Happy Summer!

The first day of Summer in Iceland is always the first Thursday after April 18th. It is a big deal for us and we celebrate it by having the day off from work and school. We have parades and carnivals and it's a custom to give children gifts, "Summer-gifts", which is often something that has to do with Summer activities. No matter the weather on this first day of Summer, we really celebrate it. We march down the streets with marching bands, try our best to hold on to those balloons in the wind, try not to seem too cold in our shorts (it's Summer, right?) and with the weather beaten frozen smiles on our faces we say Hello to the Summer, sometimes in the middle of a snow blizzard....and we never regret saying goodbye to Winter (by the way, we don't celebrate the first day of Winter)!

Buying Time #1

Time doesn't allow me to paint much these days (nor to read for that matter), so I keep playing with black & whites, and I absolutely love it. This drawing is the first in a series of drawings that are just waiting their turn.

Pippi

I'm participating in a show called Once Upon a Time in The Museum of Children's Art in Oakland, CA (www.mocha.org). The opening is this Saturday, March 27th from 2-4pm. The exhibition ends on May 7th, so check it out if you are in the area during that time.

All the illustrators in the show have one illustration as well as a drawing they did when they were kids. I did this one of Pippi Longstocking when I was four years old, happy to see it again after all these years :)

More sketches...

A little wind in the hair always does it, right?

Color of Age

I saw this lady at the bookstore the other day. Her hair had once been black but was slowly turning gray and was very white at the roots. I loved that she didn't bother to color it, black or white, but just let it grow naturally. But what I loved the most was that she wore a sweater that matched her hair perfectly, white at the shoulders and slowly turned black near the waist. It was such an odd sight I have to say. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera in the bookstore, so I started this drawing as soon as I got home.

Sticking to your roots

- What am I? Can't you tell? I'm a Cod, cod damnit!

Waiting in the wind

This little girl has been begging me to throw her into some adventure. I promise I will, but she has to wait a bit though, it's not her turn yet. So in the meantime, I'll let her stand here in the wind on my blog, patiently waiting her turn..