Monashee Traverse

   The painting at the top of this page is a study for a larger oil painting. The scene is in the Monashee mountains of central British Columbia and I am at the top of an icy, rocky, cold and windy place looking down on my friends who have all merrily skied down this forbidding slope without falling down. While assessing my chances of descending to join them without sustaining too much damage the breathtaking light across the far slopes was impossible to resist and since I hadn't fallen on my camera yet I managed to get a few pictures.
   It seemed that everywhere we skied I was left behind on a problematic precipice while my companions zipped away, but the reward was a few dramatic scenes saved for later enjoyment.
   Yes I did ski down that slope and all the others too but as a relatively novice "telemarker" did not have the aggressive technique to be in the lead.
   Now I ponder approaching the Very Large Canvas that this scene will eventually end up on. I love painting murals but have not done that in many years. Starting a big painting feels about the same as heading down a steep slope after not skiing for a long time. But once some momentum is gained it will be a lot of fun. The first step is done of priming the canvas but since it's just a white blank it didn't seem very interesting to add a photo of that stage. Check in later for progress when the colors start showing up.

Kickapoo Colors adult coloring book is here!

   Fresh from the printer two weeks ago and already the first printing is winging its way across the Pacific to Australia, and to several states. It was great fun to draw the pictures for this book. They were inspired by drawings I had already done for the Kickapoo Valley Reserve http://kvr.state.wi.us/
or derived from sketches and paintings done at earlier times.
   Pen and ink line drawings are one of my favorite ways to relax and let my eyes see simple shapes. Mixing colors for painting is challenging for me but the simplicity of one color of ink brings out design ideas and patterns that do not happen with paint. So one drawing leads to another.
   Over a short period of time several friends mentioned how popular adult coloring books were lately. I had never heard of them! But of course; why wouldn't coloring be fun for adults? We like to knit, put puzzles together, doodle and more. Coloring books are an old idea made new. Suddenly a few drawings piled up on my art table, some unfinished, swooshed together in my mind and there it was: a coloring book of what was, until then, a random collection of individual pictures, each done for a different reason.
   I went to work, rearranging elements of some of the pictures, unifying them with border designs influenced by two of my favorite inspirations-Frank Lloyd Wright and Art Deco, and tweaking images to work as line drawings with enough detail to be interesting to color.
   There is a miniature, "Pocket Edition" for taking along wherever you go and the full size 8.5 x 11" book for leisurely coloring at home. Each has twelve pictures inspired by the Kickapoo Valley's winged, flowered and furred residents. Each illustration has a bit of information with it to share something interesting about the subjects. You can visit my Etsy shop for more information  https://www.etsy.com/shop/SusanCushingArt

   This was so much fun to create that I just kept drawing and so another book will be done soon.
Stay in touch for updates, and thanks for checking in!