They called for the first frost of the season on wednesday…so Finnegan and I spend the day before putting the garden to bed. We soon had the big bucket filled with peppers and parsley, green tomatoes and beans.
It was sweetly satisfying to pull out all the withering vines and stems which had worked so hard this summer to feed us…and to haul it all over to the new compost bins. We picked a corner to plant the garlic and casted the winter rye seeds over the rest of the beds. Then we fired up the lawn mower for the last time and limped around the yard collecting clippings and chopped leaves to gently cover the soil. But the sweet peas and the nasturtiums refused to give up…so they get to stay a little longer.
The Reality Boost Show is running now until the end of November in Denver. It’s exciting for me to be a part of this exhibit and to be showing among such stellar painters. The gallery website has a show preview … and some nifty little red dots !
Kudos and Congrats go out to one of those stellar artists…Bob Jackson, who has just had a painting purchased by the Brandywine River Museum for their collection. A well deserved honor.
And further congrats to artist friend Steve Mills who was also part of that Brandywine River Museum show, Reality Check (show continues until November 18th). Steve’s paintings have received nods from many of the reviewers and his recent show at Gallery Henoch showcases some outstanding new work.
here’s a couple photos of the Writer’s Blocks banner in play as it were at the BoucherCon mystery writer’s convention last week in San Fran… and a mention in her blog as well…it sure was fun to be a distant part of that adventure. Thanks again Laurie !
All you who read, write and love to listen to finely crafted and cleverly plotted mysteries…
Most of you wonderful readers of this blog know that I listen to audiobooks while painting…and most of them are mystery novels…and my most favorite writer of those novels is…Laurie R. King. But what you don’t know…yet…is that the diabolical diva Herself wrote to me this summer with a fabulously fun and witty request.
Every year there is a gathering of the most famous and successful mystery writers of our time which is called the Boucheron. This year it is being held in San Francisco and the literary guest of honor is… LRK !
Boucheron By The Bay will take place this October 14 – 17 and, since she is to be the queen for those days, she and her publishers are sponsoring the “Coffee and Tea” table at the host hotel. So…she gets this idea…(may I humbly say a brilliant one)… that it might be fun to have a backdrop to the table… and somehow remembers that I have this Teacup Series thing going on…and one email led to another and …poof !!! This is what will be on the banner hanging over the sippers’ silver services…
My excitement is exceeded only by my gratitude for her generous offer to play along with the gang. It looks like a wild and crazy weekend of literary fun is promised out there and I hope if any of you who read this are planning to attend that you’ll raise a cup along with us to the Honoree !
And the rest of us can at least share in the flavor and find a comfy chair, a good mystery, and pour ourselves a steaming cuppa….intrigue.
Ta L.
PS – you can order your very own print of this painting for your coffee and tea tables …here.
There was a major fire in the fishing village of Menemsha yesterday. The coast guard boathouse and several docks burned down to the waterline. It happened quickly and as of this morning there are no reports of major injuries. The other miracle of this story is that the wind was blowing out to sea. Within a few feet of the burning structure on the inland side are the historic fishing shacks that line the basin. They are bare wooden shacks, many of which are simply standing wooden tinderboxes…and most of which are working boathouses for the few remaining commercial fishermen on the island. Had the wind turned, they all would have been gone and with them the history and charm of that tiny island village.
There are reports of bravery this morning of fisherman who towed flaming but untethered boats out of danger and away from the gas station on the other side of the harbor, and firefighters who managed to control and contain the blaze, and townspeople who set up watering and cooling stations and helped to clear the roads for emergency vehicles.
This is the Vineyard. They know how to take care of each other.
Shortly after the fire began there were reports filtering onto Facebook and via local TV stations. Pat got the news and came over to the studio to let me know. Earlier that morning we had picked up the big paintings for this summer’s show from the photographer and I was in the process of framing this…
For most of the winter the shacks and boats and birds and scenery of Menemsha were my companions as I took care to faithfully render the rigging and shingles and horizon full of houses.
Like many generations of artists, I have been drawn to the historic charm and beauty of the fishing village. My own tastes tend to run toward the somewhat grittier side of the working aspects of the place. The way the detritis of the commercial fishermen, their boats and gear and comings and goings, make for a constantly evolving composition. Lobster pots and long lines, bouys and traps, pulpits and netting all get tossed around by the wind, the tides and the human hands that haul them to bring in the catch of the day.
And if you hang around long enough, and show up when the tourists have left for the day…or the season… the light that is so strong and ever changing on that island will reveal hidden treasures of beauty. For the last couple years I have concentrated on trying to capture some of what I see there and have used the challenge of the large canvas to find my way into the corners, behind the boathouses, and between the shadows of Menemsha.
