Drawing pigs (and goats) with friends!

There are quite a few gems in the Bay area but some have a special place in my heart - one of them is Hidden Villa with its trails and animals. Somehow I feel like time runs on a different plane there and I can transcend all sorts of worrying thoughts while I listen to the sounds sleeping pigs and piglets make while I draw them - especially in good company :)

Thank you for making a trip, Suhita! I loved the colorful and fuzzy pig sketches you created so much that now I think we should go there again soon so that I can make more colorful observations!

And we got to see the goats! This time none of them were interested in chewing our sketchbooks - many were super small - but all had a character! 

And this quick landscape is how we closed the sketch outing - by sitting under an olive tree and trying tempera sticks in a bunch of new ways:

You can see (and more importantly - HEAR) some of the process at these two links:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CxOqViKPxZ1/?img_index=1
https://www.instagram.com/p/CxQv2jFPUsS/?img_index=2

A Great Reason to Paint Apples

Apples are one of my favorite things in the whole world. And Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) is an excellent reason to eat (and draw) apples. 

So - Shana Tova Umetuka! to those who celebrate and all around them!

I made a list of things I want to get rid of,  reorganized a big part of my working space and started a few new projects - all while eating apples.

From the Summer Trip: Rivers

A big chunk of time during this summer vacation was spent on the water. We hiked the banks of several rivers, visited waterfalls, kayaked /canoed, jumped across, swam intentionally, cooled off after a proper sauna, and just sat by the moving water of several wonderful rivers. I tried to sketch every time there was a chance - and here are some results. Markers, watercolor, and gouache, printmaking with stencils, some color pencils - all were used to make a selection of sketches below. And on the bottom, you will see some photos of the process. 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. September 3 - 9, 2023.

September 3 - 9, 2023. Days 557 - 562 of war.
This week spoke about our family and friends who are in Ukraine and discussed some winter preparations and how to support whom. People are getting portable stoves, gas tanks, power banks, and flashlights - expecting a repetition of the russian attacks on the infrastructure.
Another discussion was about all sorts of new (for me) Ukrainian words - I had a good stash as I was reading a new book. The book choice was based on Mom's recommendation and I tried reading it a year and a half ago and then my Ukrainian was not enough to survive it. This time I am enjoying it very much! Dad also recommended a book - but it was a book of poems which does not work for me as:
a) I am not capable of reading poetry on a Kindle and
b) I have a limited capacity for poetry in general - meaning I can "overeat" if I read too much in one sitting and the point is to have a consistent time spent with the language - so poetry is not the best match for my goals.
Dad still disagrees with my choice. But he enjoyed our conversation about words nonetheless. 

From the Summer Trip: Shores of the Baltic Sea

I experienced all sorts of weather on my trip and saw the Baltic Sea on a very sunny, warm, and calm day, extremely windy, quite cold and gray day, and everything in between - which only means that I had a typical summer interaction with it. I sat on a dune to sketch, hid from sun under a beach "mushroom" contraption, hid from wind behind a large boulder, and tried to sketch on the run while escaping a horde of mosquitoes. The sketches below are a result of these adventures.