PEnny Portrait Girl w Big Bow

Back to Gouache again. I am determined to figure out how best to use this medium. Its a challenge for sure as no other paint dries so quickly. I love the poster paint look it gives and rich opaque texture. I also realize I must attack or at least complete my taxes, there is no more running away from them. The aid from my accountant arrived on Saturday and I am still starring at the manila envelope on my desk unopened, knowing once opened I must work on them and really, who wants to work on their taxes, let alone pay them. I did make less this year so will owe less and with the move to Eugene will need more but it will all work out, it usually does. I will get Rita into college and a dorm safely and securely and then try not to worry about drunken parties and walking alone at night. All those things we don't want to think about but have to let go of the protection thing eventually.
A film called
An American Opera
America suffered its worst domestic animal crisis in history when tens of thousands of animals were left to perish in neighborhoods all across the gulf.

Follow the heartfelt story, magically crafted by Director Tom McPhee, of the pets, vets, owners, officials, rescuers and adopters of animals as they work through the chaos to do what is right only to discover not everyone is working toward the same goal!

The lost pets of Hurricane Katrina
The poster above is for a film that was made by Tom McPhee about the pets lost in hurricane Katrina.
I started to watch an independent film last night on the PBS channel which I love, it was called"Mine" a film about how people during hurrican KAtrina dealt with the loss of their pets. Apparently the hotels and motels put up signs saying"no pets" and the sky dome where the biggest shelter of all was didn't allow pets so people left big bowls of dog food and left their dogs and cats behind. I saw about 2 minutes of dogs perched on the top of homes that were floating and another of an older black man talking about the pet left behind, I yelled outloud and Rita thought something happened to me. The grief overwhelmed me and I changed the channel as fast as possible. I cannot forget the look on one large poodle's face looking through the screen door of a floating house with water up to his knees. His face was so hopeful, like "I know you will come get me" . It don't think we realize how hard it must have been for those people, first to lose their homes and then pets. I know many lives were also lost and I don't want to make light of that but this film was all about the pets and for me it was more than I could bear. I am sure there were good moments but I couldn't make it past the sad ones to see them.
This Site has a page of lost Katrina PEts. If you go there you will see many of the ones that were on the movie, including BAndit who belonged to the old african american man I spoke of. I cannot believe how many pets these people lost. GO and see it is stagering.

Grace Thorp Gemberling Dances at the Beach

LAtely I have been slacking off on my job. I came across a photo album that was filled with images that had to be drooled over and for me enhanced. This one just begged to be colored and kept. Her name was Grace and she was born in a town on the Main Line of Philadelphia called Bala Cynwyd. She grew up in a large tudor home with her sister Josephine and her parents. Her father was in the steel business and built bridges. Both parents were originally from Germany. She and sister Jo grew up and both married architects from Philadelphia who were both quite famous. A friend who is such a good sleuth at getting hidden info on historical people and homes sent invaluable information on these two sisters and for that I am so grateful. Some of the paintings that Grace did are easy to find if you google her name. She received her training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Hugh Breckenridge where she was twice awarded the coveted Cresson Traveling Scholarship. Keast was also the recipient of the Mary Smith Prize for best painting by a Philadelphia woman artist, and the Fellowship Prize for her still life, Gourds. she maintained a studio and taught painting. She was a painter of landscape, still life and figurative subjects. Her style was distinct, leaning slightly towards modernist while remaining realistic, evoking a mysterious and eerie quality within her work. Keast exhibited at the Salons of America, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, the Society of Independent Artists and the Corcoran Gallery Biennials. Born in Philadelphia in 1903, died in 1997. I hope to display more images from the album. Luckily many were duplicated so that I may keep a few for my own collection. Enjoy!

Hawaiian Dragon's Tongue Orchid

I felt the need for the tropics today and this orchid from Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii does not disappoint! While on a vacation there I was lucky enough to stop for an afternoon to see the number one item on my todo list for my vacation and it was to tour the botanical garden in Hilo. This place goes right down to the ocean and is filled to overflowing with hundreds of species of orchids and succulents. The moisture and warmth made it a perfect spot to have this wonderful garden and I can almost remember how it felt to walk through there. Honestly for a photographer it was like a kid in a candy store.. or better! This lovely and somewhat uncomfortable flower is the most outstanding one in the garden in my eye. IT so has the surreal otherworldly look and almost defies beauty in its own spectacular way. Sadly I didn't shoot this at a high resolution so to blow it up would be impossible past a 5X7 but still I was happy to have the image. I worked it in photshop with a special overlay and voila... almost like a 1960s B movie setting for a film noir. Don't ask how I made that correlation it just seems to go.
Click the link here to see it in my store.