Sweet pears.

When we left my brother-in-law's house (Jasper's dad and the one with the trendy fireplace) he filled our hands with bags of pears, walnuts and flowers, all from his garden and my mother made one of my favorite Autumn desserts. It really doesn't involve a recipe. As boiling potatoes does not involve a recipe either. Peel and cut the pears into quarters. Cook very slowly with some water (it doesn't take much water - perhaps half a cup, a stick of cannella (cinnamon for non-desert dwellers) and some Port wine. Again doesn't need to be much wine either. No sugar and just simmer on low until the Port and water start to form a sauce. I like it with yogurt, ice cream or custard (the last two are just wishful thinking).

Mini make-over.

 

Before I left for Holland I had already decided that my little studio corner of the house needed some attention. It is after all right by the front door and has been a workspace ever since I decided that the dining room table was almost larger than the dining room itself and that made no sense. Also, living here decidedly ended my entertaining days. Living in France you always have guests, especially if you live near Paris.

I am an Ikea shopper, in case you hadn't noticed and after landing in Phoenix I made my way to Ikea for a couple of Fira (and ABBA crab pate, which does so well with boiled eggs on toast). You can see by the roses, that I didn't waste any time fixing up those little cabinets. I even made tiny, polymer clay drawer pulls. I used a piece of the purple and gold sari I have as curtains on the adjacent window, to cover the drawers. The accents are the same green as the walls.

The two pictures below the drawers that now hold my ink, paint and other craftsy materials, are of the frieze my brother Chris made for me when the house had just been built. I love them. I will probably have to break out the walls if I ever leave here because I would hate to part with them.

P.S. Before you think that all my paint and stuff fits in those few tiny drawers....I have a large workspace in the garage and I use the guest room closet space for storage too. 

Enkhuizen harbour.

Reluctantly I move on to new things with one last look over the harbour (US English harbor) of Enkhuizen. I was fortunate to live in the center (centre: as I learned it) of town in a fine house with a bell gable (klokgevel in Dutch) built somewhere in the 18th century. I miss going around the corner to buy fresh bread, cheese and vegetables from the people you were on first name terms with. Some are still there, some have closed. Delft Blue Pottery is making a revival in Holland. Who would have thought it? It was okay for your grandmother to have but it really was for visitors. Now of course, I wish I had not given away all I bought for friends in other countries, but had kept some for myself too. All I could find in my house was a tiny pair of clogs, a little tile I recently received and a very old little dish.

These are not mushrooms.

 

The falling leaves, the warm light and the evening breeze all indicated that Autumn had arrived in Holland but all the days of my stay were sunny and mild. One could not wish for more in the country of my birth. Fleur and I made up a super tale when we found these mushrooms all about fairies and dragonflies and the sparkles on the water of the pond, which you see, is not really reflecting light but are really water fairies catching the light on their capes made of spiders' web and silver fish scales. (I am turning off the light now, so go to sleep).

Life at the edge of the pond.

Feeding ducks is fun, but imagine when one morning the swans no longer keep to the agreement: we will let them be, if they stay somewhere in the middle of the large pond. 

Hissing and being just generally pretentious as only swans can be, two of them sauntered up to our cottage and were demanding something. I pretended that I was too busy with my camera to hear them, because you can't respond to every little hiss you hear and Fleur was laughing at me from behind a window. It didn't take too long before I had to grab a chair and become a fearless lion tamer swan tamer, and hiss right back at them. Ultimately they won, I retreated brandishing the chair and taking baby steps, backwards through the door Fleur had opened for me. 

Purple Duck.

 I do love that little country but I find the streets very narrow and last time I visited, my mother and I were driving through villages and down country lanes as happy as can be, when at a point we entered a pretty little town (they are all pretty and picturesque) and I realized that I was driving on the 'fietspad' (bike lane) where only bikes are supposed to go. I mumbled something like 'well, it all looks like Madurodam to me', but I don't think my mother heard me because she was laughing so much.

Daar bij die molen reden we in een paarse eend.

