Coffee And Paint Drips Blog - Page 56 of 79

Moving On To The Next Thing

After I had my lovely beach day a little while back, right now it feels as if it was a year ago, I decided to look over some of the photos I took in my garden and elsewhere. Some of those photos stand on their own as photographs. Did I really need to work them up as paintings? Some of them just didn’t feel right at that moment. None of the landscapes were pulling me in.

Then I printed out the hydrangea photos I took in the summer when they were at the height of deep blue color. I even flipped the photos upside down to see if a spark would come. Well, I did feel something click and I sketched out the big petals into some kind of composition.

I lightly painted in some shadows on the petals and went in darker with the background. I’m still using the MaimeriBlu watercolor paints and not so sure I’m that thrilled with them. The colors are not the same as the Windsor & Newton paints I have used in the past. So I can’t even tell you which blues I dipped my brush into. I’m just going on instinct and mixing and applying to the paper, which I’m enjoying working with. Thanks to my artist/blogger friends’ suggestions, the Arches paper is making a difference in my work, but I haven’t been able to get going on this piece.

Shall I rant about now? Why not.

The new baby excitement has calmed down and all is well in that area. OK. The idiot light in my studio went out a while back and hasn’t turned on again since. Has it finally decided to quit? Just watch when I call the electrician to fix it, the thing will light. Isn’t that how it always is?

There’s my issue with the watercolor paints, as I mentioned above. Not that happy with them, but spent the money and now I have to use them up. When I think about it I feel discouraged. Move on!

Then there’s the technology thing. On the old PC I knew how to change the size of my photos, enhance the colors, etc. Now with this iMac things are a little different and it just takes me longer to get what I want out of the photos, and from the computer. Cut/paste, new tabs, skipping around looking for help, more to learn. It’s tiring.

Rant over. Time to get on with it.

Amazing Grace

The past week has been so hectic I had to bow out of cyberspace for a bit. I did check up on the goings-on in the world, just enough to be aware of what and who.

It started with the computer crash and eventual purchase of this amazing iMac thing that I have yet to master. There hasn’t been enough time.

Then all the excitement happened with the countdown to the due date. Son #1 and Gorgeous were in the wedding party of her best friend and maid-of-honor. In the Greek Orthodox church we really don’t do best man and maid of honor. These similar roles are very important and called the koumbari.

The koumbari (plural of the female koumbara, or male koumbaros) help to unite the new couple in their marriage in the church ceremony, and usually later baptize the first child. They become close members of the family. So when countdown to due date time came, we weren’t sure if we would make it past the Sunday wedding, to the Friday due date. That’s some heavy lifting, being koumbari!

Gorgeous was nine months pregnant and, well, gorgeous for expecting any day. They participated in the ceremony, danced at the reception, and handed out the favors with flying colors.

By Tuesday our first grandchild came into the world, quick and easy! She was calm, quiet and the most alert I had ever seen a newborn be. Both Son #1 and Gorgeous beamed with happiness.

Most of our family was at the hospital to welcome her! The nurses had put the baby’s footprints on Son #1’s forearm and he greeted us in the waiting room with his arm extended. How cool was that?

This baby looks a little like my sons when they were born, but maybe all grandparents think the same thing. She has parts of both her parents in her face, dark hair and lovely olive skin. That’s my kind of look!

We helped bring her home on Thursday afternoon. A little jaundice over the weekend kept us on our toes, but that should be over now.

On with life! Oh, and she’s named after me. What a “gift” she is. Amazing.

The New Addition

I will be too busy this week to post. Son #1 and Gorgeous gave us our first grandchild today at 9:35 this morning! It’s beautiful little girl and we are over the moon with joy!

Details to come when my feet touch the ground again.

A Little Something New

It’s Monday. A new week begins again. The awful feeling of reliving the events of September 11, 2001 has passed for another year. This week should prove to be very different. It’s the anticipation of a new thing to be with all kinds of excitement.

The new thing is still growing, cooking, working it’s way to us and expected to be revealed soon. Have you guessed it yet? Maybe you have.

