This is a 18″x24″ birch panel. It’s the first piece I began on my new easel. I turned it from vertical to horizontal many times. There are lots of layers and lots of sanding. Each photo represents the end of a day.

I think I’m finished. I may add some glazing -but no more big changes. I’m calling it ‘City Garden.’

We have a closing date and a final Hud statement. I think we just might buy a house. And what’s fun is the closing date is my birthday! We meet with our realtor Friday to set the ground work for selling our current house. And I have started packing – a little.

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” -Diane Ackeman

Mother’s Day is such a gift. I have all of the mother’s day cards Luke has ever given me; each with it’s own sweet note. The early ones are written in a child’s scrawl with misspelled words and letters written backwards, but each one is a treasured memory of a relationship like no other. A mother’s love is such a pure wonderful experience. I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

I finally bought an easel. I had a 40% off coupon for one item from Dick Blick’s and decided it was time. So many people have told me that my painting will change if I paint upright instead of flat. I’ve noticed that my perspective is always slightly off when I’m painting/drawing portraits on a flat surface. I’m going to start on that blank canvas today. I just got a new book, Brave Intuitive Painting by Flora Bowley and I want to try some of the techniques she suggests on this piece. (My studio looks messy – but it’s not really – I’ve just started packing it up.)

Soon I’ll be sitting here. We got word on Friday that the underwriters have approved our mortgage! YAY! Now I really have to start packing. We’re moving our studios immediately. That will give us an empty garage and basement. And we will de-clutter closets and take some furniture leaving this house somewhat staged for quick selling! I sure hope it’s quick and will gratefully accept all prayers and good wishes to make that a reality!

I’m a planner, worrier and an organizer. I’ve tried very hard to let this house buying, moving and selling just unfold naturally without my thinking mind being part of the process. Some days it’s taken quite a conversation with myself to keep from spinning and whirling through my day. But I will confess, the entire process has been much easier without over thinking every detail. I’ve really worked at just being present – in the moment and I highly recommend living this way. I’m thinking it will even help me in my painting.

“Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be a relevation.” – Eileen Caddy

We had such a wonderful weekend. Friday afternoon we met the woman who owns the house we are buying. She was delightful – about 80 years old and completely engaging – smart, funny. And the best thing is she’s taken really good care of the property. We are buying a few furniture items from her which was our reason for visiting. But we also found out that all of the acreage surrounding our property is in conservancy from another homeowner who lives about 7 acres from us and our only neighbor. So no one can develop the 70 acres which borders us. We also have a big creek on the back end of our land that you can hear – and see in the winter time.

And a couple of miles from us a man is creating a llama farm. We’ll pass it on our way into town. But the best news is the appraisal was approved so the loan moves forward. This mortgage business is like playing a board game – so far we haven’t had any steps backwards! Fingers x’d!

Our anniversary celebration was fabulous. The food at our favorite French restaurant was delicious as always. And it was an added bonus to have Luke join us. I spent yesterday digging out the fading pansies and planting a few different varieties of daisies in the pots on our front porch.

Well off to start packing. Today I’m tackling my glaze chemical closet. Oh joy.

“May the longtime sun shine upon you. All love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way home.” -The Incredible String Band

Tomorrow Bob and I will celebrate 28 years of marriage! And in a few weeks we will close on a mountain property we have dreamed about for many years. Bob and I have lived in West Virginia, California, Florida and now Georgia. We spent the first seven years together before Luke joined us and then have spent the last twenty-one years as a family – a family based on love and respect. A family that has been able to look outward with the same goals. Sometimes the days were long – but these years have flown by. This love has made me richer in spirit than I could have ever imagined. We met in November and married the next May – a whirlwind love that continues today! I have a grateful heart.

Lately I have spent a lot of my time working in my journals. I’m concentrating on drawing with just a little addition of mixed media using ephemera, charcoal, pastels and acrylics. The above piece was done a couple of weeks ago – acrylics on birch panel.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Luke comes home this evening to celebrate our anniversary with us. Tomorrow we are going to Atlanta to have lunch in a fabulous French Bistro. YUM!

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.” -Richard Bach 

I took a couple of art classes about 7 years ago and fell in love with charcoal. I was very immersed in clay at that time, so after the classes I put my supplies away and went back to clay.

Just lately I remembered that I loved working with charcoal and remembered I still had some materials stored away! I felt these journal pages I had done in July Pritchards’s Act Natural class needed some thing more. Combine that with my fascination with the human face and here’s the results. Definitely something I could explore deeper. Hmmmm.

These are a mixture of collage, acrylic paints, washes and glazes, charcoal, pastels, fixative and more acrylic.

