Juicy Houses

"Lindy's Home" painted for a friend who is struggling
 to keep her  home

I love this idea, from Carrie Schmitt's blog,  of making a collage of every home I have lived in. If that includes short stays--and so many of mine HAVE been shorts stays--I have some very interesting houses to include. Lets see. I've lived in an army hospital barracks, a patchwork house made of sheets of corrugated tin and desert dried wood, a chicken coop, a VW van,  a stone mansion on the shores of Hilo Bay, a house once owned by a French Princess, a sail boat...

This sounds like a series of paintings to me!

First Friday Art

suzannaleigh art-prints

Tulips on Silk
available as an art print

This Friday, as part of First Friday Art Walk, I will be having a reception for my show of watercolor paintings, silk paintings, and monoprints at the Vashon Community Care Center. It's the biggest solo show I have done yet, with 35-40 pieces of finished art.  I will also be showing sketches and photos that inspired and informed the finished pieces as well as showing the evolution of some images through several  media. I'm quite excited, and hope it will be well attended, inspite of competition from the Allied Arts Art Auction--THE big art event of the year!

The Arts Auction generally draws the work of about 150 local island artists, and the Blue Heron Gallery, where it is all displayed, is generally packed on the First Friday of September. This year I'm not represented; I was too focused on getting this show ready, AND work ready for a group show at the Quartermaster Inn.

If you live in the area, please come to the opening reception at Vashon Community Care Center. I would love to see you there!

watercolor technique: dry brush or wet on wet?

dry brush

wet on wet

Still have lots to do to get the show ready, but couldn't resist just enjoying this fine sunny day!

I gave myself permission to paint at the beach this afternoon. I did these two watercolors, one starting with a dry brush technique, and one starting wet on wet. One was small enoufh to scan in, so the colors came out ok, but the other, the wet on wet, I photographed. Even with photoshop, I couldn’t get the blue out. Hm. This encourages one to  work small enough to scan the piece, especially if there's much white in it.

The Golden Pathway

I've been doing a Sufi practice called Rememberance, as described by Mark Silver,  a business consultant who practices business from a spiritual point of view. I would like to share some of my experiences with this practice occasionally.

The idea is to spend fifteen minutes a day calling into oneself the Divine, by what ever name one chooses. I  find myself choosing different names on different days. 

silk painting: Golden Pathway
available as a print

Yesterday and again today, the name that came to me was "The Way".  I felt as though a path opened up for me to follow in my business and in my life. It is hard to explain in words. The image is of a leaf strewn path through the woods opening in front of me. The feeling is of being on the path I am meant to be on, doing what I need to be doing.

We'll see how this pans out in the "real" world. Stay tuned.

Sailing Memories

Coming through the Swinomish Slough

After talking with Agnes Lee in -- was it June? -- I was inspired to try some landscapes in silk. I don't do landscapes from other people's photos, and didn't have any current landscape memories or photos in my mind.  I'm wondering, would this watercolor sketch I did while on the boat translate well into a painting on silk?

Impossible Garden--deer devastation and first apples

The apples are beginning to ripen, but this is my entire bean harvest!

Remember the beautiful scarlet runner beans in the photo with the dragon? Well, they are no more. While I was enjoying the wind and water, the deer were enjoying my beans, and they enjoyed them all gone! Of eight feet of beans, Scarlet Runners and bush beans, this is all the deer missed.

The apples are beginning to ripen, though! And the friend who was house sitting for me left a gallon of fresh picked blackberries in the fridge for me. The black berries are now 7 jars of freezer jelly and a pie sized berry/apple crisp.

 Framing had to wait.

Home from the Sea

water color sketch of Swinomish Slough, SE of Anacortes WA

Five days of mostly sailing in the Puget Sound area--wonderful winds, some new skills acquired. My favorite sailing is close hauled (sailing close to the direction the wind is coming from), with one reef in the main sail (makes it smaller), and windwaves of 1-3 feet. And no bothersome sun! Too much sun hurts my eyes.

I caught a crab for dinner--with my bare hands! My son James, who crews for me, was rowing us ashore over a shallow sandy bottom, when he spotted a crab--and the chase was on! The crab was fast, but James  was faster, and I was able to grab it and throw it into the boat. It was a male, and legal size. We had him for dinner. Yum!