Thank You Carol

This was fun.  My friend Carol gave me and all the Smiths sweet little poinsettias.  Of course, I had to make a little painting of mine as a thank you note.  The Smiths lined their four up together a little family group.  Mine sits on the window sill.  To get an idea of the size, it is about 7" inch high including the self-watering container.  What fun!  Thank you, Carol.

Snowperson card for 2018

Here's a Santa Lucia snow girl having fun.  I want to point out that her candles are LED.  Real candles would be a catastrophe for a snow person!  I hope you enjoy her.

Santa Lucia brings you light and love in the darkest days of Winter...and so do I.

Venice Gondolier

 I started this painting many years ago, but was not satisfied with it.  I don't have a picture of the previous version, but wish I did.  I felt that the gondolier was too close to the bridge and there was no depth.  I went darker in the shadows and this is the result.  I like it a lot and have been thinking about Venice when I hear the flooding has been particularly bad recently.

World's Fair 1939

I actually did this painting some time ago.  In fact, I finished it over a year ago.  I'm not sure why I didn't post it then.  It is based on a black and white photo of my mother and her sisters at the World's Fair in San Francisco.  This version is 11x14, and I am also working on a larger version.  This one was originally meant to be a kind of sketch for the bigger painting, but I liked it and framed it.  I also made shopping bags for my girl cousins with this image on it, and that was fun. 

I think you can sense their excitement and it has a bit of each one's personality.  My Aunt Ardye, with a Kodak box camera, my mom Merle Marie, and my Auntie Kay.  It's currently on display at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th St SE Washington DC....until November 8.  Today would have been my mother's 97th birthday.  I've been thinking about her, and wish I could share this with her.  In fact, I wish I could share all my art adventures with her.

KANAE MEETS SOPHIA

Recently I was organizing photographs and came across this lovely one of Kanae Watanabe with Sophia.  It was taken some time ago as Sophia is now 11.  I was inspired to make it into a painting.  The technique I used was to make a loose watercolor painting and fill in the details with charcoal and pastel.  This painting is now in a show called "Joie de Vivre" at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th St SE, Washington DC. This painting fits that theme!

Lotus

This is my painting for an upcoming show at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.  The show should be very interesting because it will include not only the final paintings, but some preliminary work associated with the paintings--like value and color studies. The reception is September 8 from 6 to 7:30 at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 7th and G St SE.  This is a show of the Summer Work of a group I recently joined, the Wednesday Studio Group.  All are welcome.

This lotus is one I recently saw at the Lan Su gardens in Portland Oregon.  I had never seen a  lotus out  of water before.  I used only two colors (winsor red and sap green) in this painting.  The browns are combinations of those two colors.

I hope it conveys the serenity I felr when I saw this lotus in a planter,

TY Jan

My friend Jan gave me an amazing vase (with dragonflies, of course) when we got together recently for dinner in Portland .  We now live in different places.  I'm in DC and Jan is in Arizona.  It was a treat to get together, thanks to Patty Clement. 

This vase is the perfect for lilies, roses, and I am sure many other flowers.  Those are just the ones I've put in it so far.  This painting is of  the lilies.  Again....gratitude!  I feel blessed.  I already sent the thank you card with this painting to Jan.

TY Nancy

Another great gift!   This is a pendant with a dragonfly from my friend Nancy.  It was so much fun to paint it because the copper is so rich in color and texture.  Nancy also gave me a dragonfly for a houseplant.  I didn't paint it--it was already with my philodendron.  Very meaningful gifts!!!!!

TY Virginia

My birthday was a month ago, but I am still catching up on my thank you notes.  I am grateful and have a lot to be thankful for!

One of the special things that happens each year is flowers from Virginia.  This year, they were very delicate pink roses with baby's breath.  I love it and this is the painting I did on the thank you card that I am sending to Virginia.

Virginia also sends me a little bonus.....which I always put into my art supply account.  That is very nice.

Thank you Virginia!  Love Ya!  Love Ya!

TY PATTY

This is always so much fun.  I recently enjoyed a dinner with friends Patty, Jan and Nancy--"dragonfly" friends.  When I lived in Portland, we used to have dinner together and also do other things together. Patty is the only one who still lives in Portland.  I am in DC, Jan is in Arizona, and Nancy is in Springfield Arizona. We were able to get back together on June 30 at Patty's place.  It was a real treat. 

We usually exchange gifts at the dinners.  I had unfortunately left my gifts for the others back in DC, but will soon get them in the mail....as well as the thank you notes for the gifts that were given to me. 

