This is the beginning of a painting started yesterday celebrating  my new birthday, one year after cancer surgery. I am one happy camper. Now I have a few paintings I’ve started. That is the easy part. I have to go back in and adjust or take care of areas that don’t work. This gets tricky because each stroke I make changes the whole painting, so I have more problems to solve. As, Henry J. Kaiser used to say, “Problems are opportunities in work clothes.”

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May 18th  acrylic on canvas  42″ x 29″

I just got back from an intensive ten day painting workshop. I came back a better painter. When I went back to the studio and started painting, I had a new vocabulary. The old favorite colors came back in a new context. I knew what I wanted to say. This brought me back to my familiar warm palette, but the variation of color and shapes changed. It’s now very exciting and intriguing for me to paint. I have given myself so much more to work with. May 18th was painted on Friday. It might be finished or it may tell me, hey, where did you go? You need to work with me. What do you think? Is the painting finished?

There are phases in my life when, before I go to sleep, I think about my art. I wake up thinking about what I made the day before. As soon as possible, I go to that piece in order to find out what it has to say. The paintings, drawings and photographs are tumbling out of my body. Without judging, I keep going.

A self portrait as I wish I was

A jungle at night

Two cats fighting

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For ten days I’ll be painting with a small group picked by Leigh Hyams. By working hard and trying the unfamiliar, like painting with dirt, flower petals, whatever, we will be working towards finding our individual uniqueness. Look inside Leigh’s Artist’s Books on her website.  http://www.artsreal.com/ You are in for a treat.

On our first day we are to bring in four drawings which I have labeled. How will I be drawing and painting in ten days? I’ve worked with her before so I know there will be a jump in my ability to create work that is authentic to me. I’ll let you know how it turns out when I get back. For now, I’m about to plunge in to some heavy duty soul searching. I have ten whole days just to think about and make art. Until then, check in on my blog. I’ll be showing my paintings, artist’s books and drawings created in Morocco.

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One of the pleasures of traveling is meeting people and being invited to visit their homes. In Egypt we were sailing down the Nile in a felucca when we were invited to stop by our guide’s home on an island. We shared a pot of tea and he showed us his neighborhood. In Bhutan I had an impromptu lunch prepared by my friend’s sister. Our hosts in Japan treated us to a traditional tea ceremony in a little tea house in their garden.

One evening we struck up a conversation with some travelers visiting our city. Wanting to continue our conversation we brought them home. In the kitchen we found walnuts, raisins and port. The evening was filled with stories and laughter. The next morning the table and the floor were covered with walnut shells, a few raisins and an empty bottle of port. We had a good time.

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I think this little sketch is successful. It seems to have a nice balance and variation of line, color, texture, space. I like the edges, especially where the black meets the shape on the right side.