Big cloud, tiny sketchbook

I've been playing around with acrylics in my sketchbooks, (and putting down base coats on some canvas boards, so hopefully something will be happening there soon!)

This little landscape sketch was inspired by a walk in my lunch break. I get very cold at work in the air-conditioning, and seized up from sitting in front of the computer, so I often go for a quick walk around the block in my lunch break. It's not picturesque it's a light industrial area with car mechanics, lock smiths, panel beaters, etc... rows and rabbit warrens of sheds, and roadsides clogged with cars waiting for repair.

So, last week I took a walk in the midday heat, the sky was blue with clouds gathering, a huge cloud formation was boiling up, like a tower block or a mountain, I don't know how to describe it - a cloud that says rain is coming. Maybe that's why I'm so interested in clouds this year, because we haven't had much rain.

Here's one I did based on one of my watercolours at the beach.

Here are the little canvas boards ready to go!!

Walking in the rain

little sketch I'm doing a lino-cut of

On Monday afternoon at 4.30 it was pouring with rain. There's something stubborn in me that wants my walk home no matter what. So I turned down offers of a lift home from work, waited for a lull in the rain and then set off in my raincoat, umbrella, bag packed in a plastic bag. 

It had been raining heavily for a couple of hours, so paths and gutters were awash. Traffic made bow waves, and drenched myself and a couple of brave cyclists as we waited for the traffic lights to change. 

Walking up the hill my arm ached from wrestling my umbrella against the wind and rain, I was hobbled by my wet skirt clinging to my legs, and my feet sliding about in sodden sandals!! It seems like madness even to me - maybe I still think I'm 26 and newly arrived in the tropics, reveling in warm rain after a lifetime of cold grey English drizzle. At any rate it seems necessary to get well and truly drenched at least once a year. 

At home I discovered rain had managed to get into my bag, the only casualty was the sketch book (I carry all the time but rarely use) which was damp right through and half the drawings have washed away - maybe it can have a new life if I gesso over the ruined pages and start again! 

new cards from last months lino prints

wings of change

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink,
taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each."
— Henry David Thoreau

Last year I read ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin, she writes about how she puts herself through a year of challenges to try to increase her happiness, focussing on different areas of life each month, such as work, family, friends… it’s an interesting and thought provoking read. She has a blog/website that you can check out. I have signed up to receive a daily happiness quote by email. The Thoreau quote above is one of these.

The quote struck a chord with me, maybe because I feel as though my life has entered a different season… for the longest time I’ve been the mother of little kids who seemed to need me all the time; now I’m the mother of big kids who just need me for food and chauffeuring!! It’s a big change that’s caused me a surprising amount of heartache as well as the thrill of a little more freedom.

At the moment every time I open my sketch book I end up drawing women with wings, I think it has a lot to do with this opening up of possibilities.

And a haiku!

Waiting for pizza

a flock of birds swoop and loop

I wish for wings.