Black Sketchbook Drawings and Happy Thoughts

In the past 5-6 years, I've kept track of my art more on my Instagram page, The Lost Button. Recently, my middle daughter mentioned how much she loved reading my blog when I used to post more here and asked if I would pick it up again. I'm not sure how much blogs are used anymore, but I miss having this as a gathering place of art and happy moments too. So, I think I'll catch up on a few little happy thought drawings that I have created the last year or two in my black sketchbook. These drawings are almost always made while wandering in the mountains and so naturally become organic mandalas of some sort or another. 

Here's one I began on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the late summer next to a river my youngest daughter played in the entire time. 

I came home and finished it at my desk and it turned out like this.

Here's one I made for my husband's sketch club prompt last fall. I added more to the design later, but didn't like it as much so I'll only share this part of it. hahaha

This is one I began on a hike in the mountains while in a field of wild flowers.

I brought it with me on a vacation later that week and finished it while sitting on a large rock structure above a koi pond at a train depot. This particular spot was a favorite place to sit and play the guitar in my teen years and so special to share with my family while visiting in August. 

This is one I made for my cousin's daughter. I had started it while at a family gathering and she liked it so much I decided to give it to her when I finished. I created it in her favorite colors.

Here's a few random ones I made while out and about with my youngest daughter (she's my usual mountain exploring buddy). She's got a secret power of attracting little flying creatures to visit her and land on her fingers and head. They've found her since she was just a toddler. We've decided they are fairies in disguise and visiting her for being a kindred spirit.  

Here is a series of pictures of a little green flying insect meeting her and her surprise when he flew off. So fun to have captured that moment.

Here's another lucky shot. If you look closely at this photo of her sitting on a rock in the middle of a river, you can see that a little butterfly had landed on her finger. 

The last sketch/happy thought to share is from my most favorite time in the mountains. One this day in July, while in the mountains and working on this sketch that I had started at church, we witnessed a group of Greek women dancing in a circle. They were singing/praying in a ritual for their grieving friend who cried in the center of the circle on the ground. They invited me to join them. I didn't know their language or what they were saying. They were all singing different words and even in different tunes, but it was apparent that they were singing in replies to each other and they were there for their grieving friend and wailing with her. They changed their tune part way through and it built speed and became lighter until they were stomping and clapping and reaching down to their friend and lifting her up. It was beautiful. Our hearts were connected and I was crying with them. I gave them my unfinished sketch and hugged them. In broken English they told me that it was a special prayer for women and to be done outdoors. As my new friends left, the grove seemed to explode with butterflies and many flew to my daughter and landed on her. It is one of the most sacred experiences of my life. I knew it would have been extremely inappropriate to take pictures while they were dancing (even though it was so beautiful and I wanted to remember it forever), but I'm so glad I got a picture of the sketch before giving it away and of Pip with one of her butterflies/fairies.