Beginning a New Year

"Cleo" is a painting I shipped to Jenna Mandis, my oldest granddaughter. A few years ago she
took a photograph of this feline member of the family. I liked the light pattern and asked to borrow her photograph for a painting. I am pleased with the result. Some of the things that please me are the dramatic light pattern, the color harmony, the treatment of the fabric, and the rim lighting that traces the back of the cat. This painting now belongs to Jenna.

This is "Tree Study", the painting I shipped to the Texas Watercolor Society's 59th Annual Exhibit. Having the juror, Jeanne Dobie, select it means a great deal to me.

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After my December trip to California for my birthday and a busy holiday season here in Knoxville I had to get back to the responsibilities of daily life. The first two weeks of 2008 were filled with many necessary chores. My art related activities included taking down an exhibit of twenty paintings from the Schilling Gallery of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, picking up paintings from the Tennessee Art Association show and the Arts and Cultural Alliance juried exhibit, and trying to find wall space at home for the twenty-two retrieved paintings. I spent a day at the Art Market Gallery, taking my turn as a member of our beautiful coop facility. I gave a presentation at the Knoxville Watercolor Society meeting, explaining my method of composing and transferring a subject to paper. I packaged and shipped two paintings, one to the Texas Watercolor Society juried exhibit, and one to a granddaughter in Los Gatos, CA. I was without my car for a couple of days while a needed tune-up was performed and I shopped on the Internet for a new printer. Both the car and the printer are very necessary items in my life. Now that my car is running smoothly and the new printer is functioning efficiently, I can resume a more normal schedule in the few remaining days of January .