One day last month friends here at Oakwood had a "Paint Like Klimt" afternoon. A crazy group decided to look at some of Gustav's work and enjoy it and talk about gold leaf...which he used extensively in his work... and which doesn't photograph very well (by the way). Art therapist, Jennifer, brought in some "fake" but very realistic gold leaf and we talked about using it in a little painting to try it out. Klimt loved to paint women so I just sketched a make-believe one and looking at his many patterns (which you surely know I loved) I threw them recklessly all over her kimono and did a lot of crazy background patterns. Then I glued on gold leaf which you cannot even see on this photo. Many of the small black areas are in fact gold. The medium otherwise is watercolor and ink. 8 x 10.
This is just a quick little line sketch done in early November that I happened to come across that I'd forgotten to post. I'm in the process of sketching around my apartment home this winter. I LOVE looking back at my in-home sketches from Florida. Just LOVE. They bring me right back to the spots I enjoyed. So I am doing the same here.
The window in the sketch looks a bit different from the way it looked then, as it is now in mid-December filled with the lovely snow out on our Sycamore. The holidays are in full swing here now in Wisconsin. The snow comes and goes. So you never really know if it will be a white Christmas. But if we have a little snow to remember, it'll be fine.
My friend Lisa recently sent me her collection of all the old Christmas cards that I had hand painted over the years. I had forgotten that I did that many!! I wish it were not SO expensive now to do this. Even the postage is up to 55 cents each! I did love doing them. The cabin in winter card painting is framed and hanging the wall here in Madison. And I wish I could find the original of the birch tree shadows on snow at the bottom left...it was the view out our window at 7 mile house.
The dining room table scene is from 7 mile house...just before all the children arrived to have one of those memorable big family Christmases that you think will last forever...and come to find out they don't. Time moves on.
Looking at it, though, I can bring back that moment...the sun slanting through the dining room window. All the grandchildren (12 of them) were so young...many still babes in arms. A real fire in the fireplace crackling, hot rum drinks, games and presents, wet mittens, and so much food. Looking at all these cards just brings back so many happy memories.
I wish you all a hopeful, gentle and sweet Christmas. I know it's just not like that every year. There are so many losses and so many changes. The Christmas cards and email greetings this year were fewer because of that. And old friends and family now live on in our memories.
Our church here in Madison is focusing on the stars this year...somewhat based on photos from the James Webb telescope to inspire us! Every song the choir sings has a star theme or a night sky theme. Every sermon refers to our cosmic connection to the universe.
This has inspired me to do my own personal time line interpretation with a kind of "cosmic" background in many kinds of watercolor. The center being a sort of black hole looking back a those who came before me. Then the dots (starlike) on the spiral are events in my life...you know them well from your own time line...births and graduations and losses and joys and the memorable events.
Now as I approach the outward spiral of my life the events are closer and closer together just before I spiral off the time line back into the star dust of the universe. The events are closer together because now I know that EVERY event and happening in the moments of my life are an "event" worth remembering.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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