I am superstitious. Let’s get that out of the way right now, up front, plain and clear. I’m not saying anything more about it. But I will say that the anticipation is killing me now that the time is nearing. Yes, superstitious I am. It comes to me from my family. My grandmother had plenty of them for different things. Doesn’t everyone have a little something they do for good luck, or to repel bad luck? Like a Friday the 13th kind of thing? We have plenty, for sure.

My kids don’t want to hear about the different superstitions that have been passed down. You want to shrug your shoulders and say, So what? What’s going to happen? But go ahead. Do it and see. Do you really want to chance it? I go with that flow.

Some people call it a jinx. Some call it a canary. Why even try to explain these things? If you don’t know maybe it’s better. The Mr. will say Don’t even tell me!

Now my poor DIL Gorgeous is stuck with me and the superstitions, old wive’s tales, Greek folklore stories and the like. She’s Greek too, she knows, but every family has some they believe in and others that they don’t. My bunch just seems to have more. I read somewhere that some very prominent, intelligent, famous people were superstitious, so that gives me some hope we’re not all nutcakes. Son #1 rolls his eyes at me, but I think Gorgeous is starting to ‘get it’. She’s a great sport!

When it’s all over I’ll tell you all about it, but not before. No need to count those chickens before they hatch now, right? Of course. Details will come later.

In the meanwhile, here’s the watercolor I painted on my beach day last week. I understand that Tuesday is going to be sunny and pleasant. There’s a good possibility I’ll be visiting the beach again if it is, unless there’s something else that comes up. In that case, I’ll be somewhere else.

Photo for Friday and Sept. 11

On Fridays I like to post a photo on the blog. Something you might like to see me working on or something to laugh about. I had planned to post a picture of the watercolor I did on that beach day this week. Then I thought to post the new painting I started yesterday when I realized that tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our city.

I hunted through my photographs, mind you that was not an easy task since most of my photos are NOT in books. I know, bad girl. Anyway, I took this photo of the twin towers of the World Trade Center during the summer of 1990. Our boys were young and my husband and I decided to visit lower Manhattan for the day. We took a Skyline Tour on a boat around the city. It was a beautiful sunny day and I remember lending other tourists my sunscreen.

How can we ignore what happened in our city? Now that I’m blogging I could not ignore the date. The pain is still there, just under the surface. A news article, a documentary on television, and I’m right there again. The sadness, the shock, the lost people, right back in the moment.

Nine years ago tomorrow. September 11, 2001 I was at home on Long Island getting ready for my day. I had an appointment, my father was in the hospital, the sons were at college and freshman year of high school, The Mr. at work, my mom also, and my sister was in Manhattan. Son#1 called to say something is happening, he heard it on the Howard Stern radio show and thought it was a joke. I turned on my TV and watched the towers being hit in a matter of minutes. I told Son #1 that this is a terrorist attack on New York City, maybe the whole country.

Frantically I phoned my sister and she answered her cell phone just as she was driving out of the city over the Triborough Bridge to Queens. Later that day all access to and from Manhattan would be shut down. Thankful she was safe I went about my day, to my appointment and the hospital. Cell phones were the only means of communication until later that day.

On the car radio I heard the reporters say one tower was collapsing. I switched the radio off. I switched it back on. And the second tower went down.

Three thousand regular people lost their lives for no good reason that day. 3000. Regular people going to work, or school. Regular every day people became murder victims and other regular every day people became heroes. People just working. 3000 regular people. Buildings, offices, homes, churches, schools, museums, restaurants, regular every day people living in that densely packed city.

The people who piloted those planes into office buildings believe that anyone not of their religion is an infidel and must be conquered. Say what you want, but that’s the truth of it. Greeks know it, the Armenians and Assyrians know it, and others do too. It’s not our wealth, prosperity, or life style. It’s because other religions are beneath theirs. Only theirs is the true faith. Others are the dirty infidel dogs. This is nothing new and has been going on for centuries. Their religion says they must conquer and bring down the infidel.

Fight or flight set in after the shock of such an event. In the moment of that quick, sharp inhale of breath the mind is set at a tilt, but thankful knowing my family was safe. How? Why? Who? In the nine years since the attacks sad things happened here, but happy things happened too. As time passed the distance grew between the events allowing life to continue to go on.

