ANOTHER PHOTO POST...LOTUS

Inside the Japanese garden area of the Missouri Botanical garden is a pond. And along the "end" of this pond, as we came around the curved walkway, stood half a dozen photographers with tripods set and taking photos furiously...well, they were actually taking the photos calmly but there seemed to be a furious intensity in their actions just the same. Why? Because the pond, at this end, was covered with lotus flowers blooming, lotus pods striking out towards the sky like rockes, and lotus leaves as big as babies twisting and turning around the blossoms and inside the water. Absolutely made you stop breathing and just LOOK for a while.


Enjoy.
















I could have walked through that garden slowly, mindfully, for hours. If you visit St. Louis, forget the Zoo, forget the Science museum and the Arch...go straight to the Missouri Botanical Garden and view the lotus in bloom in late June (something this beautiful has to be fleeting).





In case you just have to see the Arch, here are the only 2 photos I took standing beside the thing. It was hot, there was a 45 minute wait in line to get tickets and then a 1 1/2 hour wait to get on the ride and ride up (because only 1 side was working and there were a lot of people waiting).

The final day, before we started our 6-hour drive home, we stopped at the Butterfly House in St. Louis. It was a lovely structure and well worth the stop. Hundreds of butterflies of all shapes and sizes flying through the air, landing on watered spots and oranges and looking like flying jewels. I wanted some to land on me but they didn't, although I had some friends who landed beside me as I rested on a bench or two.

MARGARET ANN'S SUNFLOWER + MY FINCHES

I received this very pretty notecard and a wonderful art card from Margaret Ann - oh, the atc is so much prettier in person than you can see here in the scan! Titled "Stained Glass Blossom Series #3," it is a complex yet delicate sunflower. I love the blue but also am in love with the curling vine around the stem.

Thank you so much, MA/Peg :) Hope you get mine soon and enjoy it as much as I will enjoy this one. I now have 3 of your wonderful art cards!!!

The artists I have met in this blog-o-sphere have been so generous with their talent and skills and their knowledge, too. I'm always so pleased to have positive things to spice up the day and overpower the negative we see sometimes in our lives.

For my sketch of the finches on the feeder, I just couldn't leave them in graphite - too boring! So took some pastel pencils I got at one of the watercolor society "flea market sales" and put some color on them. I may have done too much (not sure how to work well with pastels yet) but I like the touches of color better than the graphite. This is in my Exacompta 5 1/2" x 8" sketchbook.

MORE ST. LOUIS PHOTOS

So we did the Science Museum, then the Zoo and the Art Museum. The next day we did the Missouri Botanical Garden (http://www.mobot.org/), getting up at 6 am so we could get there and walk around before the heat index rose above 100F again. I was not pleased about this, but once I got there and saw everything there was to see and walked through the Chinese garden and the Japanese garden, I was in a better mood...and it was still before noon so not unbearably hot before we got inside to the Climatron and cooled down a bit.

The garden folks liked their Dale Chuhuly glass pieces and they were inside the entrance area, over the formal garden arches and in the pond outside the Climatron.

They did look nice in the lotus pond with some great reflections. And speaking of lotus ponds...you thought the lotus in Kentucky were good but here, in the Japanese garden area, were hundreds of lotus blooming and they were standing so tall and thick it was enough to take your breath away (or maybe that was the heat?).

ST. LOUIS PHOTOS

Across the river from Paducah, KY is a little town in Illinois called Metropolis. Metropolis? Wasn't that where Superman lived? Yep! And you can go to the courthouse and see this giant statue of Superman and take his photo. The little blonde guy is my own super man :)

Driving on through Illinois into Missouri and to St. Louis. Had to take a quick snap of the Arch through the car window.

Did you know that a large chunk of I-64 was closed going through St. Louis? We didn't...and it wasn't easy to find our way to the hotel. But we finally arrived, tired and hot (yes, another scorching day), and ready to rest after a quick visit to the Science Museum (which was mostly for kids, it seems) because we got into the Forest Park area and couldn't find the Art Museum (which is what I wanted to see because 1) it was an art museum and 2) it was air conditioned and cool inside). So the next day we went to the St. Louis Art Museum (after walking a few miles in the scorching heat around the St. Louis Zoo where most of the animals were hiding inside burrows or caves and sleeping in the heat while the less smart humans walked around, wilting and suffering the sun and 105 heat index.

My favorite things at the museum (http://www.slam.org)

= the dancer by Degas in the same room as 2 Van Goghs and a Monet water lily painting.