As I look back now, the focus has been pulling outward…
from the closeup of the swordfishing troller Strider’s Surrender…
to the larger view of the boats and shacks Out Back O’ The Galley…
and opening wide up to the basin as seen from the top of Crick Hill just after dawn on a late October morning…
And in all of those paintings the Coastguard Boathouse can be seen. At first just a hint of the end of the dock to the left of the Strider. Then a sliver of white with the famous red shingled roof at the end of the road to the left of the big shack Out back of the Galley.
And this year, sadly the final portrait… it is the first building to catch the full morning sun at the far right of the painting and, weighed down by the gaggle of seabirds, it serves as an anchor.
Calling all dog owners…spinners…shepards…hair salons…grateful deadheads…
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a couple weeks…and I mentioned it on our walk this week with the pack, Saren and her three pups Nina, Tallie and Margie…and Susan and her pup Tag, and they encouraged me to put the information up on the blog …
There is an organization Matter of Trust, via Excess Access…that collects hair of all kinds to be used in booms to soak up oil spills. They have been around for a while and it looks like they respond to spills on a global basis…but they have established a large presence in the gulf coast states and are filling warehouses with ready to deploy boom.
FINALLY, something we average citizens can do to help !
It turns out that hair, fur, and fleece is a natural oil magnet. They explained it better so I’ve copied the info below. And there is a video they just sent that illustrates the difference in absorbancy of hair booms vs. conventional booms.
It’s simple…you sign up, free and fast, and then they send you information that is current to tell you how to package the fibre and where to send it. That address changes on a weekly basis and they communicate that via the emails.They are organizing boom barbecues down south where people come and stuff the collected hair into nylon stockings.
It is a great grassroots effort to recycle and what a way for your pets to help out too !
I am collecting all of the discarded fleece from my spinning, and brushings from Miss Finn and getting it ready to box up and send.
I know Finnegan is excited. She’s thrilled to get rid of all that extra hair as the summer heats up !
If you’re interested read below… If you know of any especially hairy furry friends, please pass this info along.
Feels so good to have something proactive to do instead of just blaming and worrying.
If you’ve been keeping tabs on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, you’ve probably been wondering how exactly you can help.
Well, for those of you with furry, four-legged flatmates, it can be as easy as sweeping the floors and collecting all that errant fur and hair.
So how exactly can hoarding pet fur help with cleaning up one of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory? Enter Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that’s been accepting donations of non-filthy pet fur and human hair since 1998 to craft oil-absorbing hairmats — described as “flat square dreadlocks” — and hair-stuffed containment booms made from recycled pantyhose.
These hairy contraptions are effective at soaking-up oil and they don’t require any new resources … just stuff you’d normally trash (or compost) unless you’re into, umm, stockpiling fur.I must say, sending along fur to Matter of Trust via Excess Access is an eco-ideal spring cleaning mission for folks with critters around the house.
In addition to pet owners, groomers and salon owners can get involved too by sending in bulk shipments of hair/fur. In fact, as of Tuesday, 400,000 pounds of hair was en route to the Gulf Coast.
Did you know that ONE pound of hair can soak up ONE quart of oil in One minute?
Alabama hairdresser Phil McCrory came up with the hairy idea while watching news reports on the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, according to the Matter of Trust website.
Video: Hair being used in oil cleanup
As a hair professional, he knows how hair is attracted to oil– and why humans need to shampoo their hair regularly. The oil clings to the hair but is not absorbed by it. That makes hair a good, natural cleaning aide.
Matter of Trust says they’ve opened more than a dozen warehouses in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida where the hair is shipped. Hundreds of volunteers stuff the hair and fur into nylons which are then tied together to form tubes or booms. The booms are used to surround, contain and aid cleanup of the oil spill.
What is needed, how to send it:
• Clean hair from human heads — can be straight, curly, dyed, permed, straightened
• Every type of fur, horse hair, wool waste and feather is fine
• Make certain there is no garbage — metal or paper — in with the hair/fur
• Washed nylon stocking (even with runs)
• Place in separate plastic garbage bag, put inside of separate boxes labeled debris-free hair/fur or nylons
• Check with Matter of Trust website to find out where to ship the boxes.
What does an artist do when a still life set up requires a subject that is…out of season ?
When the very name of the island that serves as the backdrop has the name Vineyard in it and… it is June ?
Well, she takes herself to the grocery store…or to her iphone.
Yep, who knew. Way back in April when this painting idea came to me and I went to the new supermarket in search of props only to find that concord grapes are not among the items shipped in to our late winter township from some warmer climate on the other side of the globe. While wandering over to my favorite section…the cheese gazebo…I looked up and poof ! Concord grapes, complete with leaves ! Not exactly what I wanted but in a pinch… !
Now, in the middle of June, as I scramble to complete the paintings for the Granary Show, it is time to pull those photos from the camera roll on the trusty iphone and print them out as reference for the still life that sits before me.
You’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the finished result…but here’s a teaser…
