The Face Of The Earth

No, I did not fall off of it.

Merely lending my aesthetics and focus to This Old House. Having a house in the Caribbean is a full time job. It’s an environment that never shuts off and caring for a house here is like having triplets that never  leave home.

By the time you make an improvement to one area, it’s adjacent component screams out ” I’m old and suffering too” !

I didn’t attempt this myself- honestly I’d rather move and dump everything than paint. Everything gets displaced and that requires considering whether you keep it, clean it, throw it out or give it away.

You can see why I wouldn’t attempt this myself:

I’d be one of the Falling Wallendas

Michelangelo and house painters deserve high praise and a life time subscription to chiropractic.

Worth it.

 

 

These are the triplets I refer to:

I know, they don’t look like that much trouble……

I did manage to paint a portrait of my son for his birthday. He is very kind and much handsomer than his Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth mother’s skill in portraiture would reveal:

 

With thanks to Ted Davis and Emy Thomas who reminded me that they missed my blog. So did I.

” Reverie ” – New Painting

” Reverie ” 9 X 12 oil on Ray Mar Panel

A few months ago, we were treated to a world class concert by musicians Dennis Cahill and Martin Hayes. Fiddle, guitar, Irish Folk and Try To Sit Still music. Hypnotic and contagious, I was taken with Dennis’ focused, calm intensity.

Working from a photograph taken that night by the talented Ted  Davis of D & D Studio, St. Croix, I tried to capture that mood. Thanks Ted.

How it began:

Ted’s photo, my sketch.

I like the unfinished, under worked quality of the piece. As hard as it is sometimes to lay down the first brush stroke, it’s often as hard to know when to lay down the dang brush and call it done.

These characters always know when to call it done. It’s usually after a snack, before a snack, after a walk, before a walk, and when we’re in the bed.

Cloud has her own particular Reverie and it often looks like this:

Fit To Print

Everyones’ favorite Cover Girls- Angel and Cloud.

Chosen to be the spokesmammals for the cover of the Sunshine Foundations‘ brochure ( 5000 of them to be exact ).  One of my pet non profit organizations, they provide spay neuter services and education about same for an under served population here. I’ve been a volunteer  for a year and shared in the recent celebration of hitting the milestone of 1,000 spay/neuters in a little more than a year.

That’s a lot of animals that won’t be born and abandoned, abused or worse.

Lots of support on that topic from the cousin’s club- found anywhere an errant crumb might fall….

The ever hopeful Cuba and Cloud

 

” Look over there, I heard the sound of a morsel dropping….”

” You weren’t using that haunch, mind if I do? “

 

I was pleased to have one of my paintings accepted for publication in the yearly calender put out by The Carribean Museum Center for the Arts.

You can now refer to me as ” Miss November “.

 

 

 

 

For Her Fans……Cloud ! And More…

Art, schmart.

Some times the muses are too damn cute.

The object of her stalkers’ tendencies……Angel exiting the closet.

” yeah, cute, schmoot, I can bench press twice my body weight…..”

” if I tell you you’re handsome, would you get off my paws so I can get up”?

” it’s enough to drive a girl mad “…….

In case none of the preceding was sweet enough, I leave you with Tropical  Mango Pie…..

Fresh, whole nutmegs from the farmers’ market…

Remind me of the art nouveau lettering of Hector Guimard’s Paris Metro sign…

A new painting is arriving here soon…..in between pets and pie, there’s been paint too.

Almost Got My Goat…. New, Finished Painting.

This painting almost beat me down but it didn’t ” get my goat “.

” Win A Goat ” 18 X 24 oil on linen stretcher canvas

” A commonly repeated story which purports to explain the phrase’s origin is that goats were placed with racehorses to keep them calm. When ne’er-do-wells who wanted the horse to race badly removed it, i.e. they ‘got someone’s goat’, the horse became unsettled and ran badly. That’s just the sort of tale that gets the folk etymology juices running.” ( Thanks to the Phrase Finder )

Now that I’ve squinted enough to really see the value contrasts this needed to make the shirt come alive, I’m probably an excellent candidate for Botox, Dermabrasion and a Wrinkle Fix. Crows feet, nothing: I’ve turned Pterodactyl .

But that squinting thing really helps see the large value areas. Thanks Leslie, of Leslie Paints  for suggesting I disregard the design-y thing on his shirt. I didn’t do the bib overalls but your suggestion got me here. I’m pretty pleased with the finish.

From behind, it looks like I really DID get my goat, but that’s just the long little doggie Cloud, cooling her nether regions on the tiles.

Her rear end looks more like it belongs in a package marked Tyson, yet there’s that rabbit tail, or whathaveyou extraneous goat parts hindquarter that defies a category.

