.. to you while you’re busy making other plans” –   John Lennon certainly nailed it.  I make plans to make good art, write blog posts regularly, produce art related products, participate in an art and craft cooperative, be a good Bed & Breakfast proprietor, wife, mother, mother in law, aunt, sister, friend, cook, housekeeper, gardener…. but life keeps happening!

Nevertheless, here I am back writing a post whilst feeling nervous and excited as I wait to hear of the birth of my first ‘real’ grandchild (the other 8 being ‘honorary’).

Another recent family event was a wedding in Bali.  The nuptials and reception were delightful but we were glad to escape Kuta to a quieter spot in Lovina

A relaxing hour or so feeling the heat and humidity is captured for me in these sketches of the Frangipani flowers that were falling on the lawn.

Frangipani Flower, Sketch 1, Lovina, Bali

Frangipani Flower Sketch 2, Lovina, Bali

Both sketches were done using Derwent Inktense Pencils and a waterbrush on a small Strathmore Visual Journal – a really lightweight way to paint while travelling 🙂  The first took a while and I was getting uncomfortable so dashed off the second and was just as pleased (or not) with it as the first.  Perhaps the secret of ‘being loose’ is to be uncomfortable from the start!  Or, maybe doing a detailed observation first makes it easier to focus on the essence afterwards…

As well as bringing back the memory of relative peace and quiet, the little pictures remind me that I felt lucky to be sketching in the shade of the Frangipani trees while next door construction workers were hammering to the noise of a cement mixer out in the humid heat!

🙂
Helen