Summer Album

Nothing more to say! It's been a busy summer with lots of cherished family and friends visiting, plenty of good food, not enough art-making, not enough gardening...the weeds have won.

Vacation Diary

Megan Chase at Perimeter Gallery

We really needed a vacation. I didn't know how tired I was until we were into week 2! We promised ourselves that we would do only what we really wanted to do. That involved going to Mt. Desert to stay at the old-fashioned Claremont Hotel and hiking on the carriage roads in Acadia National Park; several occasions of eating and buying vegetables at Chases Daily, where I had the best blueberry tart of my life this past Thursday afternoon. We saw Megan Chase's gorgeous paintings there also. We went to the wonderful Thuya Garden. We went "a-berrying" as my dear Henry David Thoreau would call it, and made black raspberry crisp. We saw cherished family and went to the Five Islands lobster pound, and to the beach with nieces and nephews. Our darling son came for a visit, and the three of us picnicked at Ocean Point. We helped to save a man who had gone overboard off his boat and had spent an hour and a half in cold, cold water! We went to Sturbridge Village, and to Ikea to stock up on pretty paper napkins. I even made some art. We watched Agatha Christie's Poirot movies until we dropped. I re-read Death Comes for the Archbishop (such a beautiful, beautiful book) for our next book group, and the incredible Art & Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland. You never know what will happen in any span of time, but you can bet it will be packed with life...especially if you are a lover of life.

Summer To Do List

This time of year a desire to quench my thirst for life gets heightened to a fever pitch. I love summer and all summer things. Life is so seductive, beckoning me to savor everything that is ephemeral. I whip myself into a state of exhaustion by the first of August! I love to go to flea markets and farmer's markets, and to the beach in the fog. I go to see art with other artists. We BBQ, and garden, and spend time with visiting family and friends. I love to bake bread and blueberry pies. We eat corn on the cob at every opportunity. I read things I usually don't read. I investigate topics I don't know anything about. I like to loosen up and play around in the studio. I have to admit that this last item has been eluding me lately. Too busy with all that other stuff. And at the same time that all this wonderful stuff is going on, I also feel that I'm not enjoying it all enough! Perhaps a little more mindfulness in all this activity? 

Today

I ate summer vegetables with melted cheese, cut flowers from the garden, and started this linen collage on a panel. I want to put much more drawing into it tomorrow and see where it goes. That's about it. Summer simplicity.

Summer Tomatoes

Busy Days

I'm getting ready to go to haystack for twelve days! I'm taking a hand building ceramics workshop. Something different and out of my comfort zone. I've done a little hand building and I love it, and working with clay seems like an extension of drawing to me. We've been gardening and cooking too. And exploring color and pattern and drawing are always a refreshment.