after i finished my san miguel de allende blurb book, i decided to make a budapest blurb. and then a san cristobal blurb. i’m trying to go back and catch up on past trips… it sure is nice to have a hard copy of past travels. makes a nice companion to a travel journal.
the idea was to get caught up with past books before starting my sweden blurb. but i’m pretty sure my enthusiasm for the process will wane soon, so sweden might have to wait for a bit.
don’t be impressed with the 3 i’ve cranked out. i use the automatic feature to place the photos on their respective pages by date. zip zang zap (!) it’s fast and then it takes about an hour to go rearrange/delete some of them. i don’t add text either. if i need a blah blah blah fix i have the travel journal for that.
i’m practicing drawing & painting bougainvillea. i expect to encounter a lot in guatemala and i must be prepared! i find it one of the more difficult plants to capture. i think it works better when i paint it without drawing first. further study is needed.
lisa sent me some stickers she made of some of her watercolor sketches.
come on! i think they’re terribly clever. she’s using them on mailart.
since she sent me my very own set i think i will follow suit and find some unsuspecting person to surprise.
this is what the sky has been doing lately in the city of angels.
i watch it change while i sit out on my porch in the evenings.
it’s been positively sultry here ever since i mentioned the divine coolness we were having. see how that works?
and last in my string of unrelated topics & tangents…
tv peeps.
that’s all she wrote!
What a pleasant little trip thru the past journeys. Love the rambling around from topic to topic. Just the way my own mind works. I wish I could be as dedicated a sketcher/painter as you are. I’m so happy for you to be able to take these sabbaticals and enjoy the world while you’re young and able to do these journeys while still supple & mobile.
Loved this posting a lot. What’s lacking with your bougainvilleas? They look fine to me. I grew up in So. Cal where these beautiful vines/climbers were on practically every plot of ground, on garden walls or on trellises on homes. One place had let the vines run down the steep bank in the back of their house. When in bloom in spring/summer it was like a cascade of fuchsia blooms flowing down that slope, we could see it from the road below, OMG! What a stunning sight!
Oh Miss Mary Ann
What an awesome, fun filled romp. Those stickers are soooooooooo amazing and cool. Seriously.
And what a great way to share them. Love your peep sketches, so full of personality. Blurb books, gotta love em, it’s on my to do list. I dropped off my chair as I gazed at your Bougainvillea. Me thinks it’s lookin mighty fine indeed. But by all means keep on sketchin’ to your hearts content. I know ya will. Minnesota finally feels like Minnesota. Cool, crisp fall air in the 60,s, sky a brilliant shade of blue, fluffy cotton tail clouds, flittering about, trees are starting to show off too, from green to gold, almost overnight it seems. Should your travels ever take you a wee bit norther here in the states, nothin’ beats Minnesota in the fall. So many shades of orange, red, and gold, a bunch of greens from the pines and contrasts of black and white happily provided by a preponderance of birch. Ahhhhhhh so pretty. I can’t wait to see the many photos you capture in Guatemala. I will be there in spirit and enjoyin the views. 🙂
I definitely need to make some blurb books from my travels. But first I need to sort out my photo storage situation. Hundreds, probably thousands of photos are taking up too much space on my hard drive! Any chance you might do a blog post advising us how you store all your photos?
Love the blog and all your amazingly yumm-o work. In Guatemala check out the jade factories-31 colors from milky white, pinks,greens,and black green ! It’s amazing to see how jade crazy the civilizations that have lived there have been. More greens in Guatemala than any other place on the planet…and the COFFEE! Living vicariously AGAIN!
I am entranced by your random thoughts. It make me feel as if we were visiting face to face, just saying whatever popped into our thoughts. Smile.
Pink sketches, yay! Also: Please film and share your blurb books? I’d love to browse through them with you!
Stickers are brilliant!!! Just thinking of doing them makes me think of sketching very differently. I’m excited to give that a try. And that set Lisa sent you are so fun! The turquoise bench against that mango wall!!! Gorgeous and hot. Love it.
Only the most excellent of role models would demonstrate so many cool things to do in one post. 🙂
I think blurb books of vacations is a most excellent plan, but have never made one……… I blog my vacations, but………….. Wondering if I could bear to leave out the blah, blah blah (or, in my case, the Wow! WOW. WOW WOW!!!!!!! lol….). Then wondering if I have really done what I mean to do with the blog posts. Then wondering if books with “just pictures” wouldn’t be added enjoyment……………
One day I will have to dive in and find out! 🙂 I bought a blurb book, several years ago, of someone’s art retreat, and it was wonderful — such nice paper (nice to touch, nice to look at), AND beautiful pics…………….. I was impressed by the quality……………..
Stickers — amazing. Love them. Mail art? Also amazing. Wouldn’t it be cool if we received mail art periodically? Something besides ads in the mailbox — what a concept!
SKIES! Love to watch the skies. We were in Chicago last month, and were lucky enough to get a lake view from the hotel. I sat and watched the park, the lake, the fountain, the sky……………………………………………… A room with a ***VIEW***. Wow!!!! 😉 😉 😉
Your sketched people!!! Love your color choice, and love what happens with the added water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow. 🙂 Nice work!!!
Thank you. 🙂
ps — I don’t know if your blurb books are too personal for this, but I bet many of us would love to have a bit of your work in that form. A possible revenue stream? Especially if “print on demand” so someone else has to do all the work and just sends you the money?
I am in love with your Bougainvillea paintings! They are wonderful! Also very fond of those adorable stickers from Lisa. The sky is downright luminescent. That pinkish orange is stunning! I have been getting some art done, but September is my health month, so I am doing tons of doc appointments and eye appointments too. I have both glaucoma and cataracts, and need cataract surgery. Now that I am finally loving art and life so much it would be a shame to go blind. I found out that it is hereditary and my great grandma was totally blind. I have had perfect eyesight until just recently. I told my eye doc that I have been going around with my eyes closed practicing just in case. I promised him I wasn’t practicing when I was driving. He laughed:). That’s what those turtle bumps are for on the highway…so blind people will know if they cross into the other lane. JUST KIDDING! My brother told some girl that, and she believed him. Dear me… ANYWAYYYY….OH! Your TV characters are cool! But how do you sketch them so fast when they are moving and stuff? Thanks for sharing your life and art, and photography with us, Mary Ann.
Fantastic paintings and doodlings of all kinds here, and great conversation! I think you should be called the Inspirer! I finally did a painting in my journal again over on my blog and FB, and gosh I really want to keep going….I am always discovering new things! And, those stickers are great!
I really enjoyed this post (of course I like all your post, silly me!) because it was all over the place. I am happy that I am not the lone ranger on that. I love those stickers. Stupid question…. what did she make them on? Mmmmm my inquiring brain wants to know. I think that idea is just great. I am proud of you doing 3 (THREE MIND YOU) Blurb books. I think I shall have to get off my rear and get to work on all these creative ideas that are floating about in my gray cells. You do put me to shame. But I love traveling about the world with you. You always make my day!
?your rambles make me smile. You’ve inspired me. Wonder how a TV drawing from law and order would work. Where’s my pen loaded w wild strawberry and my lime green Fabriano EcoQuo. Maybe it’s christmas?! ?