Assateague Lighthouse

8"x6" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)


Nothin' like palette knives to get you back in the groove of painting. I'm daydreaming about my trip to Chincoteague, VA coming up in September. So to get mentally ready for our paint-out there - I go back to old photos from previous trips. When you paint the sun light you mentally go back to being IN the sunlight.... If you are not familiar with this place, here's a great link to Assateague Lighthouse and the Chincoteaugue National Wildlife Refuge. Another link will tell you more about the pony swim and the 'Chincoteague ponies'.I'm also gearing up for a large commission of Chincoteague (thanks Michele). I'll start with sketches as I plan out that composition.

A Moving Experience
I was afraid that moving once again had frazzled my brain for good. But maybe going through the hard part makes things much better in life (eventually...) I've thought a lot about how to make this move better than all the previous ones in our (former) military life. After all, moving every 2 to 3 years should make me a pro at this stuff, right? HA! (and a big HA at that!). I'd done the pre-requisite paring down, yard sale, consigments, Good Will, you name it, we've separated with a lot. Things are going along quite well so far. I've found the juggling of small business and household life a challenge for right now, it's just a matter of cardboard in the way and finding a home for orphaned papers (come on, you stackers know what I'm talking about). So one evening hubby and I decide to attack the next phase of boxes and I am going to hang pictures. That's what I do best, right? It's starting to look like a home at this point with just 3 large paintings hung and I'm getting ready to hang a particularly heavy one in the foyer. It's going over an entry table so I need to use the step stool to lift it high enough. First I raise the thing up to mark where I want it to go. As I'm coming down, the bottom step is a different distance than I remembered and it's a LONGGGG way down with this heavy painting. Yow! but I didn't drop it. I'm still okay at this point - I don't think I've injured my self from my misjudgment. And of course, since I let out a small (okay, not so small) scream, my husband is now standing by to help lift heavy stuff. So the picture is hung and I'm not too bad off. Undaunted by heavy cumbersome things, I go to hang this wonderful metal birdy sculpture over the headboard of our bed. It's a long series of birds on a branch that lays fairly close to the wall.....when properly attached. You drive the nails through the eyes of the birds and that holds the sculpture in place. So I had the right side done, and let go to do the left side and BOING right in the head. The right side popped away from the wall and sliced my forehead right open! At this point I'm bleeding which I knew before my husband said, "By the way, your head is bleeding". I felt like Larry, Moe and Curly rolled into one. How did I EVER get so clumsy to get whacked by artwork a couple times in one day? I'm re-thinking hanging those birds over the bed. I could be decapitated all from one bad nail not holding things up! So they are on the kitchen counter until I decide where they will go. Other than that, it's beginning to look like a home in this place! hmm, this brings another quote to mind,

"My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first one being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint." - Erma Bombeck