Beautiful Sunny Day

What a beautiful morning, the weather will be perfect for working outside. I plan on starting with our herb garden which really needs weeding and pruning the roses in the backyard.

I love gardening and the way it connects us with nature. We always have scrub jays, squirrels, and varying birds visiting our backyard, although for a couple of years I’ve noticed fewer songbirds. At least our lovely mourning dove is back, this morning I heard it cooing just before dawn.

Questions That Make You Think

Life is full of mystery and unanswered questions. Related to this I heard the following question asked recently; If you were watching a movie of your life, would you like what you see?

I sat with this question for awhile and thought about how our daily rituals, interactions with others, thought processes, and attitudes have so much impact on the way we live our lives, along with our cultural heritage and life lessons.

What would your movie look like? What would one day look like under the all seeing eye of the camera lens?

This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase”Know thyself”!

Grey Skies & Chilly Weather

This morning I woke up to grey skies and a chill in the air, so it took me awhile to get going with my day.

Of course, I ended up puttering around and not getting much of anything done except for some household chores.

“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere: the dew is never all dried at once: a shower is forever falling, vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in turn, as the round earth rolls.” – John Muir

 

Work In Progress

I spent this morning working on this painting and had to stop because my allergies were making my eyes water. This time of the year always finds me suffering from seasonal allergies. “C’est la vie!

Yesterday was very stressful because we had a family member go back into the hospital because of complications from a surgery performed last week. I am happy to report he is doing well and will be going home tomorrow. We are all breathing a big sigh of relief, this was a very rough two days!

Playing With Fire -Combined Mixed Media

A Busy Saturday

Today we were busy doing errands and our grocery shopping. It was one of those crazy days where no matter how organized you think you are , your not!

Later we unpacked everything, and grabbed some lunch before sitting down to watch a movie. It was really nice spending some quality time together.

One of our favorite trees

“But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” – Kahlil Gibran

“Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.” – Kahlil Gibran

Cookbook For Poor Poets & Others

This afternoon I was rummaging through some storage boxes where I had placed some cookbooks and I found one of my old favorites, A Cookbook for Poor Poets (and others), by Ann Rodgers.

I purchased this book back in the 70’s and had a great time reading it and trying some of the recipes. Three of my favorite recipes were the Skillet Scones, Irish Soda Bread, and Chicken With Parmesan.

My friend Diane always loved the Caramel Peaches recipe and would ask me to make it for her whenever she came to visit. There are so many yummy recipes in this book and if you can find a copy, I would highly recommend adding it to your personal cookbook library.

Knocking About In The Studio

Today I have been mostly knocking about in the studio trying to tie up some loose ends and such. Later on, I prepped a couple of canvases and decided to call it a day.

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web”. -Pablo Picasso

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness”. – Eckhart Tolle

“A lot of it’s experimental, spontaneous. It’s about knocking about in the studio and bumping into things”. – Richard Prince

Earth Wood – Combined Mixed Media

Work In Progress Update

I really enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine this morning when Rupert and I took our walk. He sniffed every bush and flower along the way and had a great time barking at two very large dogs we happened to run into.

Afterwards I made a pot of Earl Grey tea, poured myself a cup, pulled my chair up to the easel and began working on the Kuan Yin painting.

Several hours later I noticed people walking their dogs and heard children’s laughter from next door. I suddenly realized it was time for me to stop and begin preparing dinner. Where did the time go?

Without a doubt, time flies when you are having fun!

Kuan Yin – 16 x 20 Acrylic & Mixed Media on Canvas

“Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires”. ~Charles Caleb Colton

Tree Spirits

I love photographing trees and I have a fondness for tree knot holes, especially those which have interesting shapes and textures.

As a child I would imagine all sorts of magical beings living in these holes, and would place little treasures inside as gifts.

Now that I am older, I have discovered there are subtle images and shapes lurking in the places between light and shadow within these knot holes. Below is a sketch of a knot hole near our home.

Tree Spirit – Digital Combined Mixed Media

In towering splendor once I stood
A regal monarch of the wood,
My branches once reached to the sky
See me now but do not cry.
The Creator’s work has yet to cease
I’ve become a shelter for bird and beast,
And when at last I fall to the Earth
The life I leave will inspire new birth;
A seedling springs forth from the ground
Nature’s cycle goes round and round.
– S. Edward Palmer, Spirit Tree