Floating Color

Fish are lovely floating colors and so peaceful to watch. Meet Blue II, we gave him this vase we found at Goodwill with some of my son's marble collection to brighten up his watery world. The silly fish spends lots of time at the top when it much more pretty down below.

Botanical Awakening

Latest oil painting still in progress. This last week has been record breaking heat and I've been sick with a bad cold so missing my garden. First good thing I've done in days =]

Living Designs

One of the joys of gardening ( besides getting to play in the dirt!) is walking around the yard and finding flowers that have burst into bloom. Love the textures, the bright colors and how the sunlight emphasizes their beauty. It is so serene to be outside, with the wind blowing in your hair and listening only to the songs of the birds. I happily lose track of all time while I work until.....the first big spider gets too close !..then I take the hint and leave it be ...until the next time.

Iris Dreams

Finally ....came to the realization that I was using the wrong medium for what I was trying to create. After many very Bad acrylic paintings, I pulled out the oils. These colors were chosen mainly because they were the first six tubes that I could get open! With a sigh of relief and true joy I painted this in one evening. Feeling like I just woke up from a long horribly-colored dream.

Bubbles, Butter and Baking

Dear Mrs. Dixon, I think of you every time I make a cake and right before I put the pan in the oven I "burp" it to get all the air bubbles out, just like you taught me in 7th grade. I didn't know it at the time, but your class turned out to be the most important one I ever took. (Well to be perfectly honest, the typing class I took at the same time sure has come in handy too, as I am typing this with all five fingers and am still fairly accurate. ) However you are right up there among my favorite teachers of all time. My love of baking started with you and I still live by your Maxim that if the recipe has butter and sugar in it, you whip it until it is light and fluffy no matter what the directions say.

My Mom bought me my first cook book for Christmas that year (still have it) and told me that she would buy me whatever ingredients I needed. I tried out every single cookie recipe in that cookbook at least once! My brothers loved it when I baked and they and their friends would eat the cookies, as fast as I could take them out of the oven. When I was first married it was the only cooking that I was really good at. I started a recipe collection at that time too, in a big 3-ring binder. You would photo-copy the recipes for us and would you believe that I still have those too?

I don't know where you are these days but I hope you had some satisfaction in knowing you were helping us to become good future wives and mothers. I hope that my baking is one of things my children will remember fondly,when they are old and on their own.

So thank you dear Mrs. Dixon for sharing your wonderful talent in the kitchen with all of us gawky teenage girls. I remember you fondly whenever that wonderful baked aroma comes out of my oven and I know it is done.

Experimenting

"Why?"
"Summer Bling"
"Picasso's Aunt"

"Peacocktail"

The black and white abstracts are bigger pieces than I usually work with and I liked it. I think abstract is just better bigger! Feeling rather out of sync with my art but there are still moments when it shines for me. My son-in-law told me that the first one is like some paintings he has seen in cafes in Chicago. Nice to know that somewhere out there my art would be understood. In the meantime I just paint for myself!

No color left behind.

My collection of painted pages done on brown paper, envelopes, watercolor paper etc. These are how I use up any paint left over from when I am working on a picture. Acrylic paint dries out so quickly. My thrifty soul won't let me waste paint so I grab these out of a box and add to them. In a way they are practice pieces as they show my how colors work with each other. I like to toss them on the floor once in awhile and see how they look next to each other. I add them as layers using gel medium to larger pieces. Mostly they are just fun.