Three Geese

Three Geese / Oil on black canvas / 4x12 / $88, including shipping

these geese are gone ! 

YES, YOU'VE SEEN THIS painting before! But it didn't sell, and I don't know why! It is a charming piece, better in real life than in this photo... so I am posting it again, in the hope that it will find its way to its new home. 

I've come to think that that is what happens with paintings - that there is an owner, a designated buyer, for each painting. Maybe it's one, or maybe it's one of a group of people. But it is rarely casual. Again and again, I've watched people fall in love with my paintings. It's great! And it is visible - sometimes even at a distance. Someone will be way down the street, and spot a painting on the wall of my booth, and that's it. They have lost their heart, and they will buy that painting, no matter how little wall space they have. 

So I repost some of the bird paintings that have not sold, hoping that the reposting will help find the painting's rightful owner. 

***
Speaking of Shows

ALMOST ALL  MY SUMMER SHOWS are canceled. The one in Roanoke is still going on, I think, but I've chosen not to participate. I just can't imagine being in a 10-foot-by-10-foot tent with people, all wearing masks, all breathing (I hope), sweating, touching things - I can't do it. 

Some of the shows are hosting virtual, online shows, and the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts is one of them. I'll be selling paintings online during the show, and shipping will be free. I'll also be doing an online workshop, like the ones I do on my Carrie Jacobson Artist Facebook page on Saturdays at 1 p.m. Eastern. (Click here to reach that page). 

The workshops I've hosted so far are all available on my Carrie Jacobson Workshop Videos Facebook page - (click here).

The workshops are free, and last about an hour. On the videos page, you can stop them, and take your time painting. The live ones just go! 

***

For Today

Biological Reflection

A girl whose cheeks are covered with paint

Has an advantage with me over one whose ain't. 

- Ogden Nash

Owl

 Owl / oil on black canvas / 5x5 unframed / $68 includes shipping

sold!  

DURING THE GREAT CONFINEMENT, as my brother calls it, I've learned I can live without some things that, in my pre-covid life, I was pretty sure I needed. 

Art shows. There are some wonderful things about the art shows, some things that I miss terribly - the artist community, the delights of seeing artist and buyer friends, the excitement of showing my paintings to new viewers and old ones. But I do not miss the huge expenses, the giant outlays of energy, the exhausting days spent on 90-degree pavement or in brutally shadeless parks or parking lots. 

Lunches out. I enjoyed my lunches out with friends - but they broke up my painting days even more than I suspected they did. Having entire stretches of days to work is a blessing. My friends here are by and large retired, and tend not to remember that I'm still working. Still earning a living. 

Going INTO WalMart. I started using WalMart pickup long before the covid, but with two exceptions, that's the way I've shopped since March. It's great. 

Hair dye. Yup. The covid has helped me make peace with my gray/white/whatever hair. 

Starbucks. Or Dunkin' Donuts, or any takeout coffee. Who knew? Along those lines, turns out I can live easily and happily without half-and-half in my coffee. Back to black, as I drank it for the first 60 years of my life. 

There is plenty that I miss these days, every day - but plenty that I'm not. And I am delighted to be living a simpler, easier life. 

What have you found you can live just fine without? 

***

For Today

The Owlets at Nightfall

   The sun is sinking. Each minute the air darker. The night

thickens near the ground, pulls my body down to it. And if my body

is earth, then what? Then I am down here, thickening as night 

comes on.

   There are earth things, earthly, joined, they are snuggled down

in one manger, one sweep of arms holds them, one clump of pine,

the owlets sit together in one hollow tree...

   When night comes what has been sun in me all day will drop

underneath the earth, and travel sizzling along the underneath-

ocean-darkness path... There a hundred developed saints lie

stretched out, throwing bits of darkness onto the road.

   At midnight what has been moon in me will also vanish. I will go

down toward utter darkness and find myself in the prison cell with

Joseph. 

- Robert Bly

Egret

Egret / Oil on black canvas / 4x4 / $48 includes shipping

sold!

IT HAS BECOME SUMMER, here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. In the mornings, I can smell the marsh, rich with dirt and mud, salt and decay, orchestrated by the salt air and thick humidity. When we walk, it feels like we are pushing through a curtain of moisture, the air is so damp, so sultry.

The greenhead flies have shown up and they are vicious, biting and snapping at Liesl and the dogs and me, enough that we will move our walks away from the marsh for the next couple weeks. They chase us inland, still, but not as they do along the edge of the mud. 

There will be no fireworks this year, no carnival. The huge family picnics that take place in the park every summer probably simply won't, this year. But the part-timers are here, driving faster than the rest of us, whether it's in cars or golf carts. 

And yet, as all this is happening, the days are shortening - and if you focus, you will notice. I've squandered the long lengths of the summer days this year, unable to last, with any hope or optimism, much past suppertime. But earlier in the year, I gave up earlier in the day, so that is progress, and I am grateful. 

***

For Today

River's Tale

The river flowers where I abide

   with yellow jonquils by its side

And somewhere in its broad meander

   runs roses wild and oleander

It springs down from the mountainside

   where brooklets play at seek and hide

It lazes here where flowers grow

   to swell with pride in early snow

And then to find a peaceful end

   somewhere there around the bend. 

