Category: Various

This month is the three year anniversary of my double knee replacement. It has paid off wonderfully, I am pain-free, and most days I meet my 7,000 step Fitbit goal. At the time, though, it was an act of faith, and I thank God for modern medicine and the wonderful men and women who provide it.

Here’s my “Day in Rehab” I created three years ago, with a set of pens someone had brought me.  If you can pinch it open, you will see the PT stands for “Pain and Torture,” and OT for “Occasional Torture.”

 

The secret of watercolor’s special effects is that water attracts water. If you put some paint into a dry area, it will stay put. If you add it to an area you have previously wetted with plain water or another color, it will bleed and spread. You can see examples in this abstract.

Wishing you and yours a blessed holiday of giving and sharing!

(This Christmas tree was “painted” on an iPad.)

 

I just finished Luna, a pet portrait I was commissioned to paint as  a Christmas present. I couldn’t stop smiling as I painted because she is so adorable. (pet portrait info here.)

Apologies to anyone who has tried to email me by clicking “reply” to my posts in the last month. I just found out there was a glitch in my website email (which usually forwards automatically to lynnholbein@gmail.com) starting on Nov. 19th,  and many of the emails since bounced. It’s fixed now, but if there was anything important, please write again, and so sorry.

This little pot of yellow flowers wanted to be painted.

A friend of mine loves abstracts. “They’re like magic!” she says. This is for you, Millie.

Exercise has always been a challenge for me. There always seem to be more pressing things to do. So this quote, on a sign at the YMCA, was a reality check. With the help of a new FitBit and some warmer layers, I’m becoming more consistent about daily walks and yoga stretches.

 

 

Gratitude makes us happier.  Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

For years I have painted portraits of different animals, and I can paint yours! These pet portraits make great holiday gifts. Here are two of my portraits, of Arlo the dog and Mr. T.

An original 11″ 14″ watercolor, matted, is $295, and a 16″ x 20″ matted is $350. Each fit a standard sized frame. I paint from your photo. Each painting takes about a week to paint, so let me know soon if you are thinking of the holidays. They make great birthday presents too.

In modern society where few of us grow our own food, how many of us can visualize an artichoke plant or an almond tree?  This stalk from Trader Joe’s was fun to paint. (Roasted Brussel Sprouts: toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast 30-45 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Yum!)

A reminder of family and friends who died too young.

This week is the second anniversary of the death of my dear cousin Connie, who was 71.

Did you know that in the year 1900, the average person died at 49?

We are blessed to be alive, in this moment, right now.

This weekend Bruce and I have been in Brooklyn to help our son Andrew with six-month-old Maggie while he works, and our daughter-in-law Eva travels to California for a family wedding. While Maggie napped I went to a nearby coffee shop. What I loved drawing most about this scene was the traffic light and the one way sign.

And what a privilege to be with this adorable baby!

 

 

 

How to compose a drawing or painting, even of a single subject like this, is a question. Should you put it right in the middle? Should you show the entire object, or crop it? Having the object off-center or cropping it often makes a more interesting composition. Here I painted the grapefruit off-center, then took a photo and cropped it. What do you think?

Yesterday was unseasonably warm, so Bruce and I went out on the Charles River in our kayaks, which our neighbors the Haywoods are kind enough to let us leave in their yard. The colors of the trees lining the river are getting subdued, and golds and oranges are beginning to creep in. I blame any uneven lines on the rocking of the kayak. And who needs a cup of water when the river is right there? If you look closely, you can see the two birds and the wood duck box on the left, and of course the kayaker on the right.

Avocados are, in my opinion, nature’s perfect food. So when my friend Justin and I tried out the new Mexican restaurant in West Newton Square last week, I couldn’t wait to order guacamole. It took a great deal of restraint to do the drawing before eating, and the bowl was nearly empty before I got out my paintbrush.

I’m taking a break from making sketches of our train trip. Here’s a saying that really makes sense, doesn’t it?

When I first started painting 20 years ago, I preferred to paint slowly and take hours to create a finished painting. Now I get a kick out of doing quick sketches, and especially get a high when there is time pressure. This sketch of the Seattle waterfront was done while we were waiting for our order at the Sound View Cafe in Pike’s Place Market.  The orange cranes and crates in the background are loading container ships.  

The design of small living spaces — mobile homes, RV’s — is a real art. Bedrooms on Amtrak are cozy and have a couch, chair, closet and storage spaces, sink, toilet and even a little shower. At night they convert to upper and lower beds. They are quite comfortable, the food in the dining car is good, and the views from the observation car are often spectacular. Here are sketches facing each side.

 

 

Our first destination on our Amtrak tour of the U.S. was Chicago. We went on the Architecture River Cruise, which is terrific. Chicago is rightly proud of the distinctive architecture of its skyscrapers which line the three branches of the Chicago River. In the last decade the river has become so clean that kayakers paddle nimbly among the big tour boats.

 

I’m so grateful to modern medicine and my double knee replacement two years ago which, after nine years of limited activity, are allowing me to indulge my travel bug.  Bruce and I are just starting a 12-day train trip around the United States, something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. We’ll be taking overnight sleeper trains from Boston > Chicago, Chicago > Seattle, Seattle > Los Angeles, and Los Angeles > Chicago, spending six nights in the train and two nights in each city before returning home. I look forward to sketching and sharing with you.

 

Our two granddaughters met yesterday when our daughter Kate and her husband and daughter joined us in Brooklyn. Here is a photo of 12-year-old Lila meeting two-month-old Maggie for the first time!

And here is a drawing of a cafe.

What I love about watercolor is the very thing that drives some people nuts: the difficulty of controlling it once wet paint touches wet paper. It’s much easier to control in the areas where the paper was dry. Often paintings are a combination of both.  See if you can pick out the parts of this painting where wet paint touched wet paper, and the parts where dry paper left clean edges.

The dogwood trees are so beautiful at this time of year. I tried to paint this in a somewhat Asian style, and took liberties with the pinks and blues.

It’s fun to have a kit with watercolor supplies sitting by the front door, ready to grab as you go. If you find yourself in a waiting room or a coffee shop, you’re all set to make a quick sketch.

Here’s what’s in mine, both in and out of the bag. Each underlined word is a link to that item on Amazon. These supplies are surprisingly affordable, especially considering that watercolor paint, when rewetted, is good for years — the total cost of this kit is $47 plus $40 for the optional items.

Watercolor Palette with 24 colors and three waterbrushes. (Just $19!) (Video: how to use a waterbrush.) Field sketchbook. Sharpie. Bag. Ordinary #2 pencil. Napkin.  Optional four items top left: Kneaded eraser. Travel brush. Collapsible cup. Pencil Sharpener.

A few lines are all you need to make a sketch which turns out to be universal of mothers and their infants. And what is more appealing than the way newborns scrunch themselves up when they sleep?

As we eagerly await the birth of our grandchild, I’ve been thinking about the overused word “love.” While it’s central to all the world’s religions, and found in nearly every pop song, what does it really mean? I like this quote from Sharon Salzburg, “When we really examine kindness,  we find it is a deep and abiding understanding of how connected we all are.”