This is Ringo The American Tapestry Alliance hosts an unjuried exhibition every two years, in conjunction with the Handweavers Convergence conference. It will be held in Wichita, Kansas this summer in a gallery that is mostly aimed at sight impaired visitors. So the challenge for the small tapestries is that they need to be highly textured, as visitors will be allowed to see them by touch. A sketchbook version of Ringo So, I looked through my sketchbooks for something that would inspire me to weave textural, as well as visual interest. I decided this sketch of Ringo would be my m ..read more

  Ok, I don’t know anything about string theory, except maybe what I see on The Big Bang. But there is an excellent fiber exhibit right now at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod by that name, now through March 6. If you can go see it, definitely go! If not, watch this excellent video of the exhibit: https://youtu.be/024N2VSELmc My tapestry, ‘The Duet’, is shown towards the end of the 6 minute video. The exhibit is in South Yarmouth, MA. Let me know if you get to see it there ..read more

It seemed that Thanksgiving snuck up on us this year, with summer easing quietly into a warm fall. And you don’t even have Thanksgiving dishes done and the National Dog Show watched, before being slammed into the Christmas season, via ads and watching your social media follows decking their halls. As I always confess at this time of year, I have a very hard time getting into the ‘Christmas spirit;’ the one that includes decorating, shopping, and parties. My Christmas includes advent readings, candle lighting, reading by the fire with hot chocolate, avoiding malls, and doing what I d ..read more

I have participated in Inktober each October since 2016, but I forgot to post the ink sketches here this year. So here they are. They were all done in a large sketchbook that has paper that won’t take paint, so just ink, Inktense pencils, and ballpoint pens. Each day in Inktober has a prompt, which I pretty much stuck to, but I think I’ll just let you guess the prompts this year! I enjoyed sketching with ink this year, even more than in previous years. The sketchbook I used is a larger format one, and I have grown to like that ..read more

 I previously added a few pages from my travel journal from a trip we took to New England. I used the same small sketchbook for our trip a few weeks later to Bryce Canyon National Park, and to view the recent solar eclipse in nearby Utah. We stayed in a VRBO ranch just beyond Hatch, which was secluded and very nice. My favorite activity was while my husband was biking through Bryce, I sat and did a small (5x7”) oil painting. The resulting painting was not great Art, but it was great Fun!  I did a few little watercolors in the sketchbook on site, as well. And I also sketch ..read more

            We finally were able to take the trip to New England that my heart attack at the airport had delayed. Our flight was the same one we had booked before, very early in the morning. I brought a small sketchbook with me, to use as my travel journal, so sketched for a part of the flight, to pass the time. (I am not fond of flying, and having a heart attack at the airport did not improve that.) Our flight agenda took us through Texas, then on to Boston, where our son and puppy, Milly, met us at the airport ..read more

My life recently has been showing up mostly in my sketchbooks. We went to Kansas to bury my Father, and I sketched on the trip. I also sketched the very small town we lived in for a few years when I was young, from a few photos my brother took. (below)     July is apricot season at our house, so I sketched some, based on a Cezanne painting that was probably peaches. The rest of this 2-page spread was done at our cabin, where dragonflies were busy (hopefully eating mosquitos) at the lake and caterpillars were busier than usual at the cabin (sign of another big winter?)  You ..read more

Sometimes life throws a lot of Big Things at you, and it seems like doing anything at all is beyond you. That is when you need to do little things. I have been doing little things for awhile now, and they are keeping me sane. (I do not use that phrase lightly.) The tapestry of the Queen of England, above, is a very little thing! It is postcard size, about 5x7". It was woven for the ATA postcard exchange, and sent to England last summer. I share a birthday with the queen, and was, in fact, born in the year (on her April birthday) that she became queen. So I loved making a tapestry of her in ..read more

These are the final sketches from July's 30places30days Sktchy challenge. I enjoyed doing them all; trying media and techniques I'd otherwise not challenge myself to try. I especially loved doing the looser sketches, which usually were done in watercolor.  Details about each of these are on my Instagram feed. Poe, watching 3 young hawks on roof, through the window This past couple of weeks, we've had 3-4 fledgling Cooper's Hawks trying our their hunting skills in our old evergreen trees. They have provided much entertainment for us, and for our cats! They seem to be splitti ..read more

Telly at Stonehurst Eight or so years ago, I painted regularly, as I was in a gallery and needed to keep my space filled. I sold fairly well, which was also motivating. After leaving the gallery (which was intended to be a short leave) I quit painting. Recently I decided to re-educate myself a bit, by going through my large library of art books, and gleaning what I can from them, and then I will donate the books to the local Art Center. I began with a book about painting like the Impressionists (I have an early version of this book.) The first example/challenge was to paint a landsc ..read more