- Guy Wilkins

From "Day Moon and other poems"

Mountain Sunset

Mountain Sunset / oil on canvas / 8x24 / $185 including shipping

sold! 

AGAIN, I FIND MYSELF TIRED, at this not-so-late end to the day. I did get up early, a little after 4:30. I transplanted some tomato plants and watered the gardens, and then Liesl and the dogs and I walked for an hour. 

I did a WalMart pick-up, attended a Zoom meeting, painted a little, talked to my counselor, then painted again until late in the afternoon. I loaded the van with paintings to bring to one of my patrons tomorrow. Now I am watering the garden again and wondering why I am so tired. But when I list it all out like this, it looks like enough to make anyone tired. 

Still, I recognize that underneath everything, I am indeed tired. Losing Peter has taken from me a few degrees of - what? - youth? hope? optimism? energy? all of the above?

My days used to begin with the thought of the joy of a day of painting and cooking and doing stuff around the house. Now, my first thought is that he is gone, and I am here alone. It is not all dark. Not all sad and dismal. But I wonder sometimes if I will ever be truly happy again. If I will ever feel the joy I used to feel. 

So I will take it easy now, put off the rest of the day's tasks until tomorrow, have a good dinner and revive my energy. It is all part of the process, I know. I just want the process to be easier.

***

 For Today

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks." 

- John Muir

Two Goats, Balanced on a Board Balanced on a Rock

Two Goats, Balanced on a Board Balanced on a Rock /

Oil on black canvas, 14x14, $350 including shipping

Interested? Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

I HAVE PAINTED SOME BIRDS while I've been quiet here, but I'm holding them until July, giving the whole project a chance to rest a little. 

I've rested a little, too, though I must admit, sometimes it's felt like rest, and sometimes it's felt like being just low. Low energy, low heart, low soul, low mood. 

Partly, I think, it's because I decided against going to Rhode Island to see my daughter and her family. Just too many possible Covid intersections for me. Partly, it's just part of the process, I think. And partly, it's because I wasn't writing in this blog. 

I can't explain why writing in this public way is helpful to me. I've been writing in my journal the whole time, but it's not the same. There is something about writing for people to read that seems to help me heal. 

That means that there's something about YOU that seems to help me heal. So thank you. You're part of my rebuilding. 

***

For Today

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other." 

- Douglas Everett

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager / oil on black canvas / 4x4 unframed / $48 including shipping

sold!

I'M TAKING A BREAK next week from my bird-a-day project. I've painted and posted about 100 birds, or pretty much one a day (weekdays) since January. And thanks to you, I've sold most of them! 

My wonderful dog-sitter is available and willing to come to my house, so I am going to brave New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, and get to Rhode Island to visit my daughter for a few days. It will be a short trip, but long enough to give me a break, let me see some new sights. 

The birds will be back after my trip, though I might start mixing some other new pieces in with them. And I do wonder whether the birds have run their course? I've been thinking of a series of small florals - a Bouquet a Day. What do you think? 

Thank you for reading, for buying, for loving my paintings - and me. I know it, I feel it, I appreciate it. See you in a week or so! 

***

For Today

RECENTLY,  LIESL, LEXIE AND I have been letting Koko, Doc and Lulu run, in the fenced-in ballpark down the street from my house. Koko and Doc had run several times before, but Lulu has never been off leash anywhere but the back yard. Her joy (she is the one with the white legs) and her speed are remarkable. A quote in motion! 

Rufous-Sided Towhee

Rufous-sided Towhee / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68

sold! 

IT IS A HOT DAY, and humid. It feels like summer, and not like the start of summer - not like the start of anything. In many places in the yard, the grass crunches underfoot. The flowers are wilty. I am wilty. 

A few days ago, Norma Hickman, who was the oldest person in Wachpreague, died. I didn't know her, but my friend Liesl was her dear friend, and spoke of her daily. Norma had led a fascinating life, and was an expert on all things Eastern Shore, including Wachapreague, and the families of the Shore. As I got to know Liesl, I wanted to know Norma, but by that time, she was fading too quickly for new people. 

The night Norma died, a bright but far-off thunderstorm bloomed across the sky. I woke to see the lightning flashes, and Liesl, who was awake through it all, says she saw remarkable blue lights. 

These are called blue jets, and are a very rare event, according to the experts at the Weather Channel. (You can see photos and a video here). 

The night my mother died, there was a remarkable thunder and lightning storm - the lightning exploded all over the sky, again and again, in a night with heat much like today. And it went on and on and on, with distant thunder, and for an hour or more, no rain. Just the sky, lighting up, welcoming Mom. As the sky lighted up Sunday, welcoming Norma. 

To read her obituary, click here.  To read my mother's obituary, click here. And what the heck, while we are at it, to read Peter's obituary, click here. 

***

For Today

Sonnet 29

Pity me not because the light of day

At close of day no longer walks the sky;

Pity me not for beauties passed away

From field and thicket as the year goes by;

Pity me not the waning of the moon,

Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,

Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon,

And you no longer look with love on me. 

This have I known always: Love is no more

Than the wide blossom which the wind assails,

Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,

Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:

Pity me that the heart is slow to learn

What the swift mind beholds at every turn. 

- Edna St. Vincent Millay