Patty gave me an Oregon "Roots" mug.  I didn't paint the mug, but made a painting on the thank you card of a black Oregon state image with trees and the word "ROOTS" on the black field.  I love Patty's reminder that I put down roots in Oregon. 

She also took me to the Lan Su Chinese Garden, where she is a member, and surprised me with a cast dragonfly from their gift shop.

Patty also hosted me for the whole trip---several days.  We had lots of fun times together and some delicious meals.  Thank you Patty for making all this possible.   

Draw a Bird

I recently joined a new art group, the Wednesday Studio.  One of the traditions of this group is to draw a bird on the 8th of each month. This is my first entry---an albatross.  I did it from an internet image.  I have never seen an actual albatross.

TY KANAE

I recently had a birthday...accompanied by lots of fun activities.  One of those was a dinner, hosted by daughter Louisa Reynolds Smith at Fiola Mare in Georgetown.  It's an extra-special place and we were joined by long-time friend Kanae Watanabe.

As a further treat, Kanae brought macarons from Laduree, a french bakery also in Georgetown.  Those are the best!  So, I made a little thank you card painting and shared them with the Smiths.

Mystery

Here is something very unusual for me.  I began this many years ago when I was in Trails End Art Association in Gearhart Oregon.   It is an exercise of flooding the paper with watercolor and then picking out some images.  For those who care about color, it was alizarin crimson and indigo blue.  I am not sure where the apparent yellow in the image comes from but...hey...OK.  Recently, I took it to my Capitol Hill Art League critique group and got some ideas about improving it.  Unfortunately, I don't have a "before" picture.  Their suggestions were great and now I consider it a finished painting....though there is still a high level of mystery about what is going on.  In this case, I like that.

TY Smith family

Peter, Louisa, Griffin and Sophia recently took a trip to the West Coast, including the San Juan Islands.  In Friday Harbor, they visited Palindaba Lavender and brought back some special lavender treats for me.  It was quite a bounty---lavender and chocolate candy bars, lavender sugar scrub, traditional lavender oil and a treatment stick that is a lavender balm.  All wonderful.  I particularly like the treatment stick which is a natural (and fragrant) antiseptic.  It is, as they say "ALL GOOD."  I don't think I had ever tasted lavender and chocolate bars before.  The white chocolate one was particularly tasty>

I made a little painting from the photograph of the farm that is on the Palindaba brochure as a thank you!!!!  And thanks, Smith family, for thinking of me when you were there.

Cherry Blossoms

Here's a recent painting of cherry blossoms.  I was trying to catch the beauty of the blossoms seen up close and the chaos of the background.  It is primarily watercolor, with some brown pencil outlines of the blossom closeups, so technically mixed media. 

Under the Sea

This is a recent painting that I thought I had  posted, but I can't find the post.  Apologies if this is the second time.  It is based on a photo sent to me by my friend Sheryl.  It has a free form underpainting and then I added shapes by "negative" painting--painting around the shape.  I also added color for the starfish and darker tones for the holes in the sea urchins.

Thank you Jenifer!

This is a flag that is on a bike that is on a t-shirt that Jen sent to me for Mother's Day.  I decided just to paint the flag because Jen and I had a fun conversation about flags while the shirt was in the mail.  Somehow, I knew it involved a flag.  It's a very cute t-shirt and the design is red and white and then "batiked" and navy blue.  I made an abstract red and white painting and used frisket blocking (which is like a wax resist, only easier to get off watercolor paper.  This t-shirt is just the sort of thing I love to wear.

TY Sophia

My adorable grandaughter Sophia and I like to make a special pastry that involves very thin sliced apples placed in pastry dough and rolled into roses.  

What a great treat it is to spend time with a person you love and do something beautiful that is also good to eat.  I don't think it gets any better than that.  We were having a problem, though, getting the apples thin enough and so we had to cook them which kind of detracted from the final product.  Sophia found a solution---a mandoline cutter that would make very thin and very even slices.  She gave it to me at Christmas but it wasn't until recently that we were able to use it together and make the creations we hoped for.  I do say they were amazing.  

Thanks, Sophia, for the time we spend together...and for the great gift of the mandoline which is useful in many ways beyond slicing apples.  I love it!

River Scene

This is very unusual for me.  It is actually a painting I started several years ago after taking a workshop from John Salminen.  I recently pulled it out and decided I should either finish it or toss it.  There had been a large white shape and I softened that.  I also added some of the more "fuzzy" shapes.  I then cropped it quite a bit.  It had been a full sheet (22 x 30) and is now 16" x 28".  I am pretty happy with it.  It's got lots of interesting colors and shapes and I like that.  There is a lot of glazing, which is a technique of painting an area, letting it dry completely, and then painting over it with a different color, or colors.

