Today's Painting

Lovely Tuesday off! I even saw sun, here in the Olympic Rain Shadow, and I was going to walk on the beach, lift weights, and all kinds of other things, but ended up in the studio...I can't stop...except for Barbara's great work on my body and wonderful fish and carnitas tacos from the cart at Blue Sky Realty in Sequim.

Today marks the beginning of a series of nudes for the Fraker/Scott Arte des Femmes show in April. I'm working from my storehouse of life drawing, starting from when I lived in Burlington in the Eighties...valuable raw material. I have ideas for more sculptures, too.

I suppose having to go to work four days a week forces me to make the most of my time off, but as Barbara says, and as I tell my own patients, "exercise and staying healthy is
a vital part of life, too!"...And it seems to take more and
more time as I get older. Tomorrow I'll do better on the exercise part.

A Painting a Day!!!

I LOVE when I get so involved in an art project, I forget to eat and time goes whizzing by. I look forward to seeing what the next thing and the next will be, and how they'll turn out.

I've been working on a series of portraits and scenes from my own photographs, drawing with charcoal on canvas that I've underpainted with one color, trying to keep the shapes flat and simple, and just suggesting the background.




I did the upper one today, spying on what seemed to be a father with two daughters in the Taste Cafe at Seattle Art Museum.

I want to take a photo of the painting in better light, and do a little more work, as he looked to me to
be very dis-engaged
and the teen slouched more, dis-engaged in her own way. Right now I like the one of Doug better...I think I did that one last Tuesday. After I get the basic shapes drawn in with charcoal, I work straight through to the end--4-5 hours. Very tiring to this aging body. Good reason to stay in shape. Doug and I buzzed through the Picasso show the day after Christmas.

Today I was saying to a friend, that I don't know how people can waste their time playing games on FaceBook, but if I didn't have Art making to keep me busy and involved, maybe I'd play, too.

A Number of Things

I finished a painting today, and I like it...WoW.
Welcome, February! This is Patti and Annie at a bar in Maine from our first road trip. I'm liking the flat style of painting I've been working to get back to since Ezra Pound (I'll take a picture for you) back in 1975. So much of my art work was one-off until I moved out west and had my own space and life.








January seemed way too cold and dark, and yes, I have become totally wossey since I moved to the land of rain instead of snow. With the darkness come my demons, hereditary depression, bad chemicals, and the whole panoply of self-doubt. I did a radio interview with Mark Harvey on 1/29/11 on KONP (the audio should be available on the site by now). I found myself dwelling more than I have in years on my experience in an abusive marriage.



The bad old days are long gone for me, although at times I experience echos. If I can help someone else know that she is not alone and that she can have a life with respect and joy, it would all have been worth while.

Writing a 6th lesson for the online Doll Making as a Transformative process that I'll be starting to teach again on my 64th birthday brings back memories. Our past is still part of us, although we can transform it into positive experiences. It's all up to us. We create our own Interpretation of whatever reality may be (very Buddhist, that).









I've learned better coping skills over the years,
as well as gaining more confidence that the
black moods will eventually dissipate. Exercise
helps, writing, and going into the studio.

So here are the paintings I've finished in the
last few weeks. Life is Good--even when it's
hard!