Please...

My daughter's family has two dogs. They have had "Uncle Wally," a cockapoo, for several years. He's a cute little ball of hair. About five years ago they decided that Wally needed a friend - another dog, but with a big bark.

Before Wally, they had had a golden retriever - a wonderful family dog, good with children and loved by all. So, a golden puppy was introduced to the household. "Professor Gilbert" was an adorable ball of fur, about the same size as Wally...but not for long. Gilbert grew and grew...and maintained his puppy-ness!

This is a busy household - four girls with sports schedules, sleepovers, etc.  - and not a lot of time to train a puppy. Before we knew it, Gilbert was an enormous animal who was always retrieving and destroying things things like shoes, pieces of clothing, lacrosse balls - you name it.  Whenever I visited and showed him the slightest attention, he jumped all over me and then 'retrieved' my wrist - which ended up in his mouth!

Eventually a 'dog whisperer' was called in...

A month or so ago, my son-in-law posted a picture of Gilbert with the caption "I think Gilbert wants something."  Too cute, I had to paint it!

I love painting animals in pastel. So I began with the pencil sketch and few blocks of color.

The original photo was of Gilbert on the hardwood kitchen floor. When I began to add the floor color, the whole painting was the same color so I changed the floor to imaginary rug/grass...or something blue-green that would contrast with the golden dog.

Here's the finished painting. I love the way his jowl is sort of hung up on his paw.

I am thinking of calling this "Please..."                     BTW, the dog whisperer worked...

Un-staging the condo

As promised in my February 1st post, I am sharing some more sketches of the 'stuff' in the condo that we rented in Puerto Rico.

Each year when we arrive, the condo is 'staged' for guests. There is all this cutesy tropical beach 'stuff.' It looks very welcoming and vacation-y.

After getting our groceries put away and our suitcases unpacked we begin 'un-staging.'

We move things around... the artificial plants, ceramic knick knacks, bowls of various sizes, a table here and there, baskets of books - you get the idea.

There was a very big planter of bamboo by the sliding door to the balcony.

Then another big planter with a very fuzzy palm tree against a wall where we like to put our 'computer desk.' It goes over by the bamboo for the time being.

Breakable ceramics go under a shelf in a safe space - not where we can accidentally knock them off onto a tile floor!

There are a couple of other ceramics on the walls. We didn't move them, but just thought it would be fun to try to draw them without getting dizzy...

Small wooden containers with dried arrangements on the dresser were interesting. Didn't move them, but were careful when we shut the dresser drawers that we didn't shake anything loose.

A few more large ceramic vases of interesting shapes, colors and textures...

There are interesting bowls of various shapes on table tops. Some of them are full of 'things.' This one had colorful string balls. The kind of thing we used to make as kids. You blow up a balloon, dip colored string in flour paste, wrap it around the balloon, let dry and then deflate the balloon.

And, of course, several smaller pots of orchids of different sizes and colors  - here and there around the condo. Only sketched one - in the tropics...orchids are everywhere!

So, the only bad thing about any of this is trying to put it all back the way we found it when we arrived! It occurred to me we should have taken pictures of the original staging... that would have made it a little easier.

I wonder if I will remember to do that next year...

Sketching in Palmas

A couple of stories from my sketchbook...

"What's the matter with that pot?"
I looked out from our second floor balcony down to the pool area at the large pots of palms. This is a familiar view - we have visited this resort before and have seen these pots in past years. This year however, something was askew. One of those pots had a bulge on one side.

Later on I got a closer view and discovered a large gash in the pot! It seemed to be held together only at the top and the bottom. I could see lots of roots and dirt just waiting... I am wondering if/when the whole thing will fall apart. It's pretty close to the pool...please don't let all that dirt go there!

"Painting peppers with a friend"
I enjoyed spending an afternoon sketching/painting with a friend. She had talked about some colorful peppers that she had in her fridge. So we decided to paint them. At first I dumped them all out - it was a little overwhelming, so we tried to simplify and just arrange a few.

I sketched them quickly and then got out my watercolor paints. Not my best painting, but a fun memory of the laughter we shared when we tried to find the best artistic arrangement.

Gerri worked on her painting, got a little distracted and then started eating the peppers! She bit into them and put the stems down on the table. Then we both began eating and voila, there was another painting!

I sketched a few of the pepper pieces...

and then got out my watercolor paints again.

 So, then I was really into this and didn't want to put the paints away quite yet... another pepper...

 About this time, Gerri was having fun with her liquid acrylics - making a very abstract painting with brilliant color. She urged me to try them. I hardly ever use acrylics, but it would be fun to try...

This is what I came up with... yeah, another pepper

A delightful afternoon - no signed masterpieces, but wonderful memories!

It's Banner Time Again!

Since 2010, the St Michaels Art League has sponsored street banners along our 'main' street - actually called Talbot Street. This is an annual project with the theme "Celebrate St Michaels." Pretty much anything goes as long as it is somehow related to the town.

Each year I have painted a crab in some form. For the past several years, "Mikey" (as in St Michaels) has been doing a variety of things - carrying flags, hanging lanterns in the trees, skippering a boat, holding a beer stein, and licking an ice cream cone. (Many of my banners have been the subjects of former posts. Look back at late January or early February postings in prior years to see more)

So, the question is...."What is Mikey doing this year?"

