Eat this!

Have you ever felt a craving for something fresh and green and deliciously simple? I sometimes do. We all know we should eat a salad everyday, but do we? I don't! Which is silly considering I really love salads. And I love simple, elegant and yet surprising combinations, so this piece from the New York Times was great to read.

Look at this picture: Every one of those salads is making me drool! Hope you enjoy the recipes. Now excuse me while I go dig out that feta I bought the other day! YUM!

Painting of the day - Three Leaves

I think I now have THREE paintings now that I call Three Leaves, because they all feature...three leaves!!!

Anyhow this is the latest:



I'm not really happy with it, although I can't pinpoint why. Maybe it's several reasons, not one. But sometimes it helps if I leave an unsatisfactory piece alone for a bit and come back later and look at it again, and I can suddenly see clearly where the fault lies.

On the other hand, even pieces that I do like initially on going back to them seem full of things I could have done/avoided. I hope that's a good thing!

Does anything jump out at you about this piece that you don't like? I'd appreciate your feedback very much!

Blue + Green = Lovely!

One of my most favorite color combos is blue and green together. Since there is so much blue and green in nature I guess it's inevitable. Anyhow, I did this little sketch yesterday while painting with the BabyDragon, and although I painted it with the drop like shapes on the top. I quite liked it when I turned it upside down! Now it's like a bunch of submerged water droplets in a bluey green pond, and the blue that was actually water is now the sky.

I actually took the time to list this one, and you can get it in my shop!

Vacation's over

My parents left for Houston today. Having them around the past couple of months was like a holiday, and I didn't do any painting or illustrating (I have a book in hand I haven't even touched, and my only saving grace is that I didn't get a deadline for this one). It was lovely to have them, and BabyBird is already missing her NanaNani. Even DaddyBoy said the house feels weird without them. We wish they'd move here and stay with us, but I don't know what would convince them that they wouldn't be imposing.

Meanwhile, maybe I could fly over to Houston for a few days while they are still in North America, before they head back to India!

And now, I really, really need to get back to work! I'm looking forward to being able to concentrate on the many tasks ahead of me, but I also feel empty inside. I found this picture I took recently of BabyBird's little baby shoes lying on the sand exactly as she'd taken them off, and it fills me with the same mixed feelings I'm experiencing right now.



No, the sand wasn't blue, but those shoes really are rainbow-colored.

Sketch of the day

Sketch of the day

Playing with photos

I absolutely love taking abstract pictures. When I was a kid I was fascinated by macro photography, because it reveals patterns and textures we neglect to see, but also because how beautifully abstract such images usually are. To me they are worlds within worlds waiting to surprise and delight us.

Thankfully, abstract images are all around us, and I don't need a fancy lens to capture them!



Retouched image of a picture I took of the wooden edge surrounding the children's play area in the beach park at Port Dalhousie, LittleBird's favorite place because of the wonderful historical carousel there.

Water

Lake Ontario on a cloudy summer day.

Sketch of the day

Another landscape study in PS.

Pics From My Camera Department

Leaves are one of my favoritest subjects to paint or photograph. With their variety and simplicity, they never fail to fascinate.



Can you spot the lens flare-like effect of the sun behind the leaves on the upper right corner?

Sketch of the day

Pics-From-My-Camera Department

A tree and some sky...from two months ago.



The first flush of Spring! After the winter's long white spell, the first colors of life are so delicious even the sky suddenly looks animated - what with the blue showing through and the clouds all wispy instead of the dark and brooding clusters of unformed snow.

This picture was taken more than a couple of months ago but I remember how crisp the air felt when BabySparrow and I went out for our walk that day.



And, oh my goodness, the trees! This one is in our condo parking area. There are several others too, but this one is closer to our lot so I wasn't afraid to run up to it and snag a few shots.

Of course, those unbelievable flowers are long gone, but their impact remains both in my mind, and, I hope, in these pictures.

Book number four: WIP

Some samples from the latest book I am illustrating. This one is about charity and generosity - a nice prelude to the blessings of Ramadan.