Sunday Sketching -

10 minute portraits in the tiny purse Moleskine...

Semi-Succulent Saturday - Kitchens and Chickens

The bulk of the cabinets are in. The stove (and the gas line) get moved over tomorrow. The last of the cabinet-stuff should be pretty much installed by Monday. Then it's just waiting on the counter top folks and some finish work. Still nearly 2 weeks more until a kitchen sink... In the interim, my back is getting really tired of washing my dishes in the bathtub...

So - for fun, I bring you photos of Baby Chicks!!

One of my critique group friends, Suzy, has a couple of flocks of 'fancy chickens. These are the very cute, and very tiny Serama Bantam chickens (look at those completely vertical tails!) She incubated a new batch a few weeks ago - see how tiny the chicks are?

But they are nothing compared to the most itty-bitty, stripey, jumpy batch of Buttonquail that hatched this weekend! They are the teeniest, most active little fuzzy bird babies you've ever seen! They are like bumblebees with beaks!

See! Compare! There are *17* buttonquail babies being held in these hands (compared to the two tiny serama chicks above..) It was amazing to see.

And in other Good Chicken News, all three of mine are successfully laying again.

Yay chickens!

Figure Friday - Galubrious-style...

Once upon a time, there was a brilliant, albeit eccentric researcher named Doctor Galubrious. He traveled throughout the Victorian-era and steampunked-flavored countryside, accompanied by his beautiful and talented daughters. According to his dairies, their mission (amongst other things):

The goal of the team is to document for science and lend aid to those in need of assistance in dealing with magical creatures. The Galubrious team specializes in fairies, but are experienced in dealings with boggarts, gnomes, banshees, grindylow, dugbogs, pixies, porlock, and merpeople.

Your figures for today include Lenore:

And Lucia:

[And as a sideline, the girls (who are also known as my fairy nieces) also seem to provide compulsory modeling services for a reclusive, website-less creative who is dabbling in steampunky floral ornaments. Whilst there is no website presence, occasionally you can find them on ebay]:

(I was lucky enough to score this mermaid/button/clock-gear floral pin for my birthday!)

Have a most Galubrious Friday!

WIP Wednesday - codas...

I'm on the very last leg of the very last book of the Wind Dancer series.... I'm waiting for the last sketch approval for the last drawing of book #12 (everything else is drawn and scanned. I'm awaiting for the arrival of my supposedly fixed laptop tomorrow so that I can print them out, and then begin painting them.)

In addition to these, there is one more illustration needed for one of the previous books still in production, and yes, it is indeed another puppy.

Here is to one more week of painting, and then - a break??!

Music Monday - "Heather"

Most years, we spend February looking at the winter-blooming heather...

Despite the unseasonably warm weather which has brought out all sorts of other blooming things, this week I bring you the Carpenter's instrumental piece called "Heather"...


I've loved this piece since first hearing it in Junior High, partly because it was so different from the more typical Carpenter's fare...

A few fragments of the gloriousness of our non-heather, ridiculously early spring...

Sunday Sketching -

Tiny Moleskine upon my knee...

More Moleskine quickies....

NON-Succulent Saturday or Kitchen Remodel part 1

We have begun our kitchen remodel... Ah, what upheaval!

(Here is our world's-tiniest-kitchen - pre-intervention. Band-aide colored tile and all.)

And, here is it with everything but the fridge and oven removed... Wiring, plumbing, and patching all done. We are now sinkless for the next three weeks.... No succulence happening here at the moment...

And in a sort of mysterious and creepy aside - here is what was underneath one of the base cabinets- yarn scraps, stuffed critters, a draw-string purse and five half-filled baby bottles... (eww!) We've lived here for over 6 years, so it's obviously been there awhile. *How* it got there - I have No Idea....

Figure Friday -

Still lap-top less... Still struggling with computer normalicy, but we'll see if I can at least post these?

Long pose day (this was about 2 hours). Experimented with toned paper - a first for me in a live session. Great model, but there was enough shifting between sittings that different body parts are kind of all over....

Fun though... Want to do more on this surface.

Music Monday - Greensleeves

It is still hard to post from this ancient computer, but a) the computer box from Dell *finally* arrived and my new laptop has been sent off to their magical elves to hopefully fix up as good as new and I feel like celebrating and b) we attended my daughter's All State Concert this weekend, so it feels like I really should post something musical to commemorate. :-)

A couple of weeks ago I posted several versions of Scarborough Fair. Heather Hedin Singh kindly recommended a contemporary fantasy called "Impossible" by Nancy Werlin that was based on that song which I read this weekend whilst traveling to and from the concert-across-the-state, so I've felt a little immersed in traditional ballads. Thus this week, I bring you Greensleeves.


My favorite version is by Loreena McKennitt. She states in the liner notes of "The Visit" that she "had always wondered how Tom Waits would sing 'Greensleeves'"... and that "while waiting to do something else [they] accidentally and spontaneously recorded this track in one take without ever intending to release it."


And this is an old, lovely, guitar-riffing version by Ritchie Blackmore - then of Rainbow.

Do you have another version of "Greensleeves" that you love?

I'm now in the mood for more contemporary/urban fantasy utilizing old ballads. "Greensleeves" is referenced in books like The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper and Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee, but I can't think of any books directly based on it. Anyone out there know of one? Or other contemporary fantasy based on ballads that you can recommend?

Figure Friday - and brief computer update...

I'm going to attempt a blog entry on this crazy-slow old laptop and see if I can bear it... (the new laptop is still unusable - and Dell has yet to send me the shipping box to mail it to them) -

Draped model - life drawing day today... A couple of minutes of 5 second poses before gestures...

...A series of short poses, about 20 minutes each....

Lots of drapery about! Which was fun.

Now back to flowers and butterflies and the last few drawings for book #12....

Figureless Friday - i.e. Computer Disaster

After dragging myself to bed the other night after a long day working, my cat knocked over an unattended glass of water - right onto my beloved laptop.... *sigh*... (bad, bad, BAD kitteh!)

It has been drying, in scattered pieces for several days, yet still won't turn on when reassembled (luckily the harddrive seems undamaged, so my files have all been backed up), so I guess it's time to call in the Big Dell Guns and see what must be done.

In the meantime, I only have my old crotchety, nearly-antique back-up laptop that is so slow as to be nearly unbearable to use for much more than keeping track of my email. I've spent the last three days downloading updates, but it is still miserable to use - so until my lovely green machine comes back to me in working order, I'm afraid I will remain imageless and more silent than not online.

Fare thee well until happier times.....

Music Monday - Great Big Sea

It's a glum time of year, so I am drawn to more lively music to motivate me. Some of the most energetic I know of comes from Great Big Sea:

(shown here with the Chieftains, from the fabulous 1998 'Fire in the Kitchen' CD which was my first exposure to GBS)(Ah, The Chieftains.. I love them so. And miss Derek Bell terribly...)

Wikipedia describes Great Big Sea (often shortened to GBS) as "a Canadian folk-rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year-old Irish, English, and French heritage. The band also performs original material".


They are apparently 'more fun than a barrel of monkeys' in concert (plus! awesome harmonies), although I'm yet to experience this for myself. I've had tickets to go see them *twice* now, and both times I've had to miss it. Third time is bound to be a charm! Waiting anxiously for them to come this way again...

Who is *your* favorite 'energetic' group?