Stage II

Well, I colored the dancers.........

CHickens in Winter

I haven't taken a picture of the chickens in awhile, but here they are. I had just filled their water up and they all wanted to be the first to get a drink. That was last night, and today they were out all day for the first time in a long while. It has been very cold and windy, but Spring certainly seems on the horizon. The snow has all but disappeared and the temperature is rising. The dogs and I took a fairly long walk in the sunny, 40-something degree weather this afternoon. The fields at Dog Island are comparatively open this time of year, before the trees leaf out and the underbrush takes over. We walked across one of those fields to the end of the island. The land dropped off suddenly and plunged down to the water, hundreds of feet below. There is nothing there to warn unsuspecting hikers that the world is about to disappear, but I have never heard of any accidents or suicides there. The dogs walked to the very edge without any fear, sniffing. I don't consider myself afraid of heights, but an uncomfortable feeling in my knees kept me well back, hauling them back by their leashes. I tiptoed close enough to look over the edge and saw a perfect little beach below me. Huge cliffs rose up on both sides of it, making it inaccessible by land.

It occurred to me on the way home that kids have probably found a way to get down there, though I can't imagine how. And if they have, how on earth do they get back up? In any case, it is a piece of wild, wild land and ocean, not a quarter of a mile from my house, doing what it does pretty much unnoticed by us human beings. The water most likely is carving away at that cliff with its coming and going, making infinitesimal headway under the rock. It's too much to contemplate........the relativity of time....

Dancers

I subscribed to a magazine about drawing and got the first issue yesterday. It inspired me to draw, and I chose one of Thom's Hawaii pictures as subject matter. After seeing Rembrandt's ink and wash drawings, which I have always loved, I decided to try to do a reasonable facsimile. As usual I didn't have the right materials, but I used a regular pen and some watercolor for a similar effect. I enjoyed doing it, but it didn't take long and I had the whole afternoon ahead of me. So I did a charcoal drawing, too. The photo doesn't show the whole thing........I didn't notice it until I put it on the computer.......but the idea is certainly there. It's amazing how different they look. I have to say the charcoal looks pretty mundane. I really enjoy getting into the flatness of the paper and livening things up a little. The charcoal looks like an advertisement for how to create form, which is certainly my forte. Nevertheless, let's have a little imagination here..........

Cucumbers

Thom said these are the only cucumbers he got from his garden last year. He photographed them next to a fork to show their size and it makes a beautiful still life. I have run out of white paint in every medium, so I decided to tackle this in pastel. I thought it needed too much detail to really come across, but it's all I had. I actually love the results, though not as much as I love this picture of it. If only the original works were as good as they look on here..........

I framed some of my woodcuts and hung them in a show at Lisa's gallery. The opening (and closing) were Saturday night and no one but other artists were impressed with them. I did sell one of the watercolors I put in the last show that was still hanging on the wall. It was better than nothing.