And Now the 7 "Things About Me"

1. I am old enough to remember when my siblings and I paid 50 cents for general admission seats at Yankee Stadium on "Ladies Day".
2. I was an "athlete wannabe" when I was a child, and this syndrome has recently reared it's head again. I am now playing over 60 basketball, and participated in this event at the 2009 New Jersey Senior Olympics.
3. I started learning to play piano a year ago. Although my grown children flee to another room when I play, I'm enjoying myself immensely, and my grandchildren don't seem to mind hearing me play.
4. My two favorite places are the coast of Maine, and Hawaii.
5. I taught sunday school (or CCD to us Catholics) for 13 years.
6. I received an award at the very first art show that I participated in - and it was the Grumbacher Silver Medal.
7. I love to paint flowers - possibly because I can't seem to grow them without killing them.

I was recently "tagged" with the "Kreativ Blogger" award by Teresa Palomar Lois, http://www.lostinwonder.blogspot.com/. Thank you Teresa! The purpose of these blogger awards is introduce our favorite artist-bloggers to others. The rules for this one are to tell 7 things about yourself, and to pass the award on to 7 other artists. I have been tagged several times, and have pretty much run out of people to pass the award on to - with one exception, and that would be my sister Joan. So I'm going to cheat a little and just list some of my favorite artists and give you their websites in the hopes that they will become your favorites too.

1. Gerald Brommer - http://www.newmastersgallery.com/ArtistsB/brommer.htm

2. Jean Grastorf - http://www.jeangrastorf.com/

3. Susie Short - http://www.susieshort.com/

4. Ann Pember - http://www.annpember.com/

5. Nicholas Simmons - http://nicholassimmons.com/

6. Karen Knutson - http://karenknutson.com/

and last but not least - and the one I WILL pass this award on to:

7. Joan Tavolott - http://www.watercolorsbyjoan.blogspot.com/ - Joan recently returned from a trip to Paris. You will love her small Paris paintings!

Hangin' at the Y

This month, my friends and I, who call ourselves "Les Belles Artistes" have an exhibit at one of our local YMCA's, in Wyckoff, NJ. We have all been painting together at art classes and workshops on and off for many years. They are all talented artists, and I am proud to be among them. Here is our group, and me in front of "my wall".

Bouquet

I received this bouquet for my birthday this past March. I thought it would make a great painting, so I painted it twice - once as a birthday card for my granddaughter, and just recently as a 5x7 for my SWAP partner (Sharing With Artist Partners). It went all the way to Ursula in Brazil. The mail was a little slow, so I was on pins and needles hoping that it hadn't gone astray. The SWAP is a secret, but now that my partner has received it I can post it here.

"Birthday Bouquet" 5x7

Rhododendrons

This spring, I bought several new rhododendron plants for my front and back yards. I took a lot of photos of them when they were in bloom, and painted this one recently.

"Rhododendrons" 11x15

Natalie's Sunflowers

Yes, I've been painting, but I haven't posted any new ones in a while. This one is from July, when my painting buddy, Natalie, brought her sunflower plant in for us to paint.

"Natalie's Sunflowers" 11x15

Plein air at Skylands

This was painted outdoors at Skylands Botanical Gardens on a 7x10 Arches watercolor block, with my Cotman kit and a water brush. It was painted the same day that I took the reference photo for the tree peony below.

Pink and White Tree Peony

This is a quarter sheet of a pink tree peony from my photo taken at Skylands Botanical Gardens in New Jersey. As usual with peonies, it was drooping and I had to hold it up to photograph it.

Love and Peace

It's SWAP group time again, and this is the painting I did for the swap. This time it didn't go far, as my partner Christine is from New York. I grow these "Love and Peace" roses in my backyard. The painting is 5x7.

Sketchcrawl 22

Saturday morning was another rainy, miserable day to have a sketchcrawl. I love doing the sketchcrawls, but so far we have not had the greatest weather for outdoor sketching. So my sister Joan and I decided to do something that we had wanted to do for a while, that is, to sketch at one of the NYC museums. We drove into Manhattan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and found an unoccupied bench in the Greek and Roman room. This is my sketch of a Marble Statue of a Muse. Did you know that they only allow pencil sketching in the museum?

I did several other sketches which you can see on the sketchcrawl forum (http://www.sketchcrawl.com/) and then we went to see the AWS show. What a great show! I wish I could have spent longer there, soaking up the great art and hoping that some of it would rub off on my own watercolors.

A Bunch of Daffodils

As planned, we painted daffodils today. There were a few different kinds, which made it more interesting. They were in some sort of a square-ish glass container with beads hanging from it - I wasn't really crazy about it so I just did the flowers. This one was also a quick one, as my friend usually leaves early and she took her flowers with her again. Oh, both this one and the tulips from yesterday are quarter sheets.