Back on the East Coat

Persimmon   oil on claybord  5 x 7″  $100

Here’s another of the little kitchen paintings.  I’d wanted to paint a persimmon for a long time but it took a while to find one that was the right shape.

The flight back from L.A. went better than expected.  We had to dig the car out at the remote lot but it didn’t take too long and then we got to Alison’s in Utica by 8:00 Calif. time.  Now we’ll have a day or two with our NY family.

While we were in L.A with a fast connection I was browsing around on the Internet  and (I have to admit) googled myself.  I was very surprised to find a number of my paintings on YouTube set to music, done by something called Picutapicata.  At first I thought they must have been lifted from my blog but some of them have never been on the blog.  I’m not complaining–just puzzled.  Anyway, if you would like  to see the show you can search for it at andreadoughtiefuerelise.   Has anyone else had this happen?

Last Day in L.A.

Valley Stream  9 x 12 oil on birch panel  unframed but ready to hang  $250

Here’s a painting I did some time ago.  Last September I spent a beautiful morning by the side of a rushing stream.  I’m nuts about rocks since they pretty much paint themselves.  And I got almost all of the piece done while I was on site.

We’ve had such a delightful two weeks here in Pasadena.  We came out for the  wedding of Ed’s niece, Terryn Westbrook an actor, and her sweetheart, Jon Button, a very successful guitarist.  We never saw so many glamorous people in one place, including David Lynch.  It was a great event and also a mini-family reunion with Ed’s sister’s family.  Since the wedding we’ve had a glorious time with our son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons.  We’ve gone to a lot of incredible restaurants with very different interesting dishes (Kimchi tacos anyone?) And we’ll really have to do a lot of penance for all the calories.   Ed and I have gone to the Norton Simon Museum, the Armand Hammer, the Pasadena Museum of Calif. Art and the Huntington Museum as well as numerous galleries.  The most helpful to me was the Franz Bischoff show at the PMCA.  I never heard of him but absolutely loved his landscapes and his still lifes.  Now I’m eager to get back into my studio and play with my palette knife.  Gavin showed me how to use a sketching program on my ITouch a la David Hockney.  I’m taking baby steps with it but if I ever get comfortable I plan to get an IPad.  It would be wonderful to be able to travel with a small device instead of easel, paints, etc.  Maybe if I’m ever happy with anything I do on the ITouch I’ll post it.

We had hoped that our fifth grandchild would arrive during our visit. That  doesn’t seem likely to happen before we leave tomorrow morning for home where they’re expecting about 20 inches of snow. Goodbye lotus land.