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 ©2012 Carolyn A Pappas, Ashtrays. Graphite, colored pencil and marker in 8.5 x 11 inch sketchbook. I sketched it twice. The sketch on the left was first and I was off quite a bit. I came closer to the actual object on my second sketch (right). Elipses were never my cup of tea (whose are they, anyway?). I could fill up a sketchbook of practice sketches and still be improving.
I stayed with my grandfather (Papou) when I was in college and for a few years afterward. He passed away this past year, and his house was recently sold. I’ve always loved his house. It was a simple ranch, but it was nicely decorated with lots of original art. The landscaping was impeccable. He had mini palm, orange and fig trees out on the patio in the summer and kept them in his heated garage in the winter. He had lovely, mature Japanese maple trees. Even though I will miss him more than any thing, I will truly miss his house. It was always there and available for me to stop in any time. If I ever build my own house someday, I think I will build a replica of his house. I went through my old drawings and put together a flickr set of some of the drawings that I made at Papou’s house over the years.
“right now” staying focused on the present, mindful and in the moment, an image from the week, with no words or a few words, that acknowledges the “right now”. Inspired by Ann.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, 30 min Pear Sketch. Colored pencil in 8.5 x 11 inch sketchbook. 2011 was a big year for me, although not so much on the art front. I did have goals for this year, but other things took up my energy. Even though things weren’t as productive as I’d like in terms of my artwork, I did have quite the year personally. I had quite a few deaths in the family and a lot of personal upheavals as well, such as moving. Of all my goals, I think the only one I was successful with was spending more time in my sketchbooks. Sometimes this was the only thing that I could bring myself to do because I felt so rotten. Now that I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, I expect that this trend will continue into 2012. Interestingly, I feel that I have been more productive with my time since I had Cate. Perhaps this is because “free time” is so precious to me now that I barely have any. Since I’ve become a mother I’ve begun to spend more time thinking seriously about my artwork and how I want to spend my time on it. I never really thought about it before, but now I am more serious about creating a legacy for my daughter. I want her to see me as someone who is can work toward a goal and isn’t afraid to take a risk. This is also the first year that I’ve put my minimalist ideals into practice. I’ve been interested in the minimalist lifestyle for some time now, but moving into a much smaller home really forced me to take some action. Besides getting rid of a ton of personal and household items, I disposed of a large number of art supplies that I was no longer using regularly. I’ve learned that I can truly thrive with much fewer things to manage. In fact, I like the feeling of having a lighter load. Next time, I’ll explain my goal setting philosophy for 2012.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Two Pears on Blue. Watercolor, 2.5 x 4.5 inches. This is the last of my mini fruit still lifes. I really loved painting them and I hope that you enjoyed looking at them. I’m wishing all my readers a festive Christmas this year. I am having an especially good Advent season and I hope it is the same for you all as well.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Pear Slices 2. Watercolor, 2.5 x 4.5 inches. Here is another composition of sliced pears, this time with bold blue shadows. I really like the combination of blue and brown. Now that I have both ultramarine blue and raw umber on my palette, I think I’ll really enjoy myself.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Pear Slices 1. Watercolor, 2.5 x 4.5 inches. In reality, this pear was unripe and not very good for eating. It was sitting on a plate getting kind of slimy when I painted this little still life, but I like the way the painting turned out. The blog Orangette recently had a lovely piece about poached pears. I would love to try it if I were lucky enough to find good pears, which is rare in New England. Perhaps I will try it the next time I get a box from Harry and David. I never really commemorated blog anniversaries before, but I was looking through my archives the other day and I realized that my blog is turning three today. I have been posting my work elsewhere online since 2005, but this is the first blog that I’ve really made “my own.”  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Apples and Pear. Watercolor, 2.5 x 4.5 inches. The above painting is another one from earlier this year. Just looking at all my old watercolors makes me want to sit down and paint again. I wish I had more time!  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Pears and Apple. Watercolor, 2.5 x 4.5 inches. While organizing through my art supplies during my move, I found a number of watercolor fruit still lifes that I had completed last January as a practice exercise. I will show you all of them later on, and I’m thinking of making more because it was such good practice. Thanksgiving is going to be really hectic for me this year, but I can’t wait for my relatives to meet baby Cate. She is truly the best gift I could have asked for. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving with your families as well.  ©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, 7/31/11 sketchbook (Leftover Plums). Colored pencil in large handbook sketchbook. I sketched these leftover plums the other day after baking one of my favorite fruit desserts, plum crumb (recipe below). It has been a really long time since I ever sketched something in colored pencil for practice. I felt rusty and I want to start sketching using colored pencils more often. Here, I used four different Prismacolor pencils: magenta, tuscan red, indigo blue and yellow ochre. Plum CrumbToss 4 cups quartered fresh plums with: ½ cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Arrange in an 11 x 7 baking dish. Crumble together and spread over plums: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, 1 beaten egg. Then drizzle 1 stick of melted butter over the top and bake at 375° F for 45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. |
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Copyright ©2012 Carolyn A Pappas - All Rights Reserved |
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