i do love you (ewe)

I just wanted you to know...I do love you, I do...I do...

"The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an our of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing...not healing... not curing...that is a friend who cares."                                         -Henri Nouwen

I adore each of you I have met here in this online space ~ like sweet sisters we have weathered this year in hope and with God's unending grace!  But, as much as I love you, as big as my heart can stretch...God's love for you is endlessly greater.  


You are so loved~


Have a beautiful, meaningful, hope-filled, and Jesus adoring Christmas!!!

In Him this brilliant white day~
jj

circles of love

I think we are here for each other, too. 

I hope your week has been extra sweet and that you are finding time for some quiet moments in your day.  I sat last night with my notebook in my hand and within five minutes I had fallen asleep (at 6:30pm?).  It's okay, I am finally learning that I need to have timeouts and re-charge more often.  Creative downtime, right?

The snowmen sketches are so simple and fun.  Nothing takes you back to your childhood like drawing those big sloppy circles.  I love it!

Again with simple watercolors and loads of water,  I just filled in color, shape, and shadow.  The splatter has become a new fetish and I practice a couple of times on newspaper before clobbering my page with the mess.  If you get too much paint (watercolor) it is easily to fix with a quick dab of paper towel or bit of sleeve.  The real trick is in staying playful and light ~ no-stress sketching!  

*     *     *     *     *

Shall we do a few more simple circles?

Sleepy sheep.  

My holidays typically hint of lambs and sheep -- but this year they are center stage.  I am embracing it.  My boys love it -- every little heart-shaped nose and dirty woolly fleece.

My heart is caught up in God's message as the Sheepherder and the way he loves His sheep ~  Overwhelming.  Unending.  Never forgetting.  Passionate.  Wholehearted.  LOVE!

Do you know how loved you are? 

Praying for hearts to know Him,
with His love & lambs,
jj

sweet friends

I love the little birds.  

I think I must have passed this on to my boys. We couldn't decide what to do for each other or our neighbors for Christmas, but we knew we wanted to purchase a huge bag of wild bird seed for our tiniest friends.  The little finches, chickadees, and doves are our family friends.  We also get a few loud bluebirds, too. 

The simplicity of circles really plays out here.  Just let your wrist draw simple circles in a variety of sizes.  Look a where you may want a beak to go.  I liked the idea of the little birds being fascinated by the words hanging in the air below them.  

The only other trick was to use a couple of photos for some details and color.  I had to study the tails and little black faces carefully before jumping in with my own impressions.  I used very little color, a great deal of water, keeping the two pages as simple as possible.  

I think this is a sweet sketch to try with paper collage or acrylics, too.  

Today, it is Christmas card mailing day!  Having lived many places in our married lives, we have the *gifts of Christmas love that comes in our mailbox* from all over the world.  I love catching up with friends and family in pictures & words.  I treasure the cards we receive.  Our two baby lambs are gracing our cards this year (little Bea looks like she is smiling).  The inside reads, 

"Oh, Come let us adore Him"

Do you love Christmas cards too?

much love & lambs,
jj 

holiday colors

Holiday colors

My youngest son asked me what colors to use for a Christmas wish list.  I told him I would use every color.  Christmas is a celebration of color!

Snow's brilliant white
Trees deep greens
Gold sparkles on the ice capped wheat left standing in the fields
Hot pink cheeks and shivering lips
Cobalt blue sky as the sun sets & rises
Orange glow of the fire in the woodstove
Brown mugs of delicious cocoa with those tiny marshmallows

Isn't it a deliciously exciting part of creating ~ color.  

I have always been afraid of color.  I would lament over my choices, harbor fears of "what if I change my mind?", and wonder if things "went together".  It always stopped my from finishing projects or even starting them!  Have you lived like this too?  

It is time to step out from those stumbling blocks.  

The holidays are a perfect time to be brave.  Use your favorite coffee browns, royal purples, robin egg blue, and bright happy yellow...why not?!  

