Loose Colored Pencil and Graphite Rose drawing

Drawing from last September. Marjorie Grace-Sayers and I frequently take drawing classes at the Norton Simon. The museum includes all supplies, including paper, clipboard, pencils, etc. I chose to make this drawing in my journal, since when I create them on separate pieces of paper, they just go into the trash or a file folder, rarely to be seen. The instructor brought flowers for us to loosely draw, after we examined a couple of the museum's Dutch still-life florals. Another class series is coming up--I'm looking forward to attending several of the sessions.

Quick Colored-Pencil Pear Drawing

Last year, I made a quick drawing of a colored pencil pear on a page of Barbara Steel's altered book. The strokes are quick and rough. I loved the bright colors on top of the yellowed page of text.  Maybe this round, I should pick another piece of fruit?

Found Art Collage

I had forgotten about this collage, created as one of my entries in Barbara Steel's altered book. I was staying with my mom while she recovered from surgery. I had brought a few things from home (scraps of watercolor experiments, used postage & green stamps, washi tape, and security envelope liners. I gathered more things from around my mom's house--candy wrappers, tea tags; then used her sewing machine to accent the collage and attach it to the book page. Fun! I now have Barbara's book again, and I need to come up with something different-- I'm in the mood for collage, again, so we'll see.

Postcard #18: Collect Unforgettable Experiences

Finally, I finished these bright and cheerful cards--they should brighten a few mailboxes!

These are part of my digital collage project. The cards often start with clippings from a magazine. "Treasured memories" is lettered with a brush pen, which shows up well against the busy background.

I worked for 4+ years in Leiden, about 3/4 of an hour inland from Amsterdam. I loved Leiden--it was like a pretty, much smaller version of Amsterdam and that small town had seven (!) museums, most in the center of town.

My coworkers and I all had bicycles. Even though the company provided cars, bicycles could miss the "rush-hour" traffic jams. Those two- and four-lane roads weren't made to handle the every-increasing number of cars on the road. Plus, there were interesting things to see on the out-of-the-way lanes we could easily take via bike.

Whenever first-time visitors came to town,  they invariably wanted to visit Amsterdam, so a group of us would take the train and play tour guide. Way too many wonderful memories for a 4x6 postcard!!!