For thie first time -- OILS

I have finished two oil paintings since beginning my oil painting classes about 6 weeks ago.  Now I'm trying to paint one of two folks I know.  That should be harder.  I think these are presentable tho.

It's that time of Year!

I've been busy "making Christmas".  I'm including two of my smalls that are for sale in Midway.  The one here is a Yorkie - pretty obvious - and the one to the right are of two kids in a snowy setting.  I've done seven.

Portraits in oil have come along and I'm actually attempting a portrait of real people - a fellow and his grand daughter.  It'll probably take several weeks and then I'll share.

I've had three sessions of life drawing so far and two sessions of oil people painting. Interesting, fun, and totally debilitating.

The landscape is rapidly turning into a riot of color.  The fothergilla in our yard are especially pretty.  This is my favorite time of year.  It always seems like it's the BEGINNING of the year to me.  Too many years of going to school, maybe.  Anyway I love it.

A New Leaf . . .

I'm rearranging my life to become more serious about art.  On Tuesdays I'll be doing life drawing at Kentucky State University and on Thursdays I hope to be taking a portrait class in Lexington.  I feel like I'm entering a new era.  We'll see.  Meanwhile I'm preparing a few small paintings to sell.  See to the right  . . .

AquaVenture Bound

I heard on Friday that my watercolor portrait entry to AquaVenture was accepted!  This is only the second juried event I've tried (the first being the LaGrange contest), and I'm thrilled.  The model for the portrait sat for a drawing group I attend during the winter.  I found her fascinating. The painting was actually begun last year (and that was a second attempt) and finished just a month or so ago.  I've posted a version of her before . . . here she is-- Dark Angel-- or Kurai Tenshei (coo ray ten she).

PufferBilly

The painting I displayed last week won a prize.  First place for adult acrylic painting.  This MAY be because there WERE no other acrylic paintings at the Painted Cow in Louisa, KY.  

I DID just win second prize (and MONEY) in a juried show . . . for THIS painting--Big Engine in LaGrange.  It depicts an old fashioned engine (with a cowcatcher) superimposed on downtown main street LaGrange.  I used the same technique for this train engine that I did for "Mama's Homeplace".

I'm waiting to hear about a watercolor I submitted to the Kentucky Watercolor Society's Aquaventure.

I've prepared 3 watercolors (painted, signed and framed) to take to Midway tomorrow for their Fall Festival.  Hope that goes well.  We'll see.

Movin' On . . .

I've taken my heart in my hand and placed three of my paintings in art shows.  I've been asking myself what I really want to do before it's all over and I waft off to dreamland.  The answer is ART.  I don't actually care a fig about making money, but I DO care if people like it, although that wouldn't stop me.

The first painting is of my mother's homeplace in eastern Kentucky.  The old home was destroyed this summer (both burned and bulldozed) and that weighs heavy on me.  Sooo, Mama's Homeplace has been placed at the Painted Cow Gallery in Louisa (my hometown) for September Fest.  If you're at the festival, please stop by and see it.

The painting is taken after an old photograph (upper right) and done in a primitive (think Grandma Moses) AND cartoony style.  The style makes it happy, and it WAS a happy place.  Enjoy, and
stay tuned for progress reports.

A little too much summer . . .

Finally . . . RAIN.
And not a GullyWasher.  Just Right.

It's been soooooo miserably hot it's hard to explain. So looking forward to going to the Black Hills and the workshop
in Billings.

Great productive week.  Completed 10-12 sketches.  Monday, I found a place to get giclee's done in Lexington and made arrangements to have three scanned on Thursday. Took two paintings to be framed--
one for art show.  Placed two paintings at SoapWerks in Midway.

Do you remember what it was like to live forever?

Sometimes when the jarflys jit . . . I do . . .

. . . For just a second . . . or two . . .

How are you spending YOUR time?

The Wall Street Journal adapted a list from 10 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said, by Charles Wheelan. Among the points made are . . . "You'll never read the following obituary: "Bob Smith died yesterday at the age of xx.  He finished life in 186th place."  Whatever race we're running, it's not THAT.

