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?