FAMILY PORTRAIT

While in France this past summer, I stayed a few days in Paris before flying home. I was able to trade this FAMILY PORTRAIT for 4 days in a Parisian apartment. This is the grandbaby of the apartment's owner. Now if I can find someone in Italy...

BEFORE THE DINNER CROWD

BEFORE THE DINNER CROWD is a 12x9 pastel on PastelBord. It may look familiar because I did a 5x7 study of it a while ago. This larger version is one of several of my pieces at the Windrush Gallery in Sedona, AZ. If you're interested in this piece, click on the title, it'll take you to Windrush. BEFORE THE DINNER CROWD is another Parisian scene...the Rotonde Cafe.

Today there will be a Halloween event in the little amphitheater park, here in my Villa Rica neighborhood. My studio is a converted warehouse loft, adjacent to a shopping strip of antique shops, restaurants and the Villa Rica Police Station. The amphitheater is at the far end of the shopping strip. Later today, I, with my wonderful Nikon D-80, will walk past the antique shops, restaurants and police station to the park; I'm looking forward to seeing all the children. I'm missing my 6 year old grandson, who's in Anchorage now; his dad is stationed there. I'm sending him little packages so he won't forget me.

LES SERVEURS

LES SERVEURS recently won an award at the Degas Pastel Society Biennial National Exhibition at the Hammond Regional Art Center, in Hammond, LA. The show runs till November 5. You can see the entire show online with the link above (click the title). It's a scene from a restaurant in Paris.

And I'm returning to France again in June, looking for people to sign up for a week workshop with me. Info to come soon. The class is limited to 7 or 8 people, I don't remember which. If you didn't follow my blog this past summer during my first workshop there, you can see it in my May and June posts. I'll be teaching two sessions--two weeks. People can take one week or two. I'd better get those French audio lessons I've been meaning to; I promised I'd be able to speak French when I returned.

Three in a row! Gimme 5 (which I absolutely hate, when people do that).

VILLA RICA WORK CREW

"Villa Rica Work Crew" is a 16x20 pastel on PastelBord. It's a scene from right outside my studio. This month it won an award at the Pastel Society of America Exhibition in New York, and was purchased at the show.

I've actually had a little flurry of awards lately, so I'll dribble them into the blog day by day. And hopefully I'll be able to get back to my little 5x7's again soon. I teach one last class the first weekend of November in Vermont, then my schedule comes to a screeching halt. Time, then, for the easel again.

Can you believe it? I'm actually posting two days in a row!

OFFICIALLY AN OLD LADY

"Dejeuner" is a 24x19 pastel on Sennelier LaCarte Pastel Paper, from my France series. I really like this piece. $3500.00.

Just can't seem to pin myself to the computer long enough to write in my blog. But I sure have missed it. And I miss having some sort of contact with people in cyberspace. When I teach my workshops (which I've been doing a lot of lately), inevitably several people from the class, whom I had never met before, tell me how they followed me in France through my blog. It's a funny feeling, but rewarding.

Much has been happening, and I shouldn't tell all in one post, then I'd have nothing to write about in future posts. But I'll tell the most embarrassing thing...I AM OFFICIALLY AN OLD LADY.

How so, you ask? While in Greenville, New York, in late August, the evening before my 3 day workshop was to begin, I was to meet with my 18 students in the dining room of the Greenville Arms B&B. As people were beginning to congregate for the wine and cheese, I was stepping out of the shower, when my foot went out from under me and I crashed hard onto the side of the ceramic tub. I knew immediately that I did something very bad; I could barely breathe. It took me a good 15 minutes to get up (the only motivating factor was the fear that I might need to be carried out naked). I was able to dress, drive to a nearby drugstore to purchase one of those back brace thingies that you wrap around yourself, and make it to the reception...straight to the bar for a glass of wine. I knew I should see a Doctor, but I had 18 people who had paid months in advance and come from distances for the class.

I taught the 3 day class, barely able to breath or move, drove home to Atlanta, and went to an emergency clinic, where the x-rays showed I had fractured 6 ribs, 3 in multiple places, and had a contusion on the lung. Nothing to do for fractured ribs I had been told, but pain medication. So I lived on Tramadol for 2 weeks. It has healed remarkably quickly. Within the 2 weeks I was almost back to normal.

But I am soooooooooooo careful now, when getting out of the shower. And walking down steps. And wearing high heals. I am officially an old lady.