And, of course, the Bodhissatvas and Buddhas in the Asian art area.

More to come later when I sort through more photos...

GUITAR MAN SAM + FINCH FEEDER SKETCH

If you remember, dear Myrna Wacknov, a wonderful lady and great artist, sent me this painting on tyvek because it so reminded me of my father. My sister said the same thing when she saw it - except for the hair, which Dad brushed straight back (and the age because he only lived to age 35 and this man looks a bit older). So my sister and I have decided Myrna has painted Dad if he were older, perhaps 50's instead of 30's so current hairstyle, etc.

Anyway, I had it matted and framed and here it is. I'm calling it Guitar Man Sam.

And again, thank you,

thank you,

thank you,

Myrna.

This will be a treasure for me for a long time.

Today I'm trying to get the minutes from the watercolor society done with photos, etc. so no painting - but I do have a sketch to share: Three artist friends and I have decided to challenge each other to sketch at least 1 sketch every week in July. The sketches are to be of our home towns/neighborhoods or houses and gardens, etc. So this one was done while sitting on the back deck watching the goldfinches surround the feeder this afternoon. I should add a touch of yellow to show they are goldfinches but I can always just splatter a bit of yellow on later...(I darkened it so it was more visible since it's just sketched in graphite).

WATERCOLOR SOCIETY MEETING: GUEST ARTIST/SPEAKER = JEANNE MCLEISH

Watercolor Society meeting today so no painting for me again - although I did finish the self-portrait and sent it off to David Lobenberg for his global self-portrait love-in :) Just pulled the "bars" down in front of me so I look behind them now, not in front, and shapes the "hair" a bit more...ta-da!!

It will be fun to see all the self-portraits David collects and shows...so sometime today check out his blog just for the self-portraits at
http://spgloballovein.blogspot.com/

PADUCAH QUILT MUSEUM

Leaving Land Between the Lakes area and driving northwest towards Paducah, Kentucky where they have The National Quilt Museum. This is not your grandmothers' quilts!! Artful, interesting, clever, and so amazing!!! We weren't allowed to take photos of the quilts inside - they were having a couple of shows including quilts from Asian countries and the winners of the yearly quilt competition from the last 25 years - wonderful examples of the creativity and the stamina (some were, indeed, hand-stitched and took years to make!).

Magnolia blossoms blooming right outside the front door...and stained glass "quilts" in the windows.

We were allowed to take a photo of a piece of a quilt that was carved out of basswood by an artist in Tampa, Florida. The little quilt piece is part of it and shows how it's made of wood...and the quilt on the wall (which even when you stood in front of it, looked "real," is the full carved piece. (I know the sign said to NOT take a photo of the quilt but just the quilt piece...and I didn't intend to until I was trying to get the quilt piece and words and saw that the full quilt was just in the frame, too...sooo.....)

SOUTHWESTERN KENTUCKY: LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES

Some photo odds and ends taken by me (just vacation snaps - Jerry takes the real photos! ha ha) along the way. It was a 6-hour drive down to southwestern KY and Land Between the Lakes...and, as I've said before, it was HOT and HUMID the whole time. But you can enjoy the photos in the coolness of your own home - no mosquitoes, no chiggers, no damp heat :)

We went to a place that had a little restored "village" with a waterwheel and a very expensive restaurant. Of course, I decided the week before to begin a very strenuous plant-based diet (can't eat anything with a mother or a face! and no dairy of any kind and no oil - if that's possible), so had a bit of a struggle finding things to eat that I didn't just take with me and fix in the microwave in the hotel. In this little village, there were ponds, animals, flowers, and a little chapel where people married - no wedding that day (the poor bride wouldn't have made it in the heat) but there were about 1/2 dozen of us walking around slowly.

Land Between the Lakes

http://www.lbl.org/LBLGeneralMap.pdf

is a boating area and park area so lots of little parks and places and historic areas, as well as plenty of water and marinas and B&Bs. All along the roadways (where were strangely deserted - were we the only ones crazy enough to be down there and NOT in a boat on the river?), growing beside the roads were mimosas. My grandmother had one in her front yard for years - full and lush and full of hummingbirds in the summer. The smell was wonderful! Took this photo along a pond that was full of American lotus flowers blooming - the whole area was covered with them so, of course, we took a mile walk around to take photos and get mosquito- and chigger-bit :)

Did you know that we have our own American Lotus blooming in the US? I didn't. They were gorgeous - lovely and pale yellow in a pond of blue...had to take a lot of photos here, of course (good thing I had my OFF towelette to keep the mosquitoes off me).

