Flow front

We made a special trip down to the lava flow front this weekend and caught a glimpse of the lava entering the ocean about a half a mile away. Huge billows of steam blew bits of rock up to form a small black sand beach near the entry way. Pretty cool. Smells of the trip: salty ocean breeze, newly formed pahoehoe rocks heating in the sun, ripe guava picked off a nearby tree, and a tall glass of Heiferweisen at Luquin's in Pahoa. I did this very quick watercolor to capture the moment.

Still life goes on

Ever get the craving for a splash of color and the feel of paint brushes in your hand? I got the craving last night and started this painting of some fruit I pulled from my fruit basket. I probably overworked the colors ... but I had fun putting glaze over glaze over glaze. The entire time I could smell the ripe fruit and already took a bite of the one on the left and alas, it is no more. Thanks for stopping by!

Textures study

Using a pen definitely has its challenges, including capturing textures and I surely needed some practice so this is it. I had such a fun time with it that I may start another texture study tonight! (Click on the image to see it larger)

I am hopeful

"It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today." - President Barack Obama

I was watching an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show on YouTube last night and she was talking with Jennifer Aniston, her guest that day, and Jennifer Aniston said something that struck me as being a very different mindset from the past 8 years. She mentioned that with our new leader, there is shift in what we want and said, "Maybe we want good news! it's sort of like `Oh! the country had a really bad boyfriend for awhile' and then all of a sudden, its like, `Oh! She finally met a nice one!'" Ellen agreed and challenged the news to cut back on the bad news and focus on the positive wonderful things that happen! I am ALL for that!

I was so inspired by that that I picked up my color pencils and drew this freehand ... I just let the pencil do its thing starting with the highlights. Ok, it may not look like President Obama so much but my heart was in the right place. :)