Old Mill Cafe

I guess the text says it all.   Excellent place to eat, lots of great atmosphere, greens are organic whenever possible... fresh from Nash's own crops.   We have had no complaints in all the meals we've eaten there.   The staff is great!

Olive Tree

I'm not remembering the reason or the story behind the above sketch apparently done in 1993, but I do know it's an olive tree.

Since I was a girl, twisted, gnarled trees have been a favorite subject matter in my drawings and paintings.  Once I'd spent my entire two week Christmas break in 12th grade sizing up my black ink drawing of a twisted pine and painting it as a mural on my bedroom wall.  My mother taught me how to use the grid technique and use blue chalk powder through pin holes to trace the full-sized template onto the nine foot by eleven foot surface, which I then afterward painted in Prussian Blue acrylic paint, mixed with black on an azure blue wall:  

Here is the original ink drawing of the tree I painted on my bedroom wall as a teenager.   The grid ratio is 6 inches to the half inch square.    Needless to say, I was grief-stricken when a couple years later they

sold the house.   I was told the mural was a selling point, but I did not profit from it.  

The Leaf Reader

I kept going back today to my yesterday's blog post, The Imaginary Village Perspective, as there was something there I was reminded of.   I studied it over and over, wondering what it was that intrigued me so much.   During dinner it hit me that this sketch was a little piece of something I had forgotten and lost a long time ago.   It was my pleasure in creative illustration, stuff from my imagination.   When I gave up oil painting in the mid 1980s, I began playing with air brush techniques (remember airbrushes?) on watercolor paper.   I wrote manuscripts for children and illustrated them, as well as creating small clay sculptures to help me with shadowing.   I accumulated a number of illustrations and sketches before I suddenly found myself in the "real world" of raising kids as a single mom, and had to punch a time clock in the publishing industry.   Those illustrations and sketches are still in an old wooden ammo crate in my studio, under layers of clay dust.   So glad we don't have cockroaches in the Pacific Northwest!   They all look pretty good, still.   Thought I'd share a few.

Imaginary Village Perspective

Doodling during a long phone call.   Graphite on notepaper.

Earth Day 2012

I was taking a break yesterday after hours of snuggling Jim's and my new plants into their nice, wet, muddy new homes in the wine barrels.   Gazing at the lovely scene before me, I figured it would be nice to immortalize it.  

The Owl Sprit For Lunch

Truly I'm not starting a new career in illustrating all the Northwestern eateries, it's just that we've been eating out a lot this last week, for some reason.   This little place in Port Townsend is dear to us, too.  The young couple who own it create a great atmosphere and very healthy and very tasty food, some of which is gluten free.   And the art on the walls isn't bad, either!   There is a very colorful owl painted on the back wall... too big to put anything more than it's left wing in the sketch.   MMMMM... smell the shrimp tacos!

Dynasty Restaurant - Our Favorite Table

I guess Jim and I have spent so much time at this table that it feels rather like home, and the owners feel more like family, so while we drooled over the menu at another table (there were interlopers at OUR table), I pulled out my Moleskine and sketched.   Again, the color went on a couple days later.