I have been in my house for 21 days now.  It has rained most of the time, four inches more than normal for the year.  I have been working on the same painting for some time and must admit to unbelievable boredom where it is concerned (which makes total sense actually).  I have only used two colors for the most part and, well, what can I say...I think it works, but it is tedious.  It truly takes perseverance on my part to put the thing on the table every day.  I can hardly wait to begin something new.  But, I figure I am about a week out from finishing it.  That is what I am telling myself anyway.  So, what else have I done.  Read the news.  Washed my hands till they are raw.  Washed down groceries.  Facetimed with family.  Finished a few books - four actually.  And painted.  Oh yes, and cooked.  I don't cook.  This has been touch and go:   spaghetti sauce - good; pot roast - good; chicken - inedible.  I guess two out of three isn't too bad.  We had some frozen dinners thank goodness.  We will continue to experiment.  I do make decent bread though, so that has not been a problem. I did get good news when I received notification that my entry had been accepted in the Watercolor USA 2020 exhibit.  That was a highlight indeed.  The highlight today was that the sun was out, the boxwoods are trimmed and I can watch the birds at the birdbath from my window.  So a beautiful day and a horrible day.  I suppose that sums up pandemic life.  Back to my brushes.  


"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." - Doug Larson

I met Bill Lewis in 2011.  The MSW show was the first watercolor juried exhibition I had ever entered and Bill was the Gold Medal winner that year.  I have a photo of him on my desktop from a paint-out we both attended.  We had much in common besides our love of watercolor, as we were both dealing with cancer at the time. It is indeed an honor and a warm pleasure to win an award honoring his memory.  My sincere thanks to Jo Ann Talbert for sponsoring this memorial award and to the judge Lynn Ferris for deeming my work worthy of it. At this special time in the organization’s history I also take this moment to celebrate our wonderful art community as well.  So, I raise my glass -  Here’s to Bill, a true inspiration.  Back to my brushes.  


"Your self...is other people, all the people you're tied to, and it's only a thread."  - Thomas Wolfe

Today Tom Schaller is my hero.  Back to my brushes.  

"Put your heart, mind and soul into even your smallest acts.  This is the secret of success." - Swami Sivananda

I ran across a couple of juried exhibits that I was considering entering and so perused the prospectus to become familiar with the requirements. In it, the requirement of when the work had to have been completed was listed as "the last two years". No big deal, right? (Personally, I look in my log to see when I completed a painting and go from there.) But upon further reading, that time frame was explained as "must have been completed in 2019 or 2020". I was a bit nonplussed at that point, after all it is only February of 2020, which hardly constitutes a two year time frame in my opinion - but there it was in black and white. So it made me consider that perhaps I had misinterpreted what I thought I understood as "completed in that last (whatever) years" in the past. The next time I entered an exhibit, I asked if I was understanding the prospectus rules correctly. Apparently, I had been doing the correct thing all these years (for that venue at least), but must admit feeling a right fool by the response. But hey, if asking a question makes you a fool; a fool I shall be. Back to my brushes.  


"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water."  - Franklin A. Jones 

Agreed.  It's been too long, but I've been busy with "life" things.  It is with renewed hope that I will soon be back to a normal schedule.  As you can see, I have updated my webpage.  Hooray!  I have set it up like a color coded file cabinet, so hopefully I will be better organized.  We shall see.  I only have the gallery page left to do...but my brushes have been neglected far too long and they are calling me.  Another item I have added to my list is The Sketchbook Project, which my niece and I are tackling together so that we can encourage each other to finish our books.  I already have the narrative ready to go, just have to put it in the sketchbook I received yesterday.  If you don't know about this project, just push on the link and it will give you all the information.  It looked like fun - why not?  Who doesn't need more fun in their life?  Back to my brushes.  

"For real company and friendship, there is nothing outside of the animal kingdom that is comparable to a river." - Henry Van Dyke

I'm pleased to share that I will be exhibiting a painting in the upcoming Mid Southern Watercolorists 50th Annual Juried Exhibition.  Quite a milestone for the organization and I am so happy to be included.  Also, I will have a painting exhibited in the Fabriano in Watercolour 2020 exhibition in Fabriano, Italy to be held in May 2020.  Shaping up to be a fun year!  Back to my brushes.  

"Thanksgiving has wings, and goes where it must go." - Victor Hugo

How happy I am to be able to share my Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma heritage with my friends and family.  I put my tree up today and I especially enjoy placing the ornaments from my tribe on the tree. Especially poignant were the ones with notes from Chief Gregory Pyle who recently passed.  Thank you Chief Gary Batton for continuing this tradition.  Back to my brushes.  

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"Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands." - Lupita Nyong'o

I'm honored to share that my painting The Patterns of Home has been purchased by the Department of Arkansas Heritage for the Arkansas Arts Council's Small Works on Paper permanent collection.  This painting is in the Arkansas Arts Council's 2019 Small Works on Paper touring exhibit which is currently displayed at the University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana campus until the end of November.  I rarely paint landscapes, so I am enchanted that this piece, so indicative of our area, has been chosen for inclusion in the permanent collection.   Back to my brushes.  

"Treat a work of art like a prince.  Let it speak to you first." - Arthur Schopenhauer

I'm pleased to share that my painting The Tools of Line and Color has been chosen for the 2020 exchange exhibition Visions Adjoin.  For the first time in nearly fifty years, the National Watercolor Society and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour will host a joint exhibition of 60 paintings (30 juried from each society's Signature or Elected Members) to be displayed at the NWS Gallery, San Pedro, California and the Helson Gallery, Halton Hills, Ontario.  "The objective of this exhibition/exchange opportunity is to share the common bond of a passion for watercolor, that both societies promote. The cultural influences each country explores independently as well as similarities that the medium of watercolor offers will connect our two countries in this international display."  I am so delighted to be a part of this exhibit, my thanks to the judges.  Back to my brushes.  

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."  - Oliver Wendell Holmes 

My Uncle passed last week and I have spent some time recalling memories of our time together over the years.  He was an educated man, graduating from the University of Oklahoma.  He served in the USAF until his retirement.  These are but two of his accomplishments but not what comes to my mind when I think of him.  Instead I recall his humor, his laugh, his forthrightness and his perseverance.  I recall he introduced me to fishing and gave me my first tackle box.  (I'm afraid it was destined for paint tubes instead).  But the vision that comes to my mind is much stronger than the others because it is the routine that becomes most precious in our memory.  And so my thoughts go to the changing of day to night, wakefulness to rest.  He has finished his meal and retreated to his chair to read and partake of his pipe. The lamp is on beside him, an incandescent glow over his right shoulder as he chooses one of the pipes from the round stand on the table.  He lights his pipe and the smell permeates the room.  A hint of woods and something sweet...cherry maybe?  The smoke hovers in the air around him like a gossamer cloud.  He reads.  The print from the paper reflects off his glasses and the world is revealed.  Forever in my memory, godspeed Uncle Al.  Back to my brushes.  

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"What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright." - Gustave Flaubert