I finally have a moment to blog! I don't have distractions this morning. So lets dive in!

There is a controversy over pencil showing through watercolor paintings. I have two important things to say about that. First if you look at paintings done by the masters you don't see any pencil marks from the underling sketch. So that leads me to the conclusion that even the masters didn't want their sketch to show through their paintings. This also leads me to the conclusion that artists either got lazy, couldn't cover up their sketch lines, or just chose not to bother and liked it, and the world of art has actually approved it.

I once wrote an article about this subject and got numerous negative responses, which was fine. I just thought it odd that somewhere during the 50s after all those years the rules changed and pencil was allowed to show, that in fact, it is now considered an actual part of the art itself. My personal opinion about the matter is that if the masters could do a watercolor without their sketch lines showing through than so could I and I succeeded. To me it is not alright for your sketch lines to show, but to those artist who think its okay—its okay! Don't discredit those of us artists who do chose not to let our sketch lines show, that take the time to work them into the painting so you can't see them at all. It is not a fair jurying process to exclude artists who do an exceptional job working their sketch lines into their paintings. Both processes work for the individual artist, that is the freedom of art!

An update of my grainery painting. I have had to put this on hold for the time being due to my mother-in-law's failing of health. I will try to keep blogging at least once a week, forgive me if I don't always come through.

Have a blessed week!

My time is not my own lately, it has been spent with my ailing mother-in-law. It is so hard to watch someone you love slowly dying. Hospice care is wonderful though and they are so good to my mother-in-law. I commend them for the outstanding care they give.

Death is inevitable for all us, but it is not an easy part of life to face knowing your time is fleeting like shooting stars across the night sky. You ask yourself "have I made a difference, have I left an impression on someone in my life, one that touches the heart profoundly?" I would like to think so. To have left petals of love and laughter at their doorstep. I look inward, examining my heart. What do I see? There are times that the guck is too deep to wade through. I pray my Savior is cleaning me up it is only something He can do, no human efforts can accomplish that task. Only the Lord can change a heart, sweeping out all the chambers of years of sin. It is a slow process. The completion not taking place until we are home with Him. His light never goes out even when we think we don't see it, it is there always shining, always refreshing, and restoring us to Himself.

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
³  He refreshes my soul. he guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
⁴  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your
   rod and your staff, they comfort me.

⁵  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
   house of the Lord forever.

Amen!

Portsmouth NH Harbor Lighthouse

Finished another new painting this morning. It is the Portsmouth NH Harbor Lighthouse from an old photo I took when Daryl and I were dating. It is located near the Strawberry Banke area heading out to New Castle.

Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day here today. We might even go for a nice bike ride later.

I was busy the past few days working on a new painting titled "Four Friends." I finished it up yesterday morning and thought I would share it with you. Each chair belongs to one of four of my dearest friends.

This was a fun painting to do and I really want to do a few more of these types of paintings. I love the ocean and its character changes with the weather. I want to show these different characters in future paintings.

Have a blessed day all!

Good Monday morning to you!

I had some curious on-lookers this morning as I was packing my art supplies and camera in the car. With each snap of the camera the little brown calf in front would jump and prepared herself to take flight if need be. So cute!

Well I'm heading out for the day, I'll be traveling around throughout the day to take some photos. Hopefully I find lots of interesting subject matter.

Enjoy your day!

Afternoon blog friends!

Its rainy here in Western PA again today. :(  I'm getting pretty tired of it. It seems like our biking riding this summer has been slim pickins'.

I entered one of my paintings in our local Farm Show today along with a set of my snowmen greeting cards and a photograph. My hubby also entered one of the wooden games he's made. We'll see if we win any prizes. I'll let you know in a few days.

Teaching another drawing class tomorrow, which is really a lot of fun for me. Kids learn fairly easy and have great imaginations. After I'm through there I am going out to some outlying areas to take some pictures provided its not raining. Hopefully I'll find some interesting subject matter.

A small group of Bible study friends and I formed a book club last summer and have been enjoying it a great deal. I've read some fantastic books. I just received a new book titled "Persecuted" and can't wait to dive in. I've heard it's a page turner and Iwon't be able to put it down—I love those types of books! The more suspense the better. I'll let you know what I think as soon as I'm finished. The book is based on the movie that opened in theaters on July 28th. If anyone gets to see the movie I want to hear your opinion!

Well have a wonderful week!

Good morning, well maybe. I burnt my fingers this morning reaching into our toaster oven to retrieve my toast. I reached in to high and my fingers touched the hot element . . . man instant pain. I put some burn gel on it but it didn't do much to relieve the the pain. I know eventually throughout the day it will subside but for now they are soaking in ice water. I will be back to finish this blog later on.

Well the pain has subsided enough so that I can type with more than two fingers. So here I go! The subject I want to talk about today is "Zentangle." A few of months ago a friend asked me if I had ever heard of Zentangle and my reply was no and I asked what it was. She said it was a type of drawing technique. Not knowing anything about this as an artist peeked my interest and I went into search mode. I found a book on Zentangle and discovered I knew all about it, more than I realized. The name of course has changed, it was what I knew growing up as a form of intricate purposeful doodling. Actually there was a famous graphic designer, M. C. Escher (1898-1972), who really developed this type of drawing. You can see his work on his official Website. I've included the link below. M.C. Escher is one of my favorite artists, his techniques were amazing but very time consuming. I would recommend that you take a look at his work at http://www.mcescher.com/ His work was phenomenal!

