April Flowers

Central Jersey has had both showers and flowers lately — varying degrees of drizzle & splatter (with a handful of rain-free days) and many beautiful flowers beginning to bloom. Indoors has some similar activity: the splatter of paint water and new floral art. I have been exploring variations on the Tulip Trio painting (which some of you might recognize since it is available as a notecard); in the spirit of the season, I thought I’d share some. Click any thumbnail to enlarge the image.

Wherever you are, may the promise of springtime bring you joy.

Paintings from Paradise

Alooooooha! Two and a half weeks ago, I returned from my first visit to the Hawaiian Islands–Kaua’i and Hawai’i (the Big Island), plus a day on Oahu. The different environments, animals, and a number of the local art galleries, inspired some fun, artistic exploration once I got back to the mainland. That’s what I’m sharing today. 

  1. Some pen doodles inspired by some of the simple graphic designs on National Park pins. My traveling party saw green sea turtles (honu in Hawaiian) on two occasions: once at Punalu’u, a black sand beach, & again at Kaloko-Honokohau, a National Historic Park.

 

2. Ginger plant (acrylic, 8 x 10″). The ginger blooms in several different colors — red, white, yellow, & pink. The pinks & reds were quite striking against the green foliage of the rainforests.  

3. Painting of a honu resting (oil, 9″ x 6.5″). This was painted more like a watercolor would be (in terms of layers & values). First I painted the yellow across the whole hardboard (such that it started off looking like a background color), and then the blues on top of that, preserving the lights. Many of the greens were actually mixed right on the surface when the blue & yellow paint met. 

Mahalo nui loa for reading. 

Tulip Painting Receives Recognition

Newsflash! My watercolor painting Tulip Trio earned “Special Merit” recognition in the Light Space & Time 4th annual Botanicals Art Exhibition!

Light Space & Time is an online art gallery that regularly holds themed juried competitions. The July 2014 Botanicals main page is here:

http://www.lightspacetime.com/botanicals-art-exhibition-july-2014/

To find the tulips, scroll down to “Special Merit Award Category” and follow the link. The new page has information about the award, the list of category winners, and a slideshow of the artwork. Tulip Trio is the rightmost painting in the first row of the slideshow–a perk of having a surname early in the alphabet.

Make way for the factotum

Today is one of those exceptionally frequent days when Largo al factotum is my theme song: errands, business correspondence & coordination, queries, writing assistance, cleaning work, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. (May I present His Majesty, The King of Siam.) These sorts of days are especially frequent while at Principia; the Principia multi-departmental pull will recommence in a month or so.

Several checkpoints have been passed:

  1. John Churchmouse has come ’round the circle of fifths — the text is complete (as of the 10th); rough drafts have begun.
  2. Meeting this Monday to determine details about launching Terry Treble Music Adventures
  3. Largo al factotum! After trimming & cutting, a third draft of The Antiquary is ready for what may be the last read-through. (By the way, there is a barber who is somewhat a factotum in The Antiquary; his name is Caxon, not Figaro.)
  4. Ordered test samples of a new note card, “Tulip Trio.” (I considered calling it “Threelips,” but that is neither melodious nor attractive.)

Tulip Trio

In other thrilling news, my Rise of the Guardians art book arrived today! Magnificent work — an inspiration to any storybuilder.

And now, to draw my post to a rousing close–

<< Insert Rossini’s favorite coda >>