November Comes .... November Goes ...

The following sketch was done in November 2014 based on a photo that my daughter took of me out for a walk with my yellow labrador retriever "Lexie" in downtown Ottawa.

 "Lexie Walk" Art Journal sketch (graphite & water colour) Artist: Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

My November 2014 Moynahan Studio blog post also featured this lovely poem by Elizabeth Coatsworth:

Revisiting my 2014 sketch and the short-and-sweet blog post seven years later was incredibly helpful and has inspired me to change the format of my Moynahan Studio blog posts going forward.

Drawing August - Heat Warnings, Hashtags, Etc.

I had planned to spend time outdoors #DrawingAugust but instead I have retreated indoors with my sketchbook. In August, Environment Canada issued consecutive heat warnings for Ottawa and the hot and humid conditions are expected through Sunday.

"Reading Under the Willow Trees at Patterson Creek", with thanks for the photo reference: CBC climatologist Ian Black's (Link: https://twitter.com/BlacksWeather/status/1428302675196661762?s=2)

The #DrawingAugust hashtag has been around since at least 2012 and (according to Haidee-Jo Summers) originated with two artists – Jean Stevens (@jeanestevens) and Dean Lewis (@olderThanevil) who decided to set themselves a challenge by making a drawing each day throughout the month of August, and then sharing these drawings on Twitter.

Over the past few years I did the very same, however this year, one of my #DrawingAugust tweets received more attention than I could have ever imagined!

Sketchbook Sanctuary

On June 11th, 2021, when I began writing this blog post, Ontario began Step 1 of the Roadmap To Reopen . 

Today, July 13, Ontario is currently in Step 2 (moving to Step 3 this Friday) and I am fully vaccinated as are most members of my family.

Daily Sketch: Mandy Patinkin and Dog: "I love her, but the soup is mine"

Despite all of this great news, I have no idea what to expect or how things will unfold locally, nationally, globally in the coming months and I've been thinking a lot about what all of this will mean for me and my art practice going forward.

Update For Email Subscribers

In April, 2021 Google announced that the Feedburner service (that has been automatically generating emails about this blog) would be discontinued in July 2021.

I have been researching alternatives to FeedBurner and reviewing the two options that would be best for my subscribers: migrate all current subscribers OR request that subscribers sign up all over again?

I have chosen the email subscription service offered by follow.it. I chose follow.it because:

• it is committed to no email SPAM
  
• the basic level of subscription is 100% free for both emails and RSS readers
  
• it's a mature operation and not a start-up
  
• it takes the EU GDPR seriously - unclear about applicability for Canadian privacy/data protection
  
• it offers choice to the follower re what their preference is for how they want to follow
• N.B. above points originally appeared on blog Making A Mark  along with several other recommendations

If you were a previous subscriber, 

please subscribe again using the 

"Follow by email" form on the right.

 Please let me know if you have any problems and thank you for your patience

March 2021: Online Art Workshops

March 2021, for me, was more about taking art in and incubating ideas rather than creating finshed pieces of art. I participated in an unusually large number of online workshops, webinars and art demonstrations.

It was so great to listen to other artists and learn about their processes. Particularly while we find ourselves still living with COVID 19 lockdown restrictions.

Online Webinars and Demos

I participated in three excellent online webinars and demos in March

February: The Border Between Winter and Spring

Anyone who follows my art knows that I am completely obsessed with farm life (especially in Ireland and the UK) and if, as Terri Guillemet says, “February is the border between winter and spring.",  that can mean only one thing .... more sheep and sheepdogs showing up in my sketchbook! 

Beautiful, smart sheep dogs like James Rebanks’ (@herdyshepherd1) clever fell dog “Tosh” below.

If you want to see why Tosh made it to my sketchbook, watch this video.

New Year - New Directions 2021

There's an old Woody Allen quote that goes something like this, 'If you want to make God laugh, tell him you've made plans'.

Looking back on my blog post "New Year -New Directions 2020", I imagine God was having a good chuckle at my 2020 art goals: a new art website; teaching more workshops; organizing monthly urban sketching events and amping up my life drawing.

May 2020 photo of my yellow lab "Lexie" in front of Ottawa's Oldest Tavern in the Byward Market, Ottawa. (Artwork by Marc Adornato “It’s going to be OK. We’ll be back.”)

We kept telling ourselves and each other that it was okay and that "We'll be back" but today, January 31, 2021, we are still in a lockdown in Ontario, Canada as are many places around the world.