Sketches for the Birthday Journal

Watercolor Sketches in a Journal

Faeries

I love faeries. I have illustrated them for stories that I have written for my children, and a poem that suggest Monet met many faeries. This faerie was designed for a children's story about a faerie festival.

While living in Canada, I met a wonderful woman named Marilyn Edmison-Driedger at the Toronto flower show called Canada Blooms. She gave a talk on herbs and faerie dust, I was totally charmed. When my friend Sharon and I went to visit her at her booth, she told us about her Faerie Festival held every July at her place called The Herbal Touch. I marked my calendar and took my daughter, Sarah and her friend Joanne who were both ten years old and my daughter Ashley who was eight years old at the time. When we arrived I was so enchanted at how beautiful everything was done. Her gardens were every little girl's dream and she even had a Maypole with lovely ribbons streaming down. We all danced around the Maypole with Marilyn and was so thrilled. I had sent Marilyn an illustrated journal of my story about Monet and his faeries. She had her storyteller read my story to the people seated underneath a tent of scarves. You can't imagine how thrilled I was to find the photographs of my girls and their friend Joann on-line at her lovely THE HERBAL TOUCH web site.

It was a lovely memory and later I wrote a story totally inspired by Marilyn. The name of the story is Marilyn and the Faerie Festival.

The Riding Hat

I must have looked on at this view for a good portion of my girl's childhood. There were many horse riding lessons, many riding boots, crops, clothing and most of all riding hats. They were usually black velvet with a lovely black satin bow. Sarah and Ashley's pony tails draping from the back of the helmet always seemed to go so nicely with the shape of the horses tail. I was never very good at drawing horses, perhaps it was because I was too busy embracing the images of my lovely girls riding.

THE RIDING LESSON

Sarah and Ashley both loved horses from an early age. When we moved to Oakville Ontario Canada from Hong Kong I couldn't wait to introduce them to nature. With lots of open land in a beautiful setting, we found wonderful farms, playgrounds, beaches and horses. I quickly enrolled them in their first summer camp at a nearby horse riding academy. They instantly fell in love. Most of the five years in Canada the girls spent time at the barn, learning all about horses, shows, riding lessons and taking care of the horses. It was a wonderful chapter, and I would bring my sketchbook and record the special moments.

I love photography, but there is something magical about a sketch in a sketchbook that brings to life the moment. I love to study other artists sketchbooks in blogland, and I love to review old sketches of mine to embrace a memory.

Watercolor and pencil sketch

A sketch for The Thankful Coat

A sketch for My Children's Stories
The Thankful Coat


My Children's Stories

Pens, Pencils & Sketchbooks

Look Ma No Hands

A sketch I did for my daily blog for August 2, 2007, about Bicycling.


I thought sketching again was just like riding a bicycle...you never forget how. What's more, sketching again brings back lovely memories of a more carefree time in my life...My Bicycle Blog.