Happy Mother's Day!!

I'm making progress . . .

Excuses, excuses!

Well, for any folks out there who are actually checking up on me, I must apologize for the lack of interesting things to look at on this blog, of late.  We are in the thick of it this week -- 40 of Peter's students are coming over for dinner tomorrow and 40 more the following night.  Henry is in the midst of his AP exams, followed on Saturday by his SAT subject tests, poor fellow!  I am so dog tired I can hardly lift my arms to type.  I know these college kids don't give a darn what the place looks like, but you know me -- way too house (and pool and garden) proud for my own good.  So another day goes by without a daily draw.  Please don't give up on me!  I will return!!

Azalea - almost

I'm getting there!  I must admit, as I stare at this little twig of blossoms, I am re-evaluating my stance on azaleas.  Well, native ones anyway.  This is so frilly and pretty!  Like a Spanish dancer twirling her skirts... I'm sorry you can't see the detail with the low resolution of this scan, but I think you'll see more with the finished drawing.

Azalea - continued

You can barely make out my faint pencil sketch - the first thing I lay down when I do a colored pencil drawing on paper.  Sadly, not enough time today to take this further.  Will finish tomorrow!

Azaleas

We bought our house in the dead of winter, and moved here in the summertime, so experiencing our first spring was a complete surprise.  I didn't know what to expect. What would pop up out of the ground? What would bloom?  I was sure it would be a feast for the eyes.  So I was very disappointed to discover the only flowering things on the property were a few measly daffodils, a neglected stand of peonies, and azaleas.  Tons of azaleas. One of my least favorite shrubs.  OK, the masses of flowers are stunning for a few days, but then what?  You end up with a scruffy bush with small, flat and thoroughly ordinary green leaves.  Yawn.  And our yard was full of them.  As one landscaper remarked categorically, "Your property is over-azaleaed."  They were everywhere, where flower beds should be.  And not in any particular color scheme, either.  In front of our house, for example, there's a whole sea of azaleas in every shade of pink, red, white, coral, lavender and flaming orange.  I'm not kidding.  What were the previous owners thinking when they planted such a jarringly hideous color combination? 

Over the years my irritation grew, until I had an epiphany a couple of years ago when I stared out the kitchen window one spring morning.  Aha!  I get it!  We are living in the Yellow Submarine!!  Back in the 60s, when this place was built, I am certain the owner said to her yard guy one day, "What we really need out front is a big mass of azaleas!"  And he said, "Groovy, Mrs. P.!  Like wow, man, I can do that for you."  And without a moment's hesitation, he planted a tribute to The Beattles right in my front yard.  'Hallucenogenic' is the only word to describe the riot of color out there. It must have been the most hip-looking place in the neighborhood.  Now, fifty years later, we're stuck with what I call a Mature Baby Boom Landscape out front: scruffy around the edges, thinning in spots, and yielding once a year to one loud, nostalgic, psychedelic scream.
 (I'll post the drawing tomorrow...still working on it.)

Paul

Well, as long as we're on  the subject of capturing a likeness (or not), here we have an example of not exactly capturing the likeness, but capturing some essence of it.  This is a quick sketch of Paul playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  I will be the first to admit I am not especially good at drawing people.  This is why I chiefly draw plants.  However, every now and then it is good to go beyond that comfort zone and try to hone some underdeveloped skills.  So I picked up the pen when Paul sat down to play for us last night.  Now when someone as talented as Paul is playing the Moonlight Sonata so beautifully you want to cry, and his whole body is one with the music, channeling Beethoven . . . no sketch can do justice to that sublime moment!  But if the sketch is done well enough, it will trigger the memory of that moment better than any photograph can.

 

Henry's sketch

I've been having so much fun sketching that Henry wanted to have a go.  "This doesn't look like you, Mom, but still I think it's a pretty good sketch!"  I agree!  We can amaze ourselves if we drop the notion that "we can't draw."  Of course we can!  We can write; we can draw.  If you just try to draw what you see, and not what you think you see, something wonderful will happen on the paper.  I promise!