Now, for the book I picked up. It is titled "Joy of Zentangle" featuring three different artists. However, I recognized the technique right a way and knew I had seen the basics of it before in M.C. Escher's work. What disappointed me was the statement I read on page 9 (second paragraph). It states that Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas are the creators of Zentangle. I disagree! M. C. Escher developed this technique long before they arrived on the scene. Granted they have created their own designs, some even resemble Escher's, but not the technique, and if you check out Escher's Website the evidence of truth is overwhelming.

Let me know what you thoughts are on this, I'm curious to find out what you think!

Its been a long jump from April till now and my apologies for not keeping up with my blog. I have been pretty busy getting some paintings long over due finished, and I am nearing the finish line. I have one left and I am waiting for a photo from a friend so I can complete it and get it mounted, framed and off in the mail to her. There you have it.

I have a couple of personal paintings I am also working on. One is a set of colorful beach chairs, each  representing a close friend. The other is a white bengal tiger and I have a few other animals in the works too. I am excited to have the extra time to put into painting this summer, to get a little ahead.

As you know my husband and I will be retiring in a couple of years and we are preparing for that as well as planning our next adventure, an art gallery. We want to not only feature our work but works of other local artists in the area we are relocating too. We want to keep the cost down so the artist isn't overwhelmed and has an opportunity to show their work and not be soaked financially to do it. Hopefully we will be making our final destination decision within the next few months. We have narrowed it down to four places, Elkin, NC; Wilmington, NC; Beaufont, NC; or Stuart, VA. We will let you know.

I have some baby news also, the eastern bluebirds are finally bring their babies to the mealworm feeder. One family has three little ones and the other just one, at least that's what we've seen so far. I'll keep you posted. They sure are adorable!

Our little wren is back this year too, and finally found a mate after much singing on our clothesline pole. Yesterday while watching them I saw that the male has something stuck to his beak. He worked and worked trying to get it off. It looked to me like it was a small piece of white paper. He stubbled for about 40 minutes before finally getting off. Poor thing. I wanted to help him but every time I approached the clothesline he flew off. I figured he would eventually work it off on his own and did.

Okay all have a wonderful new week, enjoy this beautiful summer weather and I will be talking to you next week.

Blessings
Sam

I have been pretty busy finishing up some well overdue paintings that I had to put aside to work on other projects. I don't like putting this off but sometimes it can't be helped. So for those of you out there that I promised gifts too, please hang in there they will be coming before summer's end. Please accept my sincere apologies, I'm working on doing better.

We are gearing up for our retirement in a little over a year and half. I have a lot of downsizing to do and sorting out of the many items we've accumulated over the years (this will be no easy task). Some of our plans include moving to a little warmer area, opening up an art gallery to include artists in the community we move to, as well as my own work and some of my hubby's beautiful hand made furniture. We are really excited about this and plan on having fun doing it. My ideal building choices would be an old abandoned school house or church, maybe an empty old store front. Something along those lines would lend an outstanding atmosphere to art. I would also like to incorporate a comfortable sitting area where visitors and friends can relax, enjoy a great cup of coffee or tea, read a little or just chat away the time.

Area choices we are looking at are Wilmington, New Bern and a few other coastal towns of North Carolina, Greenville South Carolina, and some areas of Virginia. Nothing has really caught my fancy yet.

I'm sad today. A dear friend who my hubby and I have come know and love, has been a part of our Bible study group for close to two years, became seriously ill and now taken a turn down hill. We have been praying for him for heeling, wether that heeling is growing well out of it or heeling by going home to be with the Lord. We don't know which that will be, only God knows. But I have come to learn that the Lord heels in three ways: all at once through miraculous heeling, a heeling through whatever medical process is used, or heeling by bringing the person home to be with Him. Whatever God's will is for our brother and friend I will praise Him because I know the suffering will be gone either way. It is so hard to let go of someone you love and care for but our treasured memories of them over time heel the wounds in our hearts.

Death is inevitable for all of us, but the hearts we touch along our journey home also touches ours, leaving a priceless gift that lasts a lifetime.

Please cherish the love ones and friends you have today for they may be gone tomorrow, the time you give away can never be retrieved.

I leave you with this Scripture: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

Blessings to you my dear friends

Good blustery winter morning to you!
We are getting hammered this morning with a winter storm with high winds and freezing temperatures here in Western Pennsylvania. Good day to stay inside cozied up with a book and hot cup of tea. I just
couldn't resist taking this picture of a tufted titmouse on our peanut butter feeder getting some food fuel to keep warm in this nasty weather.

Have a blessed day all!

It has been pretty chaotic in this household since August and it is just now letting up or at least I thought it was until I received an unwanted letter in the mail yesterday. We had one more incident here that has just about put me over the edge and yanking every last hair out of my head. If I didn't have the Lord in my life, it probably would have pushed me off the cliff and I'll leave it at that.

I decided in November that I would do my Bible reading in 2014 out of my "Change Your Life Daily Bible" and do my devotions from "Sacred Obsession" by Becky Tirabassi. I had used these together two years ago and really enjoyed it, not to mention the impact it had on me. The other devotional I love to spend time in is "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers—very power, very life changing!

I don't often share my very personal preferences here but I really feel that it is the time to do just that. So over the course of this year I will attempt to share myself, my insights, the powerful changes that take place in me. After all, this is why I paint.

The Bible is my life's survival manual, it has all I need in it to live each day. It answers all of life's questions. As a matter of fact this verse says it perfectly: "There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us." 2 timothy 3:15-17 The Message

Friends are another very important part of my life. I can count my treasured friends on both hands, each one brings a special gift to my soul and well being. I would love to name each here individually but I won't embarrass them—you each know who you are and I thank you for the blessings you bring to my life.

With each post I will include a photograph I've taken or one of my watercolors with hopes of brightening your day, to encourage and uplift you. May God's blessings wrap around you today!