New paintings

Here are five new paintings recently delivered to Art on the Boulevard in Vancouver WA.

They are all 16X16 inches and painted over either gold or copper gilding with acrylic paints. There just isn't anything like the glow one gets when painting over metal leaf. I started with the most transparent paints and toward the end, if needed, I used more opaque paints. These five pieces were in process for many weeks and then were on hold as I worked on a large commission. Sometimes a painting needs to be put aside for a week or two and then placed around the house in different places with different types of lighting. Once I've studied them for a time I can then proceed to the last steps and feel that it's a finished painting and no further study is needed.

I plan on doing more work on metal leaf now and am working toward a more simplified look. It remains to be seen if I can do simplified.

45 Life Lessons and five to grow on

I'm really going to get off my blog bookmarks very soon but first wanted to tell you about this list of 45 Life Lessons by Regina Brett who writes for the Plain Dealer. Many of them resonated for me and are gentle reminders to remember to be mindful and that everything changes. And if not now then when?

Advanced Style

I know I've mentioned this blog before I'm sure. It is written by a young man who lives in New York City and works in a museum. He especially admires elders he sees on the streets who make an effort to dress up before going out. He seems to like women who wear large glasses, bright lip stick and unusual and sometimes vintage outfits. The whole blog is a pick me up every time I go there. Now he's started showing videos and I enjoyed listening to Debra talking about her life and style as her responsibilities to a family are no longer at the top of her list.

A wonderful blog

Go to Rag and Bone's blog and click on the You Tube featuring Maeve Clancy on November 6th. Then come back and scroll down further to see art created inside toilet paper tubes. Just amazing. Scroll down further and see more outlandish paper art. What a great blog!

Timely book about overeating

I've found an interesting book on a blog I subscribed to before my October trip. I subscribed or bookmarked many blogs related to Paris well before leaving. Paris Breakfasts was a very good source of information and she also does watercolors of Paris related subjects. It seems a little strange to talk about overeating on a blog that mainly features desserts but it is very timely. I think the author (a medical doctor with good credentials) has focused on something very important for us to know. The book is now on my Christmas list and I'll post a review after I read it.

I'm back to painting today after some time off for Thanksgiving festivities and a superb meal prepared by my daughter and her husband. I NEED to read this book now!!

More about the October trip

Kew gardens

I hadn't traveled to Europe in seven years and felt as if I needed to do research about what I was going to see, air travel in general and especially anything about French culture. I did spend way too much time on the internet--no surprise there.

I do wish I had taken some kind of a small computer with me because accessing the computers in the hotel wasn't easy. I did go to an internet cafe in Paris and it was interesting to figure out the French keyboard. Maybe a better description would be extremely frustrating. Then disinfected my hands because the keyboard was filthy. But I was able to send off my very brief email and read some email. I took two "thumb drives" or whatever they're called. One for a Mac and one for a pc but didn't use them.

Even after much study and working out how to unlock my cell phone it was useless in both countries. I'll do something different next time. Actually, I didn't miss using it.

I learned so much about travel, France and myself on this trip. While I was part of a group I spent a fair amount of time on my own because some of the group sites I had seen before especially in London. For example, I spent the whole day at Kew Botanical gardens near Richmond. The weather was mild and a little sunshine. I took the trolley ride around since it's almost 400 acres. I climbed the 218 steps to the tree top feature because the elevator wasn't working. Great views and I saw many planes taking off from Gatwick airport.

I bought three different purses before the trip and had a great purse that was sort of like a messenger bag. I also bought three or four new pairs of shoes to try out before the trip. I walked four or five mornings a week well ahead of the trip and so glad I did because there were miles of stairs and miles and miles of walking.

The other thing I'm so glad I did ahead of time was taking a French language class. It was a short class but I learned what I needed in the way of polite phrases, asking and receiving directions and other tourist related words. I had no trouble with the language at all because so many people spoke some English. It's probably is different outside Paris.

We had wonderful weather the whole time with no rain. The last two days in Paris were colder and I wore my coat rather than carrying it over my arm.

I wish I had taken more photos of the people in the streets and stores, the store fronts and how they merchandize their wares. I took 200 photos. I was impressed with how the men and women dressed.

Two very large (multi-buildings) department stores were such fun to stroll around in one day. The food halls or gourmet areas especially were over flowing with abundance every place I looked. Here is a blog I read about France and especially watch the video at the bottom. When it finishes click on some of the other videos of their animated Christmas windows. Wow! I saw the decorations over the sidewalks but I wasn't there in the evenings.

Do I want to go back to Paris? You bet!

Back from the trip to London and Paris

Here is a photo of the shoes I wore on my trip.
I'm back from my amazing trip and recovered (mainly) from the miserable cold I had when I returned. I didn't leave the house for eight days.

I've painted the last two days after at least two months of not painting and really enjoying it so much. I guess I didn't forget all I know about painting during the time off although I wondered once in a while.

I hadn't traveled for so long (14 nights) or so far in at least seven years so the preparation went on way too long. I learned a few things about what to take or not take, how to pack better and how to deal with airports. Flying is no problem, it's just the airports that are difficult.

I bought three or four new pairs of shoes before the trip and took three pairs with me. They all worked fine but one pair was a stand out and I'll never travel again without them. My feet were tired at the end of the day but never painful.

I'm not a big fan of Nike shoes and usually buy New Balance. Our local area has two shoe stores that have you stand on a foot pad and then a screen shows which areas of the foot take most of the weight and then they match you to a pair of insoles. I wasn't convinced this was really true and have to say I'm a believer now after many miles and many stairs on a daily basis.

One member of our group logged 58 miles on his pedometer with only about five or six days into the trip.

I'm glad to be home and painting again. I'll post some photos after I've worked on some of the paintings in progress.

New painting

Here is a new painting. The colors in this photo are not quite right but close.

So many things have been happening lately it's been difficult to feel even slightly caught up or current.

We've had a death in the family. While it was not unexpected it has taken a toll in time and thinking about the past. All the usual thoughts about am I/we using our time on the planet in thoughtful or fulfilling ways?

My focus for some time is my trip to England and France which is only about week away now. I'm probably over thinking the whole thing. Lots of reading of books and tour books, marking places on the maps and generally spending way too much time on the computer. Gathering web sites, doing research is the fun part. Narrowing it down to useable bits is the hard part. I'll load a USB flash thing and also have files to print out. I'll only need twice the time and money to do what I've planned!

So I'll be posting again the first week in November.

Make progress with your painting

This is a photo of a back water on the Metolius river. I liked the bright green color.

I'm leaving for a trip in less than four weeks and I've been walking every other morning for about 45 minutes. Now I've bumped it up to everyday if it isn't pouring rain. I find I need to lay out my clothes the night before and get out the door as quickly as possible. If I wait for later in the day it just will not happen. So I'm walking in the dark for a while and I'm not thinking, I'm just putting one foot in front of the other and before long I'm back home again.

I read an article about doing something like this for painting. Don't stop painting even for a short time. So I won't tell you any more about the article by Keith Bond when he says it so well in his post on Fine Arts View.