Sketchy Thursday

I haven't forgotten I promised to share details from my workshop a few weeks ago - but the truth is, I didn't produce anything I want to show! ;0

The class was held at Cheap Joe's in Boone, NC. I do not know why I have not taken more classes there, but have already signed up for 3 more! I will tell you all about those when the time comes. In the meantime, I have been keeping my goal of a sketch a day.

I had signed up for this workshop, entitled "Sketching with Watercolor" with Brenda Swenson, to try and loosen my style. I have painted detailed botanicals and house portraits many times, but nothing loose and free ... like I want to produce ... but I am changing my ways! Brenda commented that I drew a lot of detail and very tiny things and reminded me "not to paint the fleas before the dog"! I am so used to producing "small pieces of art" in my stationery and do love tiny little drawings, so I guess that is why I am having problem with large still life objects.

The class was a lot of fun. I did not get to attend all of it due to my dog starting her chemo and working out work schedules with my husband, but what I was able attend was very insightful.

Brenda is taking a small group to France in the spring of 2010 and I had just talked my husband into taking me, had all the plans worked out with the tour group, when she informed me it was full already. I have to say, I was very disappointed but have something else in the works.

I promise to show you some things soon, but in the meantime, I will show you my overworked urn. I am so drawn to urns and have so many as an antique lover and gardener, I am sketching and painting them all...on paper that is. I DO love this Twinrocker paper I am using. I have sold their stationery for years and only in the last couple of months started using their watercolor paper and really enjoy it. I think this piece, and its color, has the same patina as the urn.

Gigi Update

So many of you have expressed concern and asked that I keep you posted on how our little dog Gigi is doing, so I wanted to bring you up to date.

She has been taking chemotherapy for almost a month now and is doing remarkably well. Her doctors are very pleased with her progress thus far. As of now, we have seen no side effects except for a little fatigue. For a Miniature Pinscher, that is not saying much as they are very hyper little dogs…even at 13 years old! She is still so full of energy and life. She always is ready to go for her evening walk as soon as she finishes her dinner and is relentless until we take her. She also does not let us forget that she expects her morning ride on the weekends! Another thing that amazes us is that her hearing has improved dramatically! We thought she was going deaf due to “old age”…, which part of it is, but as it turns out, was a symptom of the brain tumor.

Having thought her last day was over a month ago, with the veterinarian giving us little hope, we feel so blessed and grateful to have had another month to spoil her even more…and she is loving every minute of it!

Gigi seems to be the million-dollar dog! She had a stroke 5 years ago that left her back legs so weak she had to put all her weight on her front legs for months...she recovered from that, has had two eye surgeries, part of her colon removed and been hospitalized three times for pancreatitis…so hopefully she will bounce back from this too.

My mother is very superstitious and has always warned us "not to brag too soon", that it might jinx things, so I hate to become too optimistic. On the other hand, my husband, who is so positive about everything, says we should remain encouraged and not let ourselves think negatively. I think I am somewhere in between and will remain cautiously optimistic. We will not know if the brain tumor is shrinking for another month, when we take her back to the oncologist for a CT scan.

Thank you so much for your kind notes and thoughts. They have really meant a lot to me this past month.

Real Wedding Weekend: Ellen & Alan

Ellen and Alan planned a destination wedding at Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. Pawley’s Island is one of the oldest summer resorts on the East Coast. It is a very special place to Ellen’s family, as it is a vacation spot her family has been gathering at for over 60 years. Her grandparents spent every summer there even before Ellen’s mother was born.

Litchfield Plantation is an extraordinary resort, in South Carolina, located on 600 acres of a 1750s coastal rice plantation. The plantation has been meticulously transformed into an exquisite country inn.

The lovely ceremony took place under an umbrella of majestic live oak trees draped in Spanish moss.

The stationery suite, I designed, was hand-lettered and engraved in charcoal on Italian paper. The envelopes were lined in a beautiful hydrangea blue, a color that was repeated throughout the ceremony and reception.

The family has a tradition of making a trip to The Pawley’s Island Hammock Shop where children and adults select their favorite fudge. Each guest could select from one of the family’s favorite varieties as a gift.

Instead of a groom's cake, cupcakes were offered in four different varieties identified by different designs on top - SC flag, Davidson College, Gamecocks and New York.

The wedding cake was layered with Key Lime filling and signature Mojitos were served.

Ellen and Alan's charming southern wedding ended perfectly, as the sun set on this special day.

