The Veil

I will sing for the veil that never lifts.
I will sing for the veil that begins, once in a lifetime,
maybe,to lift.
I will sing for the rent in the veil.
I will sing for what is in front of the veil, the
floating light.
I will sing for what is behind the veil---
light, light and more light.

This is the world, and this is the work of the world.


(ahhh...such lovely words (excerpt from Work by Mary Oliver))

Headlands Again

Headlands East, 6 x 12, Oil on Panel
Another painting resulting from the birding morning on Sunday. In this case this painting is done on one of those new panels that are in the stores now. They're called The Artist's Panel made by Ampersand. (probably other companies marketing them too) Basically its a masonite panel on a wood frame. Kindof a gallery wrap look. The surface is intriquing to work on... Its smoothish as opposed to the feel of canvas. Paint moves differently on it. I enjoyed working on this painting and on the surface. The oil maintained translucency and was easy to work into. So I bought 2 more panels tonight. I can play some more!

Tracy Helgeson (www.worksbytracy.blogspot.com) works on birchwood panels. Besides the fact that her paintings are amazing and I am lucky enough to own one due to a Pay It Forward venture via artist's bloggers last summer; the panels lend a dimension to her work. Plus there's no framing involved!

Mentor Headlands

Sunday morning, October 12 at Mentor Headlands State Park. Birding with friends. (Birds of note: 500+ yellow rumped warblers...crazy, crazy there were so many! Winter wren, white throated sparrows, hermit thrush, juncos and more)
Along with the birding, soaking up the beauty of the day, taking many reference photos.
Working from the photo above, I developed this painting. I didn't print out a picture, just used the camera screen as reference. The goal being not to literally interpret what I saw, but to capture the essence of the light and color of the morning at the dunes. The softness of the dunes.

(contact me if interested in purchasing this painting, 8 x 10 unframed, 14 x 16 framed, oil on panel)

16 year old Cat

As a kitten Little Kitty (aka scarlett jasmine rose, as my now 22 year old daughter meg named her when she was a 6 year old) often played with the water in the tub. Today I washed the shower curtain, thus giving her a view of the tub. She hopped in. I had forgotten how she used to play with water. As she's aged, she's left some of her kitten ways behind. A year or so ago she was sick enough that I thought we'd lose her.
Not so.
She is much healthier now. Entertaining me daily with her cat ways.
If only she'd take care of the mouse that's moved into the kitchen.

I have been painting lately, back to landscape..will post pics soon.

More 12 x 12 from the series of 12

This is titled Eight Left. My parents had eight kids. Placing the eight circles on the left led to the title but also because we are here whereas Dad has gone. Mom is still with us and I've chosen to represent her in most of these paintings as the color pink. This is always the color I think of when I think of Mom.


This one is called Blue (at least for now, another title may come to me that seems more fitting). What was interesting and fun was drawing and writing in the wet paint. Leaving marks with a lithograph pencil left surface texture which I find compelling to look at.

No Power but Flowers Bloom

Ike hit Ohio on Sunday evening with strong winds and stronger wind gusts. Trees came down and with them power lines. (one limb fell on my car, minor damage but needing body work) Here in my neck of the woods, we were without power until last night. Luckily we have a generator, we were able to keep our food, and run cold water when needed. We were reading by flashlight last night when we noticed the ceiling fan was on. We did the electricity dance! I would have made a lousy pioneer.
At least I was in my own home and mildly inconvenienced for a few days. I would think about people who've had to leave their homes for who knows how long...and it wasn't so bad. Or imagine being in a country at war...where power outages come and go, besides all the other stuff of war that you'd 'live' with.
anyway.
One day this week I took these pictures of the beautiful sunflowers and Morning Glories in the front yard.

Rock Wall

This view is of the east side of the barn where Bob has built a retaining wall. Our neighbors built a barn and the rocks are remnants of the excavation for their barn. Bob has hauled rocks up every night this week using our New Holland tractor. Last count there were 140 rocks, which doesn't include what he brought up tonight. He is Superman! The wall isn't done yet, he has to build up more to reach the level where the concrete floor will sit. Crazy!