My Mother, Myself . . .

My Mother,

She would have been 102 TODAY.

At the time of this picture, she would have been married to my Dad and a student at Eastern Kentucky Teacher's College (now EKU).

Back to Painting . . .

After more than a month of preparing for, attending, and recovering from my 50th High School Reunion, I've gotten back to painting.

This is a painting I started in Kilmarnoch, VA at the workshop I attended, which I abandoned at the time because the teacher didn't want me to move away from the painting with which I started. It's taken this long to talk myself out of trying to paint just like that teacher and return to what I assume is

my own style.

The painting is from a photo of my father's middle brother (Walter Lee) and I've added a young woman for intrigue. I'm not sure it works, but I like it none-the-less.

A new portrait . . .

The Witching Hour is nigh upon us. It's almost Monday and my 50th high school reunion is on Friday and Saturday. It has been a lot of fun planning for it and contacting folks and reintroducing classmates to other classmates. . . but I'll be happy when it is over.

Above is my newest attempt at painting a portrait (and of course it is not done--as usual). This girl was half Puerto Rican. I thought she looked like an American Indian Princess. She was quite regal. It was a great deal of fun to paint her.

Orientations

I'm just back from a week in a watercolor workshop with Ted Nuttall. WONderful week. The painting to the left is one I did there. She's a model I drew in one of my "long-pose" Saturdays. She's not done and never will be, BUT she will be done again.

Of course I'll need a day or two to get back "in gear" before everything is normal ever again. On the way to Kilmarnock, VA, we stopped over night in Staunton and saw MacBeth at the Blackfriars Playhouse there . . . and went to Monticello the next day around noon.

I love vines!

The Odorata Clematis is in bloom on the front porch and is GORGEOUS! We've had an over-abundance of rain but not so bad that we've been flooded (we live on a rise) or in the path of a tornado.

The beautiful tulips are all gone. The spirea out by the road looks like a fountain and the doublefile viburnum is beginning to bloom. I can't believe how beautiful all the spring flowers have been! I'm sure the rain has done it. It is SO green out. I feel like I've landed in Ireland.

I'll be attending my long-awaited workshop in Virginia very soon. I've loaded my palette, drawn my nine portraits and bought my hot-shot easel. On the way, we stop by Stauton, VA to see Macbeth at Blackfriar's Playhouse.

Spring at my house . . .

Spring has come with extravagance. In one small wooded spot in my front yard a multitude of tulips have sprung up. Over the years we have transplanted the odd bulb we would find elsewhere in the yard (planted by former owners). Apparently they have taken their own sweet time (years) to bloom. Now they are naturalizing I suspect. I can count 30 to 40 in this one spot at the base of a tree.

I've been preparing for my watercolor workshop in early May. I have selected 8 "portraits" to reproduce on heavy smooth watercolor paper and am in the process of redrawing them. It's fun and totally consuming.

Happy Chandler and Me

I've been going through lots of old pictures for my 50th high school reunion and came across this one, which had to be taken when I was a Junior (1960). From left to right are Claudia Wilson, Glenna Holbrook, Happy Chandler, Betty Meade, me and Michael Coburn. The occasion was the opening of the "new river road" as we called it then . . . a portion of Rt. 23 going between Cannonsburg and Louisa, Ky. Glenna and Betty were seniors. Claudia and I were in the same class.

And the thawts go round and round and come out where?

I'm digging through old photos for my 50th high school reunion . . . but am also looking for people pictures to paint for a workshop I'm taking in Kilmarnock, VA in early May. I have to find pics for the workshop and pre-draw them on 300 lb. Hot Press before I go. Regardless of the purpose I must scan, adjust settings to get the best enhancements, and upload to the web (for the reunion) or to my iPad (for the workshop). Thawts are boiling, actually, and I feel a little dizzy.

I've just finished The Big Short by Michael Lewis. It's about the subprime mortgage crash and the folks that bet against them. I had to really slog through, but I think I see "through a glass, darkly" and I'm aggravated. So much so that I think I'll read another. . . probably The Million Dollar Meltdown by Morris.

I have been told by my new physician/and physical therapist that I will NOT be crippled by my short leg/long leg configuration, which pleases me no end. I have my first session of physical therapy today. 'Course they also told me I'll never be cured either (how can you cure a short leg?). I'm also wearing my orthopedic walking shoes.

I've a long way to go . . .

I have spent a great deal of time trying to arrange lodging for a Virginia workshop I'm taking in May with Ted Nuttal. I've just looked at his website and realize what a long way I've got to go to even come close to being loose enough to paint as I want.

Plans for my high school reunion are taking up a lot of my time and I find I'm questioning my own judgement . . .which probably means I'm over-thinking it.

I've just watched a movie - Inside Job - which is a documentary about the housing bubble and the (almost) crash. There were so MANY things in it that bear thinking about and digesting. One of the more salient things being that the financial industry should never be the MAIN industry in any society.

This 'n That

I've been sleeping in lately . . . a good indication is that Gary made the bed up this morning with me in it. I've almost, but not quite, got the low-down February Blues. I NEED sunshine!

I've been going to Louisville 2 or 3 times a month to sketch "live" models. I've included one of the sketches and a photo of Kivi to the left and right.

We went to see Randy Newman in Lexington for Gary's birthday and that was a treat. I feel terrifically content staying at home reading, drawing and painting. I wonder if something is wrong with me?

Ha! Back to my blog in JUST over a week. That's progress. I've been to a two-day portrait workshop. Actually it was a "children's portrait" workshop. Since I don't have upteen grandchildren that I just HAVE to paint, I painted Gary and his Mother. The photo I used to draw it is a black and white (they didn't HAVE color) from 67 years ago. I'm pretty happy about the study and I feel as if I'm beginning to become uncontrollable with color, which is what I'm aiming for.

Things DID improve . . .

I haven't added a post since August and yet I visit my blog at least once a week to add a new book that I've read.

I was just now thinking I love the sound of tires hissing on wet pavement. I can hear them passing my home. It's raining. I think we'll get snow again in a day or so . . . but until then, rain.

I noticed that at my last blog I was complaining about the events of 2010 SO FAR. They DID improve in that nobody else died. But we took a vacation to Mackinac Island and around Lake Michigan that could have been better. Gary and I are not "spring chickens" and yet the rest of the folks on this (escorted) trip were far older than we were. Folks got lost a lot. There was as much traveling as seeing and doing and we didn't care for that. We won't be doing a vacation like this again. I DO believe that the Road Scholar (Elderhostel) folks are much more intellectually engaged than any other groups except possibly the Smithsonian and I'm not so sure about them.

We visited my brother at his home outside of Atlanta and that visit didn't go well. Mainly because he wanted to talk politics. I believe he thinks that arguing politics passes for conversation. Gary reminded me that my brother "for whatever reason, HAS to win."

We went to Myrtle Beach in November so I could take another class with Carla O'Connor (see my rave review below). The workshop lasted 5 days and she was ill the last two and not there. So much for that particular (twice a year) group of workshops. I don't think I'll go again.

Our Christmas holidays in Kentucky were just fine. We enjoyed Gary's extended family very much. We visited his nephew's new house in Richmond and saw his operatic niece. A good old fashioned Xmas, at a very laid-back pace. His brother and sister are wonderful, non-judgmental folks. It's a pleasure to be around them.