Today for my #NatureDoodlewash hike, I had an imaginary walk across the wonderful Australia a land that I always wanted to go visit…and it didn’t happen yet! Maybe one day! For this watercolor I was inspired by a beautiful Magazine Cover that portrait a model holding a Kangaroo. A couple of weeks ago I was visiting a Barnes and Nobles Book store and I loved that cover so much that instantly I had the urge to sketch it.
I am so glad that I had my sketchbook with me and while sipping a coffee I sketched. I followed pretty much the lines and the pose, but I changed the girl expression and colors giving her a different look. I wanted her to have purple hair and be a whimsical girl. She hold the cute kangaroo on her shoulder close to her neck. It is a portrait very similar to the “Girl with a Bird” I made not long ago. I love Kangaroos and I really enjoyed to paint once again an image of love. I hope that you like it!
I also want to dedicate this illustration as symbol of friendship to all my friends here on the Blogosphere! And to all my Australian friends that are many!
Thank you to all for brightening my days! ❤
Coming Soon Event!
A month of watercolors! A great challenge, 31 days 31 watercolor paintings! I will participate joining Charlie at Doodlewash he is the creator of this magical event and of “The World Watercolor Month” from now on each year in July will be celebrated! Yay thanks to Charlie! 😉 This event will unite Artists around the World joining together this Ultimate Challenge! I am so honored to participate! This is the first year it just got officially approved! You can learn all about it here!
Today for my #NatureDoodlewash “hike” I went diving underwater 😉 I am going to share my watercolor of a beautiful sea creature a “ Seahorse“. I love everything that has to do with ocean, sea and water and I enjoyed very much to paint the colorful beauty of this Seahorse.
Seahorse is the name given to 54 species of small marine fishes in the genus Hippocampus. “Hippocampus” comes from the Ancient Greek word hippos meaning “horse” and kampos meaning “sea monster”. The word “seahorse” is often written as two separate words, or hyphenated. Having a head and neck suggestive of a horse, seahorses also feature segmented bony armour, an upright posture and a curled prehensile tail.
Seahorse is the name given to 54 species of small marine fishes in the genus Hippocampus. “Hippocampus” comes from the Ancient Greek word hippos meaning “horse” and kampos meaning “sea monster”. The word “seahorse” is often written as two separate words, or hyphenated. Having a head and neck suggestive of a horse, seahorses also feature segmented bony armour, an upright posture and a curled prehensile tail.
Today for my #NatureDoodlewash hike, I am going to share one of my latest watercolor it was a joy to make this one. A portrait of a “Red-Breasted California Bird” . Here in California I don’t have to go too far of a hike to see them. When is their time, I can see them very often. I have seen many beautiful Red-Breasted birds, there are some very small size and some just a normal bird size this one I painted is the normal size. They are so beautiful to watch chirping and being busy over the tree branches, that red color pops so nicely, they totally inspired me to paint their beauty.
Today I also like to share with you that one of my short stories “Memories of Happiness” has been published yesterday on VisualVerse Anthology Press, where Art meets Words. What they are doing is interesting and challenging if you like you can read my post and my story here.
Visual Verse An Anthology of Art and Words One image, one hour, 50-500 words. The picture is the starting point, the text is up to you.
Visual Verse Published my short story!
This month I participate again to this interesting monthly writing event that brings together Art and Words on VisualVerse.org Anthology Press. I found it to be very challenging for me last month to write something inspired by a picture as starting point to a creative, timed, writing process.
The painting that you see here above was the starting point image assigned this month by Visual Verse:
“we are connecting with Camden Art Collection in London to bring you your new writing prompt. In June, Camden Council will launch a new portal bringing their phenomenal collection to a public audience. We are thrilled to be able to share an image from this collection exclusively with you.
This painting is by Jean Cooke, an artist we love, who once said: “Everything that happens when I open my eyes [each morning] is a surprise. It’s like dying and coming alive again every day.” You’ll be able to view this image, along with other works from Camden’s extensive collection, at Swiss Cottage Library over the coming month.
