Monday, January 21, 2013

The Winter Grays

Yup, not, "The Winter Blues."  No, no, no.  Such is the impact winter has on me.  And I live in the desert where the sun shines most of the time!  I did my time in the Seattle, Washington area for a few years, and I'm done with that, THANK GOD!

A neighbor recently called me up and I answered the phone.  The first thing she said was, "You sound gray."  Oh, how perfectly right she was!  I had to laugh at her choice of the word.

Sorry to say, but I am gray this time of year.  The garden is long gone, the days are too short, work comes to us in tiny batches, and the holidays blasted in and out of our schedules leaving another hole of a different kind behind!  It's hard just trying to keep keepin' on!

So is it any wonder that I turn to my artwork to create a bit of Spring in my days?



There now!  Isn't that better?
Here's some more Spring-time therapy...



Ahhh, much better!

I painted these watercolors a couple months ago, in November.  Winter grays set in early for me!  Looking at them now, in their tiny format 2.5" x 3.5," fills me with hope and joy.  They make me feel like I've found a small, priceless treasure.  The best things come in small packages, don't they?



Isn't this funny?  I love the mannequin's presentation, as if to say, "Ta Da!"  I put this in my Etsy shop as one of the photos of this daffodil...



A simple one hour pencil sketch which represents my wintery mood.  The quick, dark pencil strokes testifies to my walking around my house like a caged animal!  Ha!  You laugh, but I'm serious!!!  Haven't you ever done that?  Sure you have, so I'm not alone in my temporary insanity...which is good.  I think.
And, the fact that a beautiful spring-time flower (sunny yellow, no less) is rendered in black and white is another commentary on my "Grays."  Happily, it is full of hope and the coming joy of Spring.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.


Another promising endeavor is bubbling to the surface...


"Flora and Fauna Desert Collection I"
9" x 12"

"Flora and Fauna Desert Collection II"
9" x 12"


Here's a general idea of what they would look like framed...



I love the exquisite beauty of a pencil drawing.  Discovering Rembrandt and Durer was all the confirmation I needed to prove the glory of the pencil drawing.

These two desert tag collections are really exciting me with what else I can do with them.  These are just the beginning!

So as the days begin to lengthen, I draw and paint.  Full of hope and expectation of the coming growing season.  Gray will soon be...Sunny!