Campbell's Forest

My granddaughter, Campbell, turned 13 recently, and her mom and dad have given her a newly decorated room. She was missing some art, so of course Mimi said she would paint something. Trying to reach a balance between something an adult would like and something a teen would like is pretty hard. I hope I succeeded.

Figs in a Bowl

Figs are an interesting part of my childhood. Granddad used to plant fig trees everywhere he lived. They grew to be magnificent things 10 or 12 feet high, and just as wide. The fruit would come each summer and rippen to a golden rust, with some purple mixed in. When you broke them open, the salmon cololored flesh would be a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds. There was only one problem -- yellow jackets loved to build their nests in the trees. The large green leaves hid them from view, and I always wound up with a sting or two. Definitely not worth the effort in my view!

These figs have already escaped and found their way to a bowl, so I painted them to pay homage to my Granddad. More about him later.

Perilous Crossing

My friend, Patti Smith, takes wonderful vacations around the world. She recently went to Peru and did the Machu Pichu thing. But while she was there, she captured some magnificent images of the Andes that have captured my imagination and made me long to follow in her footsteps. Being quite broke, that will never happen in this lifetime, but at least I can paint them.

High Meadow

I have been wanting to do some collage pieces lately, and have had this rattling around in my head for a while. It's been a long time since my collage days, and I'd forgotten how much fun they are to create. I have this wonderful stash of papers that I made in those days, all sorted by color in bins. My friend, Anne Heinrichs (www.anneheinrichs.com) is jealous of this bountiful stash. There are papers made from rice paper, wax and watercolor, acrylic on tissue, stamps, inks, even paper towels that sopped up the mess. Too much fun!

Wayne and Camille

Sometimes you create something that you know has meaning, but you're just not sure what. That's the case of this painting. I did this work about two years ago as a companion piece to a collage that I did of "orchid" people performing alla cirque de soliel. It languished in my studio, kind of on the back wall, never taking a spotlight, but never quite ready for the dreaded paint out either. Then one day some friends came from Houston to visit, and the first thing Amy said upon seeing this painting was, " Wow! is that you and Wayne?" Never thought of it like that!

Then Polly gave us our next assignment to paint a self portrait. I was preparing canvasses for that assignment, waiting for the paint to dry, when I began studying that painting on the back wall. The more I looked, the more I thought, yeah, it is a portrait of my husband and me. So, back on the easel it went, and new paint was mixed, glasses added to Wayne and more color added to my face. I love the painting now, and think it will have to come inside.

Flamenco Academy

A couple of years ago I read this wonderful book, "The Flamenco Academy" by Sarah Bird, and was totally enthralled.  It was set in Santa Fe and was the story of two young girls who entered the Flamenco Academy.  So rich is the character development and story line of this novel, that you almost can feel the beat of their shoes on the wood dance floor.  Ever since reading that book, I have wanted to paint a flamenco dancer.  I finally created one for my cousin Carol to hang in her new home.

I hope she portrays a sense of power and passion, as well as a little mystery.

Trudy

I'm finally through traveling for a little while.  It seems as if I've been gone forever on one mission or another.  Returning to painting has been a challenge.  You'd think that someone who gets as much out of art as I do would be excited to get back in the groove, but no.  All the old anxieties and insecurities come roaring back - will I be able to do what I want - will it be any good, blah, blah, blah.

This painting is a little challenge painting dreamed up by my friend and teacher Polly Jackson.  The subject's name is Trudy - don't have a clue who Trudy is, but she is a wonderful subject. I keep wanting to type Turdy - wonder if the cosmos is trying to tell me something!

The challenge Polly posed was to paint Trudy in any style you wanted to, and send her a photo so that she could post all of them on her student blog www.areyoupainting.blogspot.com.  They should be posted sometime on Saturday.  Check them out.