Faded, Illustration Friday

“'Tis the last rose of summer Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions Are faded and gone” ~ Thomas Moore

Let's not rush things, all right? It's still spring and there's still plenty of color, but here in my neck o' the woods, things have become quite a bit drier and some of the succulents do look a little bit muted by comparison to the earlier explosion of poppies around my yard.
Felt like trying to pull a few prints to emulate some of this fading color for my last minute Illustration Friday post this evening. Breaking out the "decent" warm weather clothes that have seen several seasons, noticing how my "highlights" keep taking up more space in my once dark head of hair (when I can get out in the light to see more clearly), it's a wonder that I hadn't noticed that faded inspiration has been following me around for awhile...

Sight, Illustration Friday

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

This week's challenge left things wide open for interpretation. Though I'm curious to see what everybody else has done this week over at Illustration Friday, I'm imagining the word "sight" will mean a variety of things to anybody, depending on one's perspective. As luck would have it, I happened to see a little set of ears and an eye peering out from behind a cluster of succulents in my yard today. A mental note and a quick watercolor later, this is what I saw and decided to share with you, a last bit of spring as the season heads into the unofficial beginning of summer.
A safe Memorial Day weekend to all of you!

Kernel, Illustration Friday

“Nature has neither kernel nor shell; she is everything at once” ~ Goethe

Working solo can sometimes make a person feel as lonely as an old maid, so to keep myself amused, I like to pop in to Illustration Friday to leave my occasional bursts, creative puffs and stuff into the kettle. Thursdays, I've discovered, are usually good days to see what's cookin' with the others whose posts can be as buttery, sweet, salty or delicious as any late night snack.

P.S. Thought I'd throw an oldie in here for good measure- Classic Mushroom Tender corniness here, no more puns about "Colonels" or chicken recipes from Kentucky, cluck , cluck, cluck...

Hitched, Illustration Friday

Happy Mother's Day!

Jump, Illustration Friday

I've always loved to see how other artists post their sketches. Well, I especially love it on Thursday night, when I've been itching to do something for Illustration Friday all week, and never got around to doing anything.
Well, I actually did jump up after dinner to do this quickie.
Thanks to all of you who so faithfully returned to visit last week after my "blogcation." I'm slowly getting back to business here and looking forward to visiting regularly with you again... IOU!

Heights, Illustration Friday

Today I'm thinking back to a time in my life when I could hit the high notes, and the school music teacher still invited me to participate with the chorus. Another year later and my singing career was over; the voice was never going to reach those angelic heights again. I decided at that point I liked art classes better, anyway.
Whether this makes it to Illustration Friday tonight, depends on whether or not I can figure out how to get this post together with my pic and published. Where is everything? Darn that new Google interface! Everything looks different since the last time I was here, which reminds me of another story, and maybe one I'll just have to tell later. For the time being, I could use a little divine intervention like a small miracle, and if not, you might hear me singin' the blues.

Grounded, Illustration Friday

There was a time in my life when the thought of being grounded, as in being held against one's childish will, would have been sheer torture. Of course, the point of being restricted for some misdeed was actually an effort by our parents to keep us grounded, or balanced by the strong foundation provided by this tough love. At some point during my adult years, I eventually discovered that staying home really wasn't such a bad thing. (Could that ever be more true than the week after the holiday season has ended?)
Though any good Libra will tell you that there's always an occasion to celebrate, it was a little bit of a relief to finally return to my own home turf, a much needed rest with no social engagements except with the ones I'd been neglecting around the house. First visits would be with my barely living plants which had been struggling to survive on little water or care these past beautifully warm and dry weeks.
After spending a good part of two marathon days of this self imposed "torture" of hanging out in the backyard in shorts, my feet barely nestled in flip flops, the low winter sun bore down, almost challenging me to a sunburn. As the plants and dry soil in the pots gasped, I comfortably sipped on a cool glass of water. My hands in the dirt and my semi-sadistic gardening skills being exercised, I was feeling the smug satisfaction of having almost pushed these plants to the brink of the green waste facility, but not completely. Like all good parents whose child rearing skills were seemingly modeled by prison guards from the "Cool Hand Luke" school of discipline, there was a spark of conscience and eventually a limit to the amount of abuse I could inflict. Swooping back to rescue them with fresh potting soil, a sprinkling of bone meal and water, the growth cycle would be put back in balance. Besides, when spring finally comes around, they'll be stronger for the experience!