Of course I didn't mean to post "aqua' it just happened. Jet lag probably and trying to upload a lot of photos to my Picasa albums online, in the midst of unpacking and doing my laundry. With this picture it's no secret where I have been. Blue skies, green pastures with friendly black and white cows, and in the background the soft whooshing of the windmill. Actually, that is my wild imagination because there was no whooshing going on. I did have blue skies though all the time I was there, and when I returned the inferno I call home had simmered down to a lovely temperature, and I could open all the windows to let in some cool night air. Sometimes life is so good. 

I am going to add a bit of a description to "Aqua" so that it makes sense.

Aqua.

This is a detail of my brother-in-law's super trendy fireplace.

I came back from Holland inspired by so many things, people and places that I have enough plans for a least 3 months....and then I will have to go travel again.

 

One can only dream and picjoke.com helps.

Seriously, it is not what I dream of. I really like drawing and puttering about with fabric, paper, paint and metal for the pleasure it gives me. It not only keeps my hands occupied but also my mind. Thinking up new projects, new pictures, and new assignments that I give myself so that I can learn a little more. There are so many marvelous artists that inspire me that I am never without ideas. My problem is really not to want to do too many things at the same time. I slow myself down and make myself finish what has been started. You see, the yupo paper arrived in Mr Blick's last shipment so I can hardly wait to start but there is packing to do. Yupo is synthetic watercolor paper, that, from what I have seen, allows for beautiful, brilliant acrylic ink paintings. I think I will take it on my trip and discover what it does together with my mother, who does watercolors but recently hasn't done much work. Perhaps it will bring back her interest in painting.

Swazi son gouache.

I

I think one of the aspects, of doing this kind of work, that I like is that you can go into flow, forget about everything and just let your mind wander all over the spectrum. But now I have a dilemma, my mind wandered to a totally unimportant place: do I prefer early morning to late at night? Normally I wouldn't think twice about this, but there you are. When I say 'late at night' it really just means between 9 and 11 p.m. and the last few nights have been so beautiful with a silvery full moon casting a light that you can read a book by. Well almost. 

Mr Blick sent me a second box last week. The box was sizable, so imagine the look on my face when I plucked out a well-wrapped pencil and then peered into an empty box. In my mind, I tut-tutted Mr Blick for his wastefulness. 

Yesterday another box from Mr Blick was waiting for me at my doorstep. I was relieved to see this box filled to the brim with brushes, Bombay Inks and all the other absolute necessities I had ordered. I started out with a pencil stub and some printer paper and now I have......well, a lot of stuff. So much for wanting to simplify life and get rid of things I don't need. I do need brushes , paints and all the rest, but did I need so much? 

I am going to play now. Well, I will as soon as I can fight my way through plastic, shrink-wrap and more tough plastic.

Swazi daughter gouache.

At first I thought I would have to paint the illustrations directly into the album, and that these that I have made were trials but then I read more about digital transfers and discovered that there are many ways you can do this. The end-result will be different, but it will avoid having to paint directly in the album allowing for corrections of mistakes (I can be a little sloppy at times). It can have quite a nice effect and avoid the album from becoming too thick.
I am using Fabriano, coldpress 300 gsm watercolor paper, which is quite heavy. I also find this paper a little too textured for my kind of work. I used FW Acrylic Artists Ink (Flame Orange) for the shawl and I liked working with it. Nice vibrant color. I immediately ordered Dr Ph. Martins Bombay Ink in several colors for a next project. Just the name, "Bombay Ink", would want me to buy it.
Hearing names like Bombay, Zanzibar, Damascus, Srinagar, Gaborone and so on, make me want to embark on a walkabout.

Swazi mother in gouache.

This sudden desire to paint and draw did not just fall out of the sky. It all has to do with Fleur or as we sometimes call her Fleuro. The wonder of having a little girl like her in the family just dazzles me. I decided I would make her a photo-album to record her first years but just an album with photos did not seem enough. I am not into making scrapbooks which is all the rage right now. Are you joking? I can't just go out an buy ready made decorations to stick into a book. I would make my own paints, grinding pigments and all given half the chance. I do things from scratch which reminds me of my father's time painting with his oil paints that he made with egg-whites. I suppose that's where it comes from. Well, thinking that I wanted the book to be original, I came up with illustrating Fleur's book with drawings and paper-cuts, in addition to writing her letters and making pretty envelopes that can be added to the pages. I also want her to know her family so I am diligently going through boxes of memories that in some cases are not mine but the memories of generations before me.

