More drawing

Wow, it's been almost a month since I posted! Time has flown. There were some major issues with Focus Art, my oldest son graduated from college, a graduation party was planned and done, I've got the cold back again that I went on antibiotics to get rid of and am once more coughing a lot, (I can't even begin to tell you how tired I am of cough, cough, coughing all the time), the bp spiked up with a major dose of stress but I've managed to get it back down again, and a few more things that have knocked me down for a while. But, I'm back up again!

The drawing class is almost over. That's so sad. I really love it. You know when you hear something that makes a huge impact on you? Well, in last week's class that happened to me. I have always had this niggling little fear that if something happened to my right hand and I couldn't draw or paint anymore, WHAT would I do? (If there is anyone who can stress out over little inconsequential thoughts like this, it is me! That's why I have high blood pressure!!) Well, after doing a LOT of drawing with the non-dominant hand (in my case it's my left hand), Sandra (the teacher and a friend) said in class "now you know that you are not dependant on one hand for your artistic talent". Wow! This is so true! And in my warped case, so freeing...... One of the many left handed drawing exercises in class was to draw the face of the person across from you - drawing the right side of the face on paper with your right hand and the left hand side of the face on paper with your left hand. Honestly, when you were done, you couldn't tell the difference!

The drawing above (way above) is a dead tulip that sits in an empty wine glass beside an empty wine bottle on my painting table. The tulip was alive a few years ago but as it slowly died, I would look at it and think how much more interesting it looked than when it was alive. (I'm not usually that morbid, by the way.) As it became more and more dried out, I'd start thinking, each time I looked at it, "death becomes you". It's still there, still not falling apart either. I'll keep it as long as it doesn't flake out on me. And still, each time I look at it, "death becomes you".

The painting below was done from a still life set up. It was an assignment from class that had to show light and shadow. I find that after doing a lot of drawing with the left hand, when I pick up a pencil in the right hand, it just flies and feels so natural. This pic doesn't really show the life that is in the actual drawing. Those pears really do look a lot better than they show here!

Below is my Zen Garden. Some squares have sand, some have rocks, some have candles and some are empty.