The Joy of Art – April 29, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

to live in this world

you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart #aradillapatreon

The Joy of Art – April 28, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

This morning
the beautiful white heron
was floating along above the water
and then into the sky of this
the one world
we all belong to
where everything
sooner or later
is a part of everything else
which thought made me feel
for a little while
quite beautiful myself.

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart #aradillapatreon

The Joy of Art – April 27, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart #aradillapatreon

The Joy of Art – April 25, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

“It is impossible to be lonely when you’re zesting an orange. Scrape the soft rind once and the whole room fills with fruit. Look around: you have more than enough. Always have. You just didn’t notice until now.”

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart

The Joy of Art – April 24, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

“Live in each season as it passes. Breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit. And resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart

The Joy of Art – April 23, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

“Then death sits you down at his table and lays a page in front of you and after all these years of what you should have been doing, whispers to you, save your life.”

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart

The Joy of Art – April 22, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

“Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.”

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart

The Joy of Art – April 21, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

“Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart

The Joy of Art – April 20, 2025 at 06:31AM

Practicing my sketching.

“I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I ended up where I needed to be.”

#sketching #art #urbansketching #watercolorjournal #watercolors #drawing #illustration #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #creativity #artwork #inspirationalart

Review: First Wife’s Shadow

First Wife's Shadow
First Wife’s Shadow by Adele Parks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars, interesting thriller. twists and turns but also not the ending i thought it would have. liked it!

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Review: The Homemade God

The Homemade God
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Rachel Joyce. I love her rich and three-dimensional characters. I love her immersive stories. I love how when you finish her novel, you are left with a feeling of being full after a delicious meal. The Homemade God is full of adult children whose lives are stunted because they have continually revolved around their father.

Their father who marries a very young woman that none of them have met and dies soon after. Now they travel to Italy to figure out what happened, who this woman is, and how their father died. And they each come undone one by one. The time on the island changes each of them in irrevocable ways. This is a story about family, and the roles we can slip into and stay stuck in for a long, long time. The hold our parents can have on us. The pieces of ourself that we give up along the way, never to realize how much of it we’ve sacrificed.

It’s a beautiful story, beautifully told. That I grew to love each of those unlikable characters serves as a testament to the powerful storytelling and character building talent of Joyce.

with gratitude to netgalley and The Dial Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

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Review: Bring the House Down

Bring the House Down
Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting story about what happens when a critic who loves giving terrible reviews (and is even more despicable for other reasons) finally gets his due when an artist decides to make her whole show about what he did to her.

There’s a lot to unpack in this story about art, self-expression, payback, what’s ok to criticize, family, trauma, and one’s reputation. I felt that the story was both slow and the characters were all not-likable which made it hard to feel sorry for them and for what was happening to them. It created a distance between me and the story. It was still really interesting and a lot of food for thought.

with gratitude to netgalley and Doubleday for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

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