Monday, July 11, 2005

Vacation at the Cottage

I just returned from a week at the cottage-I had a wonderful time! This cottage has been in our family for generations and is where I spent all my summers growing up (and as much time as I can now!). My dad and his brother inherited it when my granddad died, so now we share the time-half a summer for Dad's family and half a summer for uncle's family.





I painted this scene from the porch. I am not so skilled with perspective, but I am happy with it because it gives me the feel of the place.





My sister and I had a lot of time to ride our bikes and paint (she had a little vacation from her 4 year old). We rode by lakes, vineyards, orchards, fruit stands to get to this little church. Two of our childhood friends were married in this church-sisters who lived in the yellow cottage next to ours. After we painted we rode our bikes to a little hotdog stand on another lake and had supper on their deck by the water. To make this little sketch I watercolored first then did the ink work-it was harder I think. I used watercolor paper postcards to make some of my vacation sketches and pasted them into my Moleskine.





Another day we went to St. Joe to watch the sunset on Lake Michigan. We did little paintings while we were there. There were actually a lot of people on the beach, but I did not want to have to draw so many figures!





Now my uncle has the house for a couple of weeks, then we will be going back later in the month. I did not draw everyday, but Jennifer and I did another creative project while we were there and I will try to take pics of that tomorrow to show you.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel like I've had a vacation just enjoying your drawings! Karen

Terri said...

These are really wonderful! Your cottage looks like a terrific place to relax. Lucky you!

Joanne said...

These are amazing! I just love your linework and what you do with watercolors.

What sort of sketchbook do you use? Mine is almost done and I am looking for a new one that would work for all kinds of media.

pedalpower said...

Thanks Karen and Terri and Joanne-I had a lot of fun doing these--doing the drawings really added another dimention to my vacation. Joanne I have been using a moleskine-but like everone says, they don't take watercolors very well. This time I also took some watercolor postcards with me and painted on those and pasted them into my book. I think the moleskine works better too, if you wet the page first and then let it dry-but I don't have enough patience!

Chuck Rose said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. It got me here. These are really fun. Much better than a photo album.:-)

I love the drawing of the cottage.

Nita Van Zandt said...

These cottage pics are beautifully done, and what great memories they create for your time there! Good job!

Lindsay said...

I love these vacation drawings. You have really given me a sense of the place and the peace you find there.
Lindsay

Cin said...

all lovely, but oh really love the first one, the view from the window !

Kathleen Pequignot said...

Lovely cottage and the drawings are just beautiful! How fortunate to have a such an idyllic place to vacation.

Anonymous said...

Joyce, oh gosh!! As soon as I started seeing your paintings coming in and hadn't read the words yet, I wondered if any of them were done in Michigan. Are they all in MI?

I sooooo adore *all* of these. They are incredible. This is the type of work I wish I was doing.

I've been to Lake Geneva & Saugatuck.
We live in the Chicagoland area. Michigan has some really pretty areas.

Your cottage..it reminds me so much of a recurring dream..the house in that dream is very similar to your cottage. What a wonderful place that must be for your family.

Thanks for sharing these..I too feel like I got a mini vacation:-)

Pat
http://pat.typepad.com/just_pat

Anonymous said...

I love your sketchbook and find the drawings an inspiration for my sketchbook. Thanks.