Clutter

For this week's IF word, 'clutter,' I thought of what I am experiencing a lot now, mind clutter! It seems like there's so much going on in my outer and inner worlds it's sometimes hard to focus in or feel particularly calm and peaceful. I find myself flinging around on all the political sites, then switching to walking the dogs, thinking about my horse living out on a ranch where the fires of last year burned - and that time is coming around again. And then there's the house.... and then there's money.... and work.... and on and on.  Meditation, or more painting, perhaps...

Memories

This weeks IF prompt, "memories", brought the thought of Carl Jung's book, "Memories, Dreams and Reflections," which I have not thought of in years...more memories. So this is a dream.

Hoard

It's been awhile- finally found a few hours for this week's word - 'hoard'. Just thought of a little squirrel hoarding his stash of nuts away during these great summer days.

Fail

"Courage allows the successful woman to fail and learn powerful lessons from the failure - so in the end, she didn't fail at all." Maya Angelou

Save

This is a quick sketch- but when the word 'save' was presented I could only think of all the animals out there saying, 'please save us'. I hope we can.

Homage

My IF post this week is an homage to Joseph Raffael, a painter whose work I have admired and been inspired by for many years. His is the wonderful top image and is called 'Spirit'. I worked on the koi in the more humble lower image very quickly and in my more painterly way-wanting to somehow take off just a bit on his sense of color, movement and interpretation of nature which just astound me. I initially saw an exhibit of huge oil paintings of his at the Newport Harbor Museum of Art in Orange County, California about 30 years ago - aaaah!! They really were the most beautiful paintings I've ever seen-water lilies, water, foresty things. I'm not sure when he shifted to watercolor - but now I think that's his primary medium - huge very saturated watercolors. I could step into them and be very happy. He left California and is now in France and shows in New York- do see if you're there. You can see more on his website: http://www.josephraffael.com/

Heavy

This is a stretch - the song 'he ain't heavy, he's my brother' popped into my head- does this have anything to do with a mouse and an elephant? Why not!

Garden

I did this oil painting about a year ago for a garden tour. It's called 'Nina's Garden' and is where I was painting during the tour. I had been a little apprehensive about doing that- but it was nice- the day was beautiful, the visitors were friendly and happy and the garden was magical. I wanted to submit new pieces to Illustration Friday, but this piece fit the word 'garden' too well for me-bringing back all the memories of that really beautiful place- so here it is.

Leap

Leap'in lizards....
I'm a little afraid of reptiles, so I thought making cute lizards might be a good exorcism.

Multiple

Not much time this week- so here's a quickie-a little multiple choice test.

Theory

In theory, anything is possible.

Choose

How to choose? When the road diverged, there was really no question...

Blanket

For the word 'blanket', a phrase, 'she slept under a blanket of stars' came to me-so I had to try to capture the image.

Tales and Legends

For this week's Illustration Friday word(s), Tales and Legends, my thoughts immediately went to one of my favorite fairytales - the story about a mean stepmother married to an oblivious king. She banishes the princess and turns all the princes into swans. It becomes the task of the princess to turn the swan brothers back into people brothers.

Here's just a bit from The Wild Swans, by Hans Christian Andersen. "But however quietly its white glassy surface rested, there was still a motion on the shore, as its waves rose and fell like the breast of a sleeping child. When the sun was about to set, Eliza saw eleven white swans with golden crowns on their heads, flying towards the land, one behind the other, like a long white ribbon. Then Eliza went down the slope from the shore, and hid herself behind the bushes. The swans alighted quite close to her and flapped their great white wings. As soon as the sun had disappeared under the water, the feathers of the swans fell off, and eleven beautiful princes, Eliza’s brothers, stood near her."

When I was looking up the story, it seems there are many versions of the tale, titles and details - as well as a variety of numbers of brothers - 7? 11? I still love it and... it rekindled a desire to illustrate the whole story. So...that could be a good project.

Plain

For this week's word, 'plain', my thoughts went to the Amish, who are the 'plain' people. This girl is having a little trouble with the 'plain' part.

Stitch

To illustrate stitch, stitching...thinking sewing, thinking stitching wounds, thinking about NOT illustrating real wounds but still showing repair. So...perhaps the great unknown stitching up a wound in the world.

100%

I was having trouble thinking of a concept for 100%.....kept thinking of 100% pure 'something'. So, it became 100% pure color-no shades, no gradients-had to push aside my painterly leanings.