Officially Autumn

Today is the first day of fall, the autumnal equinox, where the sun is directly above the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal. The autumnal equinox occurred early this morning at 3:09 UTC, Coordinated Universal Time. But here in America, the equinox occurred last night, at 11:09 on the East Coast.

I looked up the daylight hours for Lac du Flambeau, Wi (northern Wi) and we have 13 hours and 7 minutes of daylight now. And we are losing 3 minutes and 13 seconds of daylight each day.

Normal temperature for today is 59 and we'll be at about that temp most of today. Although we are in a flood watch today with 100% chance of thunderstorms. A perfect day to paint!!!

These leaves are from my walk along the forest roads two days ago shortly after a rain storm...the sun came out and we had a brilliant morning and the wet leaves on the roads glistened like they had been freshly painted! Or freshly given a gloss coat of varnish! The sky after the rain was so clear it gave you a sense of being in a 3D movie. And the sky was a deep Cobalt blue against the gambouge yellows of the birches. I am holding off painting leaves this fall...and rather concentrating on a still life of apple cake and my glorious peppers.

We have 3 weeks left in the north woods now during which time we will see the leaves all fall and probably some snow showers arrive turning fall to winter in such a brief flash. I see from reading my favorite north woods almanac Graced By the Seasons: Fall and Winter in the Northwoods by John Bates, that in the year 2000 on October 7, Lac du Flambeau area had 7" of snow! I wonder if I should invest in a pair of boots?

Midsummer Nights Eve

Garrison Keillor has a wonderful "free" daily mail service which includes one poem and usually 3-4 interesting highlights concerning this day...usually poets or authors and now and then an artist. I love what he sent me today. It bring back amazing memories of my first visit to England where I was indeed served mead. It is absolutely wonderful and very potent and before you know it, you are not walking straight anymore and everything is funny! If you are interested in this free service google Writer's Almanac.

Tonight is Midsummer Night's Eve, also called St. John's Eve. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers. It's a time when the hives are full of honey. The full moon that occurs this month was called the Mead Moon, because honey was fermented to make mead. That's where the word "honeymoon" comes from, because it's also a time for lovers. An old Swedish proverb says, "Midsummer Night is not long but it sets many cradles rocking." Midsummer dew was said to have special healing powers. In Mexico, people decorate wells and fountains with flowers, candles, and paper garlands. They go out at midnight and bathe in the lakes and streams. Midsummer Eve is also known as Herb Evening. Legend says that this is the best night for gathering magical herbs. Supposedly, a special plant flowers only on this night, and the person who picks it can understand the language of the trees. Flowers were placed under a pillow with the hope of important dreams about future lovers.

Shakespeare set his play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on this night. It tells the story of two young couples who wander into a magical forest outside Athens. In the play, Shakespeare wrote, "The course of true love never did run smooth."

Rose Edin's beautiful work!!!

I mentioned on a recent post that I was so fortunate to get a gift certificate to a class at Dillman's Resort this summer. And how I was like a kid in a candy store trying to decide which one to take!!!

I "think" I've made up my mind. Rose Edin is teaching the last week in September (which would be good timing for me too.) I was wondering if anyone has taken one her classes?

Her work is SO lovely! And I just read one of her "Watercolor Essentials" article in Watercolor Artist Magazine, August 2010. Her new book Color Harmonies is just out now and I think I'll get a copy!

I haven't read up too much but I am thinking she is a MN artist and winters in FL. Anyone know? I shall have to look over her website more for bibliography. I just wondered if anyone had taken a class. I don't want to wait to long to sign up because if she doesn't get a minimum, she'll cancel out. This is a gorgeous time of year in the north woods you guys! We'll be at peak color the last week in September!!!

The class will be Sept 26-Oct 1 (starts with a reception on Sunday evening and runs 4 days and then closes on Thursday with check-out on Friday morning). The cost is $490 for the workshop and $309 for the room Sun night through Thursday night (including one dinner). Box lunches are ordered out for lunch. Dinners on your own. They have small kitchens in the cottages, I believe or there are many nice restaurants in the Minocqua/Woodruff/Manitowish Waters area. See more info about the workshop here.

Labyrinths: 7 circuit

From the name of this blog you know right on that labyrinths are a special interest of mine AND of my daughter Julie. (shown here). Julie has been doing some reading and studying about them and come to find out their history is more than fascinating and goes back 3000 years! There are many many kinds of labyrinths. This one is known as a "classic" 7 circuit. This is a nice one to start out with although you could go with 5 circuits too I think to start even smaller. Julie worked for two solid days making this one...there is a lot of labor involved!!! This one came from a pattern in a book by Donna Schaper and Carole Ann Camp called Labyrinths from the Outside In: A Walking Guide to Spiritual Insight: A Beginner's Guide. This one fit well along the rocky shoreline of little Tippecanoe Lake in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.