As I prepared my photo for Friday there was no way I could ignore the date.

Thought for Thursday

“In times of doubt or indecision, cultivate gratitude.”

~Wallace Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich

Progress, Process and the Beach

Monday scene

All of the angst over the computer issues has worn me down so I’ve been at the beach. Let me say how much that beach helped my brain relax. Sun and ocean does wonders for the psyche, my psyche anyway.

Sunday was a beautiful day at Pt. Lookout Beach. My sister, my mom and I went and met up with Son #1 and Gorgeous DIL (daughter-in-law). The sun was out, there was a nice breeze, we talked, laughed, and generally had a nice day. Monday, Labor Day, I visited the beach again with just my sister. People must have been on vacation or away for the day because it was pretty empty beach for a holiday. We chose a nice spot with good space all around us and plopped ourselves down.

Have you seen the stuff people have been bringing to the beach lately? I want to know where they stash all of that during the winter? And what’s with those carts? Gorgeous pointed them out to me and we were counting them. I don’t know about you, but I used to take my kids to the beach with an umbrella and a bag with my stuff. My kids held their beach toy or a pail and shovel. Done! There must have been a sale at Costco and everyone bought that Wheelie cart thing.

After sitting in our choice spot on the beach for a little while, a couple of people show up in front of us and assess the space. My sister and I looked at each other thinking the same thing: Of all the space on the beach, are these people really going to sit right here in front of us practically touching our toes? Very nice. They don’t even look at us. After the first two people came a band of ten people! All thinking this is a very nice spot to park themselves, two inches from our feet! I said we need to move. My sister said let them sit on our feet and she’ll show them who’s boss! Look, I’m not interested in trouble, I just want to spend a nice day at the beach. At my urging she grudgingly got up and we move away from that crowd of annoying, no conscience people. I thought about it too late, but I should have taken their picture for my post! Rats!

Okay, we settled down again and try to relax. I just can’t help but ogle all manner of tattoos and belly rings on people. Sorry, but I can’t stop looking if it’s all out there.

Then a swoop of seagulls came and dive bombed all the people in our new spot. Some guy had thrown his kid’s french fries on the beach, full of ketchup, so the gulls could eat them. Not a nice move mister. People were annoyed, kids were crying. My sister heard the guy tell his kid, “Now we made the seagulls very happy”. Well what about the human people? Nobody around this guy was very happy that the seagulls were happy! Give me a break.

Tuesday scene

Tuesday I sneaked off to the beach by myself. It was the first day of school and NOBODY was there, except a few people scattered around. Just me, myself, and I. I brought lunch and my watercolors, my chair and a drink. What else did I need? After enough relaxing I felt like painting something, but there were no shells or rocks. I was too shy to ask some little kids and their mothers if I could borrow the horse-shoe crab they found, so I decided to paint my sandal in the sand instead. Progress, process, artist’s date, and I’m back in business.

Coming Up Soon

There are so many things I have to tell you,but now I need to learn how to upload photos to the new computer. Right now I’m posting from the new iPad and it’s kind of uncomfortable. Fun, but wonky. All you need to do is lightly touch the keyboard and it types!

Bear with me as I get myself together. I want to tell you my technology news. And I have beach adventures to report.

The long weekend was very relaxing as I was at the beach twice and the weather was beautiful even as Hurricane Earl was threatening. Nothing happened, but a little breeze thank goodness.

Today the school kids had their first day and rest assured I was going to the beach and boy was it the best! Like I’ve said before Heaven is an empty beach.

Tomorrow maybe photos…maybe.

Fun Friday, or Not

Well, I bit the bullet and bought the iMac. It’s a beautiful machine. Have I got alot to learn? You betcha. But it’s real pretty.

I hope it gets to be fun, or I’ll be throwing my shoe at this computer too. Hope I make it through the weekend with my head still attached to my neck. I’ll let you know. Wish me luck because I’m gonna need it.

Thought for Thursday

“The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.” ~ Maimonides, Spanish Philosopher, 1135-1204