Way Out West

Hi here We are in Park City, Utah.


We are loving the brilliant blue sky filled with mile high cumulus clouds. Almost like touching heaven, the clouds are so close. We are visiting family and took a few hours to drive to eclectic Park City where we spent our Easter honeymoon manymanymany moons ago. Park City is famous for it's skiing, winter sports and the Winter Olympics. It is QUAINT --UNIQUE--one of a kind.


Store fronts are vintage era, many painted in charming colors. The Main Street is steep. Fun to walk down and peer in windows. A bit taxing walking back up the steep incline. So many art and photography galleries including one fabulous collection of Russian Impressionism. A feast for the eyes. Speaking of feasts lots of eateries and our choice was to dine under sunny yellow canopies.





One man waiting to be served was mightily complaining that he didn't want to be in the shade. Well he changed his mind after sitting for awhile under the intense, high altitude sun. This how he handled his frustration!!!


I should share something right now, similar ti a disclosure. The photos were taken with my I Phone and using a blogger app I am slowly, very slowly typing this out !!!!!! Have no idea how this will post but surely won't have Fun FONTS and COLOR. If it works I can blog on the go gypsy style. Amazing reflections look closely at what lies behind the reflections.


Simple glass of water with quickly melting ice cubes. What a challenge to paint.


Can you find me in the reflection? I Phone in hand.


Top half of same windows. Heaven's reflection.


Larger than life sculptures everywhere. This is the way my parent's side in their youth, mile long, heavy wooden boards.


Now this is my kind of BIKE!! Painted, stationary, no way to tip over!!


Thanks for joining us on our little adventure. If this post works there will be so many fun stories to share.

Location:Park City, Utah

RECORDING LIFE-The Journal

Journal, Journaling, Recording, Commentary, Diary, Observation 

However we choose to document our lives, our thoughts, our emotions, our elation, our experiences, our UPS and DOWNS....there is nowhere to go but THROUGH until it has been marked somewhere, sometime.  And there it stands, MOMENTS IN OUR LIVES THAT CAN LIVE ON.

What a journey to "mark" down your life when young. But it matters not what age you embark upon the path of journaling, it just takes BEGINNING!

Drawing and writing about Balinese Puppets. Perfect for keeping in a journal or special box.

These cute teenagers are  "mugging" it up for the camera  having created bright wonderful paintings. Each time they look at their piece of art, they will remember this fun painting event. When they see a golden sunflower, hear the name  or see a  painting by Van Gogh, it will bring them back to this time and place.

A journal and sketching class at the famous Ruffles Hotel in Singapore.  We are studying with Lorette Roberts.com

This was a dream come true to join this sketching group with a Master Teacher. 

Recording my own adventures on a sea view patio....everyone swimming while I stay back and just paint and ponder the mysteries I have been absorbing.

Working on the first stage of an Art Journal that will chronicle the last weeks before we left Havre de Grace. Over looking the Chesapeake Bay these pages will take me back to these short sweet hours.

I will leave this little "teaser" journal posting with a few completed Art Journal pages done two years ago. Just looking at them  fills me with memories that would be lost if I hadn't recorded them. And sometime in the future, hopefully my progenitors will love reading them.

I look forward to sharing lots of fun interesting detailed journal ideas in the very near future.

BUBBLE DAZE

 We have heard on good authority that Bubble Fairies only come on special occasions! Seems silly, to us because we think that BUBBLES can be a part of our every day life. For instance: Funny Bunny and Grammy had a Grammy-Granddaughter date and they ran into BUBBLES everywhere. 

How about Bubble Pancakes!  Yum Yum. Even Bubble Sausage and Butter.

  Ooh lah lah a pampering petite hair cut at the Beauty Salon, where Bubbles were EVERYWHERE and filled with magical mirrors!

Grammy and her Funny Bunny are pretty sure there was a lurking Bubble Fairy somewhere, maybe behind the bushes. Because-- right in the middle of the walkway was a GIGANTIC BLUE BUCKET of BUBBLE SYRUP! Well what can two 'ladies' do but pick up BUBBLE WANDS and let those BUBBLES fly up to BUBBLE HEAVEN!! Our only regret was not riding on them. Wow, what a view that would be. Bubbles, are a phenomenon  gifted to us by Mother Nature. They have always been floating around. But the notion of PLAYING with BUBBLES didn't really exist before the "invention" of soap. Doing a bit of research, since the BUBBLE FAIRY speaks too softly to really understand, we uncovered a few interesting side lights. The PEAR SOAP COMPANY was founded in England in the 19th century.  They get the credit for popularizing both soap and bubble blowing. BUBBLE TOYS were mainly bubble pipes