From this picture I was inspired to write a short story “Memories of Happiness”
This short story is my second short story first published on Visual Verse and is not published here on my Blog yet. I am very happy to share it with you as a nice achievement of my creative writing that now is part of this interesting Anthology and published on:
Here I link the Archive with all the images and writings published until now!
I am happy that my writings are part of this Anthology,
I hope that you like my story please let me know what you think it means a lot to me.
I love your comments!
Hello everyone during my year of Blogging I made beautiful connections. I came across amazing and inspiring people from all over the world, great Artists, Writers, Musicians, Photographers and more, some incredible and amazing souls. I consider myself very fortunate that I have this wonderful opportunity thanks to the special connections and friendships made through my Blog. I want to thank everyone for the participation to our weekly Meet and Greet Fridays. Because this event, I had the opportunity to discover and connect with numerous Blogs and it is far from easy for me to choose only one each month. Today I share my pick for the month of June. I had to choose between all the wonderful Bloggers that left their links during this month at the Meet and Greet Fridays!
This month I have the opportunity to introduce you with the wonderful world of creativity and Watercolors!
I am very pleased and honored to introduce you mynew Featured of the Month! And featured is…an artistic soul and Creative Director Charlie O’Shields and his beautiful Blog doodlewash!
I connected with Charlie about six months ago or more, we came across each other Blogs. I was searching for other artists to connect. I loved his blog soon, it was so captivating and inspiring with all the beautiful watercolors sketches that he post daily. Charlie call them “doodlewash” a term that he claim to be his own! We were happy to connect and share each other work he has a brilliant personality he is very friendly and a great motivator and inspirer there is a beautiful group of artists that join him in his Doodlewash Adventures and I am very happy that I joined in. We followed and stayed connected. I consider Charlie one of my dearest friend here on the Bloghosphere I am always thrilled by his comments to my watercolors!
Charlie posts and beautiful Guest Featured Artists on his Blog are always so interesting and a joy to read! I am proud to be able to say that I am one of them. I have been doodlewashed! 😉 since he featured me!
This is an excerpt of Charlie About page…
“Hi, I’m Charlie O’Shields and I live in Kansas City, Missouri. Welcome to Doodlewash! I started this blog by trying to capture little bits of my world in ink and watercolor after a 20 year hiatus from sketching and absolutely no experience with watercolor. So the results have varied. A lot. But that’s all part of the fun! And I’m meeting many wonderful people on this journey. I’ve also discovered that sketching with washes of watercolor or ink is incredibly relaxing and a great way to relief stress. For anyone and everyone! Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist or have never dared to doodle before. Trust me… you can do it too. We are all artists when we make something new. Be sure to check out the amazingly talented Guest Doodlewashers as it’s my mission to promote the work of other sketcher and watercolorists out there. And if you’re interested in being a guest artist, just contact me!
Also, I’m not alone in this, you can meet the Doodlewash Crew below who inspire me daily with their beautiful work and help me stay motivated. And we’re inviting you to grab a brush and join us! Let’s all make some doodlewashes together!”
Charlie is also the creator of a wonderful Worldwide Event that will take place on the month of July!
A month of watercolors! It is a great challenge, 31 days 31 watercolor paintings! I will participate joining Charlie at Doodlewash he is the creator of this magical event and of “The World Watercolor Month” from now on each year in July will be celebrated! Thanks to Charlie! 😉 This event will bring together Artists around the World joining this Ultimate Challenge!
I am so honored and happy to participate! This is the first year it just got officially approved! You can learn all about it here!
I hope that you enjoyed this new Feature of the Month and to know more about Charlie O’Shields doodlewash adventures please visit hisBlog!
(Please Charlie grab this Badge and post it somewhere on your Blog linked to this post!) ❤
How to be Featured on YesterdayAfter?
Stay Connected! Participate to the Meet and Greet Fridays weekly event leaving your Blog link, Follow here and on my other social media be active! Inspire!
You never know…maybe next Month I will choose YOU!
Wish you all a wonderful week!