We are in severe drought here and the shore line of rocks you see here should all be UNDER WATER! We are somewhat distraught over this. But making lemonade out of lemons, Julie decided to give us something special with this unintentional space. What a lovely gift. The contemplative nature of a walk through a labyrinth is amazing. And to have it along a shore of a lovely lake is quite amazing too (I'll have to show a photo with the lake in it too as it right behind where Julie is standing.) We are thinking of placing a chair or bench in the very center so the walker can sit quietly in the center for awhile if he or she wishes.

There is a lot of history too of how the labyrinth and mazes are used as artistic decoration on pottery and on murals throughout history! I know jewelry makers have used them as well.

Thinking pink

Thinking pink...have always loved this painting which I did from a photo I took in Key West. My sister has it hanging in her house in South Carolina.

Suddenly we are getting some 80s here in Central Florida and I am feeling like spring might finally have arrived. The orange blossoms are opening and the sun feels like Florida again. I sure hope so! We might even get to the pool tomorrow?

I am getting emails from friends and relative up in the midwest who have lots of robins now and whose tulips and daffodils are rising up just like Easter was around the corner!!!

I also wanted to draw your spring-like attention to a very neat spring flower website where you can hold down your mouse and grow your own flowers. Click here and see if it works for you. It is a black page but when you click...or hold down your mouse... How do people do this stuff?!! My daughter in law, Marie, sent me this.

I hope to get to my sketch book this week a little too...my studio is in transition still but the sketch book is always ready to go.

Happy Pi Day!!!

Just in case you are wondering why Google would display this odd logo today...

Today is Pi Day, in honor of the mathematical constant pi (π), an irrational number that begins 3.14 — like today's date, March 14th or 3/14.

π is a letter of the Greek alphabet, and it's the symbol for the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. In other words, if a circle has a diameter of 10 inches, we could find out its circumference by multiplying 10 inches by π, and we'd find out that the circle with a 10-inch diameter has a circumference (or perimeter) of approximately 31.4159265. It can only ever be approximate — never exact — because π is an irrational number, meaning that it goes on forever without repeating or having patterns. Using powerful computers, π has been calculated in recent years into trillions of decimal places.

Pi Day began in 1988, started by a physicist named Larry Shaw. And just last year, in 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution designating today as National Pi Day.

Pi Day celebrations around the nation today involve eating dessert pies or pizza pies, throwing cream pies, and listening to lectures on the importance of the irrational number — sometimes all of these things occurring in unison.

I heartily recommend eating a pie today! Or even better...painting one!!!

Watching Art Emerge off the Page

There is something really fun watching a piece begin to almost "leap" off a page of paper.

This is about 20 x 20 watercolor on Arches cold press. I may crop it into a horizontal piece when it's time to frame.

I haven't done much shading on this yet.

It's fun to notice how randomly the clowns seem to have collected for the photo in such an interesting way. I am also suddenly very aware of their unique faces...and remember being told by a clown that each face is like a copyrighted image for that particular clown. In fact it can actually BE copyrighted.

Egg Register

When a clown joins Clowns International in England, which claims to be the oldest clown society in the world, he can register his individual make-up. An eggshell is decorated as a miniature version of the clown's head and added to the "Egg Gallery" which then acts as sort of clown copyright. There are genres of clown faces based on famous clowns of the past.

In the photo I took it is dark behind them. And I am beginning to think about background now a little. I had originally thought of large stripes behind them...sort of a circus background but I can see the foreground is so busy now with their great costumes that I will probably need a resting place for the eye back there. Another thought I had was to have some printing behind them about the history of clowns...or words that remind us about the history of clowning....words like Buster Keaton, Red Skelton, Emmett Kelley or hobo tramp, bum, mime, bouffon, jester...etc. You can read a really interesting bit about clowning on Wikepedia.

One interesting side issue in the article is a short paragraph about "fear of clowns". It even has a name: Coulrophobia. Interestingly the article points out that where and when you encounter a clown is usually the issue. In a circus or a parade or a party they can be fun. But they can be frightening, especially to younger children if encountered in surprising places. Someone once said, "there is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight." Fascinating. That is making me think twice about putting a dark background behind these clowns!!!

ps. if you really want to see a funny clown routine and have 6 minutes to spare go here.

Thinking Clowny Thoughts

I've enlarged the clowns and got them sketched out on watercolor paper.

As I look them over and enjoy the ideas going through my head in color, style and composition. I can't help thinking that a few them or maybe just one of them would make a great paper painting. Or a series of 4 that could be hung together? Wouldn't that be fun?

The possibilities are endless.

ps..special thanks to Barb Sailor for sharing with me the Sunshine Blog Award! I love it. I figured out how to put the awards down on the right side of the blog finally. What wonderful things to share with one another!!!

Happy Birthday Susan Vreeland

It's the birthday of novelist Susan Vreeland, (books by this author) born in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1946. She grew up in California, became a teacher, and for 30 years she taught English and ceramics in the San Diego public schools. She wrote a book called What Love Sees (1988), based on the true story of her parents' friends, a couple who were both blind but who managed a ranch and raised children with the help of a Seeing Eye cow. But she was also busy with her teaching, and for a while she wrote occasional stories or articles, but not much else.

