Luminous World

June Bloom Day

2009-06-15T10:58:00.009-04:00

Here's what's abloom in June!Cannas look so exotic and Victorian to me. What a pleasure to leave them in the ground and have them survive the winter. I have two varieties in my yard--I'd love to have a few more.Spiderwort. I know, I know, it's a weed around here...but it's also a beautiful, hardy native. Love the little blue faces.Cherry Tomatoes Sweet 100. I think the tomatoes look

Summer Vegetable still life painting

2009-06-15T09:30:00.006-04:00

Summer Vegetables, 15 x 10 inches, soft pastel on paper. Available.This piece was done for the Week 37 & 38 Challenge on Karin Jurick's awesome blog Different Strokes From Different Folks. Every two weeks, Karin provides a reference photo, and artists of every stripe, from all over the world, submit their interpretations. This is the first time I've participated. I'm sure I'll become a

Gardens at the American Rose Society

2009-06-04T21:47:00.012-04:00

Took a little road trip the other day and stopped in at the American Rose Society gardens near Shreveport, Louisiana. We missed peak bloom by a couple of weeks, but there was still much to enjoy!

Moo! (New business cards)

2009-05-14T10:29:00.009-04:00

I ordered these fun new business cards from Moo.com. (Apologies for the lousy photo.) You can print lots of different images in each pack. This is the assortment I chose, based on which images best fit the format. They are all cropped at least a little, but I like that too--it leaves people wanting to see more. Each has the same flip side, featuring my contact information on solid black. I

She actually finished another painting!

2009-05-10T21:10:00.006-04:00

Orange Slice, 13 x 13 inches, soft pastel on paper.At long last. I needed a break, but this was getting ridiculous. I had a lot of fun with this one; now I'm dying to do more.It looks a lot better on a white background; click the image to pop it out.Finally, I can ship all the pieces for my May 30 show.

and it rained, and rained, and rained

2009-05-06T22:03:00.008-04:00

When it rains in Louisiana, it rains HARD. The air is all water and the ground is all water and everything shimmers silver. There is a splash haze three feet high. Here are some shots from Sunday's downpour, when my yard was submerged.The garden (and the mosquitos) loved it. We had more of the same today.It was beautiful.

How do you read your Pastel Journal?

2009-04-27T15:47:00.002-04:00

My new Pastel Journal arrived the other day. I love to see it glowing amid the bills and junk and throwaways. It's like getting chocolate in the mail (except you can't actually swallow it).As with M&Ms and Oreos, there is a technique to savoring the Pastel Journal. Actually, there are several. I've employed them all. The first method is where you drop everything and page straight through,

studio cats

2009-04-19T21:50:00.020-04:00

This afternoon I grabbed the camera to shoot some reference images in the fabulous light coming through my front window when Margaret appointed herself artistic director. She hadn't the slightest interest in anything in, around or near this window until I trained the camera on it...and then she couldn't tear herself away. (Excuse me for just a minute while I blow the cat hair off the keyboard.

thinking about painting

2009-04-17T21:41:00.015-04:00

I've been taking a little break from the easel. This is the busy season at work--I'm a manager at Home Depot, and springtime at Home Depot is like Christmas at the mall. We really don't get a chance to breathe. It's FUN, but tiring. I confess I have crawled home some days and fed myself tuna fish straight from the can. I only have one piece left to complete for my upcoming show, and I should

they want my photos!

2009-04-17T21:28:00.007-04:00

I'll be donating some of my photographs of the Genesee Country Village, a living history museum near Rochester, NY, to their new website. I'm a huge fan of GCV, and I have a number of photos of it on my Flickrstream. I've been going there since I was a child, and continue to visit whenever I'm in the area. It has grown and grown over the years and become an amazing historical resource.

okay, some flower photos. I can't resist.

2009-04-06T06:44:00.010-04:00

I need these pics right now. With temperatures predicted to plunge near freezing the next two nights, I need all the springtime I can get!

Blog awards

2009-04-06T06:19:00.006-04:00

These awards seem to be popping up everywhere these days. I was fortunate to receive this award this week from two different bloggers. Thank you, Darlene Twitchell and Jane Hunt! I like the spirit of this award."A Lemonade Award is given to bloggers that show a positive attitude, gratitude,and a willingness to share their ideas, support and online friendship." I try to do all those things...

This week in review. And some fruit.

