Galveston Cows - and Fun at the Five and Dime

Galveston Cows

Oil on black canvas 36x48

Please click here to email me for price and availability

Galveston is one of the windiest places I've ever been. I had a week between shows in Houston and Winnsboro, Texas, and I got myself a campsite, and thought I'd be able to do some plein-air painting there. 

I did manage to do one small piece, but I did it sitting at a picnic table, holding the canvas down flat on the tabletop. Even at that, I had trouble with the wind blowing my palette and tools around! 

But I took a lot of photos. My favorite one was these cows, standing in a pond at the edge of a field. Just beyond the field, waves crashed onto the shore. 

And yes, the entire time I was there, the Glen Campbell song swirled around in my head. I've put it at the very bottom of this post, if you want to read it. I'm warning you, though, that once you see it and hear it in your mind, it's going to be there for a long, long time! 

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I WILL BE LEAVING in about a month for the Southwest, on the Origins Painting Trip, and it would be great if you would sponsor me! I'll be making plein-air paintings in and around Ganado and Fort Defiance, Arizona, where I spent the first months of my life. It's a spectacular place, a gorgeous landscape, rich with color and amazing landscapes and the breadth of the Southwest. 

                                                      

Sponsorships start at $50 and run to $1000 - you can find out more, and choose a sponsorship, by clicking here to reach the Origins Painting Trip page on the Jacobson Arts website

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Dog of the Day

Marley

SATURDAY, ON THE advice of our friend Pat, Peter and I went to Parksley to check out Jaxon's 5 & 10, and, across the street, Jaxon's Hardware.  (You really should check out the link...)

Both stores were great! The 5 & 10 brought me back to my childhood, and in particular, to the Juvenile Shop of New London. That store had only kids' clothes, but Jaxon's not only looked like it had been built by the same people, it also smelled the same. Felt the same underfoot. Gave me the same feeling. 

The hardware store was a good one, too, with squeaky wooden floorboards, all sorts of stuff that's really interesting and inexplicable (to me) - and for an added treat, two dogs racing around and playing! The best was Marley, above, a crazy puppy who was happy and friendly and delighted to be alive. Her favorite thing in the whole world, apparently, is running up and down the aisles of the store with her pal, Harley, a chubby black Lab.

Harley and Marley

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DON'T SAY I didn't warn you! 

Galveston

Galveston, oh, Galveston, I still hear your sea winds blowin'

I still see her dark eyes glowin'

She was 21 when I left Galveston

Galveston, oh, Galveston, I still hear your sea waves crashing

While I watch the cannons flashing

I clean my gun and dream of Galveston

I still see her standing by the water

Standing there lookin' out to sea

And is she waiting there for me? 

On the beach where we used to run

Galveston, oh, Galveston, I am so afraid of dying

Before I dry the tears she's crying

Before I watch your sea birds flying in the sun

At Galveston, at Galveston

Autumn on the Eastern Shore - and How I Love Living Here

Autumn on the Eastern Shore

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

To buy this painting, please click here to email me! 

Texas treated me well, indeed. I had two good shows, met really nice, really friendly people, and saw beautiful sights all over the state. 

But when I drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and onto the Eastern Shore, I found myself letting out a whoop and holler of sheer, unadulterated joy. It wasn't only that I was heading home, to my husband and our dogs and our house and our friends, but that all of that was in this place that so delights and moves me. 

Time and again, I drive onto the Eastern Shore and I am simply filled with gratitude that after living in all these places over all these years, Peter and I found our home. I've loved places where we've lived, but I have never felt so centered or so delightfully settled. 

I took the photo below as I was driving that last stretch on my way home from Texas. I thought about stopping to paint, but I really wanted just to get home, to hug Peter, pet the dogs, and stop driving. 

Much of the draw is our home, and our friends, the people, and Wachapreague itself. But I love the Eastern Shore as a painter, too. Partly, I think, I'm attracted to the simplicity of the landscape. Even more, though, is the light. With the Atlantic on one side, the Chesapeake Bay on the other, and virtually no air pollution at all, the light has a roundness, a golden color, and, often, a sort of brilliant, thin pink that warms everything it touches. 

Above, the photo of the sorghum field I painted. 

Below, three pix of the Eastern Shore I took on

Friday evening. 

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Dog of the Day

Abby, Smokey and Woody having a good howl. You can hear Jojo howling in the other room. 

Longhorn No. 5 - and Claude, I Feel Your Pain

 

Longhorn No. 5

Oil on canvas, 15x60

Please click here to email me for price and availability

Today (Friday) is the set-up day for the Winnsboro Fine Arts Market, here in Winnsboro, Texas. It looks like a cute little town, with some interesting shops and restaurants, some pretty houses and a surprising number of banks. 

I'm in eastern Texas, and it doesn't really look like my idea of Texas at all. All along my route, I saw lots of trees, lots of water, some hills, and lots of cows and horses. It was a lovely drive from Houston to Winnsboro. 

These horses were as interested in me as I was in them, I think! 

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THE HOUSTON MUSEUM of Fine Arts is showing an exhibit of some of Claude Monet's paintings of the Seine, and I was thrilled to be able to see it. 

It was not a big exhibit, but it was really wonderful. Monet painted the Seine again and again and again, in all sorts of weather and all sorts of light. I've seen many of these paintings before, but not since I began painting, so it was extra special to see them, and to understand, a little at least, what he was doing, what colors he was using, how he was making the paintings work. 

I've read biographical stuff about Monet, but got a book at the museum and I'm reading about his life again. Before his success, he struggled mightily, and was rejected again and again by the people who juried the major shows of Monet's day. That sure made me feel better! 

Above, one of the paintings from the exhibit. Below, me in a tunnel under the museum. I met a lovely woman there who looked at me and asked if I was a painter. We chatted for a while, and she told me to use the tunnel to get to the other building, and she was there, taking photos as I walked through this tunnel / light painting. Isn't it fun? It changes color every few moments. Very cool! 

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And here's me in a hat, at a big cowboy boot store!

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AND HERE IS... well, what the HECK is this? It is a little building with, what???? Monster arms coming out of each window? I drove by three time and STILL couldn't quite figure it out. But what a riot!  

 

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Dog of the Day

Met him and his brother at the Houston Fine Arts Festival. They were both rescues, and this one had scrapped with another dog at the shelter and lost part of his ear. And then, that gnawed ear began to stick up! This was one of the happiest, looniest dogs I've met. Always ready for action!