Three weeks ago, or so, we had Mario as a model in my "long pose" session.  I've drawn him before, but did a better job this time.  I can tell I'm getting better . . . I'll probably finish in the top 300 at least.

Another Commencement point from Wheelan . . . "It's ALL borrowed time."

Nora Ephron died today.  She was 71.  I guess her neck was worse than she thought.  I'm 69.

I've painted my friend, Linda Blaine. She is one of my friends from high school. Her niece posted a photo of her (online) as a young girl.  She looks so "Alice-in-Wonderland" to me. I couldn't help but paint it.

I seem to be dipping and bouncing through the summer.  So many people and things are gone, and yet--during the "bounce" I'm having a wonderful time. Having a purpose seems to be the thing I get hung up on.

Drawing and painting seems to be taking up more and more of my time and I'm loving that.  I think laziness is the only thing standing in my way.

John Cleese said "we don't know WHERE we get our ideas from.  What we DO know is that we do NOT get them from our laptops.''  Ta Ta.

An "AHA" moment!

The most vivid "AHA" moment I can remember was on vacation (for me) at a conference (for my husband) on South Padre Island.  One of the members of the conference was to "run" for office and needed a campaign slogan.  Since I was a "creative" it was decided that I could easily come up with a slogan, thereby settling high expectations and a total creative block on me--for something I really didn't want to do in the first place.

There was no time constraint since the election was months away, but I really wanted this off my plate so I could enjoy the beach and the ocean--thereby setting my own insufferable and resentful attitude toward the task.  The candidate's name was Campbell.  I took a notebook and sat out by the pool waiting for inspiration to strike . . . and . . . it did. Campbell's Super became the campaign slogan.

A new technique!

I'm trying a new technique.  Using an original drawing or a copy on ANY kind of paper . . . mounting it on foam core, and covering it with transparent gesso and modeling paste . . . giving it an overall watercolor wash.  THEN using pastels, finishing the drawing/painting.  I really like it.

To the left is a close up detail of the painting.

Mario and the POURED watercolor . . .

Mario (at left) is a 4-value "poured" watercolor over-painted with acrylic. It's NOT finished (as usual) but I like the technique. It's so easy it feels like cheating. Mario was a model at a 3-hour drawing session I go to in Louisville on Saturdays.

I've enrolled in an acrylic 2-day workshop in Billings Montana (!) to study with Don Tiller. I LOVE his landscapes and want to get a handle on how he does them. His paintings are so happy.

Art is making ME very happy. Otherwise, I'm busy planning for my old age (as if it's not already here).

It seems that NOW I have time to notice small things, whereas I couldn't when I was so busy working.

STAYING IN SANITY . . .

ART is heating up. At left is my latest watercolor drawn from an old photo I found in an antique store. I drew it last year, but just got around to painting it. She was lovely in the photograph and I hope I've done her some justice.

I have a drawing group twice a month in Louisville that saves my sanity just when I think I'm going to go off the deep end. Thank goodness!

Pastels

I took a pastel painting class in Winchester on Saturday with my friend and this is the result. I'm pleased with it.

A Very Merry Minuet

This is me and my brother sitting on our beautiful older cousin Dorothy. Lots of water under the dam since. This was probably taken in the very late 40s.

Can't seem to shake sadness. A good friend in Arkansas is very ill, a good friend here has died, and I don't feel very well myself. That reminds me of some words to the Merry Minuet . . .

Italians hate Yugoslavs

South Africans hate the Dutch

And I don't like anybody very much

My good friend, Lydia Wells Sledge, has gone off and left me, and all her other friends, special causes and charities and I'm SOooooo sad about it. It was a beautiful day and I know she would have enjoyed it.

The Daffodils preceeded the crocus by several weeks, but they're finally here. See upper right.

Above isMario our last model for the long pose sessions I have every other Saturday. He was interesting to draw.

I've started "yelling" in my sleep. The last episode I kept telling someone in no uncertain terms, "I want you to be quiet!" My "nightmares" seem to take the form of teaching or directing (Hey kids, let's put on a play!) multiple little or younger people.

