A much needed rest
I took my last final exam yesterday and then breathed a sigh of relief. It is so good to have a small rest. I spent the day today working in my sketchbook. The artwork I have made over the past…
Carolyn A Pappas
Nature and Landscape Art
Carolyn A Pappas
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
I read this book a few months back and it has really stuck with me, which is rare for a nonfiction book. I am someone who has struggled for years with what Marie Kondo calls “rebound.” My relationship with organization…
A Pause
I’m at the halfway mark of my intense summer school schedule and I’m breathing a small sigh of relief. (On Monday I get started on my second dose of Chemistry.) I have taken to making small abstract sketches on graph…
The last long weekend
My last day of work was this past Wednesday and I’ve taken the past few days off before school starts to take care of some things around the house and to do the last of my pleasure reading until the…
Self Portrait with a Smile
I’ve been dealing with chronic tooth pain after an accidental blow to the face this past January and I ended up getting a root canal done on Friday. At least in the short term, it has seemed to make my…
Sculptural Trees
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
Northampton Garden
I’ve been delving into my reference files and made the above drawing from the same scene that I drew in this drawing from 2009. I made the earlier drawing from life and added the watercolor at home. I find it…
Boston!
My dad and I went to Boston for the day yesterday. It was an absolutely beautiful and sunny day. Unfortunately, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is closed on Tuesdays, but we are planning a return trip. We visited MCPHS University,…
Spinach Illustrations
The above images are three illustrations of spinach I made for Sow True Seed, an open-pollinated and heirloom garden seed company. I illustrated three varieties of spinach: America, Winter Giant, and Bloomsdale Longstanding (shown in that order), and these images…
Spring!
“Spring is the time of plans and projects.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina Today felt like a late January winter’s day with snow and wind, but over the past few weeks the snow mounds have gone down some and I…
Testing some new paints
I splurged and bought a Winsor & Newton compact paint box and I took it for its first test drive today in my sketchbook, trying out different mixes and seeing how colors look when they are layered over other colors.…
The Princess Box
I took a little break from my normal work to paint this box. My boss gave me this 4.5 inch diameter plain paper mache box filled with candy last Christmas, and I immediately thought I would do something to decorate…