illustration

Fantasies of Autumn – Haibun!

/ Penny L Howe / 36 Comments

There is a place, hidden from everyday view, my mind wanders there frequently – The “Other Place” – where reality lies suspended. A retreat into the world of pure Imagination. A calm from the storm and a safe haven. Both balm and catalyst to those of creative natures. I’ll introduce you more fully to my Other Place later on, but for today, a brief glimpse:

autumn sprite

Autumn Fantasy

vibrant and rich
yellow, red, orange, tan, brown
kaleidoscoping
 

… Autumns arrival.

Fall fairies abound, pixies, brownies and the like, woodland creatures. Seasonal changes find them everywhere painting our landscape with colors of autumn. My favorite creature is the “Sprite of Leaves”. Gloriously fluid, she performs her acrobatic dance in whirl winds. Spiraling leaps with twists and turns as she glides across the land. She is glorious isn’t she?

 
leafy sprite dancing
vibrant colorful myriad
autumn sensations
*

Thank you,

~ Penny

 

Time Out for Art – Shadows of Light and Dark!

/ Penny L Howe / 39 Comments

Yesterday was Time Out For Art at Zeebra Designs and Destinations. An every Thursday affair where Lisa encourages you to take a break and draw! I’ve really missed participating in the last few weeks, and am pleased to be only a day late this week. Although, I was drawing yesterday, I didn’t get it posted until today. Be sure to check out her wonderful blog.

For me drawing is one of the most relaxing things I can do, my mind letting go of day to day worries and focusing on the art of drawing (or painting, or sculpting, or writing, etc ….) while listening to music. A creative outlet!

Recently I’ve been working on a sketch for a blogging friend in England that many of you know, Ute! She sent me a photo, and while I’m still working on the actual sketch that’s more in keeping with the photo itself, I decided to experiment with Light and Dark and Ute’s face.

So I imagined that a bright light was illuminating her features from the left, washing out most of the detail on the left side of her face with shades of darkness and shadows on the right.

This is what I came up with: What do you think Ute? (And yes, I had already asked her permission to do this).

Ute - Shadows

~

And here’s her photograph!

Ute

An excellent photo of Ute – and the owl’s a hoot! LOL

Be sure and visit Ute’s at Ute smile, she’s a delight! And she just returned from Spain where she not only spent time with her mom but also visited another excellent blogger and friend, Ralph – visit him too, his blog is excellent!

Thanks for stopping by, Enjoy your weekend my wonderful friends!

~ Penny

Will Our Lives Be Lost In Time ~ like tears in the rain?

/ Penny L Howe / 29 Comments

“Life … A Masterpiece from the Palette of the Universe”

Life …

…We are the recipients!

And…we need reminded of this!

I saw a movie once, a favorite – “Blade Runner”, (a Science fiction thriller, dark and forboding) – the future. There is a scene at the end of the movie where one of the characters says words that are so piercingly moving and true that I’ve never forgotten them.

“Life lost  in time – is like tears in the rain”

The video below “reminds” us of life – it’s beauty and it’s value. You can hear the words (from the movie’s scene) in the background. Please, please watch (just a few minutes) listen to the words, see the beauty and

… be reminded!

Music from Vangelis – “Tears in the Rain” and spoken words both from the movie “Blade Runner”. This gorgeous video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pql82_hMBxY was created by Antoss1, he was inspired after watching the same scene of which I spoke.

*

WE are life’s recipients …

WE hold the future in our hands …

WE need to remind and be reminded … Again and again until we (all of us) understand!

All the tomorrow’s that will ever be are being created even as I write this.

We are the ones deciding what life will be in our futures. Our choices … the choices … have never been more important than they are today.

*

Consider this as you go about your day’s routine today. What is really important to you in life? What really matters? These are things to ponder and weigh in your heart of hearts.

We hold the future in our hands…”We hold the future in our hands“!

We, The Recipients of Life

We hold the future “their futures” … in our hands!

 

Thank you for stopping by, may your day be blessed with happiness and positive thoughts for the future my friends,

pennyPenny

Time Out for Art – A blending of styles!

/ Penny L Howe / 69 Comments

I love the “The Kiss” by  Gustav Klimt. (A very well known piece of art). I also like “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh (another well know piece of art), so I decided to blend, (somewhat) the two styles in my rendering below. And of course there’s a bit of my own style in there too.

(Credit to Wikipedia for prints of each painting)

Gustav_Klimt_016             Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project-x0-y0

I call my rendering Love. I was fascinated by the gold coloring and romantic symbolism of Klimt and equally fascinated by the mesmerizing swirls and hues of colors of Van Gogh,  The result below!

drawing by Penny

First I drew the figures and swirls in pencil and then sketched over the drawing with different colors of Ink. Darkening the background between the swirls. The colors are more vivid in the actual sketch and the gold sparkles in the light, which was an interesting effect for me to try!

All in all, it was great fun playing with the colors. I also enjoyed placing the two, slightly surreal lovers in a very affectionate and loving pose!

I hope you enjoyed too!

Today it’s Thursday which means it’s “Time out for Art” over at Zeebra DeSigns & Destinations be sure and check out Lisa’s Lesson for the day. A wonderfully entertaining post, moving and inspirational as well!

