Vega Lake Weekend...

We finally got up to our cabin, for the first time since full snow melt. We took Gussie along. He actually loved it - sitting at the window watching birds and chipmunks, and finding all the nooks and crannies the cabin had to offer. The lake is full, and there is still run-off flowing in. The chokecherry trees are as loaded as we've seen in years, perhaps even decades! Maybe we'll do some jelly this year. My husband used to make wine from them, but I am allergic to it and it was more work than the product seems worth now. The air was full of the sound of hummingbirds, marmots ran amok, but we still have yet to see a moose there!
This is my first attempt at a slideshow, and I find the labels distracting, but don't want to do it over. I'll have to remember to leave them off next time!

Ala Mode...

This is an 8x10" oil that I did of my husband at a coffee shop with a piece of blackberry pie in front of him. I painted it on a black canvas, which I've wanted to try for awhile. The canvas is gallery wrapped, so I have painted the edges black, with bits of color from the painting blended in. I won't have to frame this. I may have some corrections to make to this when it dries a bit, but overall, I like it. As always, the wet paint doesn't photograph well - I don't know how to correct for that! - and the painting itself is darker and richer than this photo shows. The glare is especially prominent in the dark areas. Does anyone know what to do about that? I don't use a flash, and shoot pictures in natural light. The solution may be just to be more patient and not take pictures of wet paintings!

Flowers for Sale....

I am stopping on this painting for now - perhaps for good. I don't want to do too much to it. It is 12x16". The photo isn't great, because the paint is still wet so there is some glare. But anyway, it is all I have done today except laundry. No matter how bad I feel, I can always do laundry. And as this was my first day 'home alone' since we don't have Wooster, it's been a hard and sad day. It is amazing to me how much of my day was centered around his needs, especially in the past few years while he needed medicating. Anyway, YEA! for painting, and even for laundry... I'll take what distractions I can get.

Where did she get this?

My husband suggested I post this. We discovered it in my Moleskin this morning in church. I had let the grandkids draw in the sketchbook at their Daddy's graduation last weekend, as the parts that weren't about him got a bit long for them. Among the pages of cute drawings was this Venn Diagram (properly labeled as such) done by our 5-year old grand-daughter. She was evidently diagramming the loudness of her Olivia books. So, where does a 5-year old learn to do Venn diagrams? Do they teach these things in kindergarten now? She is a very bright child, but this is just pretty funny! Something definately to go in the 'save' stash... which is already getting a bit large.

IF: Craving

I did this little 5x7 warm-up oil sketch for the Illustration Friday topic, "Craving." I do sometimes crave chocolate, and I often crave sweets! The image is from an amazing piece of triple-chocolate-something from a local restaurant that a friend brought by as 'comfort food' for us yesterday.

Speaking of comfort, thank you all for your sympathy and understanding in the loss of our Wooster. Sometimes, when days are soooo hard, it helps to know that others are thinking kind thoughts and knowing how you feel. I have found that Beauty is a comfort, too. As I sat on the porch with Wooster on his last days, I kept looking across the street at the neighbor's catalpa tree, which is blooming, and has a rose climbing about 15 feet up into it, which is also blooming. That beautiful tree gave me comfort, too, and I finally took a picture of it today. It's blooms are almost finished, but it is still lovely. I'm sure, had he been allowed to cross the street, Wooster would have appreciated it in his own doggie way, as well. And it could have used the watering...

Small ups, Huge downs...

I hung my work in the new gallery yesterday. It looks nice. I hope it does well there. I got an award in the Fiber Celebration exhibit from Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins, one of my favorite fiber shops in Boulder, CO. I don't know what the award is yet. Those are the ups.

The down is that I have made the appointment to have Wooster 'sent to the heaven for good doggies' tomorrow. How do you say something like that without sobbing uncontrollably? I certainly don't know. He has been our friend and almost constant companion for almost 13 years. We will miss him. We will mourn him. We have loved him almost as much as he has loved us. This huge 'down' doesn't even make the small 'ups' seem significant at all....

A fast but lovely trip...

Saturday, we went over the mountains for a quick trip to the Colorado front range. We first went to Loveland, met some dear friends for a very quick lunch, then to the Museum to see the Fiber Celebration 2009 exhibit for a few minutes. There are some great pieces in the show, and I wish I could show more to you, but, as I don't have permission for that, I will just show a shot of my two pieces, plus a few that were nearby.
The Loveland Museum is also hosting a Wayne Thiebaud exhibit! I love his work, and especially liked a piece called "The Speaker" though I could not photograph it, and can't find an image of it anywhere (ARGH!). He is, of course, mostly known for his pastry paintings, but the exhibit included a lot of his people and place pieces as well. A great thing to see, but, Oh! for a bit more time there!




We couldn't dally there long, though, as we needed to get back to Denver for my son's graduation and pinning as he received his RN degree. It was a wonderful and fun ceremony, and then a terrific celebration afterwards at his wife's parent's home. So we got in a bit of family time, too - again, not enough! I got a few grandkid photos, and am especially fond of this series of my grandson showing me how he can do somersaults. Home again yesterday... a beautiful day to cross the Rockies!