Notable Eggplants of this Year

I am a big fan of eggplants - the color, texture, shape, and, as I found out this year, leaves and flowers - all are beautiful, unexpected and inspiring! 

This year we had a very first eggplant plant (in a pot) that gave us several gorgeously purple and star-shaped flowers that were looking down, and then a lovely berry (did you know these are berries??), even though someone tried to eat before us (see sketch below). 

Then my Dad scored stripy eggplants and was super excited to hear that I've never seen anything like that. And then I got a present of an eggplant with a nose! What a year!

We learned how to make a super tasty Baba ghanoush - before we learned how to spell it :) I should probably draw the recipe before the season is over and we stop making it. 

Gouache Reconstitution Process

I've been working with a watercolor+gouache palette for some time now, and also kept a whole bunch of gouache colors - pre-mixed in various ways. The system is not really systematic - it is more of an "oh, I mixed a really cool color and I will carry it with me for some time" situation. So here is how it looks:

I wanted to adjust some of these mixes and realized that a couple of my gouache tubes are completely dry - as in brick dry. Below is a record of my experiment I did to reconstitute them back to life (successful, if a bit messy).

On My Table: Beginning of September 2025

I think August was a very full month, and I have no idea how it went so quickly! Which is something I say often but some months it is feels like it is way more so. I have piles and piles of things on my table: from projects I completed to projects that are about to start. Mementos, messages and little drawing gifts. Projects I thought about but never acted on, things I have to do, scraps of paper where I test materials or write down ideas, or doodle crazy faces to get some drawing steam out of my system before I tackle another non-drawing project. But I've been drawing! And I saw some amazing sunsets recently - so now I can go and clear all this mess away from my desk and hopefully connect my phone to make some videos of sketchbook flip-throughs!  

Summer Travel: Toronto - Airport Sketches

Air travel means there is always a chance to draw people! But airplanes are not designed for a good view - at least I haven't mastered a way to capture something more than an "ear view". Waiting time is another thing! 

Summer Travel: Toronto. Small sketches and notes.

While in Toronto, I walked every day and fell in love with the city that I saw. I took some photos, and drew some things with a tiny set of tools that fits in my waist pack together with other essentials (see photo at the bottom of this post). 

My favorite things:
- little parks, many on little hills
- streets that curve so that you do not see the other end
- apples and sunflowers in the middle of the city
- an amazing cemetery that is actually a huge park
- so many Ukrainian flags
- almost in every window - Canadian flag - and how many versions! Large and small, stickers, made out of flowers, with lights, kids' drawings etc.

Summer Travel: Toronto: Urban Sketching Breaks!

I visited Toronto for almost a week, and on some of the days, I got to paint this beautiful city. I was super lucky with the weather and enjoyed the company of the kind people of Toronto a lot! 

The first three sketches were done with ink, and then I added color with my gouache and watercolor palette. In the first sketch, I was afraid that it might rain, and in both the second and third sketches, I was not sure how much time I had, so I wanted to capture the scene with ink before deciding on adding paint and details. 

The last sketch - of one of the many library branches I had more time and painted it without using lines or ink - directly with the watercolor and gouache paint in my horizontal fabriano watercolor sketchbook. It was a wonderful day to be outside and after sketching I got a soft serve from an ice cream truck and did a little people watching by the tennis court (hands were busy holding sketchbook and eating ice cream so no sketches from the match but it was entertaining!). 

Update on my Parents - Refugees from Ukraine - August, 2024.

On August 24th, Ukraine celebrated its 34th Independence Day! My parents and many people around the world were sending messages of support to each other. And I will share a few sketches and updates about my parents as a part of my celebration of the country whose bravery and determination remind me every day that democracy is something we make with our own everyday actions. By not being indifferent and doing what we can when we can - even a little bit at a time. 

Last time I wrote an update on my parents was in February of this year, and I was lamenting the fact that my Dad is not happy when I draw him, so there were more portraits of Mom. Since then, Dad had significantly more medical appointments than Mom and, this time I have way more portraits of him than of Mom - hopefully by the time I make the next update, I will find a balance :)

Mom got new glasses, which are not perfect but an improvement. She enjoys her pots of flowers and takes pictures of all kinds of insects that come to visit. She cooks many new things (from Dad's recipes, so the results vary) and plays word games with her new friend. They also read aloud to each other and watch lots of movies together. She is excitedly reading "Everything Is Tuberculosis" by John Green in English at the moment. 

