I had posted this once before, but am doing so again. I had almost forgotten I had even done the picture. It was done several years ago.
Do you remember this song? Once you hear this song, you never quite forget it. The words stay with you. They did for me.
I had to illustrate what the song was saying to me.
A little girl dancing down the road to her future, not knowing all that lies before her, but dancing anyway.
I hope you like this. :)
I Hope You Dance
This movie is unforgettable, especially if you are a Brad Pitt fan. This is one of his better movies I think, along with “Meet Joe Black”, and the powerful “A River Runs Through It”. There is just something very intriguing about him when he plays characters such as these. They are all so masculine, but there is also a sensitivity and vulnerability to each one as well. No one else could have played these characters better than Brad Pitt, except for maybe the late James Dean, whom he reminds me of so much in these roles.
This is the storyline:
Set in the Rocky Mountains of Montana in the early 1900s, this is a tale of love, betrayal, and brotherhood. After being discharged, Colonel Ludlow decides to raise his three sons in the wilds of Montana, where they can grow up away from the government and society he has learned to dispise. The three brothers mature and seem to have an unbreakable bond, until Susanna enters their lives. When Samuel, the youngest of the three, returns from college he brings with him his beautiful fiance, Susanna. The eldest son, Alfred, soon finds himself in love with his brother’s fiance, and things get worse when he discovers a growing passion between Susanna and Tristan. Colonel Ludlow’s favorite son, Tristan is willful and as wild as the mountains. As the brothers set out to fight a war in Europe, suspicion and jelousy threatens to tear apart their once indestructable bond.
A wonderful movie that will stay with you, not only for the great characters and it’s story, but with it’s captivating scenery as well.
Here is the trailer: 
I’m just posting this because I believe the two belong together. This picture, which I drew awhile back (and I would like to do more Amish pictures) was done in colored pencil and I love the way it turned out. She is beautiful and her innocence seems to shine through. As I said in the previous post, we just got back from Amish country, and it is very hard to come back into the swing of things when you have simpleness and calmness all around you for a week. Enjoy this calmness for a few with the video. 
Please click on the title of the video for it to work.
Amish Girl Colored Pencil Portrait
Ahhhh, now this is more like it. Yes, I love Amish country-Lancaster , PA. I need to go back there and refresh myself. When I go there, I can’t help but feel creative. There is just so much around to fill all the senses:
The buggies and the clip-clop of the horses.
The colorful amish dresses and heart-shaped prayer caps.
Amish Morning
The smell of baked goods is everywhere (mmmm,shoo-fly pie!)
The beautiful countryside where you can actually see the horizon. Oh yes, no telephone wires overhead!
Winding roads and corn. Lots of corn.
And cows-mustn’t forget cows.
Anyway, thought I would just share this picture with you.
Ahhhhh!
This is also something that I have been planning for awhile. I have always wanted to write and illustrate several children’s books.
Some of the ideas were generated just from a series of drawings I had done. One series was called “Charlotte and Friends”.
“Charlotte and Friends” was a series of greeting cards I had done that had 3 characters. It was a country theme which included Charlotte, a motherly primitive rag doll,Gunther, the comical country goose, and Toby, the loyal scottish terrier. I have a whole book completed titled “Charlotte and Friends Picnic ABC”. It goes through the alphabet as they pack goodies away in a basket for a picnic. I have only sent it to one publisher so far, but they sent it back with a rejection letter. So….it’s off to another publisher. Try,try again!
Here is the introduction page picture… :)
Charlotte And Friends
To know me is to know I love anything to do with the Amish. For more than 10 years my family has traveled to Lancaster, Pa and stayed for 6 days at a time… never wanting to leave. It is peaceful and serene. The countryside…breathtaking. I always thought I wanted to move to the country when I got older. But country in RI is to be in the middle of nowhere and placed in the middle of hills and tall pine trees. You cannot see the horizon as you can in PA. There are a couple of main roads with traffic and lights, but you can take a side road, and suddenly you are in the middle of paradise.
Every time we go there, we take a side road and travel up a distance until we are in the middle of never-ending farms. We shut off the car, and you hear nothing! Look up ! There are no wires over your head. It’s so quiet, you can hear the rustling of the grass and towering cornstalks. The many meadow butterflies flit close to the ground, and in the fields,there are cows grazing at every turn. It’s beautiful.
What adds to the already peaceful and serene setting are the Amish people who ride back and forth in their black and grey buggies. They are pulled by sleek, brown horses. The sound of their trotting is like music to me, and I open a window as we pass just to listen. The Amish people are friendly, but quiet. The women wear bright dresses and heart-shaped bonnets and often go barefoot on hot summer days. The men seem to never sweat in their heavy, black pants and straw hats. You have to experience this to completely understand the feeling you have when you are there, and somehow, you will never want to leave.
The experience always makes me feel refreshed, and lets me feel I can go on for the rest of the year, until I go back again. As long as I can go back!
Well, it’s been about 6 years since we have gone last, and now even the kids miss it. We had made close friends with an Amish family there. They have a quilt shop on their property. They have a daughter of Caitlin’s age, and we have eaten at their home, and once, they even came out to dinner with us. Kathryn, the amish girl, invited us one year to her school house to meet everyone. We went (at first hesitated) and realized “we” were the one’s being stared at and whispered about. But they gave us gifts and asked questions and were so friendly. I’m so glad we went. We will never forget the experience.
The amish family was sadly one of the families that were affected by that awful Nickel Mines shooting. Their grandaughter was the 13 year old Marion Fisher, and all I could do was cry. I have tried to contact them since then with cards and such, with no response.
We are going to try to go this summer as a family again, before everyone here goes their separate ways with work and college, etc. We want to remember the feeling again. The calmness and just enjoying nature and each other’s company in a less stressed environment. To be childlike again…and also, just maybe, we will still find that Kathryn will still be there. We can only hope!
Amish girl, Kathryn, with cousin maybe 9 years ago