2009-04-05T19:46:00.020-04:00

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted. I've done a lot of planting and very little painting in the interim. Today I scrubbed the dirt from under my nails and started the last piece for my spring show. I'll actually be ready ahead of time! That's a first for me. I don't quite know what I'll do with myself...but I never have any trouble filling my time.This week more daffodils

second-stage springtime

2009-03-29T07:20:00.006-04:00

The seasons arrive in stages, each one a surge of new bloom. This is especially true in springtime, as we progress from crocus to daffodil to tulip and on into full-blown summer. (Have you ever managed to catch that mystic switch from spring to summer? I just seem to wake up one day and notice spring has passed, but I don't know when or how she went.)If the year is a parade, daffodils are the

Mason jar paintings

2009-03-28T22:28:00.012-04:00

Here are some more pieces I painted during my blogging-break. I thought they deserved to be posted. I'll confess that these are my current favorites, especially the first two.Jar on Jar, 18 x 24, soft pastel on paper. SOLDMason jar/gauze curtains, 16 x 20, soft pastel on paper. Available for purchase through the Harrison Gallery.Mason jars/glass heart, 14.5 x 15, soft pastel on paper. SOLDThe

Iron Photographer

2009-03-27T23:08:00.011-04:00

The Utata group on Flickr is one of my favorite places on the Web. Every two weeks, writer-photographer and pillar of Utata Greg Fallis posts the elements for a new Iron Photographer project. The challenge is to make a photograph incorporating three required elements. The resulting images are amazingly creative, beautiful, intelligent, and often hilarious.I can't resist Iron Photographer. No

Sunflower Soup II

2009-03-23T14:01:00.006-04:00

Sunflower Soup II, 12 x 16, soft pastel on paperFinally finished it. This one got stalled at the "ugly stage," and then I had an exceptionally busy week at work and left it sitting even longer. I wish I had a better approach to surmounting that no-apparent-hope-for-it phase of a painting. My current approach is to just pick up a pastel and start doing something--anything--until it starts

Filling the gap

2009-03-22T08:22:00.016-04:00

I'm going to post a new painting today. Tomorrow at the latest. In the meantime, I have plenty of other work to share, painted during my two-year hiatus from blogging.Here are some pieces from my first gallery show a year ago:Essence of Autumn I; 15 x 10 inches; soft pastel on paper. SOLDEssence of Autumn II; 7 x 14.5 inches; soft pastel on paper.Available for purchase through the Harrison

hall of mirrors

2009-03-18T20:08:00.015-04:00

My work goes meta. While the painting on my easel creeps along ever-so-slowly, I thought I'd share some fun photos I've taken using my own paintings as creative elements. I can amuse myself for hours making these kinds of pictures, usually prompted by group projects at Flickr.Click here to see some of my favorites among the photos on my Flickrstream.The glass in this photo is the one from my

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

2009-03-16T13:04:00.020-04:00

I love this idea: a once-a-month post featuring whatever it is that's blooming in your garden. Begun by Carol on her May Dreams Gardens blog, this happy practice now has hundreds of followers. While there is MUCH more to be seen in bloom around town than in my little plot, here's what I have blooming today:Dianthus--these little dudes have been blooming away all winter long. I suppose

Font Fun

2009-03-15T10:19:00.006-04:00

Vivien Blackburn explored this personal font creator on her blog, and I just had to try it out. It makes a font from your handwriting which you can save to your computer. It isn't hard to do. This doesn't really look like my handwriting, but it's cute, and fun to play around with. Make your own handwriting font here. Try it!

Greenest Art

2009-03-13T17:54:00.004-04:00

(image by funksturm)I had to share this--it weds art and gardening, my two great loves. This is the Caixa Forum in Madrid. The stunning abstract on its wall is a Patrick Blanc vertical garden composed of thousands of live plants. I stumbled on this startling image via the Garden Rant blog, which directed me to this fascinating article on WebEcoist. Do go visit Blanc's website. It's a visual

Winner!

2009-03-11T06:03:00.007-04:00

No, not a painting--this time it's a piece of short fiction. I was over at the Garden Rant blog--one of my daily reads--and, in the interest of procrastination, decided to tap out a few entries for their Flash Fiction contest. I was delighted to learn that one of them was among the winners! I'll receive a couple of gardening books as my prize. I like gardening books even more than I like

tracking the dusties

2009-03-09T08:46:00.013-04:00

I've spent quite a bit of time lately trying to get my pastel collection under control. I've been painting in pastel for 3 1/2 years now, and my collection has reached a size where it requires some organization. I've developed some definite likes and dislikes, and I've used up a bunch of favored sticks.Unfortunately, I can't replace some of my favorites because the labels are peeled off and I

Orange Spiral

2009-03-08T21:29:00.013-04:00

Orange Spiral, 9 x 7.5 inchesA beautiful warm day today, with the sun streaming in and setting the orange alight. I almost felt like the orange itself was giving off heat. I've painted this little glass many times before, but I keep coming back to it because I love the way it holds the light. This is a small piece--I had a scrap of paper already prepped that I wanted to use up, so I stepped