Our wildly colorful God seems to love decorating his world with sparkling color~

I am in love with the look of layered watercolors on the gesso paper.  It is yummy.  I simply added grey and a bit of brown on top (for the silver mug) and highlighted the edges in black, letting the paint run down as I went.  The brushes just ate up the color and I penned right over top when they dried.

(The poor brushes look how I feel tonight -- a bit wilty?)

Perhaps this weekend you will sketch something to paint in riotous holiday colors?

I can't wait to see~

xo

jj

holiday notes

Holiday notes to self~

Watch the twinkling lights -- remember what it was like to be little again.
Sing loudly and with wild bravado -- don't be embarrassed, just sing!
Live and love with wild abandon.  
Share this time -- it won't happen again.
Look into the eyes of those you love.  See God~
Let go of expectations...  
and see it all as a sweet gift of grace.  

  
Today's sketch is one I love.  I love the simple & symbolic.  Initially  I thought I would create a collage -- I most likely will come back to this sketch again.  But, today it will be simple, pencil sketched in my current art journal, and watercolors.

Gesso makes the colors more vivid and texture rich.  I am excited for the final results - layers of paint take time to dry.  

I believe it is a vessel (a silver mug) -- holding my current state of creative play and my holiday notes (above).  The poor brushes look a bit wild don't they?  Wow, that is a great representation of my current state of mind!  Lol!

________________________________________________________________

To all the girls that participated in my sketchy inspiration ~ bless your hearts!  I have a whole pile of sketches still to post!  

I am overwhelmed with your *lists upon lists* of inspiration!  I hope it helped you, too.  I have randomly picked a few names for the ornament gift.  I hope your name is among them, if it isn't please know that I adore you and wish I could send everyone a bitty gift!  I do...I do!  

I had many share the same ideas, so in the end, I had to be totally random with choosing names.  If you are listed, contact me with your address:  me.junelle@gmail.com.  I am mailing everything this weekend!


Donna - sheep sketches
Kate - Cardinal birds
Barbara - snowmen and angels
Lynn Richards - brown sparrow, barn, red berry bush
Karen - snowmen
Jennifer jru - charlie brown tree

I will be finishing this mug of holiday fun tonight -- come and see?

In His grace & holiday peace,
jj

finals + lattes

Latte love.

I love the idea of sketching the sweet and silly things of life.  This is one of those.  This past week has been a frenetic race to finish art projects (I have been in art school all semester), support my young sons in their holiday programs, and provide some stability to a home of teens and young adults as they labor through the final assignments of the semester.  It is quite a feat.  

These sketches are an obvious reflection of a needed & favorite muse~ 

It is fun to just make some simple circles and see what comes to mind.  Why not?
This morning I began the watercolors on my line of chickadees...and they are all from simple circles too!  Easy peasy!!!

*     *     * 

Our 3D art class was an absolute treasure.  Six hours a week we labored in a huge workroom, many of us having to spend hours more finishing projects just to keep up with the course.  A small class of art majors and non-traditional students mixed in.  Today was our final critique.

A brilliant art major finishing her gorgeous lamp.  I told her she could sell it on ETSY easily~

My kinetic sculpture and my final post deconstruction sculpture -- I am so thrilled that they are finished and they were well liked.  I think the splinters in my fingers should count for part of the final grade!

Now that my classes are finished I am ready to jump into the holiday.
What should we sketch today?

Try a sketch of simple circles and see what happens~

For questions about what I use for my sketching and painting ~ here and here.

I am going to be doing a class very-soon (mostly in video) detailing watercolors, acrylics and all kinds of messy-mediums.  It will be loaded with content -- I promise! I will make sure to include all the questions/answers you may have.  We will experiment together!


Jamie~ I owe you for two!!! xo


Hoping your day is merry and bright~
jj

bird blessings

Bless our blessings.

