Eastern Shore Farm - Plus Two Art Shows and a Video!

Eastern Shore Farm

Oil on canvas, 24x24

sold

Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes! It was great to hear from so many of you - and to have "Happy Birthday to You" sung to me so many times in one day. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to videotape all the serenades!

There are two things I'd like to add to my birthday post  - along with my younger-self knees, I wish I had my younger-self feet. In fact, I wish I had feet from some other person, in some other family, but that's another story.

And second, while I want less - what I do want, I want with more passion, more verve, more desire than I've ever known in my life. I want to paint - landscapes, animals, nature, flowers - and I want to succeed, and sell my paintings, and make my living - our living - doing it. And I want this more than I have ever wanted anything, except to have my mother back among the living.

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So, on my birthday, I drove way, way, WAY down the shore to paint a farm I've passed again and again, but never taken the time or used the gas to paint it. You can only see this place as you're driving north, and so I never even remember until I am on the way home, inevitably too tired, or traveling too late in the day to paint. 

The day was warm and sunny, and the sky blue with wispy clouds as I set up. By the time I was finishing, the wind was blowing, dark clouds had moved in, and the rye grass was bending in beautiful waves (check out the video below).

I love my painting from my birthday! And if you want to see it in real life, come to the Stockley Gardens Art Show this weekend in Norfolk, VA. There might be some rain - but not enough to stop an art show!

My painting in the landscape 

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AND IF YOU ARE on the Eastern Shore on Saturday, please stop in to Seaside Antiques, on Main Street, for an art and antiques show. My husband Peter will be there, with some of his photographs, some of my paintings, and some of his amazing flies and lures. 

There will also be art by the amazing Linda Cicoria, my friend Pat Hart, Ann Crain - and MORE! 

Early Morning Farm - and a Birthday

 Early Morning Farm

Oil on canvas, 12x24

Please contact me for price and delivery options 

On Thursday, I turn 57. It’s not a monumental year, not a 40 or a 50 or a 65. It’s one of those strange ages – 32, 37, 43. Indeterminate. Unheralded. Not loaded with meaning.

At this edge of this unimportant age, I realize that I do not miss my youth.

I miss my young knees and my young skin. I miss the red hair that for so many years was the bane of my existence.

But the rest of it, I am glad to leave behind. The struggles to define what my heart wanted, and to show what my brain knew. The fight to get ahead, to climb, to earn praise and promotion.

These days, I realize more and more that I know less and less. I read things I wrote back then and wonder at what I knew – and what I was happy to imply that I knew. I think I was smarter then – and certainly, I was interested in seeming smarter.

These days,  I realize, I desire less and less. I buy clothes only when I need them. I rarely wear jewelry. For my birthday dinner, I’m hoping my husband will cook burgers and oven fries, and I’ll splurge with an extra slice of cheese.

I have no regrets, not really. I wish I had the money that I spent on clothes and jewelry and other fancy things – but that spending brought me many happy moments, and I don’t regret a second.

These days, these insignificant days in the middle of an insignificant decade, these days I’m happy to be doing the work of a lifetime, making art and selling it to people who are made happy by it.

I am happy with the today’s gifts: a gentle sunrise, a loving dog, a husband I adore, a family and friends who stand by my side, no matter what. 

I'm happy to live in a small house in a small town in a beautiful place, and to live a quiet little life, rich with faith and hope and the joy of making beautiful things.

Thank you, all of you who read my blog, and buy my paintings, and accompany me on this adventure. Thank you for enriching my life with your presence and support.