In The Beginning of a New Series

Once upon a time on Fruitdale Drive there was a little child who was not yet in school. She entertained herself visiting the neighbors who tended to be housewives and retirees. One house stood on a small rise and seemed almost like a castle in a five-year-old's mind. As she climbed the stairs to knock on the door to see if she could visit, she passed a pond--a pond built of stones, a pond with the green of water plants. If she was still for a few moments she could see the dashing of orange goldfish. In this child's mind it was right out of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. 

Jump ahead seventy years and this child inside a seventy year old body had a dream of creating her own pond. I use the term "creating" because she truly is a creative artist who has an idea and inspires a group of those who care for her to make it happen!

First there is a wonderful architect (as this home is having to be rebuild after a devastating fire) who thought it was a great idea. He convinced the marvelous engineer of a husband to figure out how to get flowing water from an uphill stream to flow under the planned walkway. Next step was to inspire a young, physically fit and loving granddaughter and her partner to dig a hole and stream, then use rock to create the walls of the stream and pond. Oh, and there was so much more to it involving many months including more labor and strong young friends. 

Now this creative artist has decided to begin a new series that is not only about the pond, but more about the love for her that created it.

So if you have made it through my personal story,  here are the photos of the first in this series of paintings. The idea behind this first painting is how nature inspires creating beautiful designs for fabrics.

After a decent sketch  I laid out my table to begin. First step was putting down an underpainting.

Then I used Oramask film to cut out my goldfish shapes and place them on the underpainting. The masking allows me to paint more freely, not worrying about painting around an object.

And I used a limited palette. 

And here is the finished work. I used patience, allowing the painting to talk to me over the week.  Yes, I do believe in conversations between a painting and the artist if she is patient.

From Water to Silk
Transparent Watercolor
30" x 22"

A Fall Walk

 Yesterday's Bliss

After returning from our month away from Oregon, it's taken awhile to settle back into "being home." But yesterday offered one of the special days of autumn with perfect temperature, perfect light, and the perfect feel of being home. Mike and I took an afternoon walk through the woods to a McKenzie River water diversion area developed in the 1950's to provide spawning grounds for salmon. Our hope was to see salmon digging out a redd to place their eggs. We did see a few redd in the stream, but only one with a fish in it and she was busy working to prepare her spot to lay eggs. However, it was a bull trout and not a salmon.

(The word 'redd' originates from a Scottish word that means, “to clean an area or make it tidy”. Now I know what my grandmother meant when she would redd up the kitchen)

Here is what we did see . . .

Fall Colors

and more Fall Colors

A Water Ouzel in its Happy Spot

Amanita muscaria
It has hallucenogenic properties, but we didn't try it.🤣

Gorgeous Scenery