Ben Folds

Yesterday and today have been painting days. Yesterday was a painting day with a full day of Ben Folds accompanying. I heard this one for the first time, and it was instant love. He's not only an amazing lyricist but a piano player that rivals Elton John. Great stuff here.

The Luckiest

I don't get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns
The stumbles and falls brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know that I am
I am, I am the luckiest

What if I'd been born fifty years before you
In a house on the street where you live?
Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a wide sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know that I am
I am, I am the luckiest

I love you more than I have
Ever found a way to say to you

Next door, there's an old man who lived to his 90's
And one day, passed away in his sleep
And his wife, she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way
To tell you that I know we belong
That I know that I am
I am, I am the luckiest

Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

Kolby looks at art

This is Kolby, my niece's son. He's taking in some art appreciation. Love it.

Life without regret

Regrets of the dying

Living in the moment is living a life without regret. When we can truly experience each moment as it passes, and not be a slave to our past or our future, we find happiness. Our time here is short, and there can be nothing sadder than finding yourself at the end of your life with a long list of regrets and should-haves.

Use today wisely. Even if you're healthy today, tomorrow may be different and that chance you're waiting for may not be there. Embrace your life and live it like you would if you had it to do all over again.

December 6 -8, Children's Beach House Holiday Art Show

Chldren's Beach House Holiday Art Show

Souls...continued

This is probably a pretty good description of the soul mate idea.

Great Expectations

“Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!” ―Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations," by Charles Dickens


Great movie....I need to read the book.

Post Secret

I haven't posted a good Post Secret for a while, but found this one to be especially poignant. The concept of soul mates fascinates me and I vacillate between believing we have soul mates (most definitely do not believe there is only one for each of us) and thinking it's absolute garbage. But if there is some truth to soul mates, and you can't be with that person for whatever reason, then I find that heart wrenching. Any one else, I suppose, is a consolation prize. I wonder how many people are with their second choice?

Say something

Hmm....I think I'm mentally strong. Cool.

13 things mentally strong people dont do

100 things to say to a Republican....to rattle their cage.

Sarcastic? Yeah....but truthfully so. Great laugh to start my morning.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas :

Thank God for taper.

Second 20 miler done. And I feel like I've been hit by a truck. If I went by the way I feel every time I finish a 20 miler, I would never ever run a marathon. There's still a 10k to complete after you hit 20. Those last 6 are done on adrenaline, sheer stubborness, and a little hallucination.

This week starts the taper, which means less miles...gradually...in the weeks before the marathon. So a long run goes from 20, to like 12.....which sounds like nothing, till you realize it's still basically a half marathon. But after watching the Hawaii Ironman competition yesterday, where the marathon is the final event after a 2 mile swim and something like 100 miles on the bike....I feel like a wuss for complaining.

So, hot bath...4 advils, food and sleep soon. Leg and foot cramps have begun and it's causing me anxiety because when I feel one coming, I know it's going to be excrutiating. They like to sneak up while you sleep and get you when you're not ready.

Money, money, money....

The Mid-Del Foundation generously extended a grant to the Rehoboth Art League for our outreach program. Thanks Mid-Del!

The Conversation

24 x 36
oil
$1100

This was a fun one to paint. I tentatively added the water detail, the color to the right and the beach details...all of it which helped bring it to a close. Alan Tuttle, a local artist was very helpful in guiding me to the completion. This scene was in Kitts Hummock, Dover DE. Off the old Route 9.

Oh no.....not rakes.

Surprising Dangers of running a marathon.

RAL and the Rehoboth Beach Writer's Guild

The RB Writer's Guild meets at the Rehoboth Art League on the 4th Thursday of every month at 6 p.m.  Each month, artists bring in several pieces of artwork to inspire the writers to compose a short snippet related to the art. It's a really fun way to combine art and writing and is open to the public. This is from October's class, where I got to show some artwork and also got to do some writing. Oh, and there was wine.

Heaven.

Wuthering

“Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!”

― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Look me in the eyes and tell me love is never based upon insanity - Melody Gardot

And Poe apparently felt in a similar fashion.

The Conversation

This isn't finished yet, but getting there. A little more to do. I think it's 24 x 36, and titled "The Conversation". This scene is from Kitts Hummock in Dover DE, a little deserted beach with houses that time forgot. This night was breathtaking in its beauty. I took many photos, and am looking forward to painting them all.

A fellow artist asked me recently, "what do you want your viewer to experience?"

I have to say that question stumped me. I'm not sure I have ever really asked myself that question.

The answer I can best come up with is that I'd like the viewer to have the same "oooooh" moment that I did. To have your breath taken away by the beauty of nature. The crispness of the sky and the clouds, the glassy perfection of the ocean, the way everything meets up at a vanishing point leading to "somewhere else". But more than that, it's an URGE to capture what I've seen in paint. It's not something a photo can do, though I love to look at the photos. The painting is a release of all the experience of the day, the company, the conversation, all translated from my brain and heart to my arm, fingers and finally the brush. Once it's there, it's there, and it's a completed circle.

and vicey versy as my grandmother would say.

Marriage isn't for you.

Marriage isn't for you....probably not what you're thinking.

A Taste For Art, October 2013

This was a great night at Baywood Country Club. That's Pete Jones, one of my dearest friends, who supplied me with a great glass of wine and also purchased a painting for his new home and new life with his new love, Leslie.

Love

"You know what I am going to say. I love you. What other men may mean when they use that expression, I cannot tell; what I mean is, that I am under the influence of some tremendous attraction which I have resisted in vain, and which overmasters me. You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace. This and the confusion of my thoughts, so that I am fit for nothing, is what I mean by your being the ruin of me. But if you would return a favourable answer to my offer of myself in marriage, you could draw me to any good - every good - with equal force."

-- Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend