Sunday Sunlight

I took this on July 9, 2011, after we had a very unexpected, very welcome, but very brief rain shower.  I'm fascinated by light and shadow...rain drops on a cherry in dappled sunlight was irresistible!  After I took the photo I ate the cherry.  I figured the birds wouldn't mind if I took just one.  (I have to admit, though, it tasted so good that I came back and picked a few more...but I was careful to leave plenty for the birds).

The Doldrums

                           (The window ledge outside my studio) 

My mind has been stuck in the doldrums of summer lately, or becalmed as my brother would say when we were sailing off the coast of California and the wind died.  Usually at those times a fog would also surround us and that could be pretty scary if we happened to be close to the shipping lanes.  I feel like my mind is fogged in, too.  Any activity that requires more thinking than lifting a glass of sweet tea (iced tea), reading a not too challenging book, or picking the dead blossoms off flowers has just been beyond me.  I haven't even been doing too well at the dead blossom thing, as you can tell from the photo above.  And, the brain fog is getting thicker as I write this...I think I'll go to bed.

I See You

(Blogger cut off part of this photo, so left click to see the whole photo). I took this while I was sitting working on a painting in my studio.  The big window I sit in front of faces out onto my little fenced in 'secret garden' area and the forest.  I've taken to keeping my camera handy lately after years of looking up from working and thinking 'Oh, that would be a wonderful photo, if only I had my camera...' 
These two photos are a little blurry, but I'm amazed they came out at all.  The Dogwood tree the butterfly is sitting in is about 60 feet away and it was windy on the day I took this.  There is a Dogwood right outside the window, but, of course, it wouldn't land there.
This is one of the biggest Swallowtail Butterflies I've ever seen.  It's on the leaf of a Pacific Dogwood, which is the only kind of Dogwood indigenous to the West, and their leaves average about 5 to 6 inches across. 
The only problem now that I'm keeping my camera close by is that I'm doing more looking than painting!  And, apparently, being looked at...

Where Bloggers Create, 2012

This blog party is being hosted by Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage.  Click on the first link on the right to visit some really fantastic studios! And...welcome to my studio!  Walking through the open door, this is what you would see above: My tree, which I leave up all year round.  In my studio, it is always Winter, always Christmas (and Halloween, as you will see).

This chair is directly to the right of the fireplace.

Looking a bit to the left...

This is what I see when I'm standing in front of the hearth looking back.  (That mirror on the right is there because I haven't decided where to put it yet).  You can see part of a small bathroom way in the back on the right.

 This is where I do most of my painting.  It has a little sink close by, which is handy when I work in watercolor.

A few of my Windsor and Newton Alkyds.  This is directly to my left when I'm sitting in my chair.

And my easel is just behind me if I turn around.

This is what's on the easel right now.  It's a preliminary drawing (which is not showing up too well; left click on it to see it better) of a girl riding a polar bear under the Northern Lights with the Brooks Range of Alaska in the background.  The colors of the lights will be reflected in the snow and there will be Faeries flitting around the bear and the girl.  I'll probably do this painting in Alkyds.

This is a little 'kitchen' area to the right of the sink.  There is a small refrigerator under the counter and a microwave on the counter across from this one. I have to have my tea and scones!

Looking back towards the fireplace.  The Reindeer is Prancer.  My husband is so wonderful, he knows I'm only 8 years old at heart and bought Prancer for me to indulge that little 8 year old.  My small great-great-nieces are convinced that Prancer can magically fly through the walls every night and up to the North Pole to visit Santa. 

This is Minette Mouse.  She's great at coming up with ideas for paintings...

and wonderfully efficient at keeping my brushes for various mediums separated and in their proper containers!

This painting was one of Minette's ideas.

This is a painting that I taught my students how to do when I was teaching Decorative Painting.

My mother crocheted all the doilies and the covering over the table behind Prancer, which is actually a twin sized bedspread.  She always said that crocheting wasn't an art, but I firmly believe it is!  Sadly, I didn't get her gift for crocheting, but instead got my Nonna's gift for painting.  Well, a little bit of it; she was a much, much better painter than I can ever hope to be.

The sewing basket underneath the cricket (it's always lucky to have a cricket on the hearth, don't you know) was my Nonna's, then my Mama's and now mine.  The Fairy Tale Book was given to me by my Father in 1955.

My wonderful husband built this studio for me in 1998 and bought the sterling tea service on the right of the table as an anniversary present that same year.  It was the first thing I put in the studio!

When I'm not painting, I love sitting on the couch, especially when it's chilly enough to have a fire in the fireplace.  This is not just a studio for me to work in, it's my sanctuary, my refuge.  I love being surrounded by things my family has made, used, or given to me; it's like they're right here with me.  Sometimes my husband and I have dinner in front of the fire.  He says it's the only time he gets to visit the painting I did for him, which hangs over the mantel, lol.  I keep meaning to paint something else to hang there so he can put this painting in his den, but, so far, Minette Mouse hasn't come up with an idea. 

I hope you enjoyed your visit, and thank you so much for stopping by! 

Wordless Wednesday - Drifting

Happy 4th, everyone.

July Full Moon

Everything is nice and calm tonight (touch wood), but it won't be that way tomorrow night...sigh.

Sunday Sunlight

Shadows and light, colors and their reflections, colors that try to hide in the shadows of white...

International Faery Day

Rosina, who usually hangs out in my back garden, says, "Don't forget, today is International Faeries Day!  We'll be celebrating all evening and all through the night, until the stars go back to sleep for the day.  Keep your eyes open...you just might see one of us!"

Faeries Friday

"Sometimes Fairy stories may say best what's to be said."  C. S. Lewis  (photo from Pinterest ).  

Sunday Sunlight

I took this back in June of 2008.  It was growing in someone else's garden, but they didn't mind if I took a photo, bless them.

Faeries Friday - Sunflower

This is Sunflower.  I only see her in the summer months, and I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of her very early one morning just before the dawn.  And, wasn't I lucky to have my camera in my hand! ;-)  She quickly flew out the open window and up through the dogwoods just outside my studio.  I suppose she was flying off to the sunflowers in the little meadow just up the mountain slope from my studio.  She helps them to open up in the morning and sings them to sleep in the evening.  She has lots and lots of relatives so the next time you're around a field of sunflowers keep a sharp lookout...you just might see a Sunflower Faery!

Wordless Wednesday - Floating

Dollar Lake

(Alpine Shooting Star, Dollar Lake, elevation 9,288 feet, San Bernardino Mountains, CA)

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."  John Muir

Dollar Lake is one of my favorite places.  It's hard to get to even though it isn't that far from where I live...if I were a Raven and could fly there.  It's located in the San Gorgonio Wilderness (95,903 acres) nearly at the top of the North Face of Charlton Peak (elevation 10,806 feet) and is a 10 mile hike from the nearest trailhead.  During those 10 miles there is a vertical gain of about 4,000 feet, so it's a pretty steep trail, and the trail isn't much of a trail.  But once I get there...ahhh, complete solitude and an utter lack of human-made sounds, as long as I don't go up there in the summer months.  (At Dollar Lake's elevation summer occurs in July and August).  I usually go by myself and camp for at least three days and it really is a healing experience "to body and soul alike."

Sunday Sunlight

This was taken last May while I was walking on the path that goes around Lake Arrowhead.  The sun had almost set, and I was alone on the path, when I came upon a Dogwood tree that some idiotic, thoughtless person had ripped a lot blossoms from and then just left them there on the ground.  Really, what is wrong with some people?  Oh, right.  I already answered that; they're idiotic and thoughtless.  Anyway, the way it was holding the light caught my attention.  After I photographed it I took it and the other victims home, where they floated in bowls of water for several days.  Every time I looked at them I wondered if the person who ripped them off the tree knew, or cared, about the berries that the center of the blossoms would have turned into this coming Autumn and how many birds might go hungry because those berries weren't there. 

Of course, there are lots of other Dogwood trees in this forest, so, hopefully, no birds will go hungry.  I guess what really got to me was the expression of a total disconnect from, and lack of respect for, Nature.

Faeries Friday

This is my newest Faery.  I don't know her name yet because I didn't want to wake her up from her nap and risk...well, you know. 

Not Again!

The black kitty on the right is Stella when she was a kitten, but her look captures perfectly how I feel.  My computer got the SAME virus that it had a couple of weeks ago.  SCREEEEEEM!!

When I got it back this time, it didn't have all my photos in it where they should be, so I'm hunting through the hard drive, finding them from the list I have on Seagate (thank God/dess I backed everything up).  When I copy them to the proper folder it makes 3 separate copies in a different file.  If I delete even one of these copies, they ALL disappear.  FOREVER! 

So I'm finding that screaming every now and then acts like a pressure release valve.  Plus, it scares the heck out of my husband .... and that always makes me laugh! 

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!!!

The Past Two Weeks

Sunday Sunlight

Taken 7-8-2008 from the top of the ridge west of my cottage.

Faeries Friday - Amie

This little rabbit has a hurt paw, so he has come to Amie because he knows she will heal it.  Many Faeries are friends to the animals and will help them when they need it, but Amie is well known as a superior healer.  I'm sure she'll have him healed and happy in no time at all!

Lilacs

They're blooming all over here.  Some put out leaves and buds too early and have no blooms, just new leaves coming out.  Some, like the one above managed to save a few blooms.

Others, like this one, and the one below, did pretty well considering what a crazy Spring we've had.

The air is wonderfully scented with lilacs.
                  

I wish they would last longer, but I'm very grateful that I have them.  They won't grow down in the valley where my sister lives, so I take huge bouquets to her every spring.  Funny...I won't cut them for myself to be in my house but I can justify cutting them for her since she doesn't have any.  Ah well, I suppose we all have our little quirks.

I'm Watching You...

This is a Steller's Jay.  I love their beautiful blue colors; unfortunately I can't say the same for their voice.  They have a harsh sounding caw most of the time, but sometimes they do make quiet little whortling, churring, and squeaking sounds.  They only make these sounds when they're by themselves, so I suppose they're talking to themselves.  They're great imitators.  This one (I don't know if it is a male or female since, unlike most bird species, they both look the same) always imitates the sound of a hawk when it comes to the feeders.  Of course all the other birds flee and it has the feeders all to itself.  Clever bird! 

Dreams

The greatest achievement was at first, and for a time, a dream. 
The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, 
And in the highest vision of the soul, 
A waking angel stirs. 
Dreams are the seedlings of realities.  ~  James Allen

Art by Gillian Gamble Illustrations and Photography