Monday, February 27, 2012

SMAL Banners

The St Michaels Art League (SMAL) has this terrific banner program.  For the past two years we have brightened up the town with colorful banners hanging on many of the utility poles on our main street.

Art league members are encouraged to produce artwork that represents our town - a rather quite village on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  We are a tourist 'destination.' Particularly on summer weekends, the town fills with visitors who come to shop, dine, visit the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and just enjoy walking around a small town.  It is one of the few places left where you can ALWAYS see people walking around, holding hands and smiling!

The banner competition has two judges who look at all the entries and choose the ones they think best illustrate life in our small town... and the ones they think will make good banners.

Most of the banners are true works of art - fine art, that is.  My entry this year was a little whimsical... more like a cartoon. I did have fun painting it and it makes me smile.  I think that I need to have fun with my art - when I get too serious, my work looks labored.

So, here is this year's banner entry...  and YES, it was juried in!



It will be hanging on Talbot Street toward to middle of April until sometime in November. All the banners are available as posters for visitors who want to go home with a special remembrance of their trip to St Michaels.

And, another plug... there will be an Art Show and Sale of banner art and more on the last weekend in April - Saturday the 28th - which is Winefest...  a time to come to town, sample lots of different wines and BUY ART.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Transitions...

Transitions are hard...  we arrived home last night from a wonderful month in Puerto Rico.  Today it was dreary - rainy and chilly here.  We are remembering with great fondness the crashing waves, blue skies, sparkling water...need I say more?

I am in "swimming withdrawal" already.  Yes, I know I could swim here, but not outside (yet) and not with the new friends I made at the Crescent Beach pool.  I was fortunate to join an impromptu water aerobics group - we met at different times almost every day...depending on when golf, tennis, and grandchildren were happening.  Bright colored 'swim noodles' filled the pool and our group had a great time exercising together. There was a lot of jumping up and down, ocasional complaining that the water was too cold, telling of stories, laughing and generally enjoying being together.

So, here's to you WA (water aerobics) friends!


And, I can't resist posting this sketch...  one of the exercisers had a visit from her granddaughter.  Children in hats and bathing suits just beg to be drawn!


Cheers... home again...

Monday, February 13, 2012

Other than palm trees - the Ceiba

Yes, there are palm trees everywhere, but there are also some other stunning trees.  We have been 'taken' with one here called a Ceiba - or Kapok tree.  It has an amazing root system that winds around the ground sometimes arching up several feet. It creates unusual patterns and begs you to stop and look at it. One of the Ceiba trees here is even lighted at night and has other lovely plantings around it - it just shouts "Look at what I have done!"

We have driven by two of these trees at different times of the day trying to see just the right time to photograph it. When is the sun at the perfect angle to capture the mystery?  I gave up with that and tried to capture at least some of the peculiar nature of one of them.

I need to work on the other one - it is even more dramatic.  At least my sketch reminds me of the 'nature' of this creation.


Friday, February 3, 2012

The Water!

One of the lovely things about where we are staying is the water.  George walks to the beach every day with his chair and I guess he just sits and stares at the waves. (He says he is reading...) I look at the waves from our balcony - and don't get sandy.  From any vantage point, it is a beautiful sight... and the sound of the waves is soothing and hypnotic.

My 'swimming water of choice,' however, is the pool. There are three pools here: a small baby pool, a strange shaped pool that is 3-5 feet deep.  It has a concrete bench and some jacuzzi-like jets in it.

'My' pool is the larger, deeper one.  Every morning I watch from my balcony as Felix - the pool guy - cleans my pool.



As soon as he is finished (and sometimes even before) I walk over and I swim laps (about 1/2 mile) - it feels wonderful. So far, I have been the only one in the pool - it is mine...  When I swim, I loose myself  - my mind wanders. It is such a peaceful place - no cares, no worries. Ahhhhh...