Weekly Mind Sketch

I sit out in our backyard at times, especially in the summer, and have always enjoyed this view of pine trees and oak trees peeking over the roof.  It makes me feel like I'm sitting somewhere up in the mountains.  However, I live right by a park, so I often hear people at the park which brings me back to reality that we're not really sitting within a pine tree forest up at some lake in the mountains...oh well.  It's a nice little retreat anyway for a little while. I think there is an interesting contrast to this picture in that the pine tree is full of green while the oak tree is bare.  The pine tree stays green all year long, while the oak tree goes through it's yearly cycle of losing leaves, and gaining back fresh new ones. I think it's nice to see cycles in tree leaves, but it's also nice that some trees don't change and stay green all year.  I am reminded that we live in such changing times that we need to cling to some things that stay the same

I was eagerly waiting to draw this Red Lion Amaryllis flower and finally it was in full bloom on Valentines Day - how sweet!!  The red of an Amaryllis is close to my favorite shade of red.  It's not a real dark red, kind of a medium red with orange undertones, and very dramatic sitting above its long towering stems.  As I sat it on the table and looked up at it, it looked tall and stately - and I loved how the sun created a see-through effect with the flower petals. I hope I captured that feeling is this drawing. Interestingly enough, I have never grown an indoor flower before, and when a friend gave me this Amaryllis bulb kit as a gift I was wondering if I would help it grow or ruin it.  Guess I was kind to it :)  It was fun to watch its growth stages, as it would literally grow about an inch a day at times.  It was just a few green tiny stems at first, then suddenly 6 inches of stem, then one day the flowers began to poke out, and within a day or two, the flow

It's winter here and 63 degrees with sun....for the fourth week in a row.  Weird.  As nice as the sunshine is, it feels more like spring rather than winter in the Bay Area.   I do hope we get more rain soon since we need it. My drawing today was trying to depict how interesting a tree looks in winter. Without leaves, you notice the branches more distinctly against the sky.  Also, the shadows and shapes of the branches look more eerie - even on a sunny day. I read somewhere where it's good to hang out with kids under 7 and adults over 75.  I see how this is so.  I often babysit my 3 year old twin nieces who definitely take my mind off myself and help me to focus on living in-the-moment.  If it's not one niece crying on my lap getting tears all over me because she didn't like to be told not to draw all over the dining room table with crayons, it's the other niece laughing and chanting silly made-up words or funny sentences like "he said 'butt' i

We are living in a fast-paced world where everything comes at you at a mile-a-minute, and sometimes it's nice to take a little bit out of a day to feel "grounded".  One way I feel grounded is to take out a set of colored pencils, turn on music I love, and start drawing what's in front of me.  It feels "real" to hold a colored pencil in my hand, experience its texture scratch away on a piece of paper and see a picture come to life right in front of me.  We all need to feel grounded now and again, but we can't feel grounded unless we turn off all the noises in our life, look at and listen to our world, and do something that makes us feel fulfilled.  Anyway, what is more beautiful than a bowl of fruit?  Well lots of things of course, but the colors and shapes of fruit in a bowl are pretty amazing.  When I didn't know what to draw today, I looked over and saw we had an assortment of fruit sitting in a bowl on the counter and thought: perfect! A