We also went to a Nature/Garden Center to see dozens of hummingbirds swarming around feeders, tethered owls and hawks and caged bobcats and deer.

When a group of children (about 9 plus 2 adults) came running up to the owls, the barred owl began hooting...maybe saying, "Slow down! It's too hot to be running!" or were they saying, "Too many kids...go away...go away!!" The little screech owl began huffing, too, and since she had just gotten dipped in a tub of water and was looking a little worse for wear, she wasn't in any mood!

We also tried to see the bison and elk herd in the park close by - but didn't go right after dawn or just before dusk (apparently, bison and elk are smarter than Rhonda and Jerry and are only out in the coolest parts of the day!)

COMING HOME AND A SURPRISE IN THE MAIL

This great set of art cards from soulbrush waited for me in the pile of mail brought in by my sister while we were away.

A very interesting and cool card plus the art cards I asked for in trade (hope she gets mine soon) plus itty bitty "inchies." Inchies are apparently for those artists who aren't challenged enough by the art card size and want to go smaller!!! No thank you, people, I won't be creating any of these BUT I do like the ones soul sent me :)

Thank you, soul, for these little pieces of yourself you send so readily everywhere in the world! I hope you are feeling well and happy this week.

And don't forget, if you're going to participate in David Lobenberg's self-portrait love-in, have your SP to him by...gulp!....tomorrow!!!

Now back to cleaning and laundry and all the stuff you have to do when you return from a vacation.

HOT HOT HOT AND NOT IN THE GOOD WAY!

Who plans a vacation trip that is mostly outside walking and touring and seeing things in parks and beside lakes and at zoos, etc. when the heat index is above 100F? Well, I guess we do!

We have returned - without heat stroke (by nothing but sheer luck) - and I have photos to share. But let me get caught up first and then you'll have some photos to see of the things we saw.

Southwestern Kentucky and Land Between the Lakes was 95-98F with a heat index of 100F each day there but St. Louis, Missouri!!! was 98F-99F with a heat index of 105F each day there. The zoo animals were not even out, being much smarter than the few humans walking around and wilting in the heat. It felt absolutely refreshing to come home to 85F weather and a nice breeze.

ANOTHER SELF-PORTRAIT: FUNKY

I took a photo and played with it in my photo program and came up with something that looked like it might be fun to try to paint.

Photo here:



































Painting here -




The painting is on Tyvek that I pretreated by brushing a thin coat of acrylic matte medium over it (so the paint didn't totally bubble up off the tyvek).

There are some things to change:

I don't like the white stripes I used to separate the colors because they seem too strong now, esp. on the right side, so maybe I'll carry the "black" through to the right side of the painting; and I need to shape the face a bit more but maybe it's about right.

What do you think? Love it or hate it? I'm doing anything to keep from doing a traditional self-portrait (out of fear that I can't do it?).

Well, do leave your comments BUT
I'm taking a little driving trip for a few days and will return soon to see what you've posted about this one. Be back soon!

SELF PORTRAIT

David Lobenberg has created a new blog (http://spgloballovein.blogspot.com/). He challenged/invited artists to do self-portraits and send them to him through the month of June and he will post them all to see how artists see themselves. It should be fun and I, bravely/foolishly said I would join in. So I've been working on some things in order to have something good to share by the end of this month.

You've seen this SP on Aquabee paper in graphite.

I went back to it with Sketch n'Wash graphite (you put it down and can blend it out with water) and didn't like it that much (made me look like I had 1/2 a moustache and a beard!), so added up putting some paint on it. It's not a great painting by any means - the Aquabee is meant to have paint put down and left alone and I definitely didn't do that with this one. But it does look like me - somewhat/almost.

Comments welcome - I have until the end of the month to send something in and I'm working on something else that might be better. So let me know what you think of this one.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL

Whether you're a father, a step-father,
or a surrogate father for a child who is small,
or who has grown and has a child of his or her own,

Happy Father's Day to you!

Father's Song
by Gregory Orr

Yesterday, against admonishment,
my daughter balanced on the couch back,
fell and cut her mouth.
Because I saw it happen I knew
she was not hurt, and yet
a child's blood so red
it stops a father's heart.

My daughter cried her tears;
I held some ice
against her lip.
That was the end of it.
Round and round: bow and kiss.
I try to teach her caution;
she tried to teach me risk.