The morning here is wintry white.  Fog has settled here in the valley and the light in my windows is so softly filtered.  I am remembering how good it feels to be home.  Kitchen warm and toasty, stocking feet, hair pulled up.  Not every day is this quietly mine -- but today I have it to myself~

Thank you LORD for your loving me

and reminding me of my new heart 

You are my portion and my song.

Yes, today I will bless my blessings...

Sweet Kate's baby cardinal is finished and I added my little thoughts to the page.  I usually know what I want to say sometime during the painting.  This little one spoke to me of my grace-filled life (not easy or uncomplicated - but definitely grace filled) and how tenderly I am cared for.

We are all so loved.

A place to land.
Something to satisfy hunger.
A way to bless others.
A blessed life to live.
Sparkling grace falling down upon our heads every morning.

Thank you Kate for your inspiration ~ your Mother's touch on your life has enriched and blessed mine today!  xo

*     *     *     *     *

I think it best to stay with our sweet feathered friends today, don't you?

I showed this sketch to my DH last night and he lifted up that one eyebrow.  

That was all I needed.  

I just finished the tree this morning.
The goose is obviously smitten with sheep, isn't she?  My kind of goose.  

I hope that these simple line sketches will inspire you today.  If nothing else, to keep your heart open to what it is you really are feeling this holiday.  It's okay to sketch out our feelings, our memories, our gratitude.  It grounds us to the present (which is a great gift to ourselves and others).  It frees us inside when we let our art-hearts sing.  It brings us a quiet peace.

I will be back soon with some deliciously good latte & more sketches~

Happiest of hugs to you~
jj

holiday sketches

Holiday sketches ~ your sweet ideas! 

I spent a couple of evenings reading over your delicious ideas and then quietly sketching in my pajamas.  Quickly drawing all the images that spoke to me.  Simple lines, simple lines, simple lines.  By now you know I am not a complicated artist -- I am always going to keep things simple.  

Seriously -- who shows you the inside of her sketch book?  Am I so crazy?!

(I will have a list of girls to *gift to* on Wednesday...I am still working on all of your inspirations!!!)

The ideas you shared ran one into another, like a sketchy melody, and the holiday mood took over my heart completely.

I was still happily humming to myself every night at 11pm ~

I think it is beautiful to see what comes from a simple sketch.

Can I show you my first attempt?   I wanted to draw my version of a little-fuzzy-baby cardinal (thank you Kate!)  I remember seeing one once that wasn't completely red yet, still fluffy with golden down.

I  liked my idea enough to sketch it onto its own paper (I used 90lb. watercolor paper), it is heavy enough to handle any paint I decided to use.

I always have a mini debate about paint.  Should I use acrylic?  It is easy to change and layer.  Should I go with watercolor?  Quick decisions, brilliant color, always a surprise waiting.   Should I use both?  Perhaps ink would look better?

(I have decided to include all of these painting techniques/ideas/experiments in my art journal workshop this winter! So messy fun!)

But, for these holiday sketches...I chose simple watercolors.

Watercolors can be a brilliant friend.  You just need to speak their language.  It is so fun to quickly add layers of color, see something come to life, and they have such a lovely light feel don't they?

Do you like to use them, too?  

*     *     *     *     *

I think it is time to bring up a really great observation.  I hope you don't mind, but I analyzed your comments from this weekend and it was exactly what I expected.  So many of the suggestions that you shared were beautiful visions floating around in *your hearts and heads*.

Sweet memories.  Holiday muses.  Little artsy goodies that are making your heart sing.  

As much as you were inspiring me...the words out of your mouth were things inspiring YOU!!!
You already know this don't  you ~ 

This is one of the most important touchstones in art journaling ~ it is connecting authentically with your heart.  It is your art from your heart!  

*     *     *     *     *

Come see the finished sketch in the morning and see what is coming next~

Love to you this cold winter night, 
jj