Sketchbooks on Display at Kirkland Library for January 2020

I set up a display of my sketchbooks today at the Kirkland Library in Kirkland, WA. They’ll be there for the month of January. I have examples from my travels and urban sketching, food illustration, botanical drawings, copying from the masters, drawing animals and people and homework from classes. Just a small sample of the whole! If you stop by, let me know what you think. Happy New Year!

If you’re not able to get to the library to see the sketchbooks on display, here are some of the drawings that I have images for.

Top Row, Left to Right:

All graphite version of a viola botanical

Watercolor version of a viola botanical

Middle Row, Left to Right:

A Collection of My Hot Sauces

Fig Newtons

Lemon Tart Recipe

Forsythia Fall Leaves

A Fall Leaf

Bottom Row, Left to Right:

Bicycle Fruit Cart and Vendor in Habana Vieja, Cuba

Three Buildings on a Street, Habana Vieja, Cuba

My Version of Dürer's Rhinoceros

Pen and Ink of the Old Man Before Watercolor

Notes on Pieter Bruegel

My Version of Pieter Bruegel's "The Painter and the Connoisseur"

How I Start Drafting a Portuguese Tile Pattern

It’s been a while since I’ve worked a Portuguese tile pattern. This is how I start. I find a tile from a picture I took, then try to figure out what the pattern is. I pencil in horizontal, vertical and diagonal grid lines so I can keep things proportionate. I draw it first in pencil just the one tile, and if it looks good then start on the four tile repeat, ink, then paint. I still love all the variation and different kinds of patterns made with just one small tile!

Quilted Boxed Bag in Lime Green with Pink Zipper and Coordinating Panel Now Available

If you like handmade and quilted items for yourself or for a gift, I now have one of my boxed quilted zippered bags now available in my shop. I made it with a hand-dyed lime-green fabric, a pink zipper and a coordinating panel made from pieced scraps of fabric. It’s 100% cotton and washable. It’s approximately 9” x 3 1/2” x 2”. Let me know if you would like one but in a different color.