Oils and Pastels by Margaret Dyer

Just found out that my class in France is full! 10 students. Wow. Getting excited now. Also just found out that my pastel of my grandson Victor and his dog Pepper won Best of Show at the International Association of Pastel Societies Online Exhibition. A huge honor. And a very nice check accompanies it. So wonderful at this time of year. Thank you, IAPS. I'm on my way to Asheville, NC, today to visit old friends for the weekend. Looking forward to seeing Asheville at Christmas time, hoping my car is dependable and that bad weather doesn't surprise me. "Petit Déjeuner" is a 7x5 pastel up for auction. Click on the title above to be taken to the auction site. Bidding begins at $100.

After much deliberation this week I decided to go to the Spruill Art Center Faculty Christmas Party last night; I have been teaching Wednesday morning and evening classes there in north Atlanta for the past year. Because I don't know 99% of the teachers there and because I never remember the names of the ones I should know, and because I am terrified of walking into a crowded party alone, the evening could have been difficult. I called an artist friend, Nancy Honea, who has taught portrait painting at Spruill for 30 something years. She agreed to sit with me and I looked forward to catching up with things in her life; it had been 2 years since I had last seen her. I got there before she did and did what I always do in these situations...went straight to the bar. A brief superficial smiley chat with people I encountered as I wrangled my way across the room, got my wine, found a table and saved a place for Nancy. I'm OK once I have the wine. I know. Red flag. But it works. Nanc...

This is actually Leonardo the Second. Leonardo the First lived many years ago when my kids were little. They called him Little Hardo because they couldn't pronounce Leonardo. When my grown daughter Meg got a long-haired blue-eyed white cat just like Leonardo, she gave him the same name. And the same nik-name. Little Hardo is a beautiful cat but I'm glad he lives with Meg and not me. He's a climber. When I lived in a loft and was taking care of Meg's cats for a year, I'd find Little Hardo waaaaaaay up on the rafters, peering down on me. He'd climb on mirrors and kitchen cabinets. It was hard to be angry at his destruction because he was so beautiful. Little Hardo is a 5x7 unframed pastel, up for auction on ebay. Bidding begins at $100.

I deliberated briefly whether I should get a Christmas tree or not, since I'm all alone in this house. Seems kinda' silly. But I'll be hosting my family's Christmas eve gift exchange here, and it would just feel incomplete without one. So I just purchased one, lugged it into the house, tracking muddy footprints all over my painted white floors. I'm looking forward to evenings in a darkened living-room with the tree glowing, and Robert Shaw's Handel's Messiah every night. I used to do that when my kids were younger. I wonder if they have an affinity for that music today. I hope so. My oldest daughter Anna got to sing in the All-State High School Chorale he directed one year. Here's Rosza, the lovely model who has posed for my workshops in France for the past 3 years (that's why the title is in French). It's another 5x7 pastel, up for bids on ebay. Bidding begins at $100. Click on the title above to go to the auction.

Just so you don't think I have this special connection to the spiritual, I'll have to share another dream with you. One that I had over 20 years ago, and it also remains vividly imprinted in my brain.  I was offered an opportunity to invest in a real estate venture. I sank all my money into it, which wasn't much. The investment was showing returns. I went to see my property. It was in Kentucky. I stood on the crest of a hill which overlooked my entire investment: hills upon hills as far as the horizon in every direction, meticulously cultivated into rows and rows of farmland. For as far as I could see, emerging out of the ground in neat little rows, were fish heads. I had invested in a tuna farm, which was wildly successful. I woke from the dream energized! That's it! I'll invest in a... wait a minute... something is wrong here... This is Leonardo, my daughter's cat, who perches on the highest possible places. "Cat on a Refrigerator with Onions...

About 18 years ago I had this dream. It has stayed in the back of my mind throughout my life. I was standing on a choir platform with 4 or 5 other women. We all had sheet music in our hands and were trying to sing a song to the accompaniment of a woman playing a piano. I just couldn't get it. The melody, the harmony, everything was confusing; even the sheet music was unreadable. So the woman on the piano sang and played the song in its entirety for us. When she played, it was breathtakingly beautiful and I understood how to sing it. So we sang. It was a song of thanksgiving. And as we sang I was able to understand the sheet music, which was not bars and notes and symbols, but was linear. The line climbed to an apex then descended to the depths and climbed up again and descended again, up and down, up and down, like a mountain range with valleys. The song was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. I woke sobbing, realizing I had just been given a gift. And I understood that ...

Here they come... little 5x7's, just in time for Christmas. Or Chanuka. Or a birthday present or an anniversary... It's raining here in Atlanta. Thanksgiving has come and gone. Speaking of Thanksgiving... I'll have to tell you about a dream I had years ago. One of those dreams that seemed to come from outside my own mind, one of those dreams that never fades. I remember it as vividly today as if I had dreamed it last night. But you'll have to wait until I can find the quiet time to do it. "Anne in Yellow and Blue" is an unframed 5x7 pastel on PastelBord, up for auction with a beginning price of $100. Click on the title above to be linked to ebay. I hope you all had a safe and happy Thanksgiving.