Lake Pleasant, Arizona

Pleasant is the story here. Nice warm weather. A beautiful lake to gaze at and swim in. A very nice campsite with free showers. It’s also quiet here. What a pleasant place to relax. That’s what I did for the day.I was really excited about the night sky. It was warm with a slight breeze and a full moon. Oh! Pleasant Lake, I wonder who named it?

The saguaros all have these tuffs on their tops. I couldn’t figure it out until I saw a few of the white and yellow blooms. The saguaro Cactus is plentiful around here and so fun to paint.I went swimming in the lake. So nice. I sat on the shore reading and painting, watching the kayaks go by.

The air is so dry here I’m drinking water like crazy. I forgot to bring my towel to the shower and only realized it as I was finishing. No problem, I was practically dry by the time I got back to my campsite

I’m on my way today to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s nice to be on the road again!

Painting with Grandkids and more painting!!

The boys loved doing small paintings.  They looked good and didn’t take as long to paint. The shark and sunflower painting are 5″x5″on canvas.  The  winter and night scene are 3″x3″ paimtimgs. They all fit on small wooden easels.   The 2nd grader, 4th and 5th grader were all pleased with there paintings and so was I.

 

 

I arrived in New York with lots of art supplies in my suitcase.  Between activities, homework, school, scoccer and karate we started a painting marathon.

 

My grand daughter loves painting as much as I do. We painted pumpkins and flowers before school and after school. I had given a watercolor workshop at Sherman Gardens on painting pumpkins and sunflowers. Big round oval pumpkin shapes and small circles and rounded petal shapes for flowers.My painting for watercolor class.

My 4 year old granddaughter did many wonderful paintings!

The fourth grader did this painting of a soccer field!  It’s 3″x3″ . A wonderful painting somewhat abstract.

 

My minature winter paintings are 3″x3″.  I really enjoy painting and being able to share painting ideas and skills is fantastic!

Heading West on I-70

 

Leaving Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania I headed west to Ohio.   I love being on the road, in my head I review all that I did this summer from Maine to North Carolina, Connecticut to Pennsylvania.  Pennsylvania’s  beautiful farm land starts me singing. “This Land is your land, this land is my land, From California to the New York Island.”   Thank you Woodie Guthrie for writing this song in 1944.

 372 miles on my speedmeter to a KOA at Buckeye Lake in Ohio.  It starts to rain just as I am registering.  I grab my umbrella, bathing suit and head for the swimming pool.  Umbrella and swimming pool, no wonder I am the only one there.  I look across the pool and see cows.  Are they real?  No they are cow sculptures.

Early the next morning and full of energy the next landmark is   Columbus, Ohio and then to Indianapolis, Indiana.   I stop at the Illinois Welcome Center.  They are preparing for the Solar Eclipse on Aug. 21.  The woman tells me there will be an Ozzie Osborne concert.  I’m glad to miss that one.

399 miles to Mulberry Grove, Illinois.  The campground is next to the pavilion.  No events right now so I have my own bathroom, refrigerator, stove and roof.

Mulberry Grove, Illinois

Pavilion at Campground

Morning comes and I’m on my way to St. Louis, Missouri, a coyote crosses Highway 70 as the fog was lifting.

 Endless skyway through Missouri to Kansas.  There was a lot going on in Missouri.  Signs on the highway posted Solar Eclipse, August 21, Expect Delays,  Heavy Traffic.  Highway 70 was also closed at one point.  I started making a list of all the unusual church names.

Element Church, Faith Church Family Church, FCFC,  Liberty Church, Reach Church, Victory Baptist Church and Praise Assembly of God.

398 miles landing in Paxco Kansas!

The man that checked me in at the campground in Paxico, Kansas said he didn’t like any people from California.  I said, “There are all kinds of people in California.”  He had no use for any of them.  BUT, he took my $25. and gave me a nice campsite.  He told me about the storm shelter in case of ??

I’m still trying to figure out what it would be like to live in Kansas.

And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, ,This land was made for you and me.

“Don’t I get tired?” people ask.   I did driving through Kansas!!  I had finished my book on tape “little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Kansas seemed so big.  I  kept driving.  I pulled into a rest area and listened to my power nap app on my phone.  Drinking lots of water, coffee and tea and stopping often.  I started a new book.

429 miles from Paxico, Kansas to Limon, Colorado.  I wan’t sure what my next step was but I was still in flat eastern Colorado.  I went for a swim at the KOA and decided to head the next morning for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

When the sun came shining and I was strolling.