Thanks for stopping by, Have an excellent day today!

~ Penny

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Time Out for Art ~ Curiosity and little girls

/ Penny L Howe / 55 Comments

Curious by Penny L Howe, 2013

~

There was a little girl who just had to know,
about every little thing, everywhere she’d go!
Girls need to understand things
the Why, the How, the Who,
little girls are curious – it’s just what we do!
*
Growing up to be mysterious
or so it seems to men.
The truth is we stay curious,
the What, the Where, the When!
*
living life and loving
the things we do the best,
Well, and staying curious
for knowledge is our quest!
My case I therefore rest!
*

“Go Girls!”

~ Penny L Howe, 2013

~

Today is Thursday so it’s Time Out for Art over at Zebra Designs and Destinations! I drew a curious little girl and wrote a poem to go with it! I hope you enjoy, thank you!

~ Penny

penny

Beauty – in thought, word and deed

/ Penny L Howe / 59 Comments

What is beautiful to you?

How do you experience beauty?

What is the sensation within you, when beholding beauty?

One of the most wonderful things about being human

is our ability to experience – the beauty of things.

Those most wonderful sights, sounds, touches, fragrances,

and tastes of our experiences, thoughts and memories.

All revolving around our perception of beauty.

“The most beautiful thing I can think of today – is TODAY!”

~

today 3

My share for the week! Please take this with you

if you’d like! No copyright restrictions, my drawing and words

Given with love, Penny

Join the Writing Fun – Let’s write a book report!

/ Penny L Howe / 22 Comments

While a junior in high school (11th grade), My English class was told to write a book report about a book we had recently read. I did well in English (I know, no surprise there) but I had been doing a lot of drawing and other activities (President of the Latin club – hey don’t laugh, I was a geek before it was popular to be one). Anyway I had not read any books recently at all so, I made the book up. A great story too, I might add! Perhaps a little too good as it turned out.

I got an A+ on my book report and the teacher went to the Library to check out the book by the author (which of course neither existed). So I was called upon to explain this discrepancy. And I told the truth. My A+ stayed, I was asked not to do that again and she said she was disappointed because she was looking forward to reading the book.

So today I’d like you to have some fun with me! I’ve created a book cover (below) and I’d like you to write a book report (from just looking at the illustration) or a book review or what the intro (you know the flap inside the cover of the book, might say about the author and the book). Post (publish) on your blog and then link to this post. No deadlines. I’ll place your link below for others to read.

forgotten world

Please be as creative as you’d like. Talk about the fictional author and his or her background, what the story is about, what the reviewers are saying about the book. Anything that might appear in a book report or book review. I want this to be fun! No contest, no prizes, just having fun with imagination and creative writing.

I do hope you decide to join in the fun, If you don’t want to post your creative writing on your main post, create a page for your “book report” and link to it from there!

~ Thanks for taking part in the fun!

Those who have decided to write using my created book cover for inspiration:

Yoshiko Her take was to write a poem about the loneliness of a planet! Just lovely!

RoSy Her words are very moving as her subject is our forgotten soldiers living on  the streets today. A truth! Well done Rosy!

Penny

Snapshot_20120917

Creativity – it shows up in the most amazing places!

/ Penny L Howe / 27 Comments

This is a slightly blurry photo of two shriveled up tulips. They were two beautiful spring tulips when they entered the house several weeks ago, picked by an adorable little 10 year old girl.

download (1)

Wilted tulips

On Easter, as I prepared to toss the dry leaves away, I noticed the image of a bird’s face, I took a close-up shot and then drew a picture of same. Fascinating what our imagination can do for us when we give it free reign! And yes I did notice that the dried tulip leaves on the left look like a bird also! Pure imagination, isn’t it wonderful?

bird headClose up!

~

download (3)

A little sketch!

~

I think we all see faces and different shapes of things in the patterns of various objects, I find that fascinating! Don’t you?

Thanks for stopping by,

~ Penny

shot 1

Do you run towards life …

/ Penny L Howe / 48 Comments

or from it?

running from life

A simple question with a not so simple answer. There are easy days and then there are the hard ones. Some of us run in the hopes that the scarier aspects of life won’t overtake us. Some of us run because we’re sure if we run fast enough we’ll make it. Some of us are afraid to stop … and some of us are afraid to start.

(the film quality isn’t the best of this YouTube video – but the content is!)

~

At the very heart of who we are is the desire to succeed in our endeavors. The thing is we can only make it in life – if we are moving forward. For those of us who have decided the whole prospect seems too overwhelming.

there is a third option ~ try running along with life.

Go with the flow, one day at a time.

Works for me, maybe you too!

~ Penny

plh

Have you Hugged a blogger today?

/ Penny L Howe / 50 Comments

Hugging is always a good thing. I believe I’ve written a few posts about hugging.

So today is a good day for special hugs, I think!

When you think about the blogging world, certain people and certain blogs do come to mind don’t they? There are many (x) many wonderful bloggers out there so I am sending a special personal “bloggers hug” to each and everyone of you. A most special bloggers HUG!

IMAG2006-1

Enjoy your day today. May it be filled with a richness of love and hugs!

~ Penny

Not a Dalek!