Artwork in April

Sometimes life just gets so full of mundane needs that it drives out creative time. Mine isn't entirely devoid of art, just thinly applied and sparsely done.

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First, here's a small painting I did one Saturday. It was fun to revisit this familiar scene of the mountains in my old hometown, Albuquerque. I can see that it's becoming a softer memory now, but that's how it has to be. We've been away for 20 months.

It was painted in my little 3.5" x 5.5" Moleskine, using gouache, of course.

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More typical of Amherst, NY, where I now live, is this gouache painting, done in my 5" x 7" sketchbook. During the first couple of months we lived here we walked at Amherst State Park. It was lush, late summer, with so much greenery and mysterious (to me) flowers layered on top of one another. I took a lot of photos, but this is the first one I've even tried to paint. I should do some more.

Sometimes you just have to splash around and see how it looks.

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I could use a bit more real practice with my gouache, but most of the time drawing wins since I don't have to monopolize our dining room table to do it. At Easter I made some illustrations of Psalm 23, using sheep an online acquaintance shows in his videos. (Enjoy the Shepherd - Ray Carman, on Facebook.)

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And recently I posted a video in my Facebook group called How to Draw Eyes - Structure by Proko. I decided to practice drawing eyes myself, since they are fun to do. In the 5" x 7" sketchbook using a 0.7 Bic mechanical pencil and my kneaded eraser.

I know eyes come in pairs, but it's easier to do one than both. All that matchy-matchy stuff is such a problem. (grin)

Oh, and if you want to be encouraged, check out our Facebook group, ENCOURAGING ART, and see if you want to join in. There are only a few of us there and we post art and ideas and share and encourage one another, without critiquing, unless someone wants it.

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I'll try to post a few things here from time to time, but there isn't a lot of art going on right now. God is good, and I know what I'm called to do is more important than painting. That satisfies me, but every once in a while it is really relaxing to just move paint or pencil around, you know?