Balancing Rock sketch

A quick sketch from our hike yesterday.

It's another gorgeous day today. I have bread rising right now, but after it's baked, I think M. and I will grab the stroller and go visiting.

family hike to Balancing Rock

We took the kids for a hike to the island's best known landmark, Balancing Rock, in Tiverton. The day was beautiful, with temperatures hovering just above freezing. There was no wind, and the woods were hushed with the layer of snow. The sun was so bright and felt so warm at the shore, such a nice break from the cold, miserable weather we've had lately. As hubby said yesterday "If winter were like this more often, I wouldn't mind it nearly as much".

The path/stairs to Balancing Rock.

Balancing Rock, a 30 ft (?) Basalt column perched above the St. Mary's Bay.

Looking 'up' the shore from Balancing Rock, a view of the mainland at East Ferry.

whales ATC

ATC size, 2.5"x3.5", watercolours, micron pen & gel pen on Reeves watercolour board.

celtic whales

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. I've been busy with kids, colds and flus, too many snow days.

I've been working on the celtic raven painting, but I'm not happy with it at this stage, so I'm not showing it to you, yet. ;)

I will show you the line drawing I did last night. I will work on it more today, and hopefully post again with something finished.

Celtic humpbacks, about 4"x4".

so I'm really into the ATCs...

Copper on blue spiral fragment

gel pen and acrylic paint on mulberry paper

2.5" x 3.5"

Water lily

coloured pencil on textured cardstock,

2.5" x 3.5"

Gold leaf Relief Knot ATC

Gold leaf relief knot,

gesso and gold leaf on (three thicknesses of) acid free cardstock

3.5" x 2.5"

I wish you could touch this! The fun thing about this series of ATC's is that I can try new techniques on a small scale. I had a lot of fun building layers of gesso to make this knot three dimensional. It's not as smooth as it could be, but I rushed it because I wasn't sure if the idea would work. Next time, I'll use thinner layers of gesso, and sand down the final layers a bit, if need be. Still, I was thrilled with it. It's so tactile, and I made sure to give it a couple of light coats of Kamar varnish so it can be touched.