On March 1st of this year, two of my friends and I have been invited to display and sell our artwork at the Country Club on Camano Island. I am both excited and terrified at this. The art will be on display at the Country Club for the entire month of March, after which time a new pair or small group of artists will take over the space. This is such a wonderful opportunity for artists on the island here.
For anyone local that has an interest in attending, the address is:
Camano Island Country Club
1243 Beach Drive
Camano Island, WA 98282
Opening night is March 1st, but the art will be on display and for sale the entire month of March.
Below are some of the paintings I am considering for the show. I need to narrow it down to about a dozen of them.
I have loved art all my life. However, I spent most of it believing that I didn’t have talent. My brother was the artist, I was told. And I believed them. Then I found myself needing to learn basic drafting skills for my job. I took it further and realized that “I” could draw. Then a friend gave me a starter set of pastels and there was color!
I have no formal education in art. I just have a deep love of nature, of beauty and of creating.
I am mostly a self-taught artist. I have taken some lessons from a few people through the years. People that I am so very grateful for. They helped me get through a few critical hurdles that allowed me to jump forward and instilled some seeds of confidence. I still take a lot of lessons, via You Tube now and am amassing a nice collection of instruction books. Such wonderful resources.
As for my mediums, I am enjoying exploring many of them. I am a photographer and often use my photos for inspiration for my art. I believe at this point, watercolor is my strongest medium. But, that is because I currently have more experience with it. I am also trying my hand with acrylics and have recently taken up oils, which I am rapidly falling in love with. I don’t think I will wind up using a single medium. They are all so different and each calls to me in a different way. I feel I shall spend my life following the passions and seductions of each.
I have no idea how far this love affair will take me. I don’t know if it will line my pockets or not. I know that it feeds my soul at a level that no other pursuit has. And that is enough to keep me chasing its songs to the end.
Oh! My logo. Spiders are creators. They also rebirth themselves, shed their skins and can get into any place they want to (you can’t keep spiders out) But, they are creators. They are magical. Just ask Charlotte. She was one of my favorite stories as a child and is still so as an adult.
I hope you like the dreams it has brought to my hands so far.
And the sun begins to set over the bay, so a short stop at the wetlands. Could build a town with all the driftwood we get!
My dear friend came out for a visit for a couple of days. As we had spent the morning having breakfast on the way back from the airport and fussing around at cool little local stores, we finished the day by going for a wander at my beach. The entire beach seems to be a bleached graveyard for the trees and branches for at least a half dozen states and numerous islands.
Okay, so there are a few things that seem to resist the bleaching aspect of the beach, like this manzanita branch. We were fascinated with the knotted curls along the length like arthritic joints or maybe alien tentacles reaching out from the rocky blanket. Ooooh, “They Came From Below.”
And they insert their demonic spawn spores into the branches to wait for unsuspecting people to carry them home where they will mature and hatch and then possess the bodies of the people in the house, insert themselves into society and take over the world. They count on the fact that most people are looking to the skies for potential invasion, so are unsuspecting of what is below their feet.
Nature is just amazing in its ability to find a seat for new life in just about any place, on any surface. Such as a bleached out dead piece of wood that has washed up on the beach.
I do so like this house that just sits out all by itself on the bluff.
Its almost like a lifeless tree growing out of the pebbled beach on an alien landscape.
Quite the little battle of the goldfinches going on over the feeder. You would think there is more than enough to go around. It seems greed is not just restricted to humans.
It almost seems like it was an orchestrated plan to build such a linear, high tech building next to this particular sand of driftwood. Though, it seems there is one that is either rearing up in protest or celebration.
I was very proud of how well this one came out. I may have to work out the words of these three in their battle of the bulge.
Skeletal hands at the bottom of this sculpture beckoning you to look closer.
And so mom’s idea of how to deal with the grief is to do massive amounts of work in the yard. Personally, I think she should stay inside and let me cuddle with her, but she doesn’t listen to my floofy wisdom.
I know, I did’t finish it. But, I got about 2/3 of it done. And a hot bath will be in order at the end of this day!
And another enclosure for the compost pile.
ust an interesting piece of driftwood in the front garden. I’ll find some shapes in it another day.
Okay, pit stop on the way out to look at the lovely colors in the basket on the back patio.
Its a sphere of trapped fairies crying out for some soul to harness the power of the West wind (or the East wind for that matter) to break them free of their bondage. “Its the Dryads that are into that bondage stuff, not us.” they whisper.
Yeah, yeah, I didn’t get it all cleaned out. But, it was covered with plant life before I started. Now I just have to figure out what I will plant here. Maybe corn???
Don’t you just love the way the thready thingie just curlie-cued all around the top of the plant?? I did!
And the golden tufted crowns strain their heads to listen to the conversations coming from the bed of the more cultivated flowers. Prissy little things they are, and such high maintenance, they thought with much laughter.
Baby seedlings coming up in the herb patch. And I have identified the big leaf plant! Its rhubarb. Yeah, I know. Most people will find that surprising. But, I have never been a fan of rhubarb, so I don’t have any idea what a plant looks like. Its quite a pretty plant, so that presents the question. To keep or not to keep??
And here we have one of those lovely guardian trees showing its appreciation for an offering it received by doing the solar dance of freedom. The supplicants are hiding in the little shack, as it has been rumored that these dances can bring about the dropping and flinging of branches and pine cones of most unusual size. Injuries and death have been known to result to unprotected supplicants and it has been proposed that there might be an intentional component in this as it would provide additional sacrifices to these ravenous creatures.
And as I drive onto the island, I take a turn on one of the side streets that I have been eyeballing for quite some time. It was a beautiful long stretch of road that ended at the coastline on the other side. I’ll save that area for another day. But, I had to stop for the clouds. And this one just looked like a storm God baring in for an assault on the ground below!!
Or maybe its a momma cloud Goddess chasing after its runaway offspring. Poor little thing! Oh Wait! No! Its dancing and chanting, “naner, naner, naner! Can’t catch me!” Ah, but we all know that mom will win this battle. And that light misty rain that followed? The little one with the paddled bottom!
Ah yes, and we step again into that wayback machine to a simpler time, a time of Laura Ingalls and John Wayne and no electricity and not internet . . . . Yeah, maybe not.
Looks like they have more than plenty of room for guest here. And don’t have to worry about them being underfoot! And its nice there are windows so they can look out, or be watched!
And this was the last picture I got before my beloved camera got sick. Its now at the camera hospital and though I do have the point and shoot to keep me somewhat occupied, life will not be the same till my baby comes home.