Apple-Pine

Slow-Opening Irises

I recently found a gift of wonderful bouquet of irises waiting for me on the table. They sat closed for the first couple of days and then opened one by one as I was sitting at the table, finishing some sketchbook catching up and having tea - they managed to change completely between two cups and that was the very first page of my sketchbook 166 :) (Usually I draw my current tools but I think this was very appropriate thing to catch in my daily drawn documentary :)

I Grew Carrots in a Pot!

My garden adventures continue! These exceptionally fragrant and beautifully shaped 12 carrots grew from a seed in a lovely pot and were shared with family and friends after the sketch :) (I also made a bowl they are sitting in, but not the pot they grew in - that is my next step ;)

Let's Draw Google Bikes!

On a day with some amazing clouds I had a little drawing adventure / art materials testing session at the Google Visitor Experience Center. I enjoyed Etchr Hot Pressed sketchbook for the first two sketches and Strathmore Drawing Paper for the last sketch. Lots of different materials were used here and there, but my freshly cleaned flex nib fountain pen was my main drawing joy for this outing.

Update on my Parents - Refugees from Ukraine - August 2026.

It is August, and Ukraine is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the proclamation of Independence. There are many phone calls and many memories from 35 years ago, and all the things that happened before and all the things that happened after. I see many videos online that are made along the lines of "a list of the most important moments in the 35 years since Ukraine's independence was proclaimed" - I wonder what my parents would put on that list. Though it might be a tough conversation to have - there are many opinions in the family about many different things :)

But that is a great thing about Ukrainians and their history - there is no "one right version" - there are heated debates about things that happened hundreds of years ago, 25, 15 years ago (and sometimes 15 minutes ago). One thing I am sure about, though - we all are glad that we voted for independence. Freedom of self-determination is worth fighting for.

Since my last update, Mom had some health-related adventures and now has a surprise new hip joint and some follow-ups in the future. Her flowers suffered during her hospital stay because my Dad was watering them 4 times a day, but otherwise he stoically took Mom's absence, played chess, drove his electric wheelchair to stores, and invented even more recipes. Family and friends rallied around him during that time, and we are truly grateful. And always grateful to all who support Ukraine and fight for it!

You can read a whole story about this series of portraits here: War in Ukraine: Guide Through Posts on this Blog.

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 10: Miscellaneous!

As always, there are stories and sketches in each trip that are hard to categorize - I told you most of my Toulouse adventures in the previous 9 posts, but much is still left unsaid! I scanned a few more pages to add here as a reminder that there is more :)

For example, I took an amazing collage class from a long-time online art friend whom I saw in real life for the first time - Marina Grechanik. How we got to share materials with a great group in this class, got bombed by a pigeon, and how much joy it brought me to collage a leaf from that park in my sketch, and how I still think about what I learned there.

And how there were parakeets in the park near our hotel, and apple trees and many interesting birds, and mice and rats - especially if you are out for a stroll at 7 am. How after a few days I had "stairs friends" and how breakfast became my most important meal of the day. How there were fireworks on Bastille Day and an important soccer match watched by the whole country, and how I slept through it all. How there were treasures to find and draw. How I went to an art museum to see Sorolla and saw Bonnard. How I played art games with friends and how I spent an unexpected extra time in Toulouse.