 253 miles from Limon, Colorado to the KOA in the town of Gunnison, Colorado.  I stopped at a Safeway to load up on groceries.  I had a space in the campground all to myself with a pavilion right beside it.  It had tables, a stove, sink and roof over my head.

79 miles to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  Kansas was straight and flat and now Colorado was curvy and high. Be careful what you wish for,  my sister often says to me.  It was a challenge for Vanna and me around and around the mountain curves.

Mountain sketch

Campground in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  I went to a Ranger Program that night and learned more about the dark skies.  This Park and the Grand Canyon are dark skies National Parks.

Me sketching

Black Canyon

The canyon was dark and deep.  One picture shows the empire state building at the bottom of the canyon.

 208 miles to Mesa Verde National Park.   I find a nice campsite.  4 drives around the campground to pick just the right spot.   Many spots were available.  Why weren’t more people camping here.  I had a tour for  Cliff Palace Dwelling at 3 p.m.  More curvy winding roads to the Cliff Palace.  It was a great tour.  The Park Ranger was full of information and interesting stories.

I’m currently working on paintings of the Cliff Dwellings.  The ancestral Pueblo people is the term used now.  Anasazi name is no longer correct.

Polishing off the best burrito breakfast at 9a.m. sent me on my way to the East entrance of the Grand Canyon past the 4 Corners.

I found a campsite and took a trail to the canyon.  I was happy to return here.  It felt like a good place.  I loved the dark sky at night.  It was wonderful looking up at the milky way.

I love the Grand Canyon

HOME!

This Land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island  (and all that’s in between)

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream water

This land was made for you and me.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle Maine- -part 2

Food, Food, and more Food!

No worry about being hungry.  We were trained to be at dining hall when the bell rang and somehow all 90 plus people were hungry and could even eat desert.  It must have been the ocean air? Or the lack of cell phones and internet?

The cakes are a work of art!  My favorite was the Blueberry Cheesecake.  I didn’t get a picture because I was too busy eating it!

Menus

These are some of the menus that were posted for every meal.

Cookies

Fresh baked cookies were out at every lunch time.  You just had to try one or two to get you through to the next meal.

Cartoon Characters

The Young Woman from Iceland does a weekly cartoon for her newspaper.

Young Woman in Iceland

Young woman in Maine

She arrived in Maine and never did get her luggage but she got so many mosquito bites!

My Cartoon Character

I was inspired me to develop my own cartoon. It’s so much fun.

These are some of my cartoons!

And More fast paintings! At the end of the deck overlooking the ocean.

Another Seaweed Painting! Between Painting I wrote down some thoughts:

The Perfect Moment

Sparkling sun, waves  lapping against the rocks,

Seaweed swaying with the water.

Paint, paper, brush, pens by my side, Paint flows,

The sky has pink,

Shadows of purple, islands distant grayish purple and dark green.

Cobalt, cerulean, ultramarine, and turquoise blend into the sky and sea,

greens and burnt sienna along the shore and island.

The moment you realize,

This is it!

 

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine

WOW!  The whole experience was overwhelming in a good way.  90 creative people gathered together in a beautiful landscape.  The classes were drawing, metals, glass, wood and fabric. I was in the drawing class with a fantastic teacher and artist Claire Sherman.   My roommate was in the glass class.  I loved it all!    This blog will show mostly my art work.  It will take another post or 2 to talk about the food and other things I did.

Some of my work

Small sketch of rock

abstract seaweed

seaweed

I am standing by my work for the showing of  students’ work on Thursday night before we left Friday am.  Claire Sherman the teacher was wonderful.  She does large oil paintings and exhibits at the D.C. Moore Gallery in NYC.   She teaches at Drew University. We started our class with Claire showing slides by artists throughout history working in landscape.  Then we went outside to the rocks.  Painting and drawing everyday using watercolor, pens, crayons, and pencils I quickly worked on my small studies.  “Do 6 sketches before lunch”, Claire would say.  Use good paper and good paint.  What are you saving paper for?

I got quite involved with the idea of seaweed creeping around the rocks and into the sea. Seaweed became a fascinating subject for me.

The small sketches evolved into larger mixed media watercolor paintings.  Claire encouraged us to take leaps pushing our ideas along.  “There should be a difference between a photograph and a painting” she said.  We looked at slides of work by Turner, Charles Birchfield , Hooper and Diog among a few.  We also had reading homework every evening.

Night Painting Cabin 18 and 19

We read about VanGogh before we did a night painting.  I started this night painting outside my cabin but the mosquitos attacked me so I went inside with the lights out to paint some more.  I finished it the next day in the studio.

