the old sage drops out on Halloween

We turn the porch light off on Halloween. Awful isn't it? What dropouts we are.

Well....it's just that we did it already. A lot. In the past. I'm starting to feel like I'm reliving the 1960's in my 60's....you know....turn on, DROP OUT. I'm really getting the drop out part down pat about now. (Turning on is not much of an option any more). Like, it's really nice just reading a book and not going any where. Or sitting really still in the over grown butterfly plants and watching life fly around me, instead of my flying around flapping.

So there is much to be said about becoming an old sage. You can turn off the porch light and not even feel guilty, because it's someone else's turn.

Peace.

paintings that leave and root beer plants

The rain came.

I'm posting a picture of our root beer plants.....when you break off a leaf and crunch it, the smell of childhood in the form of A and W Root beer fills the air. Wonderful. You can cook with it too I'm told. Not that I cook.

One of the photos shows Ollie the dog in the root beer plants....he is overwhelmed.

The painting continues. Today a nice visit from someone who owns many of my paintings and has come to look for more. A true aficionado who can live with them for ten years and still loves them, how wonderful that is when it happens. Another artist said recently how hard it is to let some paintings go.....I am so glad when they go....they should go breathe and live elsewhere and not in my dusty painting racks. I love it when they leave. They should go have good lives like the little spiders from Charlotte's Web...floating out there on the wind.

acrylic on panels, no gesso

I'm working on panels....very pleasing to do. I have these panels 36" x 24" that I purchased gessoed on one side, but I'm using the ungessoed side. The acrylic which is what I'm using for these, goes on in such a nice chalky way on the unintended side. But as I'm working in glazes of color (just using water), I can't really make many mistakes as they will show through. So once started on an area, I have to muddle on until I'm somewhat satisfied.

I'll be having a show at Koelsch Gallery in Houston this coming January. I have much of the work completed, but as always will continue to work right up til then....especially as I have to make so many trips to Calif. And inbetween all that other life stuff.

And geez, it was so dark and stormy today, I just submerged into Rutherford's London, which is way over a thousand pages, and dived into history. Which is a little irritating because of all the bull going on with politics since the world began and it is still so horribly that way! Vent, vent!

the mothership's jade plant

I've just trundled in from two weeks in California tending the mothership and the mothership's house. Both doing well, although in separate places.

I did a little bit of gardening....and managed to kill a very old jade tree (or bush). It was in a wooden container on the front deck...when I went to turn it so it would get adjusted sun, the whole anctient tub fell apart. Hummm what to do? make several Jade plant containers. So, after repotting and tearing out more rotted boards on the deck, I was quite pleased with myself. Ah, but the next day and the next, the jade plant went directly south, as in crapping out. A little of it all was saved....but it is a mere shadow of itself. The mothership was not informed.

Also got to the Sierras for a nice wedding....but also got to go hug trees, boulders and dance though icy rivers.....my kind of soul resurgence.

And now, gratefully, back to the paint.

reorganizing and painting little pieces

I organized a little in the studio. I had to in order to get a big piece out that is going somewhere. Now that I'm working in acrylic...sometimes and oil...sometimes and water based oil...sometimes, I had to separate them all and clear space. And sweep out a dead roach or two. And one live one.

I've been working on some tiny little pieces...a break from larger. Not that they cooperate any better. In rearranging things in the studio, I find too much work there. I'm faster at solving problems with the paintings now and that leads to too much stuff. Not saying that they are all successful. Sometimes I don't see the problem for years. But I think I'm going to have to start tearing canvas off stretchers. Of the crumbier ones. In the meantime little ones help me fill the constant need to "make". With a big one now and then.

paintings finished .....finally.

A good few days. Finished "Lost Voyage" and also "A Little Passion".
I am totally won over to water based oil. It works for me. No more coughing in the studio followed by bronchitis in the winter. I can even mix a little of my huge pile of regular oils into the water based ones.

Just ate the first of our Muscadine grapes. They taste like kerosene. What's up with that? The weather is starting to change....I can feel it. The dog knows for sure. He romps when the weather gets even a bit cooler. Hooray.

travel and back to painting

Out to Calif and back....just a vagabond. I'm getting so used to the travel that the bumps in the plane ride don't bother me any more....just have to keep adjusting my eyeballs to the print on the book page. And listening to A Confederacy of Dunces many times on my MP3 player. I just never get tired of that book.
Back to painting. I hate acrylic. So its on to water based oils in an effort to not poison myself any longer with regular oils and mediums. And on this last painting, it is actually working out. I'm posting the early drawing of it and part way there. The finished one to come in a few days.
But hooray....so far so good on the new oils.