Gnarly - or - How My Family Inspires Art

I bought new art supplies again Saturday - markers & papers & a Moleskine sketchbook to see if it's really so wonderful.  The art this past week has been mainly random doodling, patterns and lettering.  There's a struggle going on between a realism sketchbook and art journaling.  More on that battle soon.

For now - a bit of the additional vacation art I promised.

South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Looking out from the Watchtower, you will see a bare dead tree.  My sister-in-law declared it "gnarly," which, of course, instantly transported me to the 80's.  The squirming branches begged to be sketched.  So I did, and even briefly had an audience of two foreign tourists.  Later I found a photo of said tree on the back of a GC book we brought home.  I'm so glad I took the sketchbook everywhere.  Now I have my own version of what is apparently a well-documented plant.

The next day we left the canyon and stopped in Williams, Arizona, an old Route 66 town with plenty of interesting restaurants and shops.  After a meal of juicy burgers & tea, we walked across the street to a little quilt store.  (A request of my seamstress mother.)  There was a small quilt-covered bed just inside the door and a sign that instantly had my illustration bells going off.  Back on the road - I pulled out the sketchbook and recorded the words & image stuck in my head.  Again, yay for the traveling sketchbook!

This one's for Mom.
(Ignore the thumb, I'm already tired of this hardbound won't-lay-flat sketchbook!)