How to never work a day in your life

So I've got a presentation ahead of me and I'm in the throws of design work and perspectives. My hands ache at the end of the day and as I shake them, I see I've got graphite smeared all over the edge of my palm. Eraser shreds are sprinkled everywhere around me along with trace paper headed for the garbage. I love this!!! This is why I do what I do. I love to draw, get into my imagination and see "what would it be like if...."

"LET THE BEAUTY OF WHAT YOU LOVE BE WHAT YOU DO."- Persian Poet-Jalal al-din Rumi

Spring has sprung!

This weekend was another weekend of painting... with my daughter! She loves painting so much she's starting to sing while she creates masses of colors and lines! I picked up a brush, too, and used the last of her tempura paints to create small vignettes for spring cards.

One of my favorite illustrators is (Helen) Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), whose artwork is still popular right now! Just today at Target, I saw several small board books of THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT on sale for Easter! Besides her love for animals, Potter also loved nature, especially fungus. She studied the symbiotic relationship between algae and fungus and recorded her microscopic findings by painting and drawing them. At the time of her passing, she'd donated most of her property and land to the national trust, in order to preserve the farming aspect and feeling in the Lake District of England. Her 4000 acres are now all located within the Lake District National Park.

The 2006 movie starring Renee Zellweger, called Miss Potter is a wonderful treat and great reference!

Roberto Burle Marx

So this weekend was a painting festival with my daughter-she loves her new Melissa and Doug paint brushes and the tempura paints wash off so easily! Our fridge has never been so colorfully decorated with her creations!

I couldn't resist...so I took a piece of trace paper, and drew one continuous line (an art project my mom taught me) and painted in the shapes with different colors. I showed her how the colors mixed make other colors and the amount of water on the brush can also lighten or darken the paint. This was the first time she saw "coloring within the lines" Who knows if she really retained the information, she is only two. But then after this dried, I showed her how the colors glow when put up in a window. She liked that!

This morning I looked at my painting in her window as I got her ready for daycare, and was reminded of a very inspiring and monumental figure in landscape architecture, Roberto Burle Marx (Brazilian Landscape artist/Architect born-died 1909-1994). His garden designs were often first drawn/represented in an abstract painting. Also ahead of his time, he encouraged the use of native tropical plants and used them in modern planting schemes such as within large color blocks. Some critics believe, though, his curvilinear lines and color massing did not take into account the curvature of the land, and therefore believe he designed best for flat open spaces and rooftop gardens. He is best known for the design of the promenade at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janiro.

From this article and for more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/arts/design/21burl.html
Landscape design, he [Roberto Burle Marx] once wrote, “was merely the method I found to organize and compose my drawing and painting, using less conventional materials.”