From the Sketchbook...

I took another exercise from the book Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim, in which she suggests making a visit to the library and browsing the shelves for a few minutes until something should catch our eye. It was up to us how much time we wanted to spend sketching from the inspired book or books.
I have no trouble finding inspiration at the library. After a few minutes I came across a book on Topiary Gardens. This appealed to me immediately because (if I have failed to mention before) trees are among my favorite things to draw. I love the shapes, the branches, the negative spaces, and the variety- everything about them. I'd never studied topiaries in detail so I thought it would be fun to try drawing them.

Noah

I wanted to share this photo of my nephew Noah taken at ArtSplash, an annual Labor Day festival held on the Missouri River. He'll be four years old this week and I was thinking today about the months leading up to his birth and how I was so excited to become an aunt, and I thought about all the things I wanted to eventually share with him. Encouraging him in art has been easy- drawing, painting, collage, he loves all of it. I feel very lucky to be the aunt of such a wonderful little person who is growing up so fast!