The first requirement of blogging is to actually  have something to write about, and lately my life has been lacking that. It’s go to work, come home, sleep, repeat. Between work demands (it’s end of year and very busy) and the heat (have I mentioned how much I hate summer?) it’s just been a struggle to come up with good topics.

So forgive me if this post is a bit of a mish-mash of topics (otherwise known as the random blog), but it’s as good as I can do right now!

My Great Horned Owl

I saw my Great Horned Owl again today, but no good pictures, unfortunately, I saw him fly into his “usual” place, but when I got close enough to snap a picture, he flew off again. I followed him and he flew again and I didn’t find him on his third landing. He is a wiley one! As is appropriate for a wild creature.

owlCanemah doesn’t offer the same inspiration for me this time of year. It’s dry and not too much is blooming. Still, there are various things of interest if you look hard enough.

I also saw this spider spinning her web and watched for a while the other day. Pretty cool.

Artistic Admiration

Down the street from my job is a great gallery called Attic Gallery. Just before First Thursday I always like to walk by on my afternoon walks and see the featured artist for the month. The Attic Gallery carries some of my favorite artists: Janey Belozer, Arne Westerman, Bill Bailey, Pat San Soucie, Tommer Gonser, and Z.Z. Wei.

Today they were setting up for the August artist, Arne Westerman. While I don’t universally love every piece of Arne’s, I do enjoy his use of color and form and truly love looking at his work. He had a couple of REALLY striking pieces in the window, so I decided to go in and get a closer work.

While I was there a charming older gentleman approached me and we chatted for a few minutes. I told him how much I liked the pieces, and he admitted he was the artist (Arne Westerman.) My friend Jin was with me on my walk, so she took a few pictures of us together.

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While I was chatting with Arne, another gentleman approached us and we got to talking about a lovely crane piece that had inspired me to try something similar in my own work. Turned out, this gentleman was also the artist, Tommer Gonser. It was a big day for me!

My Own Painting

I have been concentrating on “cleansing my palette” as it were by finishing up the many works in progress that I have going. Unfortunately, it is harder for me to finish paintings that it is to start them, so I’m in the slow stages.

Hopefully after this week, things will slow down at work and I’ll have a little more energy to start some projects. I got a new book that I am keen to try on painting large format florals. I also have a few events coming up that should generate some paintings.

  • August 16 – Art on the Lawn with a Plein Air Workshop with Sally O’Neill

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Mark your calendars (except for the camping) and hopefully I’ll see you there!