koukla carolyn

The Lady of the House, graphite (9×12), Carolyn Pappas 2008

My Yiayia (grandmother) kept this little woman nestled among her houseplants. On Wednesday she had an unfortunate run in with my mother’s four month old German Shepherd puppy, but she was unscathed. Seeing her toppled over on the floor reminded me that I had been wanting to draw her for a long time now. I had once done a sketch of her when I was a young teenager but it didn’t come out very well. I made this sketch yesterday after work.

Don’t demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them to. Accept events as they actually happen. That way peace is possible. -Epictetus

Swan Sketch, graphite in 9×12 sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

I once took a calligraphy class and the instuctor said, “You’ll never see your mistakes unless you work BIG.” Of course she was talking about working in calligraphy and she was explaining why she was having us work in the biggest possible nibs. (She also said she thought I was a monk in a past life!) But I have noticed that the same principle also applies to my art. Today I made this fairly large drawing of a metal swan and it was so difficult. I spent ages just erasing and going over it again and again. I had no idea that it was going to be so frustrating and I didn’t even spend as much time on the details as I could have. Years ago, I drew another version of the same object (see below) but it didn’t seem nearly as hard. I think because it was such a small drawing it was easier to fudge on the details.

Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. Proverbs 11:28

Fig Leaf Sketch, ballpoint and colored pencil, Carolyn Pappas 2008

Garden Sketch (8/30/08), black pitt pens in kraft paper sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

Drawing leaves outside has been sort of a theme for me lately. I guess the main reason is that I figure that soon it will be too cold to do a lot of sketching outside and by the time I get home from work, it will be dark. I am already preparing a list of ideas for still lifes and reference photos to use for the colder season.

Despite having an extra day off, I wasn’t very productive in the art department. I have been so tired out from everything that has been going on in my life that I just lounged around at my parent’s house. I had a lot of fun playing around with the puppies, watching tv and finishing a Really Good Book. Sometimes not doing anything important is the best thing to do and I feel really energized now because of it.

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Psalm 16:5-8

Glass #1, graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

I drew a glass in pencil a few months ago and thought of trying it again, mainly because I wanted a challenge. This drawing certainly was challenging, especially with the stripes at the base. I could have spent more time on it than what I did (2 hours) but I thought instead of running the risk of overworking things, I should just put it down.

Orange Leaves, pencil in sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

I have been very busy for the past few days moving and getting settled in my new home. I have to say that even though this will be a huge adjustment for me, the place itself is really nice and I will be comfortable here. One thing I will love is the abundance of plant life, both indoors and outdoors. I took 20 minutes to sketch these orange leaves from a tree in the backyard. The tree does not have any fruit, either because it is an immature tree or because this is New England and oranges aren’t exactly a native species.

I hope to do a LOT more drawing and painting now that my situation is more settled and I have gotten a lot of things out of my way. Since I have been so preoccupied with other things going on I forgot to mention that I got a nice compliment from Vidhya, who keeps a very nice art blog. She awarded me with this blog award:

Even though I don’t think I’ll continue the chain, I do think it’s a great honor and thanks Vidhya!

Concert on the Green, staedler pigment liners in 5×7 sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

After work on Thursday I went to see the Valley Swing Shift Orchestra play on the town green in Windsor, Connecticut. It was a really nice show and I took the time to do a little sketching of the spectators. Unfortunately, I had to leave early because of the bugs. They came out in swarms—big green mosquitos—and bit me right through my socks! The tops and sides of my feet are covered in giant red welts and it is so uncomfortable. Next time I do sketching outside I am going to take bug spray.

I have been without a scanner for some time and I finally got it hooked up to my new computer today. I got a nice lime green Dell and I love it! So I will be posting more updates to my blog and my flickr pages now that I am set up again.

Organic Root Beer Bottle, neocolor II crayons in watercolor sketchbook, 2008

Daisies, black pitt pens in sketchbook, 2008

This weekend I ended up being very productive, but not in terms of art. It seems like I did all kinds of things except doing artwork. Today I cooked an unbelievable quantity of food (scones, macaroni and cheese and a big batch of oatmeal), went shopping and cleaned my bathroom. I put drawing off until the very end and now I am do tired I don’t think I can do much more. For some reason my right arm has been aching for the past two days. Yesterday I was feeling sort of fearful to do any drawing for fear of making it worse but today I did a lot of manual labor and my arm doesn’t feel worse for the wear. I think that I have just been trying to avoid things that have been bothering me lately, sort of like my TMS days.

Dried Maple Leaves, watercolor and ink (5×7), Carolyn Pappas 2008

I have been putting off trying my new M Graham watercolors for weeks now. I think it was the same sort of thing that people face when they start a brand new sketchbook. I think I was afraid that I would somehow screw something up or forget everything I’ve learned about watercolor thus far. Last weekend I just bit the bullet and did this little painting of some leaves I found in my parking lot. They were dried to a crisp and the colors that I ended up were hardly realistic, but I wanted it to look sunny and happy. I painted this on a watercolor greeting card and am going to send it as a thank you card for someone who gave me a very nice gift.

I am excited about this weekend because I am anticipating a lot of time to spend on my artwork. I also have a few days off from work coming up this month, so I am planning on doing a lot on some of the behind the scenes projects that I’ve been working on.

I was looking at a photo of the inside of someone’s house and I saw this saying on a poster on the wall. I did a little reading and found that it was on a British propaganda poster made just before WWII. Right now it is the perfect piece of propaganda for me. I seem to be very depressed lately and when that happens my usual tendency is to just mope around and do nothing. But this time, I have been trying to keep working on my art and trying to be as productive as I can. This weekend I’ve done more artwork than I usually do:

Magnolia, staedler pigment liners in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

Guest House View, Dhanbad; dip pen and watercolor wash on 5×7 Strathmore watercolor greeting card, 2008

Onion Sketch (EDM 179), graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

Self Portrait with Smile, graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

At work, I just wrote my mid year review, where I updated my progress on all my development goals. I thought this would be a good opportunity to review my art goals as well, because the year is half over. My first goal was to practice daily sketching. Although I can say that I’ve been doing more sketching than ever before, it has hardly been daily. I have been tracking my activities and I’m lucky if I do artwork on half the days in the month. June was especially bad because of all the upheaval from my vacation. So I’ll try to do better in the last half of the year.

My second goal was to continue working in watercolor. I have been awful at this and I think I did more watercolor in 2007 than this year. I just bought a bunch of M. Graham watercolors as well and I really want to try them out. I think I am nervous because they were so expensive but I need to get over it.

Lastly, I wanted to take some sort of art class or workshop. I have been looking for something near where I live, but I have not been able to find anything. I am limited to weekends unless I find something really local, but I might have to go into Massachusetts if I can’t find anything. In any case, I will have to wait until the fall until anything is available.

All in all, I’ve been pretty awful at keeping my art resolutions but I have done some really nice things this year regardless. Even though I have these nice development goals for myself, I have a ton of things I want to get done for Christmas so I had better get busy if I want to get them done in time.