FH411 Mary's world

FH411 Mary's world
768 x 1024 pixels digital drawing iPad Sketchbook Pro
 
Using my photos in my drawings fills me with nostalgia. These are my trees, my flowers, the ferns and lichens in the woods behind the house, the plants by the lake. This is my sky, my coffee cup, and these are my patterns. I return to them again and again, my life designs. My little character treads lightly in this world, enchanted. My creatures leap from real world to dream world and back again. Every new dimension is a description of an idea, the record of a peripheral glimpse of the complex glory of life.

"Ah," my little character says, "the teacup tips and fills again again. Who will join me?"

FH410 Noah's Fish

FH410 Noah's fish
1024 x 768 pixels, digital drawing iPad Layers

For me, the success of this experiment is tied to the child figure.  On a whim, I used a photo I took of my grandson Noah on a camping trip.  Noah's rapt attention to the world around him reminds me that this very idea...seeing the world again through innocent eyes...is a key theme in this series.  Of course I turned turned Noah into one of my characters, a fate most of my family and friends have come to expect and, I hope, tolerate with good humour.

I have been using kaleidoscope patterns for clothing, and my photos for background areas. In the last sketch, I used the picture of Noah instead of a Poser figure as a template (surprisingly with much the same results), then added four layers as horizons. Using various photos for each horizon layer contributed to the varying viewpoints, even though the composition is the traditional flat view.

FH408 Simple Gifts III (brush, mug)

FH408 Simple Gifts III (brush, mug)
10 x 8" oil on panel
$70

Lately I have been scratching white lines into my little oil paintings, and laying contrasting lines of colour next to each other.  It has a flickering effect, as the colours change before your eyes, coming forward one moment, receding the next.  Yet the technique is flat and graphic, every line and area laid out side by side.  Each line takes the brain somewhere else, though, pushing and pulling.

I made a list a while back, of all the things in a single day that I enjoy, and I was surprised at the length of it.  Almost everything on the list is a simple thing, or a momentary thing...coffee in my favourite mug, the lovely flower blooming in the kitchen window, my brushes and paints always ready for play.  Simplicity is freedom.