Wishes

The other day I wished that I had predator to eat all the slugs and, most especially, snails in the yard .  I was thinking a turtle would be nice.  Instead, my cat Lucy decided to be a great hunter and take on the slugs.  Last night, a rainy night, she came inside with a weird "smile".  It looked like she had some photoshop work done to her mouth. On closer inspection it was slug slime and dirt!  YUCCCK!  Slug slime doesn't come off anything easily, so she sported her "grin" until morning. 
I'm also going to have to explain to her that she needs to dispose of her victims outside.  The big juicy slug she caught had crawled across the laudry room rug, leaving a glistening trail, and was headed up the wall.  Sigh, I can see why she picked him, he was a big one. LUCY No!!!!

Art Night

A few years ago I was lucky to have met a very nice and talented interior designer, Sue Lyn, while taking a drawing class at the local Community College.   Sue Lyn graciously allowed our class to use her beautiful backyard retreat as our class room for that summer. Perhaps this summer I'll do a post about her yard alone, it is delightful. Sue Lyn and I became instant friends and continue to meet as our schedules allow, to have "Art Nights".  We schedule these nights to ensure we have some fun, creative time to practice our craft, as well as a little red vino.  We met last night for the first time in quiet a while and it was great to catch up with her.  I packed in a hurry for our get together and didn't bring a lot of supplies or paper, this actually worked out well.  I am currently on an Imaginary Trip to Paris, so I grabbed my travel art kit and a packet of prepped watercolor papers, knowing that I wouldn't need any more than that to be able to create.  I was surprised to find that all of the watercolor papers had previous works started on them, most random washes and splashes of color from a class long ago.  I had no sketch pad or blank paper.  I was in the mood to color anyway, so I picked out an ugly painting I did in an en plein air class of an old tree.  I've always disliked this image but thought I could play with it and see if I could make it better.  I was sure there was no way to make something nice of this scene.  The tree was a very dark blue/purple and the 3 layers of land around it were very bright green and yellow/green.  One other time I had tried to make something of it by adding lines with a gold marker, without much success. Looking at the color wheel, I couldn't see a way to make this work.  I had no other choice, so I started to work.  I liked a bird and branch clock that Sue Lyn had on the desk in front of me so I  incorporated that into the picture.  Over the course of 3 hours the painting and the colors changed. I can't believe it's the same piece I started with and wish I had taken a before picture. The scanned image doesn't show the yellow glow well.

I'm not sure that it's done  But I'm amazed at where its at now, I don't know that I'll do anything more on it for a while.

Imaginary Trip To Paris

I've been in Paris since April 20th, 2010.  I'm here with 3 other gals and an art instructor. We are wandering the city, occasionally stopping to paint the sights.  Really, a very economical way to travel, especially since we will be here until May 28th.

The time has already gone by so fast, so here's a quick recap of our work to date.
April 21st we started off with a breakfast of freshly baked croissants and cafe lattes.  Mmmmm, homemade pastries.

April 24th, we wandered into this back alley and were captivated by the light on the buildings and this charming planter of flowers.

Last week, we traveled to Versaille and spent the day wandering the large grounds.  I found this statue tucked in the corner of living hedge.

On Friday, while crossing the Seine River, we spotted these faces built into the detail on the bridge arch.  Very cool.

Well, gotta go.  I'll keep you posted as to our the rest of our travels.  Until then, adios amigo!  ( another bonus of imaginary travel, you can speak whatever language you want!)