Today being Thursday, it’s once again Time Out for Art Day! I thought I’d throw in a little abstract painting I did a couple of years ago. Maybe I’m trying to inspire myself to keep painting, or maybe it’s an attempt to get some of you to paint abstractly. Abstract painting is fun, and it finds its own way….
Sunshine of the Lake
Time Out for Art has been inspired by Zebra Designs & Destinations, I know you’ll find them as inspiring as I do!
I want to thank Maria Brinkley for nominating me for The Very Inspiring Bloggers Award. Who knew there was an award for being an inspiration to someone else, and could you even ask for anything better than to be that inspiration? I feel really honored that Maria feels I can inspire herself, and others. Thank You Maria for your heartfelt nomination. In accordance with the Rules of this award, I’m going to share seven more facts with everyone…
Well, now you know some more of my deep dark secrets! Now to on to letting you know who the 15 Amazingly Awesome Bloggers are who I am nominating for the Very Inspiring Bloggers Award…
Thank you again Maria, and I thank all fifteen of these bloggers for being an inspiration not just to me, but to many others as well. I know there are so many more of you that are awesome! Keep up the great work! You are……
Very Inspiring Bloggers
This afternoon as I was thinking about writing a post, and most definitely struggling with content. As I reread some of my old posts, I was stunned to realize that I had actually written them. The content was familiar, and I could feel the words, but I couldn’t believe I wrote them.
On one post, I wrote about our trip to the Island of Kauai, and on another the day we picked up my son, Dennis from the airport after he made his first CD.
So whats your point?
I sitting here wondering if my writing is getting better, or worse? Just like the paintings I create. If you go back and revisit old works of art, often it is unbelievable to think you had created them in the first place. They aren’t all great, some of them I can actually believe it was me who painted them. That’s painful to admit!
Who did those, it couldn’t have been me!
But in fact it was me, in both cases. When I write I pour my heart out just like when I paint! It may be good at the time, or a struggle at that time, it depends. Sometimes we don’t even realize how much of an effort it is until it unfolds.
Art is different for me because when I struggle, I always know it! It’s great when it flows, but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I struggle painfully with something, a concept, a start, or maybe even more than that!
The Abstract Dancer has already taken two or three sharp left turns. I have ideas, and who knows if they will work, but it’s better to try something than nothing! Right? By posting this online, maybe it will shake me loose, and drive me to work on it! I’m trying to avoid doing the Jackson Pollock thing to it.
At least that is my hope. So someday when I look back on prior posts, I can look at this one and remember how I was struggling to pull it all together, and make Abstract Dancer a real painting! Someday maybe I can read this post, and say to myself, I did pull it together, and that Abstract Dancer is exactly what I had envisioned!
Sometimes on FB there will be surveys about things like, if you were a car, what would you be or, if you were an animal what kind would you be. One very early morning when I was feeling particularly fabulous, I started thinking about describing myself, all I’d been through in my life, and the resilience I have.
I’m strong, determined, I don’t have to be right, but I’m not always wrong either. I have a sixth sense about me – I know when I’m not being told the truth, I can feel it. I’ve lived long enough to have wisdom, some of it from learning experiences, some of it I just know! I don’t do the FB thing very often, actually I really don’t care if they think I’m a fast car, or a lion, or what my color is!
Soooooo
That being said, I was thinking how I would describe myself, and this is what I came up with…..
I’m an Oak Tree! A mature, sturdy, mighty oak! I stand tall, yet I can bend, I am filled with wisdom, and the owl that lives in my branches provides me with whatever information I don’t know! You can’t have it any better than that! I haven’t any idea what kind of owl would be living in my branches, but I do know we’re best friends!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVY5cvjLEdg
I don’t know what the owl would have to say about that, I really haven’t taken the time to talk to him lately. If truth be told, I haven’t seen him lately. He’s tricky, and only comes out at night, probably after I’m in bed. He also may be preoccupied with a lady owl. What she-owl wouldn’t want to stay in a mighty oak with her dream he-owl? I have chimes playing all night long, and they can hunt, and return to the safety of my branches.
Did I hear you say I was crazy?
Maybe! I prefer to call it creative. By the way this was not my intention to write anything remotely like this, but its way too hot to do much of anything else, even painting! Maybe especially painting!
Back to the Owls!
Before my very eyes, and ears I think I have an Owl family in my branches. There is a lot of rustling going on during the day, and this I know from going out to water plants, and check on my Matilija Poppy. This is only about the sixth poppy I’ve tried to grow–without any success! This time my son-in-law John is nurturing it! Good thing, because as I said, I’ve killed the previous five. At least the leaves are still green, and in this 100+ degree weather too. That’s another story though.
The good thing is that a few doors down for our home, there are abundant critters, so the owls will have plenty to keep their tummys full, and plenty to feed the little owlets after all that kissing stops!
You remember this…..
Mr. & Mrs. Owl sitting in a tree
k-i-s-s-i-n-g…..
first comes love, then comes marriage,
then come the owlets in a
Baby Carriage!
Ok Back to the Owls!
I’m not sure owls even have baby carriages, after all how would they push them, and how on earth could they keep them on even the sturdiest of my limbs? If they pushed the carriages off the limbs would it be accidental or would they really be trying to encourage the owlets to fly? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
Back to the Owls!
