Thursday, April 28, 2011

THE ATHLETE, click to bid


No tornados here last night. I am due east of Birmingham, AL, about an hour and a half away, well into the state of Georgia. The storms which passed through Birmingham last night headed northeast, into north Georgia. My heart goes out to all of you who were in their paths.

THE ATHLETE! is a 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, at auction on ebay. Retail value $450, but bidding begins (and many times ends) at $100. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

BATTER UP! click to bid


BATTER UP! is a 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, at auction on ebay. Retail value $450, but bidding begins (and many times ends) at $100. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

Monday, April 25, 2011

THE FORMIDABLE PITCHER, click to bid


THE FORMIDABLE PITCHER is a 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, at auction on ebay. Retail value $450, but bidding begins (and many times ends) at $100. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

A FINE DAY TO GO FISHING


Just busy working today; not much to say. I just finished this one. We're expecting rain today and tonight, so this ought to add a little sunshine to my room.
A FINE DAY TO GO FISHING is a 12x16 pastel on PastelBord. My 12x16's retail at my galleries for $1500.00. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

PRETTY IN PINK, click to bid


Already, this kid can catch a ball better than I can.

PRETTY IN PINK is a 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, at auction on ebay. Retail value $450, but bidding begins (and many times ends) at $100. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

BIG BROTHER, click to bid

I grew up in a mostly girl family--5 girls (I'm #2) and one boy, who came along at the very end. I have two daughters. So most of my experience with children has been with girls. I always fretted that I might have a boy and wouldn't know what to do with him--nobody ever taught me how to throw a ball (yes, and I catch like a girl too), much to my chagrin. When watching children playing, my eyes always followed the little girls. Until my daughter had a little boy. Now my eyes follow the little boys and I think of little Victor, in Alaska, 3400 miles away.

BIG BROTHER is a 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, at auction on ebay. Retail value $450, but bidding begins (and many times ends) at $100. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

Monday, April 18, 2011

INTRODUCTION, click to bid


Happy Passover to everybody. It's a holy time.

I love watching fathers with their children.
INTRODUCTION is a 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, at auction on ebay. Retail value $450, but bidding begins (and many times ends) at $100. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

DIGGING FOR WORMS, click to bid


It is spring. My favorite time of the year. Open windows, brilliant color everywhere, children playing outside. Just love it.

This is a 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, at auction on ebay. Retail value $450, but bidding begins (and many times ends) at $100. Ten percent of my ebay sales go to World Vision.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Gearing up for another trip to La Bonne Etoile


Well, it looks like it's going to be another wonderful time in France in June. Both of my classes are filling, air fares are dropping. I'm practicing my French with language CDs in my car. Or ma voiture. There are a few spaces left and I'd dearly love to fill them. If you want to get an idea of what to expect from the trip, you can view my 2010 May and June blog archives, (start at the bottom and go up if you want a chronological journal). The trip is a no-brainer, since you'd be picked up at the airport and returned, with everything taken care of in between.

I'll be blogging my way through the trip again; blogging has proved to be a wonderful way for me to record my own memories (what incredible technology we have today). But I think the more the merrier, so I'd love to encourage anybody who can to consider coming along.


Monday, April 4, 2011

Bathsheba, a study

"Bathsheba-A Study" is an 18x24 pastel on pastelbord.
I'm on my way to Chattanooga this morning, about a 2 hour drive from Atlanta, to deliver this and a few more pieces, and to retrieve work that didn't sell.

I've just agreed to teach a class in San Miguel de Allende next January!!!!! More info to come.

Friday, April 1, 2011

The Penitent



I don't know if you can see him in this image, but there's a man kneeling in prayer in the middle of the street outside a little cafe in Troyes, France. I think he was actually a beggar pretending, but I found the image compelling. The Penitent is a 12x16 pastel on PastelBord, available from River Gallery, in Chattanooga.

I must tell you about my little family get-together last Tuesday night. My 4 sisters and I planned to celebrate my Dad’s 87th birthday with a simple dinner at his retirement home. Because Dad’s apartment is so small, we decided to set things up in the common sitting area on his floor, a relatively private place off the main hall. Catherine was supposed to make lasagna, but at the last minute couldn’t, so Francine substituted with a little frozen pasta dish, enough to feed 4, the box said (she decided she wouldn’t eat). Emily was to bring paper plates and plastic forks, which she hurriedly purchased en route to Dads, after teaching her high school English class, but inadvertently left them all at the store. Lil, the Esthetician, had a facial, so would be late. I brought a salad and a couple of bottles of wine. So, we got there, I set up the salad and wine next to a birthday cake someone had brought; Francine and Catherine were in Dad’s apartment waiting for the frozen pasta to finish cooking. I was a little surprised to see some of the residents (inmates, Dad calls them) hobbling out of the elevator with their walkers and canes to our room and sit down with us. More and more of them. I offered them wine and wondered when they would leave; we didn’t want to be rude and eat in front of them. They didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, so I suggested we serve the cake first, then they’d leave. One of the inmates, realizing what was happening, discreetly ran down the hall to her apartment to scrounge around for little paper cake plates and plastic forks. I was in the process of cutting the first piece, when I heard Dad saying to one of the inmates that dinner would be ready shortly. Turns out, Dad had invited his closest friends to celebrate with us, and didn’t bother to tell us. I ran down the hall to inform my sisters, who were in the process of cutting up the steaming hot pasta dish into 4 sections, that everybody was waiting to be served dinner. For the rest of the evening we all looked like deer in headlights: Catherine frantically scooped tiny spoonfulls of pasta onto the little cake plates. Francine slathered butter on bread. Hiding out in Dad’s apartment, we handed the little plates to Cecily, Francine’s daughter (who showed up to wish Dad a happy b-day), told her to put a huge pile of salad on each plate and serve everybody. Cecily was running back and forth from the public room to Dad’s apt. to get more little dishes, and then asked in a frenzy, “Why am I the only one doing this?” Francine, Catherine, Emily and I all cowered, “We’re not going out there!”

But we did, eventually. Catherine plopped what little was left of the pasta onto a little paper plate and I carried it out to the larger room. Everybody was munching happily on their little dinners. We were even able to offer people a little more; all seemed perfectly happy and full. Then we served cake. When it was all over, we collected 12 baskets of loaves and fishes, I mean, there were LEFTOVERS!

Dad was oblivious the whole time.