Then, in 1996, she was diagnosed with lymphoma. She had chemotherapy and operations, and for a few months she couldn't do much but read, and even that was hard for her. So instead, she paged through art books, and she especially liked Vermeer, whose paintings were so calming. She needed more treatment, and she had to take off another year of teaching, and so she started writing stories based on Vermeer. Vermeer only painted 35 paintings, and so Susan Vreeland imagined that he had painted one more, and she wrote a story about that, and then several more stories about Vermeer and the imagined 36th painting and the people who owned it over the years. She said, "My goal at the time wasn't to create a novel that would make it out in the big world. It was to have enough time left in my life to finish this group of stories and print out 12 copies, so my husband could give them to members of my writing group so they'd have something to remember me by." She did finish them, and she turned them into a novel, and a tiny publishing house in Denver agreed to publish the novel, Girl in Hyacinth Blue (1999).

Girl In Hyacinth Blue was a best-seller, and Penguin bought the rights. Vreeland got better, and now she had an audience for her work, so she wrote four more novels centered around art, including The Passion of Artemisia (2002) about one of the first influential female artists, Artemisia Gentileschi, and most recently, The Boating Party(2007), about Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Both novelswere New York Times best-sellers.

I reviewed The Boating Party earlier this month as a friend had recommended it and I was so enjoying it. Then today Garrison Keillor's podcast had a happy birthday for the author! When I read about the other books Susan has written and about her life, I felt moved to give her a tribute on my blog this morning. What a woman to overcome her illness with pushing ahead to write despite a dim prognosis and then a happy ending that she is loved and gets better and writes more! Go Susan! I am definitely going to read more of Susan's books!!! (Incidentally Racine, WI is just an hour away from where I lived for more than 20 years!).

Inspiration?

This is one of my favorite little cartoons that keep me sane. I hope it's large enough to read the print..if not I think you can click to enlarge it. I am still learning how to work my scanner.

I would love to give the artist/cartoonist credit for this but I've had it for YEARS and the credits are long since lost. If anyone knows, I'd be so happy to add that to it. I am sure it came out of some ancient Artist magazine.

Whenever I am teaching a class I bring a copy of this along. Wheverer I paint something (like that portrait I posted a few days ago...hmmm...looks a lot like the one in the cartoon?) then I remember this...it could just be the flu!

Have a good weekend.

Finger Labyrinths

Obviously, from the title of my blog I am a fan of the labyrinth.

My guess is that many of you have walked a labyrinth at one time or another. If not, I encourage you to do so. It is a spiritual experience and very quieting for the soul. These pictured here are FINGER labyrinths. Something I was just exposed to a few years ago when I came upon some in a museum. They are wonderful. These particular ones are for sale. click here. I am not necessarily plugging buying one, but it would be fun to have one. They come in a huge variety of different materials from stone to plastic. You can even print out a free finger labyrinth to use. Go here. As artists I am sure we could dream up a way to create our own finger labyrinths! I could certainly see making one of ceramic or clay! But I'll be one could be made in some multi-media form as well that is very amazing. How's that for a challenge! Walking (or walking with your fingers) among the turnings, one loses track of direction and of the outside world, and thus quiets the mind.

The 29 Day Giving Challenge

Well, we are in Alabama again but this time heading south back to Florida.
Just 9 more hours of driving to go. SIGH. We are SO tired of living out of a suitcase that we are now getting grumpy! But the holiday was wonderful and I'll blog about that more tomorrow when I will have some photos to share and have slept one night in my own bed.

Meanwhile here's an interesting thought that my daughter has passed along to me for the holiday season. We often challenge each other on blogs (or in person) to accomplish certain things...paint silhouettes, or keep journals, or do portraits, etc. What about challanging ourselves to give a little something away each day? What a holiday challenge, don't you think?

Here's the website and it's called the 29 Day Giving Challenge. Remember this is about giving but not necessarily giving stuff...all the more challenging is to give of ourselves...our time, our love, our cheer, our art, our friendliness, etc. Read up and see. You can actually sign up and chat with other's about this or you could just do it on your own. It's just about being more intentional with your gifts. It's about calling that person you haven't seen for ages, hugging someone who really needs one but won't expect it, baking something for a shut in, etc etc. I love the idea and just thought I'd pass it along.

Meet Thalia

Muse: a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

Note: the "s" in muse is pronounced like a "z".

From Greek and Roman mythology it seems that the 9 daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne presided over the the arts and sciences. The daughter named Thalia presided over comedy and light verse. I love that!

Today I found Thalia at the Christmas shop. I couldn't resist her. Her hair looks a lot like mine when I forget to color it. (I mean she really didn't have that name...but she does now.) My husband loves the garters.

She's sitting on top of my computer but she'll be in the studio soon where she can be a source of creative inspiration!

Rhonda is encouraging folks to try the 20 minute challenge. Wouldn't it be fun to try to draw or paint Thalia? I'm on!!!