DATE: 06/27/2008 20:13:15 / MOOD: full of life

These are portraits I just finished.  I used photos taken about 18 months apart.  The first is right after she was diagnosed with cancer.  The second was after the treatments that were supposed to cure her.  She died a year after the second photo.  My cousin had two daughters.  These paintings are for them.

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DATE: 06/26/2008 18:44:35 / MOOD: in love

I have been busy working on several pieces but none are completed yet.  In a few days I will photographthem and be ready to post.  They are all in water soluble oil which is a challenge since I am used to watercolor.  There are some things that I like about them and some things I don't.  I am liking the results.

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DATE: 06/21/2008 13:35:47 / MOOD: happy

I have been busy lately and thus quiet on scuttlebutt.  Here is my latest oil.  This is from I photo I took a couple of months ago in a nature preserve in Brevard County, FL.

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DATE: 06/04/2008 18:14:05 / MOOD: in love

On my way to our summer place, I stopped for one last visit of my cousin who has terminal cancer. When we got back in the car I took my sketch book to record the image that was etched on my brain. I don't remember a lot of the detail of the room. But, I will always have the image of her sitting in the chair covered with an old quilt she had made that had butterflies on it. She is at peace and the goal is to keep her comfortable until the end. 
We are now settled into the WV house and I am ready to get to work in my improvised studio. We have had noting but severe storms since we got here Monday night. I wish I could send this rain to relieve the drought in FL.

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DATE: 05/31/2008 19:52:20 / MOOD: in love

This will be my last post for a few days. We leave in the morning for our summer home in WV. We will stop in GA to visit grandkids and my cousin who has terminal cancer. It will take a couple of days to get there and then usually a couple more to get the internet connection. This is a painting I did looking out our front window last year. It is pretty there but I am a flat land swamp rat at heart and the mountains get to me. We will stay for about three months or until the WV funk comes over me and I have to head back to flat land to regain my sanity.  Keep creating.


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DATE: 05/29/2008 16:56:47 / MOOD: in love

This is a self-portrait I strated in a class in  1996.  In my attempt at getting settled into my new studio I came across it in a stack of other unfinished and/or really bad pieces.  I thought it had potential so I worked on it some and am not unhappy with it.  It is just too bad I don't look like that any more.  But after 12 years, two knee replacements and a few other surgeries, what can one expect.  Life is good.

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DATE: 05/27/2008 20:44:00 / MOOD: happy

I have agreed to do a one day workshop to beginners and have settled on sunflowers as the project.  So I am trying to get a few finished to use as examples.  There are so many types and colors of sunflowers that I figured whatever color they choose to use will be fine.

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DATE: 05/24/2008 13:19:08 / MOOD: in love

These are portraits I did of our grandchildren.  This was my first attempt at doing portraits in oils and my first stab at using a pallette knife as the sole means of moving the paint.  The first one works best to me.  Maybe I should have quit after it.  The thickness of the paint, the opacity, and the slow drying are quite different than my usual watercolors.

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DATE: 05/19/2008 19:18:19 / MOOD: happy

I think I finally got this one finished. It is a companion to "Old Woman Resting" that I did last year. Both were done from photos taken in Ecuador a country I find fascinating because of its diverse cultures and ethnicities.

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