It's a long way home

We finally made it home last night. A brief 36 hour stop in San Francisco to see my parents and then back to our life in Maine, as soon as we recover from some serious jet-lag. Bali is a 12 hour time difference from Maine, so I tend to be wide awake at about 1:00 am and manage to finally fall back to sleep around 4:00 am. This will go on for about a week until my brain and body finally adjust to Maine time. So until then, things move pretty slow

DSFDF challenge—Summer vegetables

I decided to give Karin Jurik's Different Strokes for Different Folks challenge, again, before my everything got packed. I was in a hurry because things are a little chaotic here and I am running very late for our last weekend in Bali visiting friends in other parts of the island. Another tough watercolor challenge for me as I constantly struggle with not overworking the painting and ending up with "the dreaded mud". However, this is a great thing to do because it pushes me out of my comfort zone and I have to be very brave to be posted along with other very talented painters.  

I'm really late now...gotta run.

Sampai jumpa Tikus

It's the dreaded packing of the boxes again as we get ready for our trip back to the U.S. After a few hours of that chore, I took a break and sketched, Tikus, my cat named mouse. She is a mighty little thing and quite a character . We have enjoyed having her here and I will miss her. She is going back to Ali's family on Tuesday when Uul puts her back in the rice cooker box and she is placed between his feet on his motorcycle for her 1/2 ride back to Umalas. She is going back home (with a huge bag of crunchies) and she may come back to us when we return in October. She has had a wonderful time here as "kucing manja" "a spoiled cat" and she won't be another Bali pet having unwanted litter after litter.

Sketching my cat in my Moleskine as she sleeps and waits for more attention. Right now she is sleeping in my lap as I am posting these last sketches before I go back to packing. 

I am a huge animal lover and since moving to Bali last October I spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about most of the street dogs and cats. Too many unwanted and unhealthy kittens and puppies for lack of spaying and neutering. I had the opportunity to help this one little cat and I am glad of the choice I made. Hopefully she will have a good, long, healthy life doing what she likes to do the most—sleeping.

Happy Birthday Jackie

Fudgy chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache frosting

Carrot walnut cake with cream cheese frosting

Jackie & Jim Lawson

I introduced you to my family a few posts back when my dad had his 83^rd birthday. Today is my mom’s birthday and she is turning 84. I’m sure she doesn’t want me to tell her age, but I think she looks great—they both do!

Happy birthday, Jackie. I made you two cakes so you can decide which one to have—fudgy chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache frosting or carrot walnut cake with cream cheese frosting or better yet, have a piece of both. I would definitely try both and when no one was looking I would sneak a little extra of that delicious cream cheese frosting.

The never ending story

A few weeks ago my toenail finally came off from the motorcycle accident. As the weeks went by it began to heal and was not so bad (well, for Balinese feet standards), but the USA would be a different story—no sandals for me. Yesterday, when walking back into the kitchen with my kopi, my little cat was weaving in and out of my feet as I went to step over the 4" carved wooden door jam (which is rather stupid and dangerous). Trying to avoid crushing her, my foot caught on the jam and I tumbled through the door onto the stone kitchen floor, with my toe taking most of the impact. Crying, I managed to limp out of the kitchen but not without noticing that most of the kopi was still in the cup as I broke my fall with my hands—how odd is that!?!

After having to put my head between my legs because I thought I was going to throw up, I took a handful of Ibuprofin and whimpered on the couch for the rest of the morning. Finally the pain subsided and then it began to swell and turn blue. At first we thought it was broken, but I could eventually bend it so it is just really, really badly bruised and...

...it is really really not pretty. 

Rice paddies

After doing the DSFDF Pennsylvania landscape challenge from Bali, I thought I should paint a local landscape before we leave next week for the USA. This was from a ride through the rice paddies on the way to Tulamben in East Bali.

It's really loud here

When this tiny little cat isn't sleeping, which is most of the time, she can belt out "meows" that you can't believe could come from a cat this small. She is Indonesian so it is actually"mengeong". After a little attention and a few crunchies she's back to sleep, but not before getting in the last squeak or two.

Some more of our noisy next door neighbors that start their day way before 5 o'clock every morning. 

Cat in the bath with math

We have a very large bathtub, but never use it because we have a lovely outdoor garden shower. During the day I will find my cat in this unused tub rolling around, chewing on her tail or taking a nap. I was sketching her the other night on one during one of her bathtub frolics and then added math? Pen in sketchbook and colored in photoshop.

Sky study 5.25.09

Today got away from me because I got into trying to paint the Pennsylvania landscape for DSFDF. So, only one sky study today. I was up early so the sun was just coming up over the garden wall while I drank kopi Bali and painted. It was really so beautiful this morning while my crazy little "rent-a-cat" chased geckos in the garden.

DSFDF challenge—Pennsylvannia landscape

I decided to try Karin Jurick's Different Strokes for Different Folks challenge for the second time. This one was hard, well they all are for me, because she posted a black and white image and we had to make up the color. I got all screwed up on the proportions (silos to hills in background) and lost track of the layers going back in the distance. I also reduced the amount of the sky from the original photograph because I wasn't ready to tackle that, but I did try wetting the paper for the first time to create a subtle sky tone after consulting a few books I brought with me. On top of all this I am in Bali painting Pennsylvania. How weird is that!?!

Wake-up call

In Bali the sun rises and sets at about the same time everyday because we are almost on the equator. It rises at about 6:30 and sets around 6:00. Every morning about 5 o'clock when it is just getting light the rooster next door starts and then the dogs and then the sweeping and then the motorcycles and then it's time to get up. This rooster likes to run back and forth across the wall along the driveway making sure the neighborhood is awake.