Congratulations to Charlie to be the Featured of the Month ofJune 2016
Today for my NatureDoodlewash hike, I am happy to share my watercolor. A portrait that emits a message of love and protection for our animals and nature. Symbolized by the whimsical girl who hold lovingly a yellow bird on her shoulder close to her neck. I have seen many beautiful yellow birds here in California and they inspired me. I enjoyed to paint the “Girl With a Bird” is an inspiring image of love and peace. I hope that you like it as much I do! I always love to read all your beautiful comments 😉 ❤
Coming Soon Event! I also get the chance to announce that on the month of July we will have a great event going on Worldwide!
A month of watercolors! A great challenge, 31 days 31 watercolor paintings! I will participate joining Charlie at Doodlewash he is the creator of this magical event and of “The World Watercolor Month” from now on each year in July will be celebrated! Yay thanks to Charlie! 😉 This event will unite Artists around the World joining together this Ultimate Challenge! I am so honored to participate! This is the first year it just got officially approved! You can learn all about it here!
Today I wanted to honor the Spring Season with this lovely “Cherry Blossom”.
Before Spring will say goodbye to us and we will welcome the Summer, I wanted to paint one flower that is pretty much a worldwide symbol of this beautiful season.
The Cherry Blossom is recognized to be the National flower of Japan and in Japanese is known as “Sakura”. A flower found now pretty much everywhere in the world and there are many varieties. The flowers are pink or white. In the Japanese culture the Cherry Blossoms symbolize clouds due to their nature and their way of blooming as group of flowers that looks like clouds. This lovely flower also holds various meanings like joy, love, hope, humility and more.
Yes, we are having an heat wave for this weekend. And with this temperatures isn’t too much fun to go hike!
I love to hike and I usually go several time a week but not today, so I decided that my #NatureDoodlewash hike will be close to home.
My friend has a wonderful plant of Hibiscus outside her backyard and I love the flowers especially the color and shape. I decided to use them for my watercolor.
Hibiscus is better known as the flower symbol of Haiti, but with the climate here the plant grows beautifully!
Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species are often noted for their showy flowers and are commonly known simply as hibiscus, or less widely known as rose mallow. The genus includes both annual and perennial herbaceous plants, as well as woody shrubs and small trees. The generic name is derived from the Greek word ἱβίσκος, which was the name Pedanius Dioscorides gave to Althaea officinalis. (Wikipedia)
“home for all that live and breathe words, spilled or inspired,
through literature of every genre, from writers and poets of every walk of life”
I am very happy to have my 50 words story “Deep Water” Published on this great Literary Press.
I am honored to be listed as one of their contributor writers.
A special thank you to the Editor for publish my story.
Please give a visit to Spillwords and check it out is a very interesting press!
Today post is about my thrilling experience attending the concert of one of the greatest band of all time UK iconic and legendary “The Cure”. Their music amazed millions of fans worldwide during last forty years and I am one of them. This concert is one of the most beautiful experience I had.
On Monday May 23, 2016 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles best known as a historical venue where great music names of all time has performed. I was lucky to be able to have a ticket on the second day of the three “Sold Out” shows. The Cure also performed on Sunday 22 and Tuesday 24 as part of their North America Tour 2016 the first US full-fledged tour in eight years with 33 Shows in US and in Autumn they will be touring in Europe with 26 Shows.
“The Cure Tour 2016” will present Robert Smith (voice/guitar), Simon Gallup (bass), Jason Cooper (drums), Roger O’Donnell (keys) and Reeves Gabrels (guitar).
This amazing tour also features another of my favorite band that I discovered quite a while back that I follow and love. Their music is unique and intense with great sounds and dark atmospheres, it is a magical combination with the beautiful voice of charismatic and intense singer James Graham, front man of Scottish post-punk band “The Twilight Sad”. They are the “Special Guests” supporting The Cure on almost all the dates of this 2016 Tour. The Cure couldn’t make a better choice on bringing The Twilight Sad out in the light for an exposure very well deserved, they are an awesome band rising up in our contemporary music.
