Some of the long time readers on the blog will remember when I was painting this back in the early summer - and nearly ruined it! From the brink of disaster to 1st place! This is the first time I’ve been able to show the completed painting on the blog due to different show restrictions. (And for those wondering - that’s the new ‘do, too!!) I am so very, very excited! I'm not sure I'll ever get to sleep tonight. I've known that the painting won an award since last Saturday, but we didn't find out until tonight at the reception where all the paintings actually placed. The reception was very well attended with a lot of super nice people. There was live piano and finger foods as well as wine - just a lot of fun!

The Open Aqueous Show is being held at the Venice Art Center, 390 Nokomis Avenue S, Venice Florida. The facility is one of the nicest I've ever visited and they are open Monday - Friday from 9 to 5. The show will hang until Friday, November 6th. If you are in the area, please stop by!

This painting is available for purchase. Please contact the Venice Art Center for details.

p.s. I'll be posting a much better photo of the painting in a few days!

I'm talking about the kind of things that aren't really lost, just misplaced? Or so you think.

This morning, my curling iron's heating element gave up the ghost. Now, usually this would be no big deal, but I had errands to run this morning and I had just blow-dryed my hair. Having recently changed my hair style, leaving the house in this condition was not optimal. I had no doubt I would traumatize small children upon sight and put them into therapy for years. I looked like an escapee from one of those hair commercials they show on TV with the before and after shots. That's me - the before shot - times 10!

I use a certain kind of curling iron and the last time one died, I spent a good amount of time and suffering trying to track the model down. Desperately, I searched and at the last store, finally found it. After going through this agony, I decided to be clever and purchase two! My thinking was simply that I'd be ahead of those sneaky manufacturers that quit making a perfectly good product because, well, because it's a perfectly good product.

So I went looking for my new curling iron…and could not find it. Anywhere. What I did find disturbed me even more––several old curling irons that looked like they went through the war known as “The BIG Hair Years.” I mean really, they had enough hair spray caked on the handles and heating tubes as to look like they had been spray painted a light grey! Yuck! Double Yuck! The bigger question now is why do I have these hair-spray-caked-curling-irons at all????

I have to believe that the “it's best to be prepared for any and all circumstances” part of my brain is responsible for the three, yes, three hair-spray-caked-curling-irons to be living in my bathroom cabinet. Jeeze, like there's going to be an apocalypse of hair curling implements in the near future and I'll never ever be able to find/purchase/afford another curling iron in this lifetime????!! Could this possibly be for real? Do they even work?

It is these small glimpses into my mind and how it works that scare the absolute daylights out of me. I like to think I'm fairly practical. That I use common sense in most situations, and yet, here is proof positive that I may not be so levelheaded as I like to think. Really. I'm hoarding15-year-old (maybe older) hair-spray-caked-curling-irons??? Why not gold or food or medicine or something of relative value other than an instrument that plays to my vanity?

And what's worse yet is that I still have no idea where the new curling iron is……

The days winging by, the temperatures beginning to cool, color showing in the trees, birds beginning their long trips home––Autumn is upon us! And with it, the latest class, “An Imaginary Trip Through Autumn” will begin on October 29th! The class will be an intimate view of Autumn with all the vibrant colors and unique textures that make this such a special season!

For more information on the class as well as registration information, please click here. If you have any questions, you can email them to me by clicking on the box in the lefthand column that shouts "Email me!"

*This sketch was created during  An Imaginary Trip to Paris that started September 21st. It is a sketching and painting holiday! (I'm not really in Paris, darn it!) More information is available by click the logo link in the righthand column!

I'm sure you've met someone in your lifetime that you've sat down with and talked with them like you've known them forever. Laughing, connecting, discussing subjects that you usually don't talk about unless you've known someone for years. You're different from each other and yet, oddly the same. You wonder how you could be so comfortable with someone after only knowing them for 7 emails and 3 1/2 hours of talking face-to-face and yet, you are.

I have recently met KJ for the first time, and she used the term kindred spirits and that's it! We seem to be kindred spirits on levels not usually touched until after years of friendship construction. It is a liberating feeling to be able to speak candidly, openly and receive intelligent, insightful and thoughtful replies with regard to these deep subjects. What a wonderful blessing!

Too, I think this blessing (in part) is a byproduct of my lifestyle change. My lifestyle in Corporate America made it difficult to find or make the time to grow friendships outside of work. I worked an hour away from home and was gone much of the time. I also traveled a fair bit. Now, I can rearrange my schedule to accommodate a lunch date with a friend. It still means working later to get done the work that I missed while out playing, but it's so worth it.

I don't have this working-for-yourself thing completely figured out, but I'm beginning to think that some of the perks, like friendships with folks like KJ, are pretty cool! The little bird up top is another warm up piece for acclimating myself back to the studio. He actually sits next to the little green bluebird cutie from a few posts ago. I think maybe I should have called this post “birds-of-a-feather!!”

The colors are so far off on this one that I'm not sure if I'd know what it is if I weren't painting it, but I'm sure you can guess! Apparently, I'll be doing some calibrating between my new computer and scanner - yuck! Icky colors! Even adjusting the colors didn't seem to help much. (These are only the first washes - it will look better soon!) On the other hand, I am so pleased to say that I actually made it back into the studio today! About 45 minutes worth, which you see above. If you've read the blog very long you know that when I don't paint, I tend to get out of sorts and odd things start to happen.

Between crashing computers, new computers, trips to Paris, and a few other minor details, I haven't been painting and boy, can I tell it! Yes, I'm out of sorts, but I'm waaaaaaaay rusty too! I've been doing a lot of sketching while on location in Europe, but for me, there's quite a difference in the mindsets between sketching and studio painting. For one thing, my sketching is generally more free, capturing an essence of a place and no concerns about every detail. Studio work tends to be more exact, with close attention paid to nuance of color variations, details, and temperature.

But I gotta say - if feels so good to have a brush in my hands and to be back in the saddle. Too long gone. This painting is being done with watercolors on Ampersand's Aquabord and is approximately 6" square.

Three weeks ago, Himself found this adorable little green bluebird for me in a second-hand shop. In the madness that followed shortly thereafter, I totally forgot about my little guy. Today has been such a good day. Life is so good! I got out for a three mile walk/jog today - beautiful, clear, manganese blue skies with nary a cloud to be seen; sweet, cool, gentle breezes to caress and carry me along; bird song; the circling flight path of an Osprey over the lake; Mallards lazily gliding by on still waters; a Downy tapping out his song before taking off in startled flight…twas a most excellent morning.

This afternoon, I decided it was time to bring order to the chaos otherwise known as my studio. No small feat this will be and it will take more than an afternoon, but in my cleaning I did re-discover this lovely little bird waiting ever so patiently for my return. When evening came I sat down and let my brush tickle over his form and feathers. I don't quite have the right of him, but he seemed not to mind. He knows I won't be able to resist another try. Soon. Very soon. For now he is content to be perched in a flower arrangement  singing out the last few notes of summer…