Painting on the rocks

Beautiful scenery

Lots and lots of painting of Deer Isle. Lots of climbing steps.  Steps to my cabin, steps to the bathroom, steps to the studio, steps to the dining hall and steps to the parking lot.  The 2 weeks spent here was a step into paradise.  The paradise did include ants, mosquitos and laundry that would never quite dry.

Path to the rocks

Deck outside the studio

Foggy days, sunny days and 1 rainy day.

Deer Isle 1 by John Marin

Deer Isle 2 by John Marin

I feel like I learned new things and had a great time.  On my way home I visited an exhibit of watercolors by John Marin.  He painted on Deer Isle, Maine.  These are 2 of his paintings of Deer Isle.

 

North Carolina the Outer Banks

How did I get to North Carolina I asked myself?  I left Pennsyvania and drove through Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.  On the way back from North Carolina through Virginia, then Maryland, over long stretches of bridges and tunnels into Delaware, on to New Jersey and the George Washington bridge to NYC.  Wow!  What a trip.  The Outer Banks is a beautiful wild place.  It was a fun week.

Bodie Lighthouse

Sign at the Lighthouse. Of course people were walking all over the grass. They can’t read.

Wright Brothers launched there first plane at KillDeer Hill

Driving to Cape Hatteras I stopped at Kill Devil Hill to see the site that the Wright Brothers launched their first flight.

Another stop at The Bodie Lighthouse.

My grandson did the Hatteras Lighthouse and I finished the painting.

My son helped all the children cast into the surf.

Arriving at Cape Hatteras and the house my daughter-in-law, son, 3 grandchildren, her parents, her niece, her brother and his child were staying in this week.  A swimming pool was right beside the house.  It was perfect for a week of great times.

 

I forgot to take a picture of the large seasoned shrimp as I couldn’t wait to bite into it.  Grits and pulled pork for lunch at Grill and Grits.  Soft vanilla ice cream swirled with fresh peaches!  Breakfast was made every morning by my son.  Life was good.

The best soft serve vanilla ice cream with fresh peaches swirled together. THE BEST EVER!

Grits and pulled pork. I love this stuff.

My son made me delicious breakfast every morning.

 

Driving through the sand in the 4 wheel SUV that my daughter-in-law and son rented we have fun on the beach.  Rip tides, rough surf, sand castles, fishing, painting on the beach, boogie boards, sand crabs and shells make us all happy.

The Ferry to Ocracoke Island. My oldest grandson’s work.

We take the ferry to Ocracoke Island.  My grandson draws the ferry while crossing the inlet.

I learned to like wheat beer with lemon. It was a local brew.

 

Painting on the ferry.

We cross the channel to the new Shelly Island Beach at low tide and hear about it the next day on National News ABC.  They warn people not to visit the island as they have had a lot of rescues.  We time it just right and get back with loads of awesome shells.

We found so many shells with Hermit Crabs living in them.  It was nice wading through the water on the bay site hunting for shells, fishing, playing with the hermit crab, painting and watching the ferries crossing.

It was a wonderful time!

Food, Food, Food and Eating

Chickens, chickens, chickens everywhere.  In Connecticut we stopped by my girlfriend’s relatives to see the production.  They were getting about 80 chickens ready for eating and freezing.  I think not everyone wants to see the pictures, but most of us like to eat free range home grown chicken.   It was quite amazing to see.

 

My friend has peacocks that roam the property and were fed leftover pancakes or bread.  The pancakes were fresh home made.  I don’t know how there were any leftovers but I think she made some especially for the peacocks.

Picking strawberries in the town I used to live in was fun!

I traveled to Pennsylvania next.  The trucks  through New Jersey were aggressive and the worst I had experienced in my cross country travels.  I was happy to arrive at my Aunt’s farm.

I was greeted by LuluBelle and Daisy.

We picked asparagus and lettuce from the garden.  My Aunt has about 25 chickens that wander the grounds.  One day they had to stay inside the barn because we went to the Reunion.  I told them about chickens that never got to go outside. They seemed indifferent.

My cousin made a delicious Shoo-fly Pie for me.  Yum!

My Aunt and I drove to Schafferstown to get 2 smoked tongues.

We went to the family reunion and see alpaca, deer and more food than you can imagine.  People related to me that I had never seen before were there.  First a lot of eating and then everyone introduced themselves.

Roots Farmer’s Market always has lots to see and good food to eat.

 

Bus tour of Kreider Farm in Manville, PA.

Visiting Lititz, PA

Lititz, PA

Garden in Lititz, PA

My cousin and I visited the quaint town of Lititz, PA.  We shopped, ate lunch, toured the Julius Sturgis pretzel factory, went to the Wilbur Buds Chocolate Store and had a great day.