And now my old friend, Lydia-- will NOT read this and comment on it. Despite being interested in the quotes, she would NOT have read a book titled What It Is Like To Go To War. She couldn't see the play or the movie War Horse . . . her heart was too tender.

Pg.8

"Our young warriors are raised in possibly the only culture on the

planet that thinks death is an option."

Pg. 19

" . . . the chances of transformative psychological experiences

are decreased enormously when you wage war with all the

comforts of home."

Pg. 26

" Killing someone without splitting oneself from the feelings that the

act engenders requires an effort of supreme consciousness that, quite

frankly, is beyond most humans."

Pg. 45

" I was just new to the platoon," he said, staring into the past . . ."

Pg. 48

" War is the antithesis of the most fundamental rule of moral conduct

we've been taught --- do unto others as you would have others

do unto you."

Pg. 51

" Reconciling the moral conduct we are taught as children with the

brutal actions of war has been a problem for warriors of good

conscience for centuries."

Pg. 66

" . . . the transcendent realm one reaches through violence, is one that

society says it condemns but in fact celebrates everywhere, on film,

on television, and in the news."

Pg. 74

" Since many people strive for positions of power as compensations for

needy egos, it is hardly surprising that the corridors of power are filled

with people for whom the compassionate responses will be short-

circuited as a matter of course."

Pg. 88

" We all have shit on our shoes. We've just got to realize it so we don't

track it into the house."

Pg.119

" When the system starts seeking goals that are out of line with

individual values, the individual, who is usually trapped in the

system, can either get hurt or survive by lying"

AND

" We kid ourselves when we think lying is abnormal behavior."

Pg. 129

" The more (self-esteem) you have, the less you lie."

Pg. 150 (transposed)

"Troops will fight to stop murder and torture of other human beings

and to stop terrorism and threats of mass destruction to their people.

Troops won't fight for oil."

Pg. 165

"We all want to be special, to stand out, there's nothing wrong

with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with,

because we're unique to start with."

Pg. 217

" Boasting is the same as a peacock spreading his feathers.

It's a natural act."

Pg. 226

" Just because game theory can be applied to war does not mean

war is a game."

Pg. 252

" . . . warriors choose sides. Police cannot choose sides, they must be

on the side of the law."

This book is by the same fellow, Karl Marlantes, that wrote Matterhorn published last year.

Brave heart (see daffodil at right) is droopy. We had a frost last night. Such optimism crushed!

We went to a UK game last week (Kentucky vs. Arkansas) with two members of our family. I hadn't been to a game since I was a freshman at UK--fifty years. What a rush AND what a different "show" in Rupp Arena. When I went as a freshman, Rupp was the actual coach.

One of my good friends has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Such a bright, lively, college teacher, mother--I could go on and on about her. I'm wishing her a good recovery. She had surgery 2 weeks ago in Houston.

Above is the portrait I did for Paul McCormick in a class at Raleigh. I like it fairly well (it IS a likeness). Otherwise I'm catching up on art projects I've started and laid aside. AND doing crazy art with my old friend (who was with me at those games when Rupp was coach).

In the New Year . . .

I was very busy in 2011. In fact, I would say it was one of my busiest and most "well-rounded" years. It started with drawing sessions in Louisville from January through April, one of the results you see here in my painting of the gypsy. As I compare them now, of course, I can see all kinds of things that are not accurate. After all, art is NOT a photograph. But still, I have such "a good eye"-- you'd think I could have done a little better.

Lots of bucket list stuff done.

• my 50th HS Reunion,

• every-other-saturday drawing classes in Louisville from January

through March;

• a week-long workshop in Kilmarnock, VA with a master artist I

really, really like;

• finding an old HS classmate that had been "lost" for 45 years;

• finding out I could lose 35 pounds all by myself;

• going to New York just to see plays and eat well . . . with two very

good friends;

• going to Dublin, London, and Edinburgh with Gary;

• participating in Art of the Carolinas by myself;

• hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for my family;

• making art at least once-a-week with my old friend;

• having at least monthly lunches with interesting women . . .

Pretty neat stuff . . .