Seattle's Little Free Library

 

I was intrigued and delighted to discover a local neighborhood 'Little Free Library' had appeared on my street... just steps from my studio! The premise of these little free libraries is that books are free to be borrowed and returned. What a charming idea! There are half a dozen of them around Seattle.

Anyhow I immediately signed off a couple of my own very local books and added them to the 37th Ave. N.E. 'Little Free Library' with great pride. They were both written and illustrated just a half block away... so it's hard to get more local than that! lol!

I have a hard time giving away my books to neighbors for some reason. I find the idea a bit embarrassing... not sure why. But to give away books to the neighborhood is easy and fun.

Magical Moonlight...

 Sometimes I think all illustration is landscape painting in one form or another. So often an entire story is wrapped up in a particular place. Anyhow, I was pleased with how the painting in this piece turned out.

Blakelock and Ryder were the best painters of moonlight. But I think they both went mad. Eventually Blakelock became so poor he wound up painting portraits of dollar bills in oil paints.

When I was in high school I'd spend hours at the National Gallery in Washington looking at the Ryders and Rembrandts.

Favorite new french things:

Favorite new french things:

Book: 'My Father' by Jean Renoir. An amazing book about Renoir, the painter. It's one of those fabulous first hand accounts that really makes you feel like you've lived with the original impressionists. The stories about the peasant life in Montmartre are fabulous. I share Renoir's feelings about things - architecture - women - the simple good things in life. A treasure of a book. Hard to put down.

Movies: The Well Digger's Daughter & Romantics Anonymous - fabulous french movies.

Rough sketch to finish art...

 

Rough sketch to finish art... as always there is something lost - something gained. I always look back at the rough and find the thing I miss most about the finish and go back and change it.

The artist is never happy! What a life of self-inflicted misery we artists create. We demand something that can't be achieved... and no one else but us even knows what we're complaining about. C'est la vie.

Fun in 2 Colors

Today's cloudy day is lightened by some 2-color fun. I rarely work in 2 colors - since everything is full color these days. But there is a complicated art to making the most of it I'd imagine. I know some artists like Barbara Cooney (in books like Chanticleer) were just brilliant working in this limited color range.

Mabye I'll get the hang of it...