Eventide

What a sight ... to sit on the deck of a restaurant near the water as the sun goes down... and enjoy a glass of wine!!

A doodle a day .... ?

Everyday I try to incorporate some form of art as a way of adding 'sunshine' or 'color' to my life.  I find great happiness in sketching and painting and sharing my creations with you on my blog. This focus on art also makes me more aware of and appreciate artistic things that come my way. So I was fascinated this morning to read a headline on the internet "For Google, doodles are oodles of surprise".  I just had to check it out with my morning coffee. Ever wonder about those creative takes on the Google logo? Check out the article. I found it interesting to know more about where these doodles come from, and I thought it was an interesting coincidence that the Google doodles are created about 20 minutes from my house...


Have a great day and find some time to doodle!! 

Somedays I feel a little "crabby" ....

I chuckled as I started a recent assignment for my Trip to the Beach class. We were to sketch some "Beach Bugs" and the assignment introduced us to Fiddler Crabs. Sketching this crab sure was a different experience for me ... it was not an image I would have chosen myself. As such, I felt a little out of my comfort zone. But, sometimes it is good to get out of my comfort zone and try something different. The experience taught me about Fiddler Crabs and gave me a chance to think about beach bugs in new ways. It also caused me to think a bit about my own life.....  


I'll admit it ... some days I'm a little "crabby" - when I have an off day or things don't quite go as I would want. Next time I'm having a 'crabby day' I'm sure that my image of this Fiddler Crab will come to mind and remind me to 'step out of my shell' .....   

Still dreaming of a visit to the beach ....

I'm still looking forward to a visit to the beach. It doesn't look like it will happen this weekend as the weather forecast says "rain"!  Sigh.... someday soon....

I'm in the mood for a trip to the beach

I think I've had enough of the cold winter days and nights for this season. I'm now craving a trip to the beach. In the meantime I'm dreaming of the beach as I take Laure Ferlita's  An Imaginary Visit to the Beach class. It is lots of fun. This starfish page was my first assignment. I wanted to write something on the page but I just couldn't think of much to say.

... then I got sidetracked searching the internet... Eventually I stumbled on several versions of an interesting story about a person and a starfish that I had never heard before. It was a new story to me ... but it has been around a long time and many of you may be familiar with it already. I found that the story quickly became intertwined in my mind with my beach scene. Now whenever I look at my beach painting I start thinking of this special Starfish story and some of the questions it brings up. Where is my starfish? and how can I make a difference? There are numerous versions of the story on the web. Here are a couple of links that I found:

  Wikipedia
  Joel Barker's version and in a short video

Along the River Seine

This is a view along the River Seine that I painted from a photo image. 


 This is my 100th post on my blog.

A year later and 99 postings later....

I uploaded my first image on this blog back on January 12, 2009. So... its been just over a year and this is post #99. I didn't quite make 100, but I got pretty close. As I reflect back over this past year I am amazed at what I've gained through this blog journey - encouragement to devote time to my art, feedback on my paintings, improved drawing and painting skills, exposure to amazing art at other blog sites, and new friends. The journey even included some exposure around the globe to bloggers elsewhere and peeks at "Paris" through my online class. Blogging this past year has been such a wonderful journey and I thank everyone that I've interacted with for being part of my journey. Thank you so much!!


The image above is one of my favorite paintings from the 'Imaginary Trip through Autumn' class that I took last fall with Laure Ferlita .... in parallel with my imaginary trip to Paris with her. It was a busy Fall!!