Travel comes from a deep urge to see the world

"Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind" (Seneca)

I will be leaving for Bali in January and not returning to the USA until mid July—6 months, my longest time away. Sophie will be staying with my parents near San Francisco sharing the love with a Cockapoo named Freddie Brown. She will be well cared for "out there having fun in that warm California sun". However, we have to get there first...

This is Sophie in her new carrier and as you can see she really doesn't care for it. This is the airline regulation under-the-seat carrier for a pet up to 22 lbs—really? It barely seems big enough for her and she only weighs 13 lbs. They say to put the pet in the carrier so they get used to it, but I know she will never get used to this tiny carrier so why torment her. Everyday, I do toss a few treats in the carrier and she has to go in to get them. A good time and tasty, but she is suspect...

"There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror" (Orson Welles)

A cold rainy Sunday

It was the kind of day to stay home in front of the fire. Of course, I had to find some things to draw, but first I headed into the kitchen to make a cup of tea...

After the tea and drawing the honey bear, I found the rest of my drawing subjects on my very messy corner of the dining room table.

I go through more Cerulean Blue than any other color. It's time to order a new tube or two before I leave for Bali.

Two of my other favorite colors along with Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Gold. More for my wishlist.

My very messy palette after an afternoon of painting.

Farmers market—Portland Maine

It's getting cold here in Portland so the farmer market is waining. Really all that is left are the cold weather root vegetables. After sketching a bit, I bought some delicious carrots and two bunches of kale to make the even more delicious kale crisps.

With winter just around the corner, the beautiful colors of fall are fading. The late summer flowers in window boxes and flower pots in front of the businesses in the Old Port have been replaced with mums and ornamental kale. Soon it will all be replaced with holiday balsam, lights and wreaths.

It's pie season. This lovely apple pie was in a coffee shop on the way home. No pie for me though...well, maybe a bite...maybe...

Inspired by the wonderful Yupo paintings by Suzanne at A Brush with Color, I brought this Indian Corn home to try my hand at painting on Yupo. The unpredictability of paint that floats on the surface is a challenge but can be very fun and creative.

Shoes and sunset

New shoes "TOMS": Living in Maine it is inevitable that I finally have to put away my flip-flops. So now that old man winter has blanketed New England in cold darkness, I am wearing shoes, but not socks...yet.

I saw these shoes at a boutique in town. For every pair of Toms shoes that are purchased, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. "ONE for ONE". That is so cool and how cool are these gilded gold herringbone shoes. I also ordered glitter black. Then I started thinking I should order white canvas and paint them...

Beautiful sunset last night over the city. I quickly sketched with conte´ crayons and ink.

This week...

"The Great Gatsby"

Jerry's son, Alex, has a sweet rescue boxer named Gatsby. He is way more trained than Sophie when it comes to "sit, stay and come", however, he did think he needed to show that he was the alpha male dog...in the house. Sophie just walked into the bedroom with that "I would never do that" look on her face.

I practice drawing hands whenever I am at a loss of what to draw. The other day while in the waiting room I did this partial blind contour drawing from a magazine. I added color when I got home.

For Grace Uhm, a fellow Julia Kay Portrait Party member. She asked me to do a sketch for her from a photograph she sent me. Here it is Grace. I hope you like it.

In today's class today we did collage portraits using magazines and pasting it on with our hands. Martha brought books from the artist Romare Bearden. The model was sitting in front of colorful draped fabric in the studio. She didn't have a dog and neither of them had crowns...