rose wc

I have neglected my flower project so this morning I decided to resume thinking about the project by doing some studies of flowers. The flowers on this watercolor page are actually two different vignettes from the artificial flowers I have in my studio still life. They will probably none of them find their way into the painting that’s in the works, but they help get me into flower-thinking-mode.

And the mode is important too.

Just now as I was on the porch photographing the watercolor page, I was surprised to note that there was still water puddled here and there. Don’t know if it’s visible in the photo or not.

I was also very mindful of the humongous spider that I see in that same location at night.  I think he’s strictly nocturnal so I don’t anticipate encountering him in the daylight.  At least I hope not!  He’s very big, very scary (for the arachnophobic). and besides that I’m worried I might trip over him.

Seriously.  He’s big.

Anyway, in episodes of coffee sipping when I waited for passages of the watercolor to dry, I made a quick oil pastel of the same central rose. I’m looking at a volume on Sargent lately and I marvel at how much the man was always painting or drawing something. Little vignettes, random sketches, you name it. The lesson for me is this: be often drawing.  Look all around you, and draw what you see.  It’s that simple sometimes.

rose oil pastel

9 thoughts on “morning coffee drawings”

  1. After doing some research, I’m discovering that my nocturnal visitor might be a brown recluse. I didn’t know they were even found in Maryland, but every search I’ve done so far seems to indicate that’s what I saw. So, double yikes.

    I will be looking for the spider in the future evenings and if I see him again, I think he’s going to have an “unfortunate accident” if I can arrange it.

  2. Okay, now I’m reading an article in Wired that says that the brown recluse is probably the most misidentified spider species in the US. I provide a link below. If you are very afraid of spiders or very squeamish about necrotizing wounds (which according to this source make up only 10% of recluse bites) then maybe you don’t want to click on this particular link.

    But if you’re an internet info junkie like me, here tis
    http://www.wired.com/2013/11/poor-misunderstood-brown-recluse/

    All that notwithstanding, if that spider is on my porch again, he’s toast. If spiders could access the internet, he’d have fair warning. Alas for him that he probably doesn’t frequent this web — site …

  3. that spider is perhaps curious about your artist life, “what the heck is that lady doing now?” I don’t have problems with spiders but I understand the fright especially if that word necrotizing…makes me shudder more than the idea of spiders and yet the two might go together. I really loved your paintings/drawings. I don’t usually paint on Sundays and yet I whacked out four of them! Those Madrone trees keep tempting me, again pulling me away from breakfast, darn them barkhides! I attempted a flower painting but I decided that I was too brilliant….but wait! what’s wrong with that? I decided to wash it away and re-use the paper. Do you paint or draw everyday? is it a compulsion for you? I am wondering if I should go find some help! I wouldn’t mind doing some research and reading about Sargent, he fascinates me. Keep spider free and coffee-ed up!

  4. I am arachnophobic, but usually these days not insanely so. I was ready to tolerate the nocturnal visitor until I read that it might be a recluse. While its dangers have no doubt been blown out of proportion by a media that lives by the creed of “if it bleeds it leads,” I don’t think I want to encourage a settlement of recluses (if that’s what it is). Anyway, I set up two traps. Will see if any largish arachnids get stuck. The scientist in the Wired article said he wanted people to send him spiders if they catch them so …. we’ll see if my visitor gets donated to science.

    I do paint or draw a lot but unfortunately not everyday. Chores and whatnot intervene. I wish it had been a compulsion back in the day. Now I draw as often as I can for the pleasure of working and also to continually seek ideas for works in progress (for the things I do for sale).

    If this is a compulsion, however, it’s a good one to have. And for Sundays in particular I feel like drawing is a very prayerful thought process, one that involves you in really looking at and sensing the awesome grandeur of the whole visual world. So the only help we need for this compulsion, I think, is an increase in gratitude always!

    Sargent is pretty awesome. You’d find him inspiring for watercolor in particular, Margaret. But he did seem to have formed a habit of sometimes just drawing whatever was before him (or painting in oil or watercolor) — I suspect as a kind of visual discipline and form of innovation. The works take him far afield from the portraits that made him so famous.

    And to our spider, at this point he had better be wary of me! Last night while out walking the dog, I spied him just below the living room door. I had no other way to get back into the house! So I tossed a couple pine cones at him until he scampered. I figure that was warning enough! So, let’s hope he takes the hint!

  5. lol good luck with that spider! donate him, I say. 🙂 I wished that I can paint everyday though I am finding that some chores are being put aside in order to paint. I am getting up earlier which helps by a long shot. Thank goodness that I don’t work anymore and my husband is alright with it, the children are all grown up and gone, oodles of time now 🙂

  6. Painting is definitely a good use of a person’s time. The more you look, the more you see. And we become better observers when we record bits of what we see. And the world is incredibly beautiful.

    Even the spider is beautiful — but I ain’t getting close enough to this guy to really appreciate him … no way.

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