Daily Painting

This a great time for R&R - rest and relaxation, as well as recap & resolutions. In recap: it has been a very good year - I am grateful to the powers that be, for my family, and to have the opportunity to paint whenever I want. I am grateful to the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society - for making me feel welcome, for the new friends I have made with whom I can talk in watercolor language, and for the community it constantly gives me, in actuality, and in thought. This is one of the sketches I did in Puerto Vallarta - figures by the pool, mostly. I loved the scene of the white umbrellas, overlapped and touching, against the backdrop of the darker tropical forest. I also made friends as I sketched/painted, and people stopped by to look, take pictures, and chat. I am also grateful for my progress as an artist - I got into two juried shows this year (FL and AK) AND after being rejected a year ago from my application to display in the Performing Arts Center in Mountain View...

My lovely friend Karen from book club asked me if I would do a series of watercolors capturing her barge-and-bike trips with her mom - for her mom's upcoming 80th birthday. What a privilege - and how I am now woven into the giving and the gifting, and the memories - of the trips, and of this birthday. But what pressure! Here are the four watercolors I did and presented. The bottom two - not presented - were extras - one in the wrong format (portrait)! And one extra of Germany - she only wanted one from each place they visited. I gave them all - happily.