Shiny, Illustration Friday

When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.” ~ Anne Lamott


Just waiting for the sunny days of summer to get here and patiently dealing with the "June Gloom," that continues to tease us with cloudy skies along the coastal areas. Still, the warmer days suggest summer is almost here and soon there will be many more opportunities to walk along the shore, tempted by glittery sand, shells, sparkly seaglass, and other shiny treasures at the water's edge.
But just like the cocktail hour, it's always beach weather somewhere- and it's always summer on the inside, right?

Hurry! Illustration Friday

Here's another quickie for Illustration Friday- not that there was a big hurry to post it, but it did get up here on a Wednesday, for a change of pace.
Watching a young Rufous Hummingbird busily zipping in and out of the flowers, I decided to stop dilly - dallying and start painting. If only my brushes worked as quickly as this little one's wings!

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!