!

Just think, tomorrow Art Every Day Month and NaNoWriMo begin!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Big Draw #30

It is hard to believe that there is only one more day left in the official Big Draw 2008! I've really had fun with this.

Awhile back I asked if anyone would be interested in a year long Muse related activity and I had very few takers. I am going to put that idea aside for now. In November I'll be taking part of  Art Every Day and also the writing challenge, NaNoWriMo! Considering the time of year that should be challenge enough.

I think I will continue with the drawing a day idea, however, and will continue to post them as I go. It has been a really good incentive for me to actually sit down and draw just for fun each day.

The shells came from on of my collections and are among my favorites; a delicate baby horseshoe crab moult, a bleached sand dollar and a Nantucket Sound gray bay scallop.

Big Draw #29

I have to say that doing this Big Draw has been a wonderful motivator for me! I can't remember the last time I just drew for fun every day. I draw for publication or to fulfill a design obligation but not just for fun...at least not lately.

Being Wednesday I joined the Wednesday morning painting ladies once again and just drew whatever was around.

Here are a few small roses.

A very funky looking pair of binoculars. They sort of came out looking like an old man, I think....

This comfy old chair (that the old man can sit in).

Of course it's a great time of year to draw leaves since they're just blowing around everywhere. We have so many oaks on the Cape. These may be scarlet oaks, knowing the neighborhood I was in. Most oaks on the Cape are either white oaks or black oaks but we do have some scarlets and pin oaks that have been brought in.

I started to play around with composition a bit.

And this one just makes me smile because it reminds me of those exercises we did in drawing classes that had you draw the same object 50 ways so you started to play with it on the page, abstract it, etc.

I guess what goes around comes around...like drawing leaves with ink and playing with line, shape and composition...

Big Draw #27 and #28

Ever have one of those days?

If I say "Colonoscopy" and "Root Canal" in the same sentence it may give you a bit of the feeling....yep, yesterday my hubby had the first and I had the latter. Needless to say, we didn't do a lot of hop, skipping or jumping around our house yesterday....

I did manage these little sketches. My dark tiger tom, Zeke, is a private cat and also very beautiful. He loves to sit and blink in the sun but he is not a fan of being watched or stared at. Smudge will think my looking at him is an invitation to come get some lovin' but Zeke just leaves the room to go take a nap elsewhere. The two cats get along pretty well though they do have some rough and tumble moments, especially in the middle of the night when the rest of us are trying to sleep. They, of course, then sleep all day.

These hummingbird sketches were done quickly and from memory and are pretty rough. I am working on an idea and it will involve lots of hummingbird drawings so this seemed a good place to try some out.

This morning was one of those interesting weather times. Rain and wind were predicted but the sun was definitely trying to come out. I walk my dog at the beach most mornings and this was the view when we got out of the car. The light was amazing.

I love the way the light just gleamed off the white of the houses and the clouds. When I turned around the sky was a deep purple behind me with a splash of gold where the sun came leaking out. There was a light, pale pink mist rising from the water and the whole beach had an ethereal, mysterious feel.

Why don't I have a picture of that? one might ask....because the batteries in my camera died! I had just recharged these batteries so was none too pleased. And to be honest, my walk was lovely and peaceful and really, I have the pictures in my head. Just sorry I can't share them with you.

Because I seem to have a theme here of funny times, I'll share this last tidbit. Today I interviewed a Pulitzer Prize nominee in nature writing. The feature will come out on Friday in a local paper. He's a local man who will be giving a talk at the college. We are about the same age and shared a lot of background and history, even working at some of the same places and writing for the same papers....

and he is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and I am....well.....not.

Some days I feel like such a total slacker and wonder where I went wrong. He teaches college writing classes, travels the world and has published seven books. Me? Not so much....oh well....guess all our lives have their own paths, their own little pots of gold. I may not have all his honors (and he has many) but I do have a good life.

Big Draw #26

This is one of my cats, Smudge. He was napping on the couch when I began to draw him but even in the space of this quick drawing he moved his head and feet several times so the drawing is a bit awkward.

