Happy Solstice and I got a gift!

My favorite holiday is here again...dark and gloomy, as usual. The sun, on it's rare and brief appearances here in Vermont,  has barely been able to peer over the distant tree tops during the last week. But what I like about winter solstice is that it is the turning point; ever so slowly the days will lengthen and light will strengthen.  May there be some bright cold sunny days right around the corner?

photograph by Michael Poster

Look who I found at Windham County Humane Society...what a lucky day for me! He's 16 pounds of cuddles. And he is obviously a painter's cat...look at the bold black brush stroke under his nose. He has not been named yet...any suggestions? He's a laid back guy, only slightly perturbed at a rambunctious cattle dog who is monitoring his very move.

In 2012 our two old cats, Harley (19) & Norton (13) left us six months apart. Many knew Harley who loved an Open Studio for all the attention she would garner from visitors. She never tired of guests. Norton was her exact opposite. At the first sign of a stranger at our door Norton would run and hide, a very private fellow.

Sketching Group

I have been an avid sketcher since high school. It is fun. It appeals to my industrious nature. I get better at it over time (unlike many other things which I seem to get worse at...like lifting heavy objects or walking fast or remembering proper nouns). Sketching seems to help put the world in order on a personal history kind of level.

Birds of a feather occasionally flock together and this often happens over coffee somewhere on Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont. We talk. We check out each others new pens, pencils and sketchbooks. We stop talking and start scratching quietly on paper. We try not to be too obvious in scrutinizing  our hopefully unsuspecting fellow coffee drinkers while they eat their lunch or work on their laptops or commiserate over their parents or toddlers. We complain when our 'model' leaves the scene. Sometimes we decide still life is easier.  For a couple hours a week we enjoy the company of other sketchers.

For those artists who think it feels weird to draw in public, I say it is one of the nicer things people do in cafes. Most people are too busy text-ing to notice what or how well you draw. Why not join us? Or assemble a sketching group wherever you are.

 

Our coordinator and organizing guru wears two pairs of glasses - at once. She is an accomplished sketcher (and has X-ray vision).

These recent sketches were done in a watercolor moleskine landscape format  (5 x 8.5")with Prismacolor Premier fine line markers