So a quick post today to recommend the book I just finished.  It had it all, mystery, detective work, art, history, travel...everything.  The book is The Vanishing Velazquez by Laura Cumming, published in 2016.  If you are interested in the same things I am, you will enjoy it.  Yes, intrigue equals happiness and assumptions will always get you into trouble.  Back to my brushes.  

"Art is a harmony parallel with nature." - Paul Cezanne 

This deep dive into a subject has been a real revelation to me.  I came to a point last year where I thought I was done with it, but did a rather abrupt about face when I considered a different vantage point, and so began a journey of discovery.  If you have read my blog you know I love a museum crawl.  I love "the timeline" and I always discover something new even if greeting an old friend.  But how was it relevant personally?  I thought this consideration could be...interesting.  Let's be clear, I'm not talking about deconstructing a painting.  I can do that with the best of them.  No, I'm talking about essentials.  So this journey started last year and I just  completed the fourth painting.  As I start the fifth I find I a truer sense of understanding and have experienced tangible personal growth as a result.  The most important thing I discovered was that I can tackle anything with but one subject.  So, to the ether, I send thanks to those who have held my hand.  Back to my brushes.  

"Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings." - Wassily Kandinsky

I'll be painting today but just wanted to recall my most recent reading list.  Perhaps you can find something you would be interested in.  So let's start with one of my fave writers Christopher Moore.  I started Noir because, frankly, I was in the mood for Moore.  I can, as usual, recommend.  If you like Humphrey Bogart movies, you'll be entertained by this book.  I can recommend two books by Susan Vreeland, the first being Lisette's List and the second Luncheon at the Boating Party.  Both are novels, one based on the famous painting and the other uses WWII as the background of art discovery.  I enjoyed them both.   I can recommend The Last One by Brian King.  This book is a mystery about the last painting by Vincent Van Gogh - and I do love a mystery.  The Shallows is another murder mystery by Matt Goldman.  I have fallen for this series hard and as soon as a new book in the series is released, I pick it up.  The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick was enjoyable, but I got interrupted too many times and will probably re-read.  Highly recommend Clear Seeing Place by Brian Rutenburg.  Not only was it interesting it made me laugh too.  But I have saved a special one for the end.  This article in the New Yorker magazine by Malcolm Gladwell from 2008 is a must read in my opinion.  It is titled Late Bloomers:  Why do we equate genius with precocity?  Here is the link .  So just read it.  Back to my brushes.


"Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail."  Theodor Dreiser

It appears I went to bed last night on the eve of Independence Day only to wake up this morning on May Day, 1965, in some alternate universe.  In response, I share an image of my painting titled Disconnected. Back to my brushes.  

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​"Freedom in art, freedom in society, this is the double goal towards which all consistent and logical minds must strive."  - Victor Hugo