diligent squirrels get the best of tired proofreader

(12x12)
A few years ago I had phenomenal success with sunflowers: I planted a variety of them out front, where I get sun all day, and had some that were over six feet tall. I've tried every year since, but the squirrels always outsmart me.
This year I thought I had a good plan and started the seeds indoors, then planted the seedlings. But I guess seedlings must taste pretty good too, because the next morning they were all gone.
Now I just buy them: I picked up a little bunch at a farm stand day before yesterday. And continue to try to figure out how to paint them.

Houses on bay, North Wildwood
(9x12 sheet)

I put in a long day yesterday trying to finish a proofreading job: an anthology of Middle Eastern writing of the last century. It's fatiguing working on a large job with so many special characters and diacriticals--so many little things, along with all the rest, to keep track of. Diligence is a short-lived virtue.
The collection is one in a series of works put together by Words Without Borders; you can visit their website here. I read their eponymous short story collection and would recommend it. The anthology I'm proofreading, Tablet and Pen, is edited by Reza Aslan and features works translated from Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu.
I didn't finish, but had to stop and was going to just enjoy a few margaritas on the deck, but the bugs were a nuisance, so I came in and made these sketches for painting later, when the job's finished.
My father's--or as I called him when I was small no matter how many times my mother told me he was "daddy," Danny--last job was for Conrail, whose motto was "Keep It Moving," which I've adopted as my own.

"Lucky Danny," Cape May fishing boat (11x15)

(11x15)

edm 44

March 2 is the birthday of both my brother Dan and Peter's sister Penny. They're both 44, so I figured I'd choose "44" as my first Everyday Matters drawing. It turned out to be "draw an animal."
EDM was started by Danny Gregory and is a weekly challenge to draw/paint some everyday item. You can jump in anywhere. View a list of past challenges here.
Artists post their drawing to the EDM Superblog and also to the EDM FlickR group.

I've decided I'm going to try to do some EDMs and practice my drawing skills.
Later in the day I downloaded some photos from a memory disk I haven't used in awhile and found this photo of Nanda lying on the deck looking up at me.

cherries and my darling

(3x5)

I can't believe I've never painted a cherry before--they're so pretty. This attempt is a bit tentative--I wanted to get/keep the reflected light at the bottoms of the cherries, but these are maybe too small (slightly smaller than lifesize) to strive for such details.

(18x24)

A page of drawings of my darling Nanda (named for a Henry James heroine); she's 20-plus pounds of pure sweetness, and hair. "That's a lot to love," the vet says. (Double click on the drawing to see it close up.) The drawing on the upper left was made with a drying out felt-tip pen; I tried to blend some of the lines with water, but, alas, the ink's not water soluble. The other two are pencil, light and blunt; again, I had a problem using what was at hand: a piece of lead shaped like a seashell--a better curio than drawing tool!

(detail)
Trying out some drawing materials in preparation for June 7--drawing day! Read about it at drawingday.org.

two out of three

I wanted to paint on the deck today, but let it go until too late in the afternoon: the clouds are back. Nonetheless, I did manage to get in a 30-minute session outside painting an iris and a rose I picked in my yard today. (The rose is a McCartney tea rose; if you ever see this variety--get one! My plant is leggy--I'm an inept pruner--but produces huge, extraordinarily fragrant, velvety, Barbie-pink blooms.)
Irises I continue to struggle with--though the one in the middle here is my best yet. I think maybe I see too many: too many folds, too many shades of red-blue-purple, too many intricacies--looking in, through the petals ...
I need to do some Emil Nolde-ish irises to break out of my too careful approach.
I wanted to keep this sketchy, and not lose so much of the drawing, but, I overdid it ... I like the subject though, and with some adjustments, I think I can do it again.

I put the drawing in just because I think it's nicer than the painting; for some reason, the composition seems to work better when it's only lines ... BTW I drew this watercolor pencils, a small set I found in the closet (I lost my more extensive set--which was in a really neat canvas roll-up thingy I bought separately; but I haven't seen one in any of the catalogs recently, so if you know where I can get one, please let me know; so much easier that carrying those tins they come in) on my trip to NM; I think some TSA officer must be an aspiring artist!)