The Pretzel Tour.

Arriving in Connecticut

Dudley welcomes me to Connecticut

It was a good trip across the USA.  This is the story of my stops and mileage.

Leaving the Grand Canyon last Sunday June 4th I drove 348 miles to Grant, New Mexico and camped at the KOA.  No pictures, I was still thinking of the awesome Grand Canyon.  No time for sketches either.

 

Next stop overnight was KOA in Amarillo, Texas for a drive of 382 miles. The campground had a shuttle to the Steak House. I enjoyed prime rib and had 3 meals out of it.  On the drive to the campsite I viewed Cadillac Ranch.  Old Cadillac’s were sticking out of mud.  People were busy spray painting on them.  The site was littered with empty cans and tops.  It smelled of paint spray.  I didn’t want to linger.

I  stopped in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the KOA that was a part of a Race Track and Casino.  I had traveled 416 miles that day and was glad for dinner at the Casino.  While drinking morning coffee I watched the horses doing laps around the track.  I hated to rush off.

Stopping at Crystal Bridges Art museum for a few hours I then headed for Springfield, Missouri 233 miles.  KOA in the Ozarks with a nice swimming pool and shower.  I camped under the trees.

365 miles to Casey, Illinois.

387 miles to  KOA in Homerville, Ohio.  I loved that campground in Amish Country.  It had a beautiful swimming pool.  One woman I met invited me to dinner, I declined as she didn’t say what her menu was.  Another woman invited me to their campfire that evening but I was way too tired.  It was a friendly place that was very quiet in the morning at 7 a.m. when I left.

I drove a manic 628 miles from Homerville, Ohio  to arrive at my friend’s house in Northeastern Connecticut on Sat. June 10.  I was glad to reach my destination.  The weather had been great all along the way.  I finished 2 books on tape and started a third.

 

It was good to see my friends and visit in Connecticut.

I was only there a few days when I took the train from New London, CT to NY.  I went to my granddaughters last day of preschool.

I took a quick trip into Manhattan and bought this art work from a happy street artist.

Saturday Night was a Retirement Dinner for Three Wonderful Teacher Friends.

It was a Great Tribute to them and a reunion for all of us attending.

More People and Places to Come!

 

Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri

Oklahoma: Sitting at the picnic table eating breakfast and watching the horses workout around the track at Tulsa’s Will Rogers Downs KOA campground was a great way to start the day.  Canada geese where in the center of the race track.   I went from Tulsa, Ok. , Bentonville, AK and ended up in Springfield ,MO for 235 miles today.

Gas is 1.99 and I thought that was low until I saw it for 1.95 and then 1.92.  Maybe it’s gone down in price in Calif.???

I stopped at Crystal Bridges for 3 hours on my journey.  I love this this free museum that Alice Walden started with her Walmart money.  However the Chihuly exhibit in the Gallery and in the Forest was $20.  I got my ticket and headed to the Forest!

This is part of Crystal Bridges Art Museum

Chihuly in the Forest.  These are the blown glass Belugas.

I liked some of his early work in the Gallery.

An installation by Sol LeWitt

My campsite at the KOA in Springfield, Missouri.  I’m still outside on their wonderful WIFI typing my Blog.  They also have a swimming pool I sampled.  The birds are singing loudly.  It’s very nice here.  Later:  The WiFi gave out on me this morning.  NOW:  I’m in Casey, Illinois at a nice KOA campground with WiFi, a swimming pool and laundry enjoying my evening.

Drawing on the Edge – the Grand Canyon

Fun sketching all day. The Grand Canyon is a challenge to draw! 

I wish we had this sign at The Overlook by the Ocean in Corona del Mar!

I arrived for my drawing class at the Grand Canyon  once again drawn by the mysteries of the Canyon.

 

Looking at the Colorado River and wishing to be on one of the boats at Hermit Falls.

The instructor Allen Petersen doing a demonstration  on drawing the canyon.

AT Last I have GOOD WIFI.  I’m in Amarillo, Texas.  Sitting under a tree, just went swimming in the pool and now I’m waiting for a shuttle to go to the Big Texan Steak Ranch.  Life is good.  Oh, I also have a glass of vino and a fan by my side. More to come!

Before I left on my trip I saw the beautiful glass sculptures at Sherman Library and Gardens.  Be sure to see them this summer if you live near-by.  I loved them!

Coming on June 17, 2017, Happy Anniversary 50 Wonderful Years! I love you Both and Wish you the Best!