Invitations and Calligraphy - A Fine Line, Asheville

Photography - Sandra and Greg Scott, Atlanta

High hopes and a workshop

If all goes well, I leave tomorrow for a watercolor workshop - a day late, however. So much for best laid plans. Never mastering the art of packing light, I think I have everything I need except a sink! Whoever said you can't take it all with you, doesn't know me!

Tomorrow we find out how Gigi is tolerating the chemo, blood work wise. She is doing really well. No side effects whatsoever! Her sense of hearing is even returning. The vet believes the medications are taking the pressure off of the tumor for now, thus some very postitive results. She is even more like her old self than she was a month ago! We now see that there were subtle signs all along, that she had a brain tumor - loss of hearing, fearfulness and clinginess. We are so grateful to have had a really good week. She is even taking walks and looking forward to her weekend rides! My husband will be working from home next week, while I am away, to keep a watchful eye on little Gigi. Thanks to all of you who have left comments or sent emails to me. Your thoughts, prayers and support have really touched me.

I will give you a full report, on all, when I return ... and I have a beautiful featured wedding to share with you, as well.

Have a great week all! Ta ta for now.

Paws

I will be taking a "pause" from posting this week. We found out last weekend that our "only child", Ginger (affectionately known as Gigi), has a brain tumor. It has been a tough week, but she seems to be tolerating her medication well enough that she will be starting chemotherapy on Monday. She is a perfect little angel and has brought so much love and joy into our lives.

Please send her little well wish thoughts.

Featured Artist Friday: Laura Frankstone

Francophile, painter, passionate drawer and travel sketcher

It is only fitting that my first featured, and one of my favorite, artist is Laura Frankstone. It is, afterall, how I discovered the world of blogging. While doing a search on another favorite artist, I came across Laura’s blog, Laurelines. At the time, I had never heard the term “blog”, but was enamored the minute I found Laurelines. I went back and read every post she had posted prior to that day. I fell in love with her loose, fluid style immediately.

That was almost three years ago. Since then I have been following Laura as she travels the world -- sketching and painting and telling the story as she goes. I love seeing the world through her eyes.

Her travel sketchbooks are a large part of her life. She is a painter and a passionate travel sketcher, but trained, at universities, in oils. She took up watercolors as a way to make exciting travel sketches.

In 2007 Laura's travel sketchbooks were exhibited at the Biennale du Carnet de Voyage at Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Laura said, in an interview on The Artful Parent, “About three years ago, I turned away from painting to devote myself to drawing, to keeping sketchbooks and travel journals. I was stuck in the studio and needed new energy. I also started my blog Laurelines at that point. I work best within rather narrow parameters, so that first year I set myself a plan to immerse myself in the study of color. I devoted six weeks to each color in the spectrum and kept daily sketchbooks dealing with those colors. The second year, my goal was to become completely fluent in drawing. I divided the year up into twelve themes and drew within those themes every day of each month. Part of my plan that year was to spend a whole month in Paris, sketching—and I did! Last year, I gave myself a more free-ranging set of goals, but I was no less assiduous."

Last year her central theme, both metaphorically and literally, was her search for water. She continues her focus on watery painting this year, with a month long trip planned to Brittany.

She is also illustrating a food lovers guide to her area,

has done some wedding sketching for a friend, and has many more exciting things to share with us this year.

As Twyla Tharp said, “You don’t get in the mood to create --- it’s discipline." Laura’s discipline is something I truly admire and respect about her as an artist. “I don’t believe in waiting for moments of inspiration. Inspiration comes as you work.”, says Laura. Insisting on discipline and orderliness in my own work, it is a quality I appreciate intensely.

I am indebted to Laura for the influence she has had on me unknowingly. Not only have I started my own blog, but she has inspired me to start painting and sketching again (after being mostly self-taught) and has me energized with the idea of wedding sketching, as something fun and exciting to offer to my wedding clients. Wanting more professional training, I have signed up for several watercolor classes over the next year and a half. Maybe I will be brave enough to post some of my work someday soon.

I commissioned Laura to paint the front window of my stationery shop. I am planning to meet her, for the first time, when she visits Asheville in August!

There are so many more favorite sketches and paintings than I can possibly begin to share with you here, so you must visit her at Laurelines to see more. I promise it will be worth the visit!! Please check out her 101 faces. Laura does the most soulful eyes I have ever seen.

Laura Frankstone has one of the most fascinating lives of anyone I know. I live vicariously through her and cannot wait to see where she will take us next!

Sneak Peek: Featured Artist Fridayand Real Wedding Weekend: Ellen & Alan

Check back next weekend for this beautiful Southern wedding...

Lowcountry Charm at its best! ...and the first, in my Featured Artist series that I will bring to you at least one Friday each month.