Good evening my blogger friends I hope you are enjoying this wonderful brand New Year. My hope for you is that you will discover, be challenged, and take risks and find your dreams.

I belong to a book club of four other women and myself making five of us. We have been friends for more than 20 years doing a Bible study together weekly. We decided at the beginning of the summer of 2013 to start a book club and I must say it has been one huge blessing for me. I have read some fantastic books to date, but my favorite is the one we just finished titled "The Blue Bottle Club" by Penelope Stokes. It is the best story I have ever read and I recommend it highly, but be prepared for an amazing adventure within your heart.

Blessings to you all on this third day into the New Year!  :)

Happy New Year my blog friends!

Blessings to you and your families, may your new year be full of joy, peace, contentment, new challenges and new goals!

My most important goal this year is to use the gifts, talents and abilities God has given me to bless and encourage others. To have an attitude of gratitude in all circumstances, and always do my very best in everything I set out to do.

Happy New Year!

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!