Dad plays chess every day and uses google translate to communicate with his chess buddies. He is inventing many new recipes for Mom to try. And watching the movies as well. And he is hoping to get some assistance with his mobility soon, but for now, he takes short trips between benches near the house. 

They keep in touch with the family and friends in Ukraine and around the world, and try to support people with their care and strong belief that the world will get better - perhaps not as fast as we wish, but believing in this is part of making it better.

To read the whole story: https://blog.apple-pine.com/2022/08/war-in-ukraine-guide-through-posts-on.html

One of my Art Heroes - Mary Fedden

I would like to introduce you to one of my art heroes: Mary Fedden. This is an artist whose work I discovered this year, and it opened many other doors for me, spiraling out into articles, books, videos, and changing the way I think about several projects that I began, and now setting me on a new path. I am fascinated with her use of color, how she blends subjects and simplifies things, views, and space. How she works with the surface, how fresh and open her work is.

Mary Fedden was an artist who lived and worked in Britain. During World War II, Fedden worked in the Land Army and then for the Women's Voluntary Service, before being called up to serve as a driver in the NAAFI in 1944. Her artistic career spanned many decades before and after the war, and it overlapped with many very interesting artists, one of whom happened to be her husband, printmaker Julian Trevelyan (JT works means Julian Trevelyan, all the other works in this post are Mary Fedden - from the books mentioned below)

I was able to get my hands on a couple of books to look at her works - one of them, "Mary Fedden: Enigmas and Variations," is now in my collection (thank you for the great birthday present, you know who!), and is filled with many color reproductions of her works. The second book, "Mary Fedden and Julian Trevelyan - Life & Art by the River Thames," is filled with interesting works by Julian Trevelyan (see below) but, most importantly, contains quite a few pages from Mary Fedden's Travel sketchbooks!

Mary Fedden lived to be 96 (here is her obituary in the Guardian from 2012), and I see some of her works online dated 2010. That is truly one of the longest painting careers - though my other art hero, David Hockney, is definitely working on similar results!

There are different ways to learn, and one of them for me is watching people paint - seeing their brushstrokes and choices - without any commentary. Though the commentary in this video is rather interesting too: her love for gouache, working in series, and drawing in a sketchbook everywhere she goes are things that I definitely relate to.

An interesting article to read more about Mary Fedden:

Mary Fedden: the pleasures of life after privation and loss

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/mary-fedden-the-pleasures-of-life-after-privation-and-loss

Ackerman Pen Revival and Dry Flower Bouquet

I thought I would write a few words about the recent revival of my Ackerman pen. But there is not much to write. I left it without cleaning and with ink inside, some months ago, in a little ziplock bag. I took it out, put it in a water jar for a few minutes while I gathered my supplies. Then I took it apart to refill and just dragged my paper towel through the parts. Re-assembled with ink. And then spent some time coaxing ink out (by gentle tapping and writing - you can see the page where I was doing it on the sketch below. Then I sketched this lovely bouquet of dry flowers collected on my neighborhood walks. And that's basically it. My fingers were very inky after this.

Agave Americana takes time to bloom.

Some time this spring, I noticed that a large Agave put out a flower stalk. And by the end of June, it was very high (I estimated 30 feet based on the first sketch). And it was amazingly interesting to draw: the explosion of leaves at the base was overshadowed by the intricacy of all the curly parts on the tall, strong stalk - that signals the end of this plant's life.  

Agave Americana has a common name "Century Plant" which comes from the fact that some plants flower only once at the end of a long life, monocarpic plants. Agave does not live a hundred years - more like 10 to 30. I did not notice this particular plant until it put up a flower despite drawing by it for many years. But I am noticing changes weekly now. It will bloom for quite some time, and then it will put out lots and lots of offshoots. Last week, there were many open flowers, and bees were having a party way up high where blossoms are.