WATERBABY'S CIRCUS

Aaaaaaaaaaaah . . . . That's just me heaving a great big sigh of relief. Even though I know that that year-end blitz of too-much-to-do, too-little-time is coming, and try to downsize and minimize the stress factors, I still get caught up in it. Cards never got sent, packages didn't get mailed til after Christmas (it's in the mail, no really, you know how the Post Office is), and now I want to finish decorating, while everyone around me has all their assorted holiday crappage thrown out/packed away/put out on the curb. I guess I just move to a different (slower) beat. On a lighter note, after two months of eating like a sumo wrestler caught in a burning marijuana-field downdraft, I've lost three pounds since Sunday, after starting to eat more sensibly. No ice cream, no cookies. No white flour stuff, pasta, pizza. Just wanna lose another seven pounds. Time to get in shape for the annual migration to Brazil. Gotta dust off the old bikini. Figuratively speaking, of course...

Acrylic, 4x10" This is a small piece I did over the summer. The Bay Trail runs along the east side of the San Francisco Bay, and this part of it lies between Berkeley and Richmond. The marshy area has been pretty much restored and is home to all kinds of birds and other things that like Bay wetlands. I miss the warm weather, I want to go outside and paint.

Yes, I have been remiss in my postings lately. But for good reason. I've been painting my tailfeathers off! As well as matting, framing, hanging and everything else that goes with it. I'm finishing up 6 pieces (3 watercolor and 3 acrylic) that will go into the annual El Cerrito Art Show & Sale next weekend, and now have paintings hanging at Jack London Square, Oakland, the El Cerrito Dept. of Motor Vehicles (a captive audience for sure), and at the Oakland Chamber of Commerce. And trying to squeeze in some actual painting once in a while. So this was one I did over the summer: Acrylic, 11x14" This little church is the first thing you see as you come into the tiny town of Nicasio in Marin County,located about a halfhour drive north of San Francisco. It's a favorite of artists of all media, a scene that probably hasn't changed all that much in the past hundred years.

At China Camp Acrylic, 11x14" So I've been doing a bit of plein air painting over the summer, both in watercolor and acrylics. When I returned to China Camp on the San Francisco Bay, it was only with the intention to continue learning how to handle acrylics, but after many hours of struggle, the painting above began to take shape. So much so that I decided to frame the resulting small exercise, and then submitted it into a show. Imagine my shock when I learned it had won first place in the acrylics division at the Napa Town & Country Fair! It looks like there's no turning back now. Onward!