Community Garden 2015!

Hello Spring!



Yesterday was Memorial Day - the official unofficial start of the safe-to-grow-things-outside season here in New England! This is the first year I don't feel completely behind schedule working in the garden. I was able to get out early and turn the bed over before our first group clean up day. Some of the other gardeners even remarked how EARLY I had gotten started on my plot! [insert smug garden expert face here]



We had already started a few seeds indoors and when we went off to Baltimore last week, I put them in the ground under some scrappy little tents. This is my second year starting tomatoes from seed and I hope they are as successful as last season!



Everything is blooming! The tulips are goneby but irises are opening, the lupine are incredible and the poppies are getting ready to burst their little fuzzy pods. And I should mention the weeds are also having a great spring. Despite the fact we haven't had real rain in ages. I heard last night that we are 5 inches under where were should be for rainfall since March 1st. Oof. Needless to say, we are going to water pretty regularly.



This is our plot currently. I am starting some climbing vines under those water bottle greenhouses. The bottles are more to protect the seeds from digging squirrels than anything else but hopefully they are also helping to keep some moisture in. The tiny tomato babies are also out there. And I planted seeds for: echinacea, calendula, chamomile, beets and peas. Bulbs for ranunculus and freesia are at the close end. The sedum and black-eyed Susan that Bill gave me last year are doing GREAT.



I'm trying to keep up with my garden journal this season. I always start strong and fade out as the season wears on (how many times do I need to put "went to weed and water - AGAIN" in the log?) but this year I hope to at least keep track of what grows and what doesn't.





I posted some of the pages from my previous garden journaling efforts in my Behance portfolio.

How is YOUR garden growing? :)
~Sarah

A New Project - Post for the Parks

Whoa. It's been a LONG time, blog friends. Apparently I took the summer and autumn off from posting. Good for me.

ANYWAY. HELLO!

Things have been great, I've been drawing things, painting things, printing things and I'm working on something new that I'm so excited about.

What it is... A personal project involving painting and mail. A project celebrating one of my favorite things about this country - the preservation of wild spaces.

How it came about... I was laying in bed a couple months ago, unable to sleep, trying to think of a new project that had a set number of pieces and a process that would put the pieces out into the world. I would document the process online as is done with things like this these days but I wanted it to go further - and farther.

I thought about an alphabet or something about the seasons but those numbers (26 or 4) seemed too small, I needed something a little more ambitious. The thing with a set number I came up with was the U.S. National Parks.


(Sketches)

Here's what I'm going to do... I am researching our 59 national parks, I am filling a small sketchbook with loose painty sketches for each of the parks, and I am making a little watercolor painting inspired by each of the parks.


(Painting for Yellowstone)

Each week of 2015 I will be mailing out a painting to one national park and also posting the painting online. I am completing the paintings and mailing them in the chronological order in which the parks gained their National Park status. I am using the addresses listed as the official mailing addresses of the parks, some are not located within the actual park but hopefully they'll get close.


(Sketches)

This project is part examination of treasured wilderness protected by our government and part thank you love letter to those who work so tirelessly to preserve special places for the plants and animals that live there as well as human visitors. It's also an exercise in routine and process for me. A way to create art I care deeply about but I don't consider so precious that I won't just send it off into the world.

I'm not expecting any response from the parks, but wouldn't that be fun! I am simply sending my art on ahead of me to the parks I haven’t visited yet and back to the parks I have been to.

And there it is, Post for the Parks.


I might document it here occasionally but mostly it will have its own internet space at: Post for the Parks on tumblr. And I'm sure there will glimpses of it on the ol' instagram as well.

It feels great to have a personal project with deadlines and a set schedule for creation. I hope you'll follow along on the journey.

And you know something is super official when you have a stamp for it. :)


If anyone is reading this, I would love to know about your thoughts/feelings/ideas about the National Parks. Do you have a favorite? Is there one you've visited more than once? I've only been to three of the 59 but I hope to add a few more to my list soon.

