The Foodie Sketchbook

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, Uni-ball Vision pen, Daniel Smith Watercolors, Golden Fluid Acrylics and W&N Gouache.

This piece is a veritable water-media extravaganza! I was set on giving the Alpha a thorough work out to see how well the paper stood up to multiple wet media and it was wonderful! What a joy to work on, no worrying about wrinkling, bleeding through or the surface of the paper becoming mushy or abraded.

So here we have a Luna Di Luna bottle, a wine I recently bought (for the beautiful color of the bottle and the nice label design LOL) and discovered it's also a really nice wine, a Chardonnay/Pinot Greigo blend.

Same S&B Alpha sketchbook with Uni-ball Vision Pen, DS watercolors, and a bit of W&N Gouache.

The point of this sketchbook is food, with its interesting textures and wonderful colors and it's also a celebration of the interesting and fun places we meet with others to share a meal. Even though we sometimes eat left overs alone in our own kitchen food is still an ordinary blessing we give thanks for each day.

S&B Alpha, pencil and DS watercolors.

We've had such wonderful, unseasonably warm March weather last week end my daughter and I drove up to an orchard about 45 min. north of us and got lunch and sat out side on their picnic benches to share our first al fresco lunch of the year. We also brought home and incredibly delicious maple walnut apple pie for the rest of the family.

S&B Alpha, Uni-ball Vision pen, DS watercolors.

Savvy Tea Shop is a favorite place for my daughter and I. After bringing four of her pastel paintings to a review for a possible scholarship we waited at the tea shop enjoying lunch and the charming atmosphere.

Sketching Farms and Food

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Tiffany Farm, Old Lyme, CT, Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook, Copic, Prismacolor, Utrecht Design, Mark-It, Uniball Vision

Really loving the new Stillman & Birn sketchbooks. 180 lb. paper in a sketchbook is just fantastic.

This was done late in the day this past Sunday. Tiffany Farm is one of the few remaining working farms in Connecticut. I pulled off to the side of the road and sketched from my car. It's a view I've done before and i always find the buildings challenging. I liked the rows of stubble in the field in the foreground. Corn will be growing there in a few months.

Here we go with the Stillman & Birn Alpha, spiral bound sketchbook.  White, 100 lb. paper which is working very well for ink and watercolor washes. I'm using a Uniball Vision pen and Daniel Smith watercolors.

Here's a close up....

This was done at Savvy tea Shop in Madison, CT a favorite hang out of mine.

Tea and Scone at the Books-a-Million cafe in Waterford, CT also in the Alpha sketchbook, Uniball Vision pen and Daniel Smith watercolors. Using a lot of water to lighten the background washes and the paper is holding up well.  The page does buckle somewhat when using watercolor, but it doesn't curl like some sketchbook papers do. The buckling doesn't bother me at all because once the sketch is dry and the book is closed the weight of the cover (and other pages when you get further into the sketchbook) flatten out a lot of the buckles.

Still in the Alpha (which I think is going to become my foodie sketchbook!) Uniball Vision pen and Daniel Smith watercolors.

This week end I'll be in New York City sketching, so stay tuned!