“May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.” -John O’Donohue

This year’s garden is so lush and green. I love to sit right here. It’s so peaceful. We didn’t really have a winter this year in the south so not only is my garden full early, but I’m finding good cantaloupes and watermelon and tomatoes already and it’s not even May. Delicious finds but I’m a little concerned about what this early season really means to our environment. I think we can no longer deny that human beings are having an impact on our planet.

I’m continuing to make these grungy collages with ephemera, transfers and acrylic washes and glazes. I’ve now decided to use these as a background for some charcoal portraits I’ve been doing. I’ll try to post some images of these this week.

Luke sent us this portrait of Watson the other day – he finishes up his semester this week and will be home for the month of May. We’ve ‘hired’ him to help with some big projects on our current home as we get it ready to sell. We are still patiently waiting for all the inspections and appraisals and forms to be approved for our new house. I don’t understand why it takes so long. We’ve decided to go ahead and move to the new property as soon as we close leaving just enough stuff here for it to look ‘lived-in.’ That way I won’t have to stop in the middle of my art work, grab the dog and leave for the house to be shown. And hopefully it will stay cleaner without us living here, too.

We are also anxious to start our gardens. Georgia has two vegetable growing seasons and if we can start working on them in June, we could be eating out of our own garden this fall! YAY

A quick small acrylic painting on birch panel I’m calling ‘The Bridge to Happiness.’ What makes you happy?

“I learned never to empty the well, but always to stop when there was still something in the deep part of the well and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.” -Ernest Hemmingway

I’m taking a break from painting to concentrate on drawing and learning more about values and shading. I’m taking a portrait class from Gritty Jane (DesRosier). I find that painting with acrylics can be flat and the more I learned about mixing colors and glazing with acrylics, I realized I need to learn more about shading and light sources and value. One door sure leads to another.

The home buying project is moving along – too slowly, but we got an A+ report from the house inspector. Nothing is wrong with the house – nothing. I don’t think I’ve ever moved into a property that didn’t need some work done – and most of the homes needed total renovation! Ahhh – won’t it be nice to just enjoy living. This is such good news because we plan on focusing on the garden. We are going to install raised beds for our vegetables and an asparagus bed and blue berries and horseradish and rhubarb . . . oh I can’t wait!

We are still waiting on the underwriters acceptance of our loan. Why are they so mysterious? And they seem to hold so much power . . .  getting a mortgage and banking is so different today than it was before the mortgage crisis. And of course, we still have to sell our current home in this crazy market. But if that doesn’t happen in a timely fashion we will just find long term renters. So far though everything is positive and I’m just going to continue with that way of moving through this process. Say a prayer  . . .

Watson could care less where he lives as long as you bring his ball. What he doesn’t realize is this new place has two acres of fenced play – woot-woot!

“Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.” -George MacDonald

I’m not sure when I first found out about MizKatie and her fabulous work, but I’ve known for a long time I wanted one of her paintings. Then just recently on her blog, she posted a request for kids photos. AHA! I’ve posted the photo below of my son Luke. It’s one of my favorites of him, so I sent it to MizKatie. Below you can see her painting and even follow the link to see a YouTube video of her painting it.

I’m thrilled. The painting looks better in person. Go check out MizKatie’s blog and work and have one of your favorite photos painted too. You will be so happy you did!

Here’s the YouTube link of her painting Luke:  Miz Katie painting Luke

“The world is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” -W.B. Yeats

The 2012 Sketchbook project is now on tour and online! You can view my entire project from cover to cover online if you can’t make it to the tour in person. Please go visit and leave me a comment on the Art House website when you browse the book. It would be wonderful to me to be able to see and know that people are reading the book which is why I decided to have it hosted online; so I really hope you’ll visit and leave a comment.

Doing this project was so amazing for me. I had never done anything like this before and it consumed me – in a good way. It was so much fun to come up with the story I wanted to tell and it was through this process that I realized I wanted to work more 2-dimensionally and that I loved quotes. The Sketchbook Project pointed me in a direction creatively that I never would have gone if I hadn’t participated.

So head over to their website and read about the projects; look at some sketchbooks and sign-up to do the 2013 project. You won’t regret it.

And don’t forget to visit my book and leave a comment!

“To draw you must close your eyes and sing.” - Pablo Picasso

“We worry because we are not in control of what might happen. But the control we have is pretty illusory anyway. We may think that by working hard we will get rich – and we might. But that is not the actual cause of wealth – generosity is the cause of wealth. We are almost never in control of external events, despite appearances. Our accumulated karma is what will decide our experiences. When we realize this, we can relax because we know there is not point in worrying about things. We can instead welcome whatever comes our way.” -the Vide Kadampa (from Tumblr)