Thanks for reading!
xo
Sarah


(A photo from my recent trip to a state park - the White Mountains in my native NH.)

In Rotation

This morning while I was looking for some logo sketches I had started for a friend, I made a startling discovery...

I am currently, actively working in SIX sketchbooks.



They all have different uses. And this pile explains beautifully why every time I move or clean I have to agonize over a huge stack of half-filled, oddly-sized books. If I could stick to one size/shape/paper type, things might be a little more uniform and I would have a nice encyclopedia-like shelf to show for my planning and pre-painting work. But oh well, my sketchbook life mirrors my finished artwork life - all over the place.

In other news... Yesterday at Brookline Booksmith I almost ran out of the store with a beautiful rainbow pen bucket under each arm.

Staedtler sure knows how to make my heart beat a little faster.
Maybe I'll have to go back and get one of each to go with all those damn sketchbooks.

xo
Sarah

Botanical Illustration Class #3 and #4

Last week's class was more drawing with pencil. We also practiced looking closely.

I drew some ficus and a little unidentified twig that one of my classmates brought in.


We talked about positive and negative space as well as contour lines.
A piece of a jade plant and more ficus.




And speaking of positive and negative space, we had a tiny dusting of snow on the 26th and look at this!

Lovely!

This week we moved on to a new medium - pen and ink! I can only remember one other illustration I did in ink back in college. It's a lot more fun (and challenging) than I remember and I hope to play around with it some more soon. This time I picked a pomegranate to draw (after some cross-hatching and stippling exercises).




I think I'll paint one of these. Watercolor over the ink lines.

I'm still enjoying the class very much. It's helping me step outside my comfort zone and try a few new things and encouraging me to look at things differently.

In other art news...
a) I doodled these little clouds:


b) I am trying to keep up with #febsketchaday on instagram. Here is yesterday's...


c) And perhaps most excitingly, last night I had a meeting with Megan, Alex and Lauren from the Washington Street Art Center. The four of us will be in a group show (that M & L are organizing) in September! It will be heavy with process work and loosely themed around time and memory. I can't wait to get started on my pieces.

xo
Sarah

Botanical Illustration Class #2

Our second class found us at the Harvard Museum Of Natural History's glass flowers collection. If you haven't seen it, put it on your list. I have been a few times and still have a hard time convincing my brain that the intricate, delicate, accurate sculptures are glass and were created with the most primitive of tools in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Incredible. (Note if you're going to draw - the lighting is TERRIBLE. It's great for preserving ye olden plant models but horrid for drawing. Good luck!)



I drew the Western Star Flower model...


And here's my lemon from last week...


Class was mostly free-range at the museum so I think next week should be the first class that feels like a full class. I can't wait.

[I also need to remember to go back to the Harv. Museum to draw some of the animals there - who are all lit in a more drawing-friendly way.]
Look how shocked this little shark was!


After class I walked to Somerville and met up with Megan. We had delicious lunch at Bloc 11 (which I miss so very much) and talked about art. Tuesdays are my new favorite for sure.



xo
Sarah

Botanical Illustration Class #1

Tuesday was my first Botanical Drawing class.
It was just perfect. We didn't get to draw much - it was the typical 'first class' with introductions and syllabus discussion and chatting - but I'm already sure I'm going to really enjoy the course. We will be going over a lot of actual drawing technique (which I haven't talked about with strangers in many many years) and we will be focusing on LOOKING CLOSELY at things. I can't wait.

Since I don't have any new work to show, here are some notes I took in the Intro to Botany class I took last year (which I mentioned here)...









I'm excited to draw next class!
I'm excited to take what I learn from this class and draw in my community garden in the spring. Plants plants plants!

Our instructor gave us each a lemon (which we would have drawn in class, had we the time) and when I got home Mischa promptly knocked it onto the floor and rolled around in adoration of its lemony goodness.



More soon!
xo
Sarah