WATERBABY'S CIRCUS

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!

Here we are, enjoying the end of summer vacation before school starts for all of us. Koko and Jasmine and Lily are in the water on their floaties. Poor Auntie M will have to go back to work for another year - feh! She's the one that looks washed up on the shore. Camping takes a lot out of you!

The annual camping trip happened last week. Every year, my sister and I go camping, accompanied by various children, grandchildren, friends and occasionally a husband/boyfriend. But mostly it's just us girls. And always it involves some kind of water to play in. This year we went to Scotts Flat Lake Campground in California. Hot, lots of trees and wildlife. Besides the usual birds and grey squirrels and ground squirrels, we saw deer and ducks and geese. The best part was the night that a baby bear ransacked our coolers and got away with some of our food. The worst part was he got into the Hershey's chocolate bars! Luckily, he either got scared off by my sister waking up, or he just had his fill and left, leaving a trail of food into the woods. We found most of the box of chocolate the next morning, but some bars were so full of disgusting bear slobber they were beyond being salvaged. The stump sketch above is posted especially for an artist whose blog today also includes ...

Sunrise Beach Park, Gig Harbor, WA 8"x8", Acrylics When I went to Washington a few weeks ago, I looked for artists who also liked plein air painting, and after a few googles, discovered there was a group located very close to where I was staying on Fox Island: the Peninsula Art League. Anne Knapp let me know that members would probably be at Sunrise Beach Park, located a little to the northeast of Gig Harbor. Although the weather was unusually hot, I found a cool place to sit under a tree that gave me a great view across to Vashon Island. I really enjoyed my first visit to Washington and look forward to next time.