Field of Flowers

I'm just wrapping up on the tail-end of my book project, so hopefully I'll have some art to post soon. In the meantime, more photos...

It's wildflower season here again in central Texas and although I really haven't had much time to get outside lately, we did take a quick jaunt a couple of weeks ago to shoot a field of pink evening primrose. Chris happened to spot this distant field as we were driving on the elevated highway you can see in the background and figured out how we could reach it using back-streets.





















The ground was a bit marshy, but well-worth the mud to take some good reference photos.

Hopefully we'll get outside for a bit this weekend before the summer heat sets in. We've already had some uncomfortably warm days this spring - just a prelude to what's coming...

Studio

It's been a long time since I posted anything. Between work being very busy for both my husband and myself and the dreaded cedar allergy season from which Chris suffers, we've not had a spare moment for hiking or anything else of the sort, so I still haven't much to post. I'd been holding off posting pictures of my studio for just such a lack of blog content, so now seems like a good time to go ahead and post them.

I love seeing other artist's studios and work spaces. I'm always fascinated at seeing how other people decorate their homes. I guess it's just a small glimpse into another life or way of living and that's always interesting to me. I picked up a book some time ago off a Barnes & Noble clearance shelf called Where Women Create which showcases beautiful workspaces of women in a range of creative professions. My studio is much more functional than beautiful, but hopefully some day I'll dress it up a bit.

Here's a before and after picture -"After" being the after the bomb of a large project explodes in my studio and order gives way.... It feels like a mess when I'm there working, but I think it probably doesn't look so bad in the photo:

After

I'm crazy-particular about my lighting. I always keep the natural light to the left of my desk so that my painting hand won't cast a shadow across my work. And I always have a swing-arm lamp directly over head - "working in a spotlight" as my husband would say.

And, I've a bit of good news to share - I received a "Letter of Merit" this past weekend in the SCBWI Magazine Merit contest for an illustration completed for Highlights last year. It was quite a nice surprise!

2009

I realize I'm a bit late in wishing everybody a Happy New Year, but I do hope 2009 is off to a good start for everyone! It never occurred to me in the past to make resolutions, but this year I have a few, pretty ordinary ones:

- Get up in the morning at a reasonable time. I'm not at all a morning person and my hours tend to become more and more bizarre over the course of large projects. So I'm going to attempt to drag myself out of bed earlier than usual and get on a more 'normal' schedule.

- Get some regular exercise every day. I was doing pretty well with this until the holidays and then fell off the wagon and have yet to jump back on...

- Gain about seven pounds or so. That's right. I said gain.

- Art-wise, I'm still trying not to over-work paintings, painting too thickly and what-not. And trying to loosen up a bit.

So far, the first twelve days of 2009 find me failing miserably at the first three resolutions and showing spotty results with the fourth. But it's early still, plenty of time to right myself...

And I'm really late posting these pictures. These were taken on the side of the highway on my husband's drive to work:




Decorating this particular copse of trees along the 360 appears to be an annual tradition here in Austin.

Well, it's back to work for me now. A belated Happy Holidays to all!

The Umbrella Boat

Well, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We spent a few days with Chris' family in Arizona which was relaxing, but seemed like an unusually short vacation... I guess vacations always seem too short once they're over. We spent an afternoon in Sedona and the night in Jerome at the reputedly "haunted" Connor Hotel. I'd been to Sedona when I was a teenager and remembered how beautiful it was, but even good, clear memories (or even photos for that matter) don't do the place justice. These were taken from the vantage point of The Chapel of the Holy Cross:












Here's a drawing done while awaiting sketch approvals for my current project:
I haven't yet drawn in the rocky wall in the background, but I thought I'd go ahead and post it anyway since it may be a while before I get back to it. This is drawn up from an eight-year-old or so thumbnail and related to this painting.

Only three more weeks until Christmas and we will be off to St. Louis to visit my family. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! I wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving and an early Merry Christmas!

SCBWI Event in Austin

Next Thursday, Nov. 13, The Austin Society of Children's Book Writer's & Illustrators is holding a celebration at Bookpeople. I'll be there signing three of my books along with over twenty other authors & illustrators. Here's a glimpse of the evening's schedule:

6:30 Social Time - Second Floor
Visit and enjoy refreshments

7:00 A Holiday Reading - Amphitheater
Join us in the amphitheater as Philip Yates (in full pirate costume) reads from his latest book, A Pirates Night Before Christmas (Sterling, 2008)

7:15 Picture Book Panel Discussion - Amphitheater
Featuring: Greg Leitich Smith, Philip Yates, Don Tate, & Emma Virgan. Moderated by Brian Anderson.

Middle Grade/Young Adult Panel discussion - Second Floor by the Stairs
Featuring: Lila Guzman, Shana Burg, P.J. Hoover, Helen Hemphill, and Jo Whittemore. Moderated by Tim Crow.

8:15 Young Adult Panel - Third Floor
Featuring: Jennifer Ziegler, Cynthia Leitich Smith, April Lurie, Brian Yansky, & Varian Johnson. Moderated by Julie Lake.

6:30 - 9:00 pm @

Bookpeople
603 North Lamar
Austin, TX 78703
512-472-5050
800-853-9757

Hope to see you there!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has their candy ready for trick-or-treaters tonight! This is our first Halloween in our current apartment so I don't know if we'll have any kids stopping by or not. We live on the third floor, so they'll have to make a little extra effort to get some of our candy!

It was so long ago that I can barely remember the last time I carved a pumpkin. But this year we attended a pumpkin-carving Halloween party, so we got a chance to relive that childhood experience. Somewhere along the way our pumpkin turned into a Totoro-esque jack-o-lantern. Unfortunately, one day sitting in the sun on our balcony was enough to flatten his ears and widen then gaps between his teeth. So he his toothy smile is a bit diminished in this picture, but you get the idea:
Autumn is my favorite season and I love all of the trappings of the season - colorful leaves, gourds, pine-cones, etc. I stumbled across this "pumpkin tree" (also known as Solanum) at our local Central Market the other day and just couldn't help myself. Apparently it's a relative of the eggplant!Well, now I think I'll go finish off the last of the pumpkin pie. Hope you all have a good Halloween!

Autumn Migration

We must be in the flight path of the monarch migrations to Mexico here in Austin because I have seen so many of them over the last few weeks! A couple weeks ago we hiked Commons Ford park which is west of the city and everywhere I looked I'd spot a monarch. They seemed especially fond of one particular type of flower which were quite plentiful in the park. I've seen a a good number of the other 'big butterflies' around too, swallowtails and such. Monarchs are a real childhood favorite of mine!

Every so often I discover that my husband has, unbeknownst to me, lent his hand to my work. Sometimes his little additions go unnoticed for days or weeks until I've come back to the drawing for reworking or reference. I always get a good laugh from these unexpected contributions:
And so I continue to labor under his corrupting influence...