Saturday, May 17, 2008

Keith's Birthday Card


I used another one of my little watercolor collages to make my brother's birthday card. The three kids sitting on a washtub eating watermelon are me, Keith, and our sister Carolyn (who died of breast cancer in 2001.)

Keith is looking forward to the birth of his first grandson in June. He already has two little granddaughters that he's crazy about. He even volunteered to stay home from some car race to babysit Claire.

Skylark


This is one of the little watercolor collages that I made in a class with Sherri Kiesel when she came to Houston the first weekend in March. I absolutely loved this class. I would take from her again in a minute.

"Trail of Secrets" by Eileen Goudge


The background for this spread was red and blue acrylic paints washed with Vintage White. The title was written with a dark gray Pitt brush pen and the text with a Pilot P-700. The magazine illustration was adhered with a xyron.

This book kept me up until the wee hours, as I couldn't turn out the light until I saw how it ended. If one is willing to suspend belief in coincidences, it's a romantic, satisfying love story.

Ellie was a teenage unwed mother whose baby was stolen from her. 22 years later, she's a successful psychologist, but her heart had been broken when she lost Bethanne, and never having been able to have another child, she is desperate to adopt. Two girls have promised her their babies, but changed their minds at the last minute.

Enter Skyler, a young equestrienne whose adoptive parents dote on her, but are unhappy with her decision to give up her baby. The pregnancy was the result of an "afternoon delight" with Tony, a NYC mounted policeman. They are drawn to each other like metal to a magnet, but coming from completely different backgrounds, believe that marriage is out of the question.

It's no mystery to the reader that Skyler is the missing Bethanne. The book revealed that fact in the first chapter. However, neither Ellie nor Skyler is aware of this, and so papers are signed when the baby is born and Ellie blissfully takes her home.

What kept me turning the pages was wanting to know how and when the book's characters would be let in on the secret, what would be their reactions, and how would they resolve the issue of custody after Skyler predictably and inevitably wants her infant back.