Thank you Nancy

This is a very fun salt and pepper set sent to me at Christmas by my friend Nancy Hugg.  They are the same size--I tried to do something that would give some depth to the sketch, but it didn't work very well.  I actually did this over a month ago.  By now, they have salt and pepper in them and are in use...always reminding me of my dragonfly friends, including Nancy.

So, thank you, Nancy....a little late, but with gratitude for your friendship, thoughtfulness, and ability to find such fun dragonfly gifts.

Thank you Peter and Louisa...mmmm

YES!!!   Chocolates from neighborhood Chocolatier "J."  So tasty!  I don't know what else to say.  The painting is of the box they came in--beautiful brown box with a brown satin bow.  Lovely.
Thanks for the chocolates and for the tip on where to buy truly great chocolates in our neighborhood.  All hand made in small batches.  Luxury!!!!

Thank you Jenifer!

I am still reviewing my bounty from Christmas and sending out thank you cards.  I got some amazing dichroic glass earrings from my daughter Jen.   Dichroic glass is very interesting, and my little painting does not do justice to it.  It is similar to iridescent, but actually appears different colors in different lights.  Sometimes my earrings look green, sometimes blue, and sometimes have gold streaks through them.

Dichroic glass is not new.  There is a famous example in the British Museum called the Lycurgus
Cup. It is from the 4tth century and the effect is evidently the result of silver and gold particles in the glass.  When lit from the front, it appears to be green, but when lit from within or behind, it is a purplish red. 

I'm not sure I understand the manufacture of modern dichroic glass, such as that used in the earrings.  It has something to do with filters developed for NASA and layering glass with metals or oxides.  Whatever the reason, these are very beautiful earrings, with sterling silver settings.

Another fun thing about them is the Jen bought them at one of my favorite California events--the Gilroy Garlic Festival.  Fun to remember that.

Thanks, Jen.  I will treasure these.

The Dragonfly Lamp

Me:  Alexa, turn on dragonfly lamp

Alexa:  OK (dragonfly lamp turns on)

Me:  Thank you, Griffin...and thank you Jeff

Last year for Christmas (2016) I got an Amazon Echo from my brother Jeff.  She is the one who goes by Alexa and can give me weather reports, news headlines, and set the time among other things.

This year (2017)  my grandson Griffin gave me a smart plug.  I set it up to work with my dragonfly lamp.  What is really fun is that I was able to get Alexa to know it as the dragonfly lamp.  I can turn it on so easily now!   Just a voice command.

This is a little painting on the thank you card for Griffin.

I wonder what is next?

Spanish treats!!!!

One of the very fun things I got for Christmas was a box of Spanish treats.  My brother Jeff gave it to me.  It has rosemary vinegar, mussels, a tin of delicious cookies, 3 jars of jam (Jasmine petals, red wine, and white wine), black olive pate, and some exquisite olive oil!   All of these are nicely presented in a box with paper curls as cushioning.  Very pretty.

But wait!  There's more!  A bottle of Spanish wine...a rich and robust grenache.  That's always good.

Thanks Jeff....Happy memories of Spain are in this box!

Thank you Jan

My friend Jan likes to send things with a dragonfly theme.  This gift is very sweet and "one of a kind"--just like she is.  It is a beautiful handmade ceramic pin.  It was made in Oregon by "oneofakind" buttons.  This is my thank you card painting of it.

But, wait, there's more!  There was also beautiful leather ornament with a dragonfly painted on it.  It is too nice to put away with Christmas stuff, so I am keeping it out where I can appreciate it daily.

And there was a cute little notebad with Snoopy wearing a Santa hat.  That was used during the holidays and put away for next year.  

Great fun, and thanks to Jan.  

Thank You Sheryl!

I am still writing thank you notes from Christmas gifts.  Actually, I am just getting started.

This was a very meaningful gift from my friend Sheryl.  It is a coaster in the psychadelic style of the 1960s--San Francisco, peace sign, and dove.  Sheryl and I were THERE in the sixties, so it is a great remembrance.  She also sent me three buttons typical  of those times--"I CHOOSE PEACE," "EQUAL RIGHTS, and "IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM."  These momentos came from the "Summer of Love" exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco.  It means a lot to me that Sheryl thought of me with these gifts.

Yes, I wear the pins and use the coaster!  It brings me closer to Sheryl.