Now I’m positive it’s the heat!
I know it sounds like I’ve been smoking something, but you’re wrong! I don’t smoke, and I told you it was the heat!
Any questions or comments, I’m more than happy to answer them for you. You might have some additional thoughts on the subject as well. If so, please comment, or email me! I’d love to hear what you have to say….
Maybe you’re advice would to have those little buggies outfitted with magnets so they would stay on the branches, you know much like a San Francisco trolley. Either way, the owls need your help, maybe I need your help as well.
Go ahead let me know what you think, I can take it!
What did he do next?
Well, the first thing John fixed was the irrigation system. It has always been a bit poopy, and he quickly discovered why! This is all technical, so I won’t get into it although I did understand after John explained it…..several times! The long and the short is this: it was never installed right in the first place! (Landscaping by a professional expert, having landscaped all over the Middle East!) After putting several hours into digging many holes, a trip to Lowe’s did the trick!
Oh those back-breaking holes!
The only one around here that knows how backbreaking digging holes in the yard can be is Daisy, our dog! She has most recently been on archology excursion to find the Lost City! I need to tell you, neither Les or myself taught her to do this. I’m sure she learned it from talking to the other dogs at the “dog park!” You know the ones, the dogs whose parents don’t teach them right from wrong! So now, we have to be the bad guys and give her a time out for attempting world travel, or trying to bury a chew stick. I hate being the bad guy!
Now the fun starts…
Tuesday night after John had prepared the yard for new dirt, and sod, and headed for home, Daisy went outside and…No she didn’t dig holes, but she spread her toys over the dirt. I think she was saying, “This is my yard, leave it alone!” All through this process she has been agitated, and I couldn’t even get her to leave the house for a walk in the afternoon. The yard being all torn up bothered her, and she would come in to get one of us, and take us out into the back to show us what John had done to her yard.
What’s next?
Wednesday the top soil went down, and from Wednesday until Thursday afternoon, Daisy had to stay out of the yard. I believe it is “Murphy’s Law,” to have the animals roll in freshly watered, manure, and top soil! We could just see her with the smelly dirt stuck to her fur, and needing a bath before we could let her back into the house!
Thursday morning John started putting down the sod, and then things changed. Keeping a dog off her grass is a challenge, and reasoning with her to not dig holes in the grass or she will have to sit on the “Naughty Rug” is the fun part!
Today is a new day, a new start, a new yard we can be proud of, and it looks great! After the yard was watered, pots will get drips on them, and things just look so much neater. I’m loving it!
Then what?
There isn’t much left to do. Maybe a few little things like putting a few more drip lines in, or re-wiring an antique iron lamp that was my Great-grandmother’s, but that is about it! You can be sure that pictures will follow one of these days! This was back-breaking work, that I could neither do, or help with. We are both so grateful for John, who tirelessly worked to make our home, and yard something we could all be proud of!
I think we all deserve a glass of vino, and maybe some cheese and crackers, and oh…..Chocolate!!! We must have chocolate!
I said there were many unfinished canvases in my studio, and I was planning on finishing them. The more they sat there, the more I started to think, “If they haven’t said anything so far, maybe even they don’t know where to go with themselves!” So I grabbed a second unfinished painting, and gessoed over it. Ha! I’ll show it! Gessoed over it very lightly, so the under layer of a mix of Quinacridone Burnt Orange, and Quinacridone Gold still showed through in places. Then the sky came to life with some light blue, and next but not last, I lightly brushed in some violet, orange, and yellow. That ‘s just the sky!
Now the trees!
The larger trees were already roughed in with tissue paper, so my decision to paint trees was already made. I just followed through, and added some more trees, but decided to emphasize the bigger trees since they were standing out in the first place. No big decisions there! At some point, my thoughts have gone to, “Enough time wasted on this, let’s get down to business!” While I love to keep playing with my trees, I also want to decide on what to do next, and start something else!
My ideas are all over the place, and usually I tend to jump in feet first, sink or swim……usually sink! It would be nice to do a little more planning for the next one. The funny thing is, I love the spontaneity of not knowing where I’m going, or how I’ll get there. I love letting the painting take the lead, with Happy Accidents at the finish of the painting! The very thing I love the most, is the very thing that trips me up the most! Is it the planning that is the problem, or is it the subject matter? Or, am I not listening?
How many of you have the same problem, or do you have answers that I hadn’t thought of? Let me know because I’ve been struggling here, and someone must have answers….
The trees are speaking……
After playing with lighting, and watching my trees, I pretty much decided to keep playing with them. My trees are not finished, but still need shadows, more lights, and darks!
While I’m finishing up my trees, I’m also getting ready for another class. This class will be all day at ArtBeat on Main Street. This is a fairly new gallery in the heart of Vista, Ca, that took me by surprise when I walked in. The ladies that own tArtBeat are down to earth, and easy to know. They seem to have put together a gallery rarely seen in this area! It really belongs further south in Del Mar, or La Jolla. It’s that classy! So when my friend, and artsy sister said she was taking this class, at her urging I checked it out, and was pleasantly surprised. The artist teaching will be Scott W. Prior, an artist well known in the art community.
We’ll talk…
Old as Dirt and Proud of it! 
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