Laurelines

Off to the 'glorious, forbidding north!'

Thanksgiving with my mother and brothers and their families was a whirl, with no time for sketching. I left her yesterday, all manicured, pedicured, massaged, read to, fed, and now installed in a private room in her nursing home. She's in the tender and capable hands of my sister-in-law, my nephew, and my brothers, so I'm going to stick to my year-long plan to make a  6-day trip to the Arctic Circle, on a working ship's voyage up the Norwegian coast. (Is that enough prepositions for you?) My husband and I leave Thursday.

I fell HARD for the idea of this voyage when I first read about it last February in a New York Times travel article by Paul Schneider. If Paul's compelling story featuring northern lights, arctic hurricanes, and broodingly beautiful coastline doesn't get your wanderlust all riled up, then I don't know what would. Of course, you may find your pleasure basking under sunny skies. Me, I was born in the middle of the Bering Sea, in a blizzard, on an extinct volcano, at home. This Norwegian coastal voyage will be luxurious compared to my ragged entrance in this world.

Here's Paul's article, from which the title of this post is drawn.

And click here to visit his website. He's a wonderful writer, as you'll soon see.

And here are some photos by Florian Seiffert of Germany, of scenes from his October Hurtigruten voyage:
 

I will spend many hours onboard our ship, drawing, painting the scenes laid out before me in the dark and wintry days ahead. See you soon!

Drawing life

This is my mother sleeping.
The days draw in. Weeks, perhaps months.

We talk. I read to her. She sleeps.

My husband and I will spend Thanksgiving and the weekend with her. I hope to make more drawings of her then---awake, this time.  She's been a knockout all her life. She still is.

Here, there, and everywhere

 Well, not here recently, unfortunately---and not everywhere... but still.

I've had to abandon my normal work schedule for the past couple of weeks to spend time with my beautiful mother and to finish up a project I thought was already, way, way finished---you know how THAT goes.

If I've been behind the scenes here, I've been on the scene elsewhere,
featured here and here,
 on the blogs of two dynamic, gifted, and charming women. 

By now it's  dog-eared and flea-bitten to say it, but isn't cyberspace grand? The improbable, the once-impossible happens every single day. I've met both of these wonderful women in real life, but our connections have been made stronger and more visible, thanks to the long- reaching filaments of the internet!

Thank you, Lucy and Anne. I'm so proud to be blogged by you!

As for me, I'll be back very soon, with the prospect of an incredibly exciting voyage to tell you about! Hint: it's going to be cold, cold, and dark ---and glorious!

Brittany sketches, part six and last!

Oh, I long to be back there, on that secluded beach, on that glorious autumn afternoon. A very moving, tender polychrome figure, one of many such at the Museum of Breton Culture in Quimper. This is a world-class museum on an intimate scale. You should go if ever you have the chance! The doors of my rented house in the Breton countryside were almost electric in their blueness. There was a doll museum in Josselin, containing the collection of a member of the Rohan family, who've owned the adjacent chateau since time began. Or thereabouts. Early in my stay, Casey and I had lunch in Lochmariaquer, before taking a boat ride among the nearby islands. Here were some neighbors at the cafe. Be sure to check out Casey's sketches of Brittany---she posted more yesterday. So, c'est tout, les amis. I have no more of Brittany to share. Hasn't it been fun, though? I hope someday to return to that surprising, enchanting place.

Brittany sketches, part five!

< The only good thing about having to grab moments to post sketches in between other, more pressing business is that this drawn-out process allows the memories of that wonderful trip to linger more vividly...  it's as if those three weeks in Brittany had a sillage, the perfume of which I can still detect in the air afterward, many days and thousands of miles away.

Brittany sketches, part four!

In addition to gathering information and images for my water series of paintings, I was a regular old tourist in Brittany, as these sketches will show. I had never been there before, so I wanted to see as much as I could. In three weeks, I drove 3000 km. And I'd still be there, tootling around the region in my little Opel, sketchbook in hand and wide smile on my face, if I could. More sketches to come, but family matters are intense once again, so it may be a few days before I can find the time to post again.