For the past few years, I’ve been using the camera on my iPhone to notice and snag beauty that catches my eye. Looking through the camera lens helps narrow my focus. I enjoy playing with the composition to accentuate light, color, and shapes I find appealing. Here are three recent photos that I love even more every time I look at them. I’m thankful for those smart folks at Apple who designed a cool camera into my phone and grateful to live where beauty is easy on the eye and all around me.
Here is a video of my completed entry for the Volume 14 Sketchbook Project. Shortly after making the video, I shipped this labor of love off to the Brooklyn Art Library to added to their permanent exhibit. I got a confirmation email from the library that my sketchbook, Vanessa’s Book of Fantastical Butterflies, can be found on the shelves of the physical library with call number 360.16-4. Soon, it will be digitized and available in their online library.
Click here to see the full video:
The art tools I used to create my sketchbook are Micron black pens and Sharpie highlighters.
Over 43,000 sketchbooks are included on display at the Brooklyn Art Library — one of the largest collections of sketchbooks in the world. Find out how you can participate in this global art project.
Until this popped up on my Facebook memories from this day last year, I forgot all about it. The art is compiled from a photo I took on a walk down a wooded road. It might have been a hornet’s nest that had fallen on the ground. I printed the photo and created a doodle on tracing paper, following the lines on the pic. Then I scanned the art and overplayed it in Photoshop. I converted most of the lines to white, added a drop shadow, and pasted in some glittering gold for the letters.
WaHoo for me! What have you created that makes you “wahoo” when it comes to mind?
Here are the individual pieces I used to create this art.
Even though I’ve lived in Georgia since 1981, I had never noticed a Paper Bush until this winter. What a beauty! Here is a photo of one of the golden yellow blooms taken on my walk today. I have to say the blooms look even better on a bright sunny, blue-sky kind of day like we’re having today.
After a couple of my Facebook friends told me what kind of plant this was, I did a Google search and found this article from Southern Living magazine.
Here is a bit from that article:
“Native to China, paper bush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) gets its name from its bark, which is used in Asia to make high-quality paper. . . . Plant connoisseurs knew about paper bush, but it didn’t grab much attention until nurserymen planting displays for winter garden shows discovered that it was just about the easiest shrub to force into early bloom indoors. Thousands of winter-weary gardeners spied it, dropped their dentures in dismay, and coveted like they’ve never coveted before. A star was born.”
For comparison, the photo with just the white pods showing was taken in mid December when I first wondered what kind of shrub this was.
Then I took the photo with a few yellow flowers popping out a few weeks ago, on Jan 24th. An added bonus is that it smells great!
Fun to learn something new to appreciate — especially when it’s a plant that blooms before spring officially gets here.
vanessalowry.com 