We have had many gray rainy days here in North Carolina where fog often blankets the world outside my window. As morning breaks I can barely see three houses down the street until all else melds into a monochromatic gray scale of assorted shapes. Off in the distance I can see a lamppost or some … Continue reading Seeing in the Fog
Here it is...that ache so familiar...a longing for something other, right here at the beginning of December. It comes to me in the early hours just as the sky outside my studio window begins to glow. It comes as I pull out decorations, some as old as my husband and I have been married, 34 … Continue reading The Ache of Advent
As evening comes so early these days, I'm like a plant straining towards any light she can find. Advent is a wonderful time to lean into light-filled endeavors, from stringing up twinkle lights to reflecting on the reason for the season. It's also a wonderful time to lean into making things, be they for gifts … Continue reading The Light Letters
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. How some things end and other things begin. How an ending here makes way for a beginning there. Like how my sketchbooks, whose filled final pages give way to a fresh new book in which to pour lines and colors over the coming days and weeks. Like … Continue reading Endings & Beginnings
I walk into a garden and I immediately sense a shift. Perhaps it is simply the aromas of thyme underfoot, jasmine on a trellis, roses in bloom, and rich loamy soil. Maybe it is the visual profusion of greens punctuated by blooming color. Whatever it is, I cannot help but feel a pulse of life … Continue reading A Life-Giving Force
Courtyard Garden. Ink & Watercolor. Sketchbook. When you look up synonyms for the word Devotion, you read words like affection, ardor, zeal, attachment, fondness, love and passion. There is always something or someone on the receiving end of these words. It isn't possible to just be devoted. One is devoted TO something. One has fondness … Continue reading Devotion
Though every day, every moment, is a drawing opportunity, I have been offered a huge opportunity to go draw at a beautiful garden in Asheville, NC. This weekend I am headed to Devotion, the name of Mignon Durham's beautiful garden and home which she has built, planted and curated for the past nine years. To … Continue reading A Drawing Opportunity
I wake up each day and wonder what drawing adventures I will have. Some days I have in mind what I'd like to draw, and I purpose to take my sketchbook, chair and ink outside. For this adventure I needed to go no further than our yard, having seen the rhododendron blooming behind our back … Continue reading Drawing Adventures
I have been going to sketch in a garden at least once a week for a few weeks now. What a joy and wonder it is to see the earth come alive in all its spring splendor in a garden! I'm not sure there is anything else quite so grand as to sit and soak … Continue reading Gardens, Gardens, Gardens!
'Tis Christmas in the Spinning House the best time of the year... The bins are filled with fleeces and the workers full of cheer! *** They spin from dawn to dusk as shorter days it be Then 'round a roaring fire books and cocoa at their knees. *** On Christmas Eve they beg her to … Continue reading Christmas in the Spinning House