I love drawing from life, especially living things, because they are so naturally dynamic that the drawings themselves take on some of that wonderful energy and movement. This is something I try to impart to my students, especially the ones that are dependent on photographs. Even the landscape is dynamic, always changing, when we allow ourselves the time to sit outside and draw it.

I've included the other quick sketches I did of the cat while he adjusted himself. The last one is done from a different angle and you can see he is resting but ready for action, just in case some food should happen to fall on the floor or something....which was a very good possibility while my husband was working out in the kitchen getting breakfast ready...

Big Draw #25

This watering can belonged to my mother in law once upon a time. When we were cleaning out the garage after both my inlaws had passed away no one else wanted it so it came to live on my patio and I've used it all summer to water the herbs and cherry tomatoes. I like to think my mother in law would approve. She loved to grow herbs and tomatoes and I think she would have liked to see the tradition carried on with the great grandchildren she never got to meet. I can tell them stories about her and her gardens when they help me water my garden, however, so they will have her with them in that small way.

I love the look of old tools and utensils and old watering cans are just more fun and romantic in a way that the new plastic molded ones will never be. As summer and fall wind down and I have to pack up my garden tools and prepare the garden beds for winter it was nice to spend a little time with this old friend.

Big Draw #24

Sorry the photo is a bit blurry but I'm running off to appointments all day today and wanted to post this before I left.

This is my dog, Vita, a mixed breed with a bit of husky, shepherd and we think a little beagle....she has one blue eye and one brown eye, was a shelter rescue puppy that had never been socialized and is probably one of the sweetest dogs I've ever had. She's 10 now and you can see from this picture, willing to just stare at me for hours because she thinks I'm her mom....

Most of my dogs would not have put up with me staring at them this long. Dogs don't usually like being stared at and will move if you stare directly at them. When drawing animals it's good to not be sitting straight on or look them in the eye. They take it as a threat and will get up and move. You can actually wake a sleeping animal by staring at them.

Vita totally trusts me, though, and just sat patiently while I drew her picture. Can you see her bit of a smile? Somewhere I have lots of drawings of her as a puppy. Pets are great subjects if you can get them to sit still long enough. If you think about it, most pet drawings are done of sleeping pets.....or from photographs.

Big Draw #23

These last daisy mums are almost the color of the paper I've drawn them on. Over the weekend I brought in the last of the tender plants I wanted to save. I cut the last basil, the last blossoms and leaves that wouldn't make it through the first frost they predicted for this week.

I also transplanted the house plants that had summered outdoors (I brought them in a few weeks ago) and repotted a bunch of plants that had outgrown their humble homes.

I love drawing flowers and plants. It's very peaceful, very meditative. As I look ahead to the winter I imagine mornings drawing in the studio filled with images of small animals and birds, plants and flowers. I will use pencil and ink, watercolor and colored pencils. I have no plan really, just an image in my mind that I would like to line up in reality.

I know I should be teaching right now but to be honest, I don't really feel like it. I swing from the art to the nature, from the tiles to the teaching and I guess I just have to make peace with that. I always feel it should be more balanced but truthfully, I am not a person of balance. A friend said years ago that I was a person who loved living in the extremes and although I've spent many years denying that, hoping it wasn't true....perhaps it is. Perhaps I should simply embrace it and move on.

I am so glad I decided to participate in the Big Draw this year. It's been a lot of fun but also very liberating for me. I love seeing everyone else's drawings, too. Hopefully I will continue with a daily drawing even after the Big Draw is over.

Big Draw #22

Sometimes on Wednesday mornings I join a group of ladies I've known almost forever to laugh and talk, draw and paint and well, generally have a wonderful time. It's a cold rainy day here, gray and nasty, so walking into our friend Beryl's warm and cozy kitchen with its golden light and huge farmer's table was just what the doctor ordered.

She put out a vase full of late daisy mums and some pine cones and while we drew and painted we listened to each other's stories and laughed. These ladies are all in their eighties now and they love a good tale, a good joke and a story that ends well. They've seen a lot, been through a lot and are happy to share whatever they can.

Out of context this pine cone may seem a bit alone and prickly but in the right setting it seemed to me to represent all the ways we strike out on our own but how in the end we are all interwoven and tied together at the core....