Over the River

This post is a week early since the map has already been posted on Instagram by They Draw and Travel. I am really excited they liked this map!

Thanksgiving Day is a day of long tradition.  It is a day for spending time with family and friends over a traditional meal that usually involves turkey.

This year, I chose to do a map for Thanksgiving.  The most logical choice for subject matter was the poem that most people know as “Over the River and through the woods to Grandmother’s House….”

What many people do not know is it wasn’t grandmother’s house in the poem, it was Grandfather’s house.  And it wasn’t a song, it was a poem.  The title of the poem is actually “The New-England Boy’s Song About Thanksgiving Day’ and it was written by Lydia Maria Child.  It was published 1844 in a collection called “Flowers for Children Volume 2.”

Lydia Maria Child lived in Medford, Massachusetts and after much digging, I found where she lived and how long it took her to actually get to Grandfather’s house. (Not long, actually, they could easily walk it on a warm day.)  She wrote the poem from her childhood memory of going to her grandparents house for the holiday. I never knew it was based on the writer’s memories.

New England did indeed get snow for Thanksgiving in the early 1800’s.  Which is not unusual, even in these times of climate change, some places still will have snow for Thanksgiving.

I started out this map drawing farmhouses and sketching covered bridges. John and I even took a trip upstate to see covered bridges for me to use as references for this map. I even used my Breyer stablemate horses as models for the two on the map….I have included that sketch below, as well as taking a photo of them “posing.” I had the poem all printed out and the last part of all of this research was where the author was from. Finding information about the author of the poem completely changed my map and the result is what you see here.

I hope this map brings you some fond memories of a holiday that is truly belongs to every American, whether you have been here generations or you are a new citizen.

Enjoy

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Below is today’s sketch….

Still working on painting sketchbooks….

This should hold you over though….

This reference photo is a funny guy named Rick in the Sktchy community who is constantly providing us, the artists, with lots of awesome photos. I spoofed him here. I had to….couldn’t pass it up…

Morning sketch and…

So some of you are having Zombie doll withdrawal. I could do a holiday version, lol.

Here is the next book in progress….I was just getting started….you should see that table now😂.

The book I am working on is 4.5 x 6. I also have a 6×9 I am working on as well. I paint them first and then work in them.

Also, here is this morning’s post…..

And last but not least

The front cover is another doll from the attic. Her hat was in one container and she was in another. It’s a porcelain doll. Not sure how she survived being bounced around in a container but I will need to correct that before putting her away. I took liberties with painting this one as well.

This is the last zombie doll for now. I do have another sketchbook ready for another zombie idea so look for that down the line. I will be working on a holiday sketchbook that I have to sew together and paint today. The holidays will bring lots of fun stuff.

Scroll down for today’s sketch….

Today’s sketch was a lemur I had saved in my queue in Sktchy. I look at this photo thinking how animals must feel with people gawking at them all time.

Back cover of Zombie doll book

This doll was actually one of my favorite sketches when I was first sketching out the idea for this series. I saved it for the back cover.

I had to play on the “keep calm” signs that are everywhere these days. This doll was fun because it was from my head, not a real doll that I had posing in my studio.

One more to go…..I am working some ideas for the next series.

Today’s morning sketch was inspired by Sktchy. I sketched the image and then photocopied it and put it on a card to give to my husband. It was a nice way for him to start his day.

Here is the sketch before I photocopied it…I try to sketch something in my morning pages every morning.