Making Escabeche

Hydrangeas

Last night I went to a friend's house and her husband had made some escabeche, a spicy Mexican pickled vegetable mixture.  I decided to try making some of my own today using a recipe I found online.  While the jars were cooling, I made a little watercolor.  Will taste it tomorrow (fingers crossed!).

Roses

It's been a while since I posted here!  I have been drawing and painting over the past two years, especially during vacation times from work, like winter break and spring break and, of course, summer break.  For some reason, I lost interest in my blog.  In a way it is freeing to not feel pressure to post publicly, but now here I am again.  I think a couple of things have motivated me to start again.  1.) I have been reading a book called Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod.  She blogs and has an Etsy store where she mails watercolored letters about life in Paris to subscribers.  2.) I am reading the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and journaling as a part of this self-paced personal growth course. It has all made me want to share my art somehow.

So here are some roses I fell in love with when I saw them a week ago.  I drew them with a cool disposable Bic fountain pen.  I liked the result, so then I drew them again with the same pen on watercolor paper.  When I started to apply watercolor, I realized that the pen is not waterproof.  But I actually love the way the ink and watercolor run together.

Journaling, Contemplation, and Meditation

Salad for Dinner

Lots of Bottles

Bottles that just happened to be on my kitchen counter.  They seemed to be posing and my goal is to work in my journal regularly even though school has started up again.

Mueller Lake Park in Full-spectrum Triad

Here's a view of Mueller Lake Park in my neighborhood painted in the "Full-spectrum Triad" of colors.  All colors made only from 3 colors.  I've been rereading Dory Kanter's book on journaling where she suggests trying these different triads for different moods.  I painted this first, then went back and added outlines in pen.

I'm also beginning an online mini-course on journaling through Cathy Johnson.  I love her demos so I posted one here.  Not one from the course because those are currently not public, but another that has been made public.

Cathy Johnson's Journal Page Demo

Texas Flier Sunset

A view of the Sunset from Amtrak train "The Texas Flier."  We were coming back from our trip to Chicago.