Lily S. May–Life with Art
Years ago in 1991, someone I knew told me an arresting dream they'd had. I don't totally remember it, but it was about terrible suffering and catastrophe. Most of the people in the dream were in trance like states with one or two raising the alarm. The dream impressed me as apocalyptic and I made… Continue reading Dystopia and a Key
We recently had our place painted. It involved packing up all our stuff, giving some of it away and moving it and furniture to the centre of rooms so the painters could get to the walls. During that time I drew boxes and disorder. Now that that's over, it's enjoyable to sit down and draw… Continue reading Bowl
A few of the house plants we have end up in my drawings regularly. I enjoy succulents and have 2 cacti plus other hardy souls. And, this summer, I branched out and added a colourful croton to the group. Here's some appearances the various leaves have made over the past few months. The croton is… Continue reading A Few Plants
I've been drawing what's around me--both grand and plain. When I'm at home, I enjoy paying attention to some of the things I see everyday that I might otherwise almost ignore. Here's several felt pen drawings from August and October of objects in the apartment.
Here are 3 drawings I made earlier this month of an ornamental gourd I bought in the countryside. I love the wild shapes of the gourds of autumn. This one is yellow-orange and dark green, but I've focused on the shape and sketched it in black on white. I believe that when I was a… Continue reading Gourd
Recently we traveled east of Toronto to Prince Edward County for a relaxed weekend. A highlight of our trip was a visit to the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory where they band birds so their migrations can be monitored. There we were given close instruction by a staff member and were able to release 2 blue… Continue reading Trip to Prince Edward County
We recently went to Algonquin Park, a few hours north of Toronto. Because of the very warm and, sometimes, hot autumn, the trees had hardly turned their usual bright colours. Apparently they began turning late in August when there was a cold spell and then stopped when the warm weather arrived. Nevertheless, we had a… Continue reading Drawing in Algonquin Park
The heat wave has now broken, but we had hot and extremely hot weather in Toronto over the past while. During that time, I took to walking in the streets in the evening to listen to the cicadas and crickets. I discovered, to my surprise, that I was present to listening to the sounds of… Continue reading Threshold
There's a young oak tree on one of the streets in my neighbourhood. I've brought home 2 sprigs of leaves that I've found on the sidewalk on my walks. I love oak leaves! And I've done a few drawings of them. The first two are of a small bunch of leaves that I drew first… Continue reading Oak Leaves
No drawings this time, but here's photos of one of my favourite places that we visited in Newfoundland. It's Grates Cove at the northern tip of the Avalon Peninsula. We visited twice, had an excellent meal at the Grates Cove Studio amidst terrific artwork and walked on trails overlooking the ocean and later amidst the… Continue reading Grates Cove, Newfoundland
Arts of May 