Making art while writing ... in my head

"Amber" by Krystyn Hartman.

Ended up doing two pieces today while writing my column for this week. Again, I am hooked on working with these alcohol inks on yupo paper. Can't get enough, apparently.

I made this one, a very green tree with a big silver circle in the center, which I call "Amber."

The circle is the shiny top from a Jello snack pack that I brought back from Nebraska a few weeks ago. I included it in this piece because the Jello was shared among family when we were in Nebraska and I wanted as many family elements in this piece as possible. Of course, a very leafy tree is also very representative of family. It was important to include a lot of family elements in this piece.

I made this one for my friend who is moving to a new city to begin a new life. She's nervous right now; this is a challenging transition for her, but I know she will do well. She is strong, smart, beautiful and, well, she's just fabulous.

I also felt the need to make a piece featuring a lemon tree. As with the other piece, this one has a family connection for me.

"That Lemon Tree" by Krystyn Hartman.

I actually wrote most of my column today (in my head of course) while painting the lemon tree. (I still need to get the column out of my head and onto paper, but that should go pretty quick now that I know what I'm writing.)

Lemonade is the name of the yellow ink I used for the lemons. I didn't realize that was the name of the color; I just grabbed the bright yellow. When I'd finished and was putting the inks back in the tin, the label caught my eye. How appropriate!

I started to add more to the piece, but there was something about the simplicity of it that just felt right and stayed my brush.

Overall, had a very nice day painting family trees and writing (in my head)!  Okay, better get my column to paper already!