Color!

Some much needed color (and nourishment) after chopping ice in the driveway for four hours. Below is a detail of a beet, cut the other way. Pretty cool!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

This summer I created twelve pieces in the Holes from Webs Series (the top six are 24" x 18" x 1.5", and the bottom six are 6" x 6" x .75").


I also designed a 2011 calendar, cleaned my in-home studio (almost all of the way), did more web design than usual during the summer (when it's usually slow), read the book Water for Elephants (in anticipation of the movie's 4/15/11 release), and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking (with my personal chef AKA my husband). Most of the colors in the kitchen were reds and purples but not only.







Besides the fact that it was hotter this summer than I can remember, and I don't like hot weather, it was a good summer. I'm really glad cooler weather is on the way, and I'm looking forward to making more art (and helping with the cooking).

Various Reds While Making Cherry Soup

I've always wanted to make a cold Cherry Soup. I loved the color at each step.


2 lbs of pitted cherries.


After chopped up in the blender. Sorry the picture is a little blurry.


The top of the liquid was very foamy after straining.


Left over pulp after straining.


The Greek yogurt turned the soup a dark pink.

Lots of work but very delicious.

Exterior House Painting

My house is being repainted, and it's been a perfect time to play, and have fun, with color.


The body of my house has been "Lilac" since 1999, and the doors have been "Grape Hyacinth" since 1988. I wanted to stay with those two colors, but I wanted to have some fun with the color of the window sills. I wanted something colorful and playful, but also something that wouldn't upset anyone in the neighborhood.

The last time we had our house painted, I wasn't paying attention to all of the details, and I let the painters pick a pale yellow for the window sills. It was OK, but it faded quickly and it was a little boring.

This time I chose a bright yellow, and the painter suggested also trying a slightly lighter one as an experiment. He painted each color on two different sills for us to choose. I knew immediately that I liked the brighter yellow that's at the top of this post. Luckily I was not alone in my choice. My husband, the painter, and some neighbors also liked it, and that's what we decided to go with.


Before painting them, the painters had to strip the windows down to bare wood. I was inspired by the natural wood color and texture, in contrast to the Lilac clapboards, but it only stayed that way for a few days.

Color

Tomatoes. I can't eat them, but I can admire their different colors.

Color and etc

I'm home after spending two really nice weeks on Cape Cod. I have to admit that I never touched my pile of art magazines, nor did I read my book. (Sorry Wally Lamb! I promise to read it ASAP!) I did paint a fair amount of fabric, and besides that, I socialized with friends and family, ate good food, got some good rest, saw Julie & Julia, did some looking at nature while walking (though not as much as I should have) on two bike trails, and I did get a little later in the day beach time and avoided that peak sun.

This was only the second or third time, in my adult life, that I have had a two week vacation, and if you can do it, I highly recommend it.

I've got lots of unpacking and laundry to do, email messages and snail mail to sort and go through, and it's time to get back to working on web design, sweater redesigning for Fall, and planning my solo show at the Hunt-Cavanagh Gallery at Providence College, in Providence, Rhode Island, which opens on October 26th. I also have to get my car in the shop because my radiator decided to leak the moment I pulled in to my driveway at home. Bummer!

As quickly as possible, I'll post new pictures of my outdoor installations, which I haven't posted in two weeks. I'll also post pictures of the fabric I painted while I was away. I also must stitch the fabric for my August 12 x 12 x 12, because the month is already half over.

The picture above is of many many pieces of bamboo. Our friends on the Cape have a huge amount of running bamboo growing in their yard, and they let my husband cut enough so we have 90 6'-7' length pieces so we can construct a fence with it at home. (More on the fence at a later date.) I love the color of the fresh bamboo. I'll try to photograph it when it dries and changes color, to show the difference over time.

Color, Pattern and Texture

The color, pattern, and texture of seaweed, found on the sand at the beach on Cape Cod, last Sunday.

Color, Pattern and Texture

Color, pattern and texture during low tide at a beach in Brewster Massachusetts (on Cape Cod), last Sunday.

Color

One of the pure joys of summer in New England, for me, is when the hardy water lily in my tiny water garden blooms. I love the stamens, and the water droplets sitting on the pedals.

Color!

I saw these plants poking through the ground while on my walk a few days ago. I love their color, or lack of color, especially compared to the leaves surrounding them.

UPDATE:
A friend wrote to me and told me the plants are called Indian Pipes. She said "They are parasitic plants, very cool since they don't use photosynthesis for food. They are special to New England!"

Color!

Cold beet soup on a hot day.

House Painting

My husband and I took advantage of our first blizzard of the season by painting a bedroom in our house that seriously needed to be refreshed.

We finished painting a number of other rooms in our house in May 2007, and this is the last one that needed attention (for now).


When we did the rooms last time, it took us weeks to decide on the colors. We weren't disagreeing. We just couldn't decide. This time, I got a dozen paint swatch strips in the blue series from our local paint store, and we decided immediately. It was refreshing. We settled on Benjamin Moore "Blue Lapis" #2067-40.


I know interior house painting is a lot of work, and it requires patience, but it is so worth it!

Next, I'm going to make new curtains. I'm going funky, with a white-ish background and odd, randomly shaped black dots for the windows, and the white-ish and black stripes as the "door" for the bedroom closet. Since there are almost no fabric stores (locally any more), I have to thank Ikea for selling fabric. I bought this fabric a number of months ago, because I knew I'd be working on this room eventually. I wouldn't make a dress or shirt out of their fabrics, but it's fine for household items.

The two pictures are of the walls in progress. I'll try to take finished pictures when we're done with the walls, the (new) crown moulding is installed, and the curtains are up. Fun, fun, fun.

Rainbow Stairs

The photo I posted on August 29, 2007, of my ex-rainbow stairs, has been used (with permission) as the photo for an article called "How to paint rainbow stairs" in (on?) Yahoo! Shine, an online magazine.

I must admit that I really miss my stairs being the colors of a rainbow. They were a rainbow for at least 15 years. Last year, for a change of pace, I repainted them two shades of orange, but I have not been happy with them. I've spent the past year trying to choose a different color scheme, but have not been able to decide. Maybe I should go back to the rainbow. No rush deciding until summer's over. When I painted the stairs in humid summer weather last year, they took over a week to completely dry. When I do decide to re-paint them, it'll be in the Fall or Winter.

Purple!

Purple around my home. Outside...


The door to my garage.


A birdhouse.


Allium in bloom.


Columbine in bloom.

And inside...


Cole slaw, before being dressed.


Purple pillows and walls.

I love purple!

Flower Power

I saw this on my walk the other day. The tree trunk reminds me of the Flower Power stickers we used to have when I was a kid in the 1970's. Besides the shape, I also like the color of the wood and the bark.

Color!

Flowers for Valentines Day, seen at South Station in Boston. I did NOT change, enhance or brighten the colors of these flowers. I kid you not!

Thread!

Fifty cents at the Senior Center Rummage Sale, in Natick, MA! Nice find!

Autumn Color!

Nice Autumn color around my neighborhood this past week.

Color!

My husband and I drove his 1972 Volvo 1800ES to the Foreign Auto Festival & Antique Aeroplane Show at the Owls Head Transportation Museum today. We had a very nice drive to and from Natick Massachusetts to Owls Head Maine, where the museum is. There were hundreds of antique and newer cars there. I know nothing about restoring old cars, horsepower, transmissions, and etc, so I spent some of my time taking pictures of the beautiful color that surrounded us. This is a very small taste of what we saw.

Color!

A bowl of cut tomatoes at the end of the season. Look at the wonderful color.