Drum roll...ta da!

I am calling this "Aye, aye, Sir!"

Look for Mikey and all the other original banner artwork in the St Michaels Library in April. The banners should be hanging by mid-April along Talbot Street. They'll be there through the summer - probably until sometime in November!

Enjoy!

Relax...maybe

For the past several years we have taken a few weeks and escaped winter. Yes, we became 'snow birds' and flew to Puerto Rico. We have rented a two bedroom condo on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine and warm temperatures.

I always take my sketch book with me to capture some of the local scenes. This year, in keeping with my effort to look at the familiar in a new way, I decided just to take it easy and to sketch the 'stuff' that was in the condo.

The condo is decorated with cutesy stuff - appropriate to the area and climate. I'll post some of those sketches at another time - today's story is about the new artwork that was hanging on the wall on the balcony.

In the past there were parrots, other birds and ocean 'things' adorning the balcony. Over time they weathered and have fallen off the wall. This year they were replaced by wooden plaques which have catchy sayings on them.

"Happily Ever After Starts Now" - nice sentiment for a vacation spot. "Better Together"- also nice for us old folks on a winter jaunt. However, I had trouble divorcing that one from the recent political campaign and the slogan "Stronger Together."

The third one was "Relax" - ahh, that was my favorite.

I thought it was pretty straight forward until... I came out on the balcony one morning and found 'relax' on the floor! What did that mean? Was I not relaxing enough? Was it trying to tell me to relax in a different way? Actually, I just laughed! There was 'relax' lying on the floor relaxing...

I hung it back up with the others and just decided to sketch it...

A fun reminder of a relaxing time!

Sometimes...it just doesn't work

This is another in the series of finding those things we don't normally see - the things that are right in front of us. After I painted the water pipes in Barbara's furnace room (see post 11/9/16 - "Making the Invisible, Visible"), I continued to look around her house. She has an interesting old fashioned door lock.

I went over to the door to take some photos of the lock. I noticed that the door was really warm. As I ran my hand over the wood of the door I discovered two screw heads that were very hot.

When I opened her front door I found that the screws were holding a very unusual door knocker. The morning sun was shining very brightly on the door and knocker. The metal knocker was really HOT.

I opened to door a little wider to take some pictures of the knocker and then really saw 'the painting!' A strong shadow fell across the door and the knocker. That would be fun to try to capture.

The holidays came then and I didn't have a lot of time to get back to the idea. In early January, I got out my photos and drew a sketch of what I had imagined. I used the matchstick and ink method to 'draw' it.

It still seemed like a good idea and I was enthusiastic about it until...I painted it the first time. For some reason, it just didn't work. I think there was something about the shadow... The knocker wasn't as interesting as I thought...it just didn't feel right.

So, I put the painting in sink and washed it off. My experience of second chances had been pretty good...in the past. The paint never comes off entirely, but I now had an underpainting and my ink drawing to work with.

Bottom line here - I painted it again, and washed it off again... I painted it once more and am calling it quits on this one.  Sometimes, it just doesn't work!

I'll tuck this away...even though it's not a 'winner' I always learn something. When I look back a few weeks/months from now, I may see something I can't see today!

The Unexpected Gift

For over thirty years my husband and I have celebrated New Year's Eve with special friends who live in the Baltimore area. We get together, share meals and stories and exchange simple gifts. We watch the ball drop at midnight, toast the new year and finish off our celebration with Oysters Rockefeller on the 1st of January.

This year, however, was a little different. For the past few months our friends have been downsizing - clearing out their house in preparation for a move to a retirement community. It's a long process of sorting - what to keep, what to pass on to the children, what to throw out... They are doing it slowly and carefully and have talked about how difficult it is to clear out a house that they have lived in for 40 years.

Well, they appeared as usual on the 30th of December with suitcases, hors d'oeuvres, wine ...and a shopping bag overflowing with presents. What? We do the simple gift thing, I thought!

It was good to see them. We settled in around the Christmas tree and got caught up a bit. It was soon time to open gifts. They were very excited about this and began to distribute all the things they had brought with them.

As we opened the presents, the mystery was solved. It became apparent that they were sharing their treasures with us. Each gift was thoughtfully chosen and held memories for us as friends. There were books that they had read and thought we would like and framed photographs with special meaning for the four of us. We shared more stories...

Then there was a small package for me...I opened it and there was an envelop filled with photos of my son's wedding in 1995! Our friend said, "You probably don't need these, you must have dozens of them.. but I didn't want to just throw them out." I was overwhelmed - what she did not remember was that all of my son's wedding photos (and other photos, too) had been destroyed in a fire five years before!

This seemingly insignificant envelop held something more valuable than she could have imagined. This unexpected gift is a true treasure of our friendship and example of how something so trivial can hold awe-some meaning for me. That she chose to save the pictures was somewhat unusual, I thought, and that they were given as part of this particular celebration was lovely. I was weepy and overwhelmed to be holding these pictures.

Thank you, Shirley and Bob, for your friendship and shared history!

These amazing moments are there for us. My hope in 2017 is that I may recognize them, name them and share them.