December

In December, I had the exciting opportunity to create my own website at Fine Art Studio Online (FASO). The folks at FASO worked with me to design a beautiful site, where I can show my work and offer it for sale directly to the public. It's very easy - if someone wants to purchase a piece, they can just buy it online using PayPal and I will be notified and will pack and ship the painting. Customers can also contact me directly with quesitons. FASO does not take any proceeds from the sale - they want to support artists and the arts. Here is a link to that site: http://rvpainter.faso.com/

At the bottom of the website page there is a box where you can add your email to be on my email newsletter list. The newsletter will only be once a month, and short - I promise I won't be filling up your inbox. So if you wouldn't mind getting it, I'd love it if you would add your name.

December is always a busier month, because of the holidays of course. Melissa really gets into them with decorating and making sure we partake of holiday events like concerts, and I go along for the ride. Punta Gorda has an excellent symphony, and that concert in particular was wonderful.

Because of my Parkinson's it's harder for me to do things I used to - like putting up a real Christmas tree. Anyone who has fought with a real tree and a Christmas tree stand can relate - even if you have all your strength and are in the best of health!  But Melissa has been adamantly against getting an artificial tree, being that New England girl at heart and one who holds long and fast to traditions.

Last year, our real tree looked fine at Home Depot but was a crooked mess with crazy branches when we got it home. Still, Melissa lovingly shaped the branches and we used shims to prop it straight, and once decorated, it didn't look half bad. Then an hour later, the tree committed suicide, crashing to the ground, spilling water from the base all over the rug and smashing some of our best glass ornaments. I think that, for a moment, Melissa had thoughts of hoisting it back up and trying to salvage the situation, but then she stopped, looked up at me, and said the words I'd been longing to hear: "Tomorrow I will go online and buy us the nicest artificial tree I can find." It was the happiest day of my life.

Within two days our tree from Balsam Hill arrived, and Melissa fell in love. Every day the tree is up, she says, "This is the most beautiful tree we've ever had," and "I'm sorry I held out for so long."

Here is a picture of our beautiful fake tree:

I had a lovely Christmas this year - in large part because Santa brought me the first new paintbrushes I've gotten in 25 years! (Yes, my brushes are that old!!). Actually it was my sister-and-brother-in-law, Jess and Terry, who gave them to me, and they are VERY GOOD BRUSHES. The painting below, A New Day on the Gulf, is the first painting I did with them - and I used all three! Here I am expressing my delight with the brushes on Christmas Day. With Parkinson's you tend to lose your smile, so the fact that you can tell I'm smiling here means I'm REALLY smiling. 

I stayed busy with painting this month and am really excited about some of the work I've done. My new and improved studio set-up is working out nicely, though admittedly it takes me some time to get used to change - even good change! 

Some of the pieces below are available on my new FASO website, but I wanted to share them with you here too, since this blog is where we really get to chat about what's been going on behind the scenes of whatever I am pursuing artistically. Hope you like them!

MESA TWINS

A NEW DAY ON THE GULF

SILENT NIGHT

SUMMER SKY

ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT

ARIZONA BADLANDS

November

I'm a little late getting my November post up, what with Thanksgiving jumping in there at the end of the month. The next thing I knew, November was over and December had begun! 

During November, I participated in an effort to support our active military and veterans by donating a portion of any painting sales to the Veterans Initiative for Therapeutic Arts. I was the artist of the month at The Yoga Sanctuary, where Melissa teaches, and also participated in a one-day event there to benefit veterans. I am happy to say that, thanks to many of you, I was able to donate $150 to VITA.



As December closed in on me, so did my studio. It's small and not as functional as I need it to be, especially now that I don't always have total control over my feet! They tend to stick or stutter-step, especially when I am turning, backing up, or getting up from the floor (where I sometimes find myself on purpose and sometimes by accident).

So, Melissa came up with a reorganization plan (she loves to rearrange things), that included adding sturdy metal shelves to give me larger, clearer workspace, and storage that is not so low to the ground. She is developing some excellent handyman skills, thanks to my fine instruction. (Insert HAHA emoji here).

Anyway, my studio space is much more functional and safe now, though I am still adjusting to the new set-up and wondering where my stuff is when it's not where it used to be.

My brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Cheryl, recently took a fabulous trip to Australia and New Zealand. Tom sent me a post card of Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains of Australia, and on the back he wrote, "PAINT THIS." So I did. I usually paint in an expressionistic-impressionistic and sometimes semi-abstract style, meaning that I capture the essence of the scene rather than a precise replication of it. With this image though, I went more realistic, and was surprised at how well it came out. The whole time I worked on it, I thought it would be a disaster. Here you can see the painting alongside the post card.

Here are a few other pieces from November:

In December, I am cleaning out my boxes of paintings and trying to be ruthless about it. They either get thrown out, repurposed (painted over) or back in the box - or sometimes they get sold!