Bon Voyage
At last I have a scanner and am beginning to scan sketchbook pages to post. Here is the first, from the day of departure. (Click once, then again to see it larger.)
A Calendar for 2015
Here is a new calendar for 2015, each month featuring one of my seasonal still-lifes. I’m taking orders, but unfortunately they have to be received by Sept. 9th for me to place the order. Not much time, I’m afraid! Next year there will be more advance notice. Please contact me if you have any questions. Your calendar will reach you before the end of September. Shipping is 2-day Priority Mail, domestic US. (But if you are in my area you can get it from me directly without shipping!)
Strawberries and Cream
Some of the cards from my seasonal-still life paintings have been picked up by Johnson’s Florist and Garden Center on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, DC. Please take a look when you stop by for your flowers…
Marcia
August Morning
A poem by Albert Garcia in celebration of the poignant, brief-and-boundless late summer.
It’s ripe, the melon
by our sink. Yellow,
bee-bitten, soft, it perfumes
the house too sweetly.
At five I wake, the air
mournful in its quiet.
My wife’s eyes swim calmly
under their lids, her mouth and jaw
relaxed, different.
What is happening in the silence
of this house? Curtains
hang heavily from their rods.
Ficus leaves tremble
at my footsteps. Yet
the colors outside are perfect–
orange geranium, blue lobelia.
I wander from room to room
like a man in a museum:
wife, children, books, flowers,
melon. Such still air. Soon
the mid-morning breeze will float in
like tepid water, then hot.
How do I start this day,
I who am unsure
of how my life has happened
or how to proceed
amid this warm and steady sweetness?
—Albert Garcia
Francine
The Piemaker
An illumination I was asked to create, to illustrate a beautiful poem written by the piemaker’s sister.
Aunt Francie & Uncle Ken 1941
St. Swithin’s Day
Look out the window. Happy St. Swithin’s Day!
Bastille Day: Étienne de la Boétie
On this day in 2013, we were wandering the fairy-tale streets of Sarlat, a Périgord village of golden limestone, remarkably unchanged since the 16th century, and I sketched the birthplace and childhood home of Étienne de la Boétie (1530-1563), of which this is a detail.
Cliff
Lemonade
A new painting has won an honorable mention at the Art League’s All-Media exhibit at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria (the opening reception is tomorrow evening).
The hot summer weather inspired both the painting and my research into lemonade recipes. The one I like best is found in How to Make Real Lemonade from Scratch at TheKitchn.com.
Mom’s Apple Pie
On my mother’s birthday, I always bake her an apple pie in honor of the hundreds of apple pies she made for us, and we light a candle and sing, our voices some years joined by those of friends (thank you Karla, Rob, Kathy, and Ivan). I’m sure my mother is getting much better pie in the Great Beyond, but we continue the earthly tradition. Happy birthday, Mom!
Mom