Across the World

When I began my blog nine months ago, I'm not sure that I knew what to expect. I was in the midst of resuming my painting career and I felt it was a way of making a public commitment to that. I knew I liked to write. I was an English major in university (not a surprise I suppose that I like to write). What I didn't expect was the friends I have made. Lovely friends in all parts of the world.

Last week, I receive some mail. Good mail. Really good mail.

One of my blogging friends sent me a collection of shells, sea glass and feathers from Australia. Thank you, Cindy. I hope you understand the thrill and joy I felt in receiving and opening your beautiful package. Aside from being a blogger, Cindy Lane is a wonderful artist, amazing photographer and an art teacher. She lives in Perth, Australia.

I visited Australia many years ago.  What an absolutely beautiful country.  Sadly, I didn't get to Perth. We did visit Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Cairns and Brisbane though. It was an amazing trip.

When I received my wonderful package from Australia, it felt good in so many ways. It was a beautiful gesture from a blogging friend and fellow artist. It was a collection of gorgeous natural objects from a country I love, not to mention that someone took the time to walk on a beach thinking about me. Pretty special.

This past week, I visited an art supply store--one of my happy places. I bought some new watercolour paper.  I have almost always painted on 140 lb. cold press Arches paper. I have painted occasionally on Arches 300 lb. cold press paper, Saunders 140 lb. cold press and, most recently, on Saint-Armand handmade paper. Having Cindy's beautiful shells as inspiration allowed me to test out some of my new papers. Here are three quick little shell studies (ACEO size) on Arches 300 lb. hot pressed paper, Arches 140 lb. hot pressed paper and BFK Rives 280 gsm paper.

Most every happy story has a tragic underside (English major bias I guess). Well, here is the one that belongs to this one. When I was photographing Cindy's shells for my blog, I was juggling more than one thing.  I had the camera around my neck. I had a blank stretched canvas propped at the side (and steadied with my knee) to reflect the light, as it was a dim day. I was using a tripod that was not quite at the right angle for my photo, so I was tipping it forward. As I was manipulating all of these things, the canvas slipped and fell. Do you ever have something happen in front of you and you feel that it is occurring in slow motion? This was. As it happened, I yelled 'Nooooooooooo' and it just might have been heard in Perth.  When I lifted the fallen canvas, everything was fine except for the two beautiful sea urchins that were smashed into many pieces. I am not a gazelle but I have a pretty good track record for looking after delicate things. These lovely objects had made it across the world intact and within 24 hours I had broken some of them. I cannot tell you how terribly sorry I was. Tears may have been involved.

My sea collection with two pieces from the smashed sea urchins at the top

Thanks again, Cindy, for sending me these gorgeous treasures from the other side of the world. What a beautiful place we live in.

A Nature Collection with a French Twist

I just completed a painting this afternoon and I have already added the print to my Etsy shop.  I am so happy with how it turned out. (I hope it doesn't sound like bragging to say that.  It's not every day that I finish a painting and it just feels right.)

I did the painting of a collection of small and precious objects:  beach stones (one with a heart shape), tiny shells, green and amber sea glass--all from a past holiday in Maine.  I also included a sparrow's feather, a bud from a tree in my backyard and a couple of pieces of garden twine.  Then I did something quite different for me.  I added text to my painting and I decided to write the words in French.

Most of you know this by now. I live in a bilingual household.  I am anglophone. My husband is francophone.  Sometimes the French words are prettier than the English ones and, in this case, they even rhyme!  'La terre' is the earth, 'la mer' is the ocean or sea and l'air is...well I think you have that one figured out.

The photo above is of the painting in progress before I had thought of adding the feather, twine and twig. I'm not a sketchbook person although I admire those who are. My paintings develop as I work on them.

Thanks to everyone who left the lovely comments about Chloé's photography in the last post.  She was proud and happy to read them. :)

Seashells By The Seashore

I've been painting a little the past few days.  I still haven't finished my studio cleanup completely, so I can't show you my whole room yet, but my worktable is not looking too bad.

I decided to paint a trio of seashells.  Everything seems to have associations for me. I wonder if that is a sign of being older. Everything exists in my brain in layers.  I can't look at seashells without thinking of the line 'She sells seashells by the seashore':  a tongue twister from my childhood. I also think of my grandmother Viola who used to vacation in South Carolina every year and bring back shells. Mostly she collected tiny shells that she would open into a butterfly shape and glue onto all sorts of things.

I sometimes wish that I lived closer to the ocean. I love combing beaches for shells and sea glass. Plus, I always feel a sense of peacefulness beside large bodies of water. I've always wondered if that is because so much of our body is made of water.

Next week, I hope to finish my studio cleanup. I also need to get back to making a few new prints for my Etsy store. And paint (that's the part I like most).