This nanas was in the refrigerator for the longest time so before it got tossed I tried to paint it. What a mess!

Sky studies

5.23.09 Early morning drinking kopi Bali and painting before the rain. By noon the rain had stopped and I was walking the beach. The second sky was done late afternoon from the same spot as the morning sky drinking a lime squash (my new favorite Bali drink).

5.22.09 Sunrise in the garden drinking kopi and painting while listening to Bali wake-up. Late night when the clouds started to form in the night sky.

It's a blast

I saw a beach shack with a sign that said paddletrainer.com, so I stopped in to see what it was all about. It sounded like great fun and a great workout. So, yesterday, I rode my bike to the beach and slapped down my 200,000 rupiah for an hour lesson to learn Stand Up Paddle Surfing. 

I was pretty good at standing and paddling on the flat water and even as we went further out into the waves I could maneuver over the swells and remain standing. I am fairly strong, have good balance and I have skied, kayaked, windsurfed and even board surfed as a kid (but that was a million years ago). However, I had a much harder time getting a handle on looking over my shoulder for waves, paddling to catch the wave, crouching and continuing to paddle hard with the wave and then jumping into surf stance. I only caught two waves so surf stance was really not an issue. Oh well, it was only my first time and I'm going back tomorrow.

Sky studies

5/21/09 Sunrise from the garden and sunset at the beach at the end of the street.

5/20/09 Because I got chemically fogged out on this morning, I did a midday sky sketch at the beach with big puffy white clouds over the sea. Same spot for evening sky when the clouds darkened as the sun went down behind me.

Sometimes I want my oil paints

I have not painted in oils since last August when I packed up my home and moved into Portland and then Bali. All my oils and equipment are packed away on a box...somewhere. It seemed almost impossible to bring them to Bali so I took up watercolor because it seemed easier for traveling. However, I miss smearing that wonderful buttery oil paint around—blending and layering. I had a teacher once who said "if you paint what is in shadow and then paint what is in light the rest of the painting will paint itself". That has never happened, but I still say it in my mind when I oil paint. 

Watercolor is very difficult. I panic a bit because it either dries too fast or I paint when it is still too wet. Either way I get mud. It is very frustrating! Today I used my small palette of gouache (as much like oil paint as possible) and did this beach study from a photo I took at sunset in Jimbaran, on the west side of the island.

Chasing the Giant Trevally

Jerry has just left with a friend on a guided "catch and release" fishing trip for Giant Trevally. They will fish off a beach in Sumbawa, which is two islands west of Bali in the Indonesian archipelago. To get there they will take a short flight to Lombok, a ferry to Sumbawa and then a five hour 4 X 4 ride on dirt roads to a remote beach where they will have to walk over rocky coral in hard-sole diving boots to get to where they will surf cast for these huge fighting fish. Bug spray and SPF 50 sun block are a must and then there is sleeping in the jungle. Clearly not my kind of holiday!

So I am here in beautiful Bali, where today, at 5 AM I was awakened by the loud grinding sound of the fogging trucks, roaring up and down the streets of Sanur spraying some ungodly chemical into the air to kill mosquitos. I grabbed the cat and hide under the covers to wait for the blue-gray fog to dissipate. The first time I experienced this, I was so freaked out that I couldn't stop talking about it that morning at the Kalimantan. They all looked at me and with such concern Muni said "Ya, bagus, it kills mosquito so no Dengue fever"—DENGUE FEVER!?! And then a giant 2" cockroach scampered across the floor...

Sky studies

5.19.09 Morning sunrise from the garden and late afternoon sitting on the kitchen steps while my cat stalked cicaks.

5.18.09 Midday looking up from the garden. Same view late night. Stars were slightly obscured by light clouds and the moon is almost gone. I believe it will be a dark moon by the weekend.

A virtual birthday kiss

This is a quick pencil sketch I did of my father, James Lawson, who turns 83 today. I am sending him a big birthday kiss from Bali to San Francisco, 8,345 miles away.

This photo of my family, circa 1960, was taken in the living room of our California ranch house in the suburbs of San Francisco about 49 years ago—YIKES! My parents still live in that house and have for 53 years! That's my dad, a handsome 34 year old father of three. My mom, Jacqueline Lawson, is holding my brother James and Courtney is sitting between them. I am the one with the pixie haircut standing in the back—I am the oldest (In Bali my name would be Wayan). We are all in our Easter best heading off to hunt eggs at one of the grandparents house. Life was good.

This is my family today. We are scattered across the USA and abroad. A lot of water under the bridge for this group, but we are all still here. That's me in the middle.

Happy Birthday, dad. I love you.

Sky studies

Sky Study 5.17.09 Looking at across the garden and over the far wall at the sunrise. Sun showers this afternoon.
Sky Study 5.16.09 Midday at the beach looking towards Benoa Harbor before we took the Laser out for a sail. A clear night at the beach looking across the Badung Strait at Penida Island. 

Semangka banyak

The other day I went to bed with and then awakened the next morning with a terrible headache. I ended up sleeping much of the day while busy Bali happened around me. Our housekeeper, Maria, asked how I was before she left for the day. With one eye opened I told her I couldn’t figure out why I felt so bad because the day before I ate nothing but delicious semangka (watermelon). She got a horrified look on her face and said quite loudly “Madame, tidak makan semangka banyak. Anda akan sakit kepala pusing”. “You will get a headache from eating too much watermelon”.

When her husband, Paskalis, arrived there was heated discussion around my watermelon consumption, more reprimanding and even finger wagging. The next day, when Jerry got back from Jakarta, he got an earful on the dangers of eating too much watermelon. Who knew…

Sky Study 5.15.09 The morning sky was looking east from the driveway and the night sky was having dinner at the beach looking out over the water.