A Little Fishy. . . .

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.
Victor Hugo

I was playing around drawing and painting fish last night. Have no idea why or where the idea came from. Was fun though. The one above obviously is done, the one below not painted yet. I like doing whimsical things.

My son the artist

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
~Pablo Picasso

My youngest son Andrew. An aspiring artist living in Chicago.

He does painting, silk screening, plays bass guitar and has a degree in Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago. He is my "Renaissance" son. I am so proud that he is taking after me and pursuing art.

He first really got interested in it while spending a semester in Rome. Now he is traveling to Paris next week for a week. I love the light in this picture.

He set the picture up himself with his camera and self timer. I just love it.

Andrew you are an amazing son.

Hopefully like Picasso says, my Andrew will remain an artist. !!!!

Having fun with graph paper. . . .

Trust that little voice in your head that says "Wouldn't it be interesting if..." And then do it. ~Duane Michals,

This started out as just a little doodle on graph paper, and then became bigger and bigger.

What fun it was.

Happy Monday to all !!!

Art is a collaboration. . . . . .

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
~André Gide

Just some fun pictures I took once while working on some artwork. I love art supplies, pens, pencils, paints. paper, all the ways they feel, work, show beauty. Art is such a wonderful combination of fun and yet work. Making art can be a great joy, or at times a great frustration. But, we artists seem to keep pursuing this dream or image we have.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

I love poppies. . . and need to learn to love "Me"

These pictures I took of poppies in the garden at Grunewald Guild ( the art and spirituality)
retreat place in the Cascade Mts. of Washington St., are some of my favorites. I love how the beautiful red colors just burst open and are dominant over every other thing in the garden.

Flowers like these are really one of God's gifts. It is like He is saying, wake up, look at this, look at this bright color, look what I have made for you. Enjoy.

These pictures also make me want to create. I am going to try and do a series of small watercolors of the poppies.

I am beginning to get into this blog thing. At first it was really overwhelming !!! There is so much going on, so many events every day, or every minute or every month. I almost don't know where to start or how to even jump in feet first and get wet. So that being said if my posts are a little blah at this beginning time, bare with me. I am on a Huge Journey of finding out who I am, and more especially how to love myself. Fortunately for me I have a wonderful therapist Jan Myers, helping me do this.

It sometimes takes a while to undo years of thinking bad thoughts or unkind thoughts about yourself and your abilities. I am hoping and beginning to feel that this venture into Blogland will help me truly be the person I am. That person who is artistic, different, a little crazy and wants to be very creative.

Thanks for all the feedback I have gotten so far, especially from Laure, Teri and Margaret. I think this whole thing is going to work out.

Meanwhile enjoy the photos below of some beautiful poppies.

Happy Thursday. I am off to do some painting.

Last three paintings for our book are done.......

I am so pleased to finally have the last three paintings for the children's book I am co-authoring with my friend done. As I said in an earlier blog, it is a childrens ABC book of the birth of Christ.

My dear friend Cindy and I just fell into this project when I realized her dream was always to write a book, and mine was always to illustrate a book. It is like is was a word from God.

These last three are pretty self explanatory . Wise Men is for W, Mary & Joseph on Donkey is for D and the last one of the manger scene is for M.

We have most everything already at the publishers except these three pages. We are both so excited, and relieved to have our part of the work done.

I finally finished it......

Along with my artwork, my next favorite thing to do is needlework. I started years ago with needlepoint, moved to counted cross stitch, and now that my eyes are not as good am back to a form of needlepoint again. I do still occasionally do some counted cross stitch, but, not on the tiny linen I used to.

This pillow is a pattern designed by needlework artist Laura Perin. She has a wonderful blog.http://two-handedstitcher.blogspot.com/. What this kind of work is called is counted needlepoint. I loved using the metallic threads, the quilt like pattern and the colors.

This piece was done mostly with perle cotton floss, in long stitches. The triangles around the outside are done in a variegated floss that makes a great look.

Laura also has some amazing photography on her blog that you will really enjoy. For some reason when I click on the link to her blog, Firefox comes up saying it cannot connect . If that happens go to my List of Blogs I visit and scroll down to Two Handed Stitcher and you will get there. I am new at this linking, so it was probably something I did.

I am just glad to finally have finished it and have it finished into a pillow ready to grace my couch.