You can always tell when it's August here on the Central Coast - the naked ladies arrive. Along the roadside, in the garden, on the bluffs overlooking the sea. Those lovely Amaryllis, that send up their leaves in late fall and winter and then die down until the stalks appear, in late summer, with glorious flowers ranging from pale pink to a deep fuchsia. How much fun was had by my younger self and my siblings as we'd run through the neighbourhood every August yelling "The naked ladies are here!
By artist Dave Bruce from Phoenix, and ranging in price from around $75.00 to $135.00. How cool would one - or three or four - look hanging in your yard?!
Wow! 200 posts! I was pretty nervous about starting a blog, but with the gentle, yet persistent urging of Lisa Hoffman I took the plunge and now, here we are 200 posts later. And many thanks to all of you who have dropped in "by the sea".
Tiny glass bottles, some very, very tiny. Clear ,blue, brown.
Some with caps,some with stoppers some with corks, some with droppers.
Runic Bird #1
photo courtesy of Mary Hatch
Kevah Cafe - Nepenthe, Big Sur
View from deck at Nepenthe photo courtesy of Lone Cypress
images courtesy Jacqueline Rush Lee
Somerset Studio Sept./Oct. hits the newsstands on September 1st.
Another Wednesday - another cigar box. This one full of locks and keys; old, new, vintage, rusty, shiny, real and "for show"
The perfect finishing touch to that journal page or assemblage - often "the key" to the entire piece! (Sorry, couldn't resist - I know, I should have tried.)
It is indeed, really easy, as these pictures show. I had a lot of fun going through my marbled papers and making these, both regular length and the short golf pencils. And, now I can use them in my artwork and save the glorious Venetian ones to drool over!
A fun, though foggy, morning at the San Luis Obispo Swap Meet yesterday. Picked up my daughter Jenny, and armed with coffee, lots of $1.00 bills and shopping bags, we hit the stalls.
I had nothing in particular that I was looking for, but open to anything great or unusual. Like these heavy pewter corn-on-the-cob holders (don't they just scream "assemblage me!"). Old boxes and tins are always popular and loved the retro "wooden nickel" style campaign buttons.
This was the "find" of the day though. It measures about 10x6x4" and is a delightful little vintage train case, complete with lock and key. A section in the lid opens to reveal a mirror and storage for m'lady's cosmetics. The ideas are already fomenting for a vintage travel assemblage.
A delicious breakfast afterwards with more time to visit and home in time to get into the studio and play for the afternoon.
A few miles up the coast near Cayucos
Prospect New Town is a wonderful development in Longmont, Colorado. Built on a former tree farm, there are single family homes, condos, studios, multiple living spaces, park areas, playgrounds, and retail buildings. All done with a commitment to minimize negative impact on the land.
Every building is different, loads of glorious colours, street names like - Ionosphere Street, Tenacity Drive, Confidence Drive and Neon Forest Circle. There's a small "downtown" area of retail buildings, a coffee shop, restaurants, etc. It all looks like it's been there for years because of the mature trees. There's an in-depth article here and just google "Prospect New Town" for loads of info.
Narrow tree lined streets, big front porches, garages in back with second floor apartments, a neighbourhood feel and working with the environment - you gotta love it.
When Lisa and I were drooling over everything at Two Hands Paperie last week, I stumbled on this wonderful tome. Pictorial Webster's is a alphabetical compendium of all the glorious 19th century illustrations that we remember from the old dictionaries in our classrooms back in the '50's and early '60's. No definitions - just the wonderful pictures!
Midtown Kiosk
When I gessoed the red rosin paper I used cheese cloth, fish net, net trim and Golden pumice gel for the maximum amount of texture. I picked a non-characteristic palette, for me, of burnt sienna, raw umber, and avocado green, with highlights of cardinal red, copper and bamboo.
I raided our scrap paper box at work and came up with old flyers from our public bulletin board. I made sure to rip off or cover phone numbers and any personal information. I coloured these bits with Portfolio water soluble oil pastels in a myriad of colours, and then affixed to the painting with matte medium. A round of drips and splatters and voila! Midtown Kiosk.
One more ready for Open Studios.
This week it's musical instrument bits and bobs. If only I had known back in the 1970's when I was teaching junior high band and orchestra in East LA and Watts - I could have amassed a ton of some of this stuff, as my students were always using it up and tossing it. Hind sight is a glorious thing. Of course, where would I have stored it, in the intervening 30 years?
I have two or three boxes with this sort of thing. This one holds trumpet mouthpieces, clarinet and bassoon reeds, and piano hammers. When I first became interested in altered art I remember seeing the work of an artist who always used bassoon reeds in his/her work - but the name eludes me now.
The piano hammers came from a massive tub full of them at Art From Scrap in Santa Barbara - something like $.25 a piece. I'm still not sure what to do with them - but, really, how could I resist?!
One of the most breath-taking things I saw on my recent trip was the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. Boulder is sister cities with Dushanbe, Tajikistan, a former member of the Soviet Republic bordered by China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The teahouse was built in Tajikistan, then taken apart, crated, and shipped to Boulder, where it was reassembled. The master builder accompanied the teahouse and oversaw its reconstruction.
Beautiful painted ceilings and walls, and intricately carved pillars fill the interior. A central fountain with delicate copper statues rests in the center of the main area. Ceramic panels cover the exterior.