The Twilight Sad
The Twilight Sad band is based in Glasgow Scotland and was formed in 2003. Since then they released four studio albums, the latest is “Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave“. The band members are James Graham (vocals), Andy MacFarlane (guitar), and Mark Devine (drums). Touring members include Johnny Docherty (bass guitar) and Brendan Smith (keyboards).
The Twilight Sad – James GrahamHeadline
The Twilight Sad will also be performing some headline shows during the tour, one was scheduled in Los Angeles at the “Teragram Ballroom” on Wednesday May 25. Sadly, I couldn’t attend this one. I really wanted to go to see them perform in their own element in the darkness of an intimate place where you can feel their music shock you deep inside your soul. I won’t miss them next time they come back to L.A. that for sure!
I couldn’t be more happy to attend this lifetime wish come true concert and to be able to see two of my loved bands live in one day! This is truly amazing!
When I discovered The Cure I was in Italy, my native country. A friend went to a summer vacation in London and came back with several vinyl albums from a band that at that time we didn’t know so well yet…The Cure! I have to say that after I listened their albums, I was hooked to their music. “Seventeen Seconds” was the one for me iconic and epic album that signed my love life for The Cure. The beautiful dark timeless sound that distinguish the uniqueness of this band is contained in all the songs of this album and in more to come. Included is “A Forest” one of my all time favorite songs that give me goosebumps each time I listen to it.
Finally time has arrived…
On May 23, after months of waiting, my day started pretty early getting ready to go to the Hollywood Bowl a 50 minutes drive from where I live. Exciting feelings were anticipating the concert that I have been waiting for all my life. This day was a very special day for me, it was filled with intense emotions and a “Surreal Surprise”. I am so happy that I was able to attend, I never wanted to miss this. The weather was sunny most of the day and later on turned a little gloomy with an appealing breeze.
When we arrived to the Hollywood Bowl was great to see the big sign saying “The Cure – The Twilight Sad – Tonight 7:pm – Sold Out” another great concert was about to be written in the history album of this venue. Things were getting real now!
We decided to pass the Hollywood Bowl to find an alternative parking area since the Bowl parking is known to be very crowded. So we drove down the main street at a decent walking distance from the Bowl.
There is a church with parking that I knew would let people park for events at the Bowl. We drove in looking for someone to ask if was possible to park early since the time was around 3.30pm and the gates of the Hollywood Bowl didn’t open til 5pm. Right at that exact moment when I turned my face toward the street I was stunned! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! Walking passed us in the street I see The Twilight Sad singer “James Graham” and the band manager John-Paul Mason, just at that precise moment! They appeared to me out of the blue! Oh Wow!!! That moment was so surreal! How could this be possible??? Instinctively I said, “That’s James!!!” He heard his name because he turned his face looking around trying to figure out who was calling him lol…I couldn’t believe what was happening, everything happened so fast like magic! That was one in a million chances. I kept calling James name and quickly got out to the car so that he could see me. They stopped, turned around and approached me by the fence. James came close smiling and surprised. I told him that I am a fan. Then they kindly came around the fence into the parking lot where I was. We started to talk and laugh, we hugged surprised from this amazing moment, it was fantastic like meeting old friends that you haven’t seen in a long time. James was super cool and very friendly, and so was John Paul. While talking we took some photos that I will cherish forever. Here is James! The impressive and intense soul of The Twilight Sad! I love this photo!
It was definitely one of the most surreal moments I’ve ever had! I couldn’t believe what just happened, this “encounter” alone made my day before it even started. I felt so great and happy!
One of The Twilight Sad beautiful songs that I love is “There’s a Girl in the Corner,” track from 2014 latest album “Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave” awesome album! This song is also offered as Exclusive Free Tour Download you can get it here.
I guess today “I was the girl in the corner” 😉 I can only say that it was a fantastic experience to meet James and John Paul, the best things happen when you don’t expect them. Thank you for stopping your walk and taking your time with me. Going to the concert, of course, I was hoping to be able to catch James and the band after the gig at the merchandise booth, but I knew that in L.A. wouldn’t be any easy in a sold out venue like this concert.
