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Ahhh. The last day of my "Julie Andrews" curse. (Let's just hope Dick Van Dyke doesn't start up with Chim-Chim-Cher-ee!)

I present to you: Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String!

These are the kind of packages my grandmothers would send with gifts, cards, clothes, puzzles, coloring books, dolls, and homemade cookies in them. To keep things steady, they would pop up a pan of popcorn and use that to fill in the voids. When you opened the package, you saved the string, carefully folded the paper for later use and inhaled a big whiff of popcorn! (I wonder if anyone ever used real peanuts?)

Thank you, everyone from Instagram and who commented through email and here on my blog with great ideas from "My Favorite Things".  At the risk of going insane with that tune in my head 24-7, there actually are quite a few of those that I just may end up coming back to before the end of Inktober!

Sketching while holding an umbrella

I have the Sistene Umbrella. Not exactly like this, but similar.

It was wet out this morning and as I looked through my studio window, I saw the last roses of summer drooping in the rain. So I grabbed my umbrella, Lamy pen, waterbrush and sketchbook for today's Inktober.

Inktober, Day 7

Oh, my word! I just realized I drew raindrops on roses! (Got way too carried away with the raindrops.)
No, I will NOT be uploading whiskers on kittens tomorrow!

Funny anecdote: One of my Instagram friends wrote under the photo on Instragram:
        Hahahahaha, but that (those) are my favorite things........;)

The Sketchbook Project, Summer and the Olympic Sculpture Park

The Sketchbook Project is coming to Seattle Thursday through Saturday, Aug 13, 14, 15----this week!
Thursday night, from 5:00-8:00pm it's part of the Summer at SAM event with music, a free sketchbook binding and sketching project, food trucks and more! More info here.

Aaaaaand, my sketchbook will be there! #S146463 by Michele Cooper (just one "L") It's in the category, "Wanderer", titled "Not all who Wander are Lost."

I went back three days in a row for this fold out at Jennings park last July. 

My sketchbook has quite a few fold outs, so I didn't have this one digitized. So if you want to see it in person in Seattle, better get on over there! I did a quick page through video here, but you know everything is better in person. :)

Lion's Teeth outside the Studio Window

I looked out my studio window this morning and saw a brave little flower growing in the expansion joint of the sidewalk. The name dandelion is the English name for this beautiful buttercup yellow flower. It is also called lion's tooth- this is because its notched leaves bear much resemblance to the teeth of lions. The sun came out and cast the shadow of the flower head onto one of its leaves. I was charmed!

Sketched where it grows. 

Immediately, I abandoned the idea that I originally had for the last page in my Sketchbook Project. I grabbed my sketchbook and pen, standing over the flower to draw. See, this is the way it goes when your sketchbook is as much a part of your life as wearing shoes!

One of my colleagues on IG reminded me of a poem, “We wouldn't ask why a rose that grew from the concrete for having damaged petals, in turn, we would all celebrate its tenacity, we would all love its will to reach the sun, " - Tupac Shakur

The name dandelion is a corruption of  the original French word dent de lion which when translated means 'lion's teeth'. In Greece the flower is called Leotodon which means lion tooth in Greek. 

Check out my 2015 sketchbook at the Brooklyn Art Library in New York.....once it gets there. See what's on the rest of the page. 

Wanderer

Inside Cover of my 2015 Sketchbook Project

 "Not all those who wander are lost". That is one of my favorite statements.

For my 2015 Sketchbook Project, I decided to meander through my part of the Pacific Northwest, finding subjects either at home or within approximately an hour in any direction. Sometimes I sketched in my book with friends, including the Seattle and Anacortes Urban sketchers. Sometimes I sketched alone on our deck in the back yard, at the kitchen counter or the local public garden.

As you will see, the dates on each page are random, not placed chronologically from front to back. I simply chose the page that best fit my inspiration and used it that day. Wander through my book. You won't be lost while reading it but I trust you will be away for awhile.--Artist's Statement

This sketch sums up my experience of the whole project. I saved the front inside page until the end, so that I would have the whole book finished and I would know how to introduce it.

I'll be mailing my sketchbook off to New York tomorrow. Just in time for the extended, extended deadline, eh?

aRT OR Breakfast

Anyone who has attempted sketching/painting and eating at the same time knows the struggle. The more you focus on your subject, the more delicious it looks and the hungrier you get! As if drawing and painting aren't enough of a challenge already!

Which is why I join Danny Gregory, author of "aRT Before Breakfast", in challenging all you Sunday painters to sketch what you had for breakfast today.

See the 15 second video progression on my Instagram. 

Where is my sketch of the pancakes, you ask? Wellllll, I was trying to select just the right shape of a partially eaten stack of pancakes and before I knew it they were gone! 

Thanks to all those who wrote to tell me that they thought I could have written the book, since so many familiar phrases rang a bell. Well, when it's true, it's true, right Danny? A tip of the beret to you, sir. :)

A Collector's Treasures

Yesterday, I visited a wonderful place with fellow sketchers from ASk. I mean to say, the place wasn't just virtual, it was a state of mind.
We were at the home of one of our fellow artists and she shared her treasures with us. Just like the person, the home was beautiful both inside and out.

(In progress) Almost finished with this year's Sketchbook Project!

All stored in jars, baskets and the collector's memory, each small and seemingly insignificant piece has a story.

Magnuson Park, Seattle

Yesterday, I posted the right side of my sketches from Magnuson Park. I kept the two sections on the left blank until I could at least make an ink drawing of a composition I had in mind. It's funny, because the small sketches on the right side of the page are from my view to the left of where I was standing, and the opposite is true of the left side of the page, seen below.

My view from under the tree

My Micron Ink sketch

Anyway, I needed to wait until I had access to my good brushes. The Aquaflow waterbrush carries its own water supply, but the tuft leaves something to be desired. Why I chose to do those tiny credit card sized sketches with it is beyond me. Maybe it's for the same reason we do anything that's on the edge.....just to see if we can!

Entire 3-section spread

Flowers, Fins & Kites at Magnuson Park

2 credit card sized sketches in my 5x7" Journal

One could spend quite a long time contemplating the rich depth of meaning that can be experienced at Magnuson Park in Seattle.

The public art installation, "Fins", made of recycled dive fins from cold war nuclear submarines, resembles a pod of Orca. They are installed close to the lake, where wildflowers grow along a smooth, paved walking path. The huge property was formerly a US Naval Station, accessible to the public through a narrow sentry gate. No sentry watches the gate now.

My easel under a tree

There is a kite flying hill, where a lone figure assembled his kite, waited, tried and tried again, until he got the kite aloft. Meanwhile, USk Seattle sketchers spread out among the meadows, trees, buildings, climbing wall, and shoreline where they tried and tried again to record their experience of the day.

Whether it's international peace and cooperation, flying a kite, climbing a mountain or other seemingly insurmountable endeavors such as sketching on location, the message seems to be "try and try again."