So what is that workshop about, exactly?

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Alabama, angels, art classes, Val Webb, workshops

You know the old saying… a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, instead of trying describe what we’ll be doing in the “Old and New: Hand Lettering and Vintage Photo Transfer” workshop on June 4, here are a few thousand words’ worth of explanation.

Not calligraphy, but hand-drawn letters that you design to fit your taste and personal style. Perfect for labeling botanicals, enhancing your journal or creating a wondrously literary sketchbook! Here is another example:

After lunch, we’ll switch to “vintage” photo transfers, using a simple nontoxic technique with baker’s parchment that does not harm your original in any way. Here’s one made from a snapshot of a stone angel in a New Orleans cemetery, transferred onto heavy Strathmore watercolor paper:

…and here’s one made from a 1932 photo of my grandparents, transferred onto handmade bark paper. Enjoy!

What is your Christmas wish?

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angels, art, Christmas, giveaway, illustration, Val Webb

As the days grow shorter and the year comes to an end, we travel together through the advent season. Do you have a Christmas wish — for yourself, your community or for the world? Share it in a comment on this post, and on Dec. 12 I will allow http://random.org to select  one person to receive this poinsettia angel, a matted original colored pencil drawing on archival stock. (Be sure that your comment includes a link to your blog, website or email so that I can notify you if you are the winner.) Thanks for sharing your wish.

Botanical notebook painting: Angel’s trumpet

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angels, botanical art, gardening, illustration, New Orleans, Val Webb

One of the things I like best about visiting the garden district of New Orleans — along with the lovely old buildings and the tantalizing assortment of cafes and galleries — is the landscaping. No, really. Looking through the scrolled ironwork, catching glimpses of lush courtyards and tiny gardens, it seems to me that everything planted in the Crescent City grows three times larger than its horticultural counterpart here in Mobile. And while I have seen a few good-sized angel trumpets growing in local front yards, they are simply enormous in NOLA. Here, they are shrubs. There, they are practically shade trees.

In her wonderful book, 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names, Diana Wells writes that Thomas Jefferson had a scientific interest in these pendulous and highly narcotic flowers, but his curiosity stopped short of exploring their medicinal potential. Laced with scopolamine, they induced a deep unconsciousness that sometimes proved permanent. In his garden diary, Jefferson noted that the seeds were carried in the vest pockets of artistocrats during the French Revolution, as a sort of botanical suicide pill in the event the bearer was dragged off to the guillotine.

 The angel trumpet’s darker side, although utterly fascinating, seemed a little grim to be included in my latest botanical notebook painting. So instead of doomed French noblemen I drew the graceful plant’s namesake. And a few odds and ends about its floral anatomy. I hope you enjoy seeing it!

And here, also is a better image of the previous botanical notebook entry, the rose:

A gift for the garden

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angels, gardening, Val Webb

My illustrations are now available on garden flags! Each one is locally sourced and locally sewn, and I’m absolutely delighted to be able to offer them to you.  The designs are printed in  lightfast colors on heavy, weather-resistant fabric and measure approximately 11 x 15 inches.  $15 + $2 shipping in the USA.

Email me for more details!

New art, new seeds, new idea, new dates

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angels, art, drawing, gardening, Val Webb, workshops

New art! I’m painting angels. Lots of them, in advance of a string of art festivals beginning with Arts Alive! in downtown Mobile next weekend. Also painting lighthearted botanical, garden and nature themes.  It’s a pleasant task. This one — about half completed at this stage — is opaque watercolor on bristol board, and will make her debut as a print and as notecards.

New seeds! A wonderful shipment of garden goodies has arrived from the friendly organic farmers at Sustainable Seed Company. Heirloom green beans, melons, two types of old-time squash, an interesting book on grain growing and a vacuum sealer (for canning). Yay! Must resist the powerful urge to stop painting and go work in the garden:

A new idea! (Well, new to me, at least.) It’s being used to grow vegetable plants behind a restaurant at Windmill Market, across the bay in Fairhope. Each seedling grows in a hollowed-out space atop a bale of hay. I’d like to try this approach with summer squash, to see if it would outwit the nasty squash vine borers that plague organic growers here in the semi-tropical south:

I also liked the restaurant’s picturesque system for capturing greywater to use on the plants. All this is going on in an alley space alongside the building, and Windmill Market  had a couple of nice, big compost bins going nearby.

New dates! My calendar of shows, classes and workshops is steadily filling up. Thank you to everyone who has emailed or commented about the artwork. I love hearing from you.

April

Arts Alive! festival in Mobile, AL on 4/9 – 4/11

Evening Drawing Classes begin on 4/14

Evening Illustration Classes begin on 4/15

Botanical Art Workshop at Museum of Mobile on 4/17

1699 Arts Festival in Ocean Springs, MS on 4/24

May

Bonne Terre Garden Fair in Houma, LA on 5/1

Nature Drawing Workshop at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center on 5/22

Angel art giveaway to welcome 2010

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angels, giveaway, illustration, Val Webb

Yesterday I bought a calendar for the coming year. It’s a pleasure to open that first page and see all those clean white spaces, full of possibility. How can I make the most of those 365 empty squares, during our next twelve-month trip around the sun? Steadily those calendar pages will fill with gardens to be planted and harvested, illustrations to be drawn and painted, grandchildren to be loved and enjoyed.

Do you have special hopes or wishes for 2010?  Share them in a comment, and you will be included in a random drawing on New Year’ Day to win this 8×10 original watercolor angel.  Happy New Year!

Angels in the garden

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angels, art, drawing, gardening, painting, Val Webb

Pencil study for a new series of angel paintings

Tropical storm Ida rolled in from the Gulf this morning, but she has been a surprisingly well-behaved visitor. She thoughtfully watered the new transplants for me (brussels sprouts, chard, heirloom collards) and in her wake — as so often happens during hurricane season — we will have several crytalline fall days with blue skies and low humidity. Thanks, Ida!

I’m working on pencil sketches for some new angel paintings. They unfold in front of me, gradually revealing themselves, and I’m glad to go wherever they are leading me.

Be yourself (and make some cabbage soup)

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angels, art, illustration

On this cold, wet windy evening… here’s a cheerful thought and a delicious recipe for vegetarian cabbage soup. The cheerful thought took shape this way. First, a sketch:

Then, some paint:

And the cabbage soup recipe is from one of my favorite foodie sites, the ever-tasty 101 Cookbooks.

Enjoy!

Garden angels

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angels, art, gardening, illustration

Too rainy to garden today, so I painted garden angels instead…