So my wish got fully granted with an amazing unexpected surprise that I will never forget. Thank You for your kindness James!
After of all this we had a little time before the Bowl opened the gates. There were so many people everything was well-organized and went smooth. While waiting I could hear The Twilight Sad doing their sound check and James voice resonate in between the Hollywood hills very beautiful. It was getting really exciting!
Outside The Hollywood Bowl
Around 5.30pm we were able to get inside the arena of the Bowl and had some time to kill after we got our seats. We went around the venue and to the merchandise booths to buy my The Cure Tour T-Shirt lots of people and I haven’t seen The Twilight Sad T-shirt that I wanted too!
Around 7pm was still natural sunlight, the arena wasn’t full yet but people were coming in. The concert started with The Twilight Sad opening with the beautiful notes of “There’s a Girl in the Corner” another great surprise for me! This song did bring together The Cure with The Twilight Sad for their collaboration. Robert Smith, recently recorded a beautiful cover for this song.
The Twilight Sad
The Twilight Sad delivered a great performance with 7 songs on their Setlist, James Graham always deliver exceptional intensity and passion while singing becoming one with the music and dominating the stage with a distinctive, impressive presence. The 7 songs performed were: 1) There is a Girl in the Corner – 2) Last January – 3) That Summer at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy – 4) It Never Was The Same – 5) Seven Years of Letters – 6) Reflection of The Television – 7) And She Would Darken the Memory.
The Cure Concert Begin
The sun was almost down by 8pm. The arena of the Hollywood Bowl was full and exciting. Clouds were invading the sky creating the perfect shade of darkness and gray atmosphere for The Cure to take the stage. The show opened with the beautiful and distinct sound of the guitars and Robert voice singing “Open” the first song of a long beautiful and insane Setlist featuring 33 amazing songs, 4 encores and two new songs performed “Step into the Light“ and “It can never be the same“ . The Cure gifted us with 3 hours of an amazing and spectacular show.
After playing 19 uninterrupted songs, the band left the stage for the first time. Watching The Cure live is stunning!
They are better than ever. Robert Smith has amazing stamina, he can sing and play his guitar forever. In between songs Robert gave us few kind and cheerful words. Roberts voice is as fresh and powerful like time hasn’t passed, the same for his unique look, the only difference is that he is letting his hair color natural. Besides that, his black eye-lined eyes, lipstick, black dressed and heavy boots all still there. He is “The Cure” the founder and heart of this amazing band and it’s so great to see that unity as band that make them amazing like their music.
After 23 songs and at the end of the encore 2 my favorite song “A Forest” blown away the Hollywood Bowl! There are not enough words to describe how this song effected me and everyone else there. This song has been with me almost all my life. No matter what has changed growing up, or going through life experiences and I think when this happens that’s what great music is all about, you become one with it, and will never leave you. Was an incredible experience to hear it live!
After this great moment, we had encore 3 and encore 4 more beautiful songs were played. The Cure wanted to give us everything they could in 3 hours time and still a lot more of amazing music from their discography were left un played. Robert & Co. enjoyed play their music with us very much it was like they never wanted to stop until the grand final with the song “Boys Don’t Cry”. This concert was outstanding and fantastic for so many reasons. I have seen two amazing loved bands and I would love to see them again and again and again…
A special thanks to The Cure and to The Twilight Sad for this unforgettable concert and for their timeless great music!
Late in October 2016 I have created a watercolor ink painting dedicated to The Twilight Sad
1st Release Collectors Limited Edition Fine Art Print are available on pre-order Here
This is an excerpt of Charlie About page…
re great music names of all time has performed. I was lucky to be able to have a ticket on the second day of the three “Sold Out” shows. The Cure also performed on Sunday 22 and Tuesday 24 as part of their North America Tour 2016 the first US full-fledged tour in eight years with 33 Shows in US and in Autumn they will be touring in Europe with 26 Shows.
One of The Twilight Sad beautiful songs that I love is “There’s a Girl in the Corner,” track from 2014 latest album “
Carolina Russo Art 
You must be logged in to post a comment.