Swazi father in gouache.

Yesterday I decided it would be a painting day and what a painting day it was. Dark clouds rolled over in the afternoon and soon rain clattered against the windows and the ensuing crisp coolness made it an ideal painting day. With some lamps on and Athena at my feet, I painted away. It wasn't easy. I hadn't done it for a long time but the brushes and new tubes of paint were so enticing I couldn't wait. Forget about the laundry and ironing. It was painting day.

I painted the family in sequence from father to youngest son and that is how I will post them. Pencil sketch painted with gouache (opaque watercolor, the medium I have used most since I can remember). Tools: homemade stamps of pins in cork and also a tiny stamp made with Staedtler Mastercarve which they say is "como mantequilla" and so it is. Very small stamps are better made from erasers because Mastercarve crumbles. I do think it will be great for larger stamps. I also used a 0.5 Micronpen for the outlines, giving the drawings a more cartoonlike quality.

Guinea Fowl Sketch.

The week before last I started thinking about Guinea Fowl. I know, strange thing to think about but lately I have been thinking about subjects to work with in different media. I am really enjoying getting back into drawing. I have placed a sizable order with Mr Blick and am waiting for it to arrive so that I can also do some painting. So many animals in Africa and yet the Guinea Fowl has its distinct place. In my eyes it does, just like the Quail in the Sonoran desert. See the legs at the top? I just start drawing and perhaps, but maybe not, I was going to draw a resting bird and then decided it needed legs, and I had to draw the legs at the top. It will get its legs eventually. Maybe I was distracted because my Nuvi GPS wouldn't turn on and I live with that thing. Not so much to find my way as to be able to listen to my books from Audible. Didn't think I could fix it, but with a little help from Google I discovered that all I had to do was press on the screen and on/off button at the same time.

Mola from Panama

I had bought these mola's in Panama and framed them when I got home but I have recently had my sofas reupholstered in a dark, deep purple and I kept thinking they needed some color. The stitching on the molas is amazingly fine. Just look how small they are compared to the pin. I could never work so finely. Ik ben meer van grote steken en snel thuis. The last picture shows 4 different fabrics that I bought for several projects, one being making cushions with the molas.

Increase in price.

Expensive as they may be, the last sign was either to deter smokers from coming in the store or the first flap had a mind of its own.

Laughter.....

No dust in the girls' eyes. Another sign from a shop window.

So much fun.

I had to put this one in too. Their faces show their enjoyment so clearly.

Isn't she sweet?

Athena takes watching a ball very seriously. Her eyes stay on the ball as you move it up or down. You are not going to trick her, because she makes sure of that. She has this intense look and is ever ready to catch a round blob of plastic. While in Prescott I was sitting on a bench observing the people using the town square in different ways. One young man was walking vigorously around the square and on his fifth time passing we chatted a bit. He said that walking a dog would make it so much nicer. Spontaneously I handed him the leash and only as I saw Athena and the young man walking off did I feel a pang of concern. Just imagine if he didn't return with my four-footed companion, but of course he did. I just might not do that again, ever.

Prescott Arizona.

An impression of the area around Prescott Arizona.

After the rain.

After rain there is always that delicious freshness in nature.

Inevitable.

They finally collapsed laughing.

Long awaited rain.

As we drove through Salome to Aguila I saw two little girls celebrating the recent rains. They splashed through the deep puddles enjoying themselves tremendously.

Excellent measures.

Seen in a shop window in Prescott.

Monsoon in the desert.

A short respite from the heat was planned but it turned out that that particular weekend it would cool down in the low desert and that it would rain at higher elevations. We splashed through flooded roads and found it all very exciting. It was however the first time for me to see the desert drenched.