These two don’t seem to care that it’s too hot to be enveloped in fur:

Nevermind- she dif” furs “.

“Enough, don’t you realize how hot it is? You tryin’ to get my goat ? “

The Goat Man Cometh….almost. A New Painting..almost.

Bigger is better. Oh,  Really?

Remember this guy?

I really liked this subject- thought there was too much to get into an 8 X 10 so I upped my own ante and leaped exponentially into an 18 X 24.

” Win A Goat ”  oil on stretcher canvas 18 X 24- almost finished.

It’s the dangblasted shirt that’s got me vexed, to use a classically Crucian expression. I have to forget that the shirt is white because the brightness of the glare  of full sun is tripping up the value.  This is the first time I’ve worked this size in oil. Large areas without enough detail become flat and have no eye appeal.

Too much detail and the shirt won’t be finished before the goat dies.

Scraped some off, letting it dry out a bit and will finish it if it kills me or the goat and I will go together.

Tropical storm Bonnie blew through here, yes, that’s right, and how much rain did we get? How surprised was I when I went to dump the bird’s water bowl?

Nothing surprises Chili Pepper- he’s the original coolster.

And just because you may have missed her royal peachiness…. Cloud on her divan.

If You Can’t Take The Heat….. A New Painting

…Then get a Parasol

” Woman With Parasol ” 8 X 10 oil on panel

A step by step of the determined effort to keep it fast and unfettered.

I had taken the photo of this woman many years ago in NY. Only recently looked at it with new eyes for its Notan-esque qualities. Wanted to see if I could start and finish a piece in a day.

Something clicked for me with this one and Fun became the muse du jour.

Yeah, fun and the following quote, which played an endless loop in my head:

” It takes two to paint. One to paint, the other to stand by with an axe to
kill him before he spoils it.” ~W. Merritt Chase.

Thanks to Randy Higbee – King of Frames, who chiefed this quote from someone else and posted in on FB.

I was fearful of the axe. And stopped.

My husband said it looked like someone else’s painting. Yes, someone who knew when to stop.

These two don’t know when to stop, and have no fears in their limited vocabulary….

Something I just noticed ( don’t flinch Jala and Pat,  the insects are metal ), but two fellow artists and bloggers are represented in this photo in my kitchen. The very large, floral fruit bowl made by my friend Carol King, the watercolorist,  and the Hot Chili Pepper photograph made by fellow islander and photographer Don Diddams.

The gravitational pull of artistry.

St. Croix This Week- November Cover

They loom, stilts no challenge for their years of training. Mocko Jumbies are the feature of this months’ cover.

Interpreters of superstitions and spirits of  long ago , their contemporaries perform at Jump Up, a four time a year favorite  event.  I found a great video

on You Tube that gives you an idea of their height and irresistible street cred.

Here’s a link to the ” About the Artist ” page on the inside of the magazine- a place for shameless self promotion, or another tear sheet for my only heir to ruminate over keeping or using it as a book mark.

St. Croix LAST week was the destination for 5 visiting friends, so I took in some beach time, photo time, dining out time, and no painting time. I HAD no time.

What I did have was an additional perspective of where I live through another’s eyes. Mary of 2FramesperSecond, dedicated to the Canon G7, montage’d the synopsis. ( Pay attention, Cloud lovers…this means you, Jala )

Thought to be milkweed bugs, nevermind that thought. Don calls them love bugs, as  you’ll read in his comment below and I call them push-me pull-yous. As graphically beautiful as African Masks.

Now another PS: this edit in from dear friend Scott who knows everything flora, fauna, and food, what he states is the scientific name:

“The push-me-pull-you insects are “true bugs” – that’s the correct entomological term for them  – “bugs.” They belong to the Hemiptera group of arthropods. They all have piercing-sucking mouthparts. These are found on Malvaceous plants; hibiscus and their kin, especially the beachside Hibiscus tiliacea – the tree with hibiscus-like yellow flowers.” Thanks, Scott. ( love my smart friends )

Water on wood, photographer (me ) on assignment.

Several photographers on assignment, actually. Two friends are photographers for the AP, shooting opposing teams for the World Series. Just made it here by the grace of Game 6, Game over.

A typical scene at the dinner table:

The G7 Summit

Love this group- they never sit around for too long.

Time spent with family…..

Animals triangulated, moment seized by Lobo. Thanks Judy.

Yes, they’re both real. And that Cloud is a Purina contract waiting to happen.

Be looking for some lovely watercolors from this visit by Carolking, who will now be forced to publish them on her blog sooner than she may have wished.