Skip to main content

Happy New Year!


    This week my husband, daughter and I took a road trip to Chicago. It just so happened that our day of travel was the same day as a devastating storm came through the Chicago area! It was a normal December cold when we started north, but as we drove we noticed the trees were more and more getting covered with frosty ice. It would have been a glistening wonderland had it been sunny. Our daughter, visiting from Orlando Florida, was delighted to see snow and frost. At the time she was making plans to come here, the weather was unseasonably warm and there was no hint of snow or ice. 


        We became concerned with the possibility of getting stranded in Chicago. According to what we discovered on our smart phones, hundreds of flights in the Chicago area had gotten cancelled or postponed, and traffic was gridlocked in the city. We pulled off the road at about the halfway point and discussed whether we should turn around and go home. Once we decided to "proceed to the route", as Siri would say, it became a great adventure. 

Actually, the worst of the storm had passed through by the time we arrived. We spent a delightful afternoon in the Adler Planetarium.  This is what we saw when we looked out at Lake Michigan from the planetarium coffee shop.



Funny, when we got back home late Tuesday night, we saw that the front page of US News had a similar picture of breaking waves from the Shedd Auditorium, which is right next to the Adler.
For us, it turned out to be the perfect time to be in Chicago. Cold, cloudy, and windy with piles of slush on the curbs. Tons of people everywhere, bundled up and happy. Wouldn't want it any other way. 

One of the best moments for me was opening the curtain in our 6th floor historic hotel room and seeing this. Since I'm all about harmonious blends and other musings, I thought is was the perfect view. 




The coming year for me will be one of finding new harmonious blends in my art as well as my life. I look forward to the great adventure of a new year with anticipation and excitement!

Happy New Year!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paint and Palettes

          I’ve always been a lover of paint and paint palettes. I vividly remember the excitement I felt opening that rectangular tin filled with round cakes of watercolor paint in elementary school. I was hooked! From that point on, I have wanted to explore and express within the inviting purity of paint.          In 1988 I had a beach side shop where I hand painted women's clothing. I was using acrylic paint in abundance. One morning I had cleaned my palette off, and had peeled a large colorful piece of variegated and textured acrylic paint from it.  Some friends of mine came into the shop (actually it was my minister and his wife). During our brief conversation, I showed them the peeled up paint and said, “This is too pretty to throw away, but I don’t know what to do with it.” The husband said, “Oh, you should cut it up and make it into jewelry!” We all laughed about it. It was like "Yeah right, I should try it!”   After they left I thought "Wow, that could have been
Post a Comment
Read more

Winter Work

        Now that my show season is over, it's time for what I lovingly call winter work. Winter work is studio time. It's when I light the fire in the wood stove and sit down at the drawing table and/or easel, both of which are pulled close to the wood stove. It's winter work because when the weather cools off and the leaves fall, the studio is the most inviting place in my life. The warmth of the fire and the smell of the wood and the blank slate on the easel are what inspire and motivate me to work.        At one of my shows I bought this glorious coffee mug from Paige @rockbottomceramics. It sits on top of the woodstove and keeps the coffee warm for hours.  It's a studio staple.     There is purposely a blank canvas on the easel, or in this case, a smooth panel which will eventually be gessoed and painted with an expression of light through leaves. The blank canvas is self care. It's a sign of hope for my future. What will go on that canvas in my future?  It'
Post a Comment
Read more

The Clearing, Revisited

     I've been talking a lot about the importance of having a muted palette, meaning very little color.  But lately, I've wanted to add color to some of the paintings that I did over the last few years. So that's what I've been doing. I just added color to this piece. It was called The Clearing, and it was a very monotone palette. It was actually one of the favorite paintings at my shows. But you know, it just didn't sell. So I decided to take a breath, (a couple of breaths actually), and re-work this painting, add color, and actually change the path of light in the painting.        So what do you think now? I kind of like it! I like the new light coming through, and I like the blues that are in here now, that didn't used to be, and the light browns and yellows. And I like this little trunk, that gives you a place to sit when you're at the clearing of the woods. A limited edition print of the original Clearing is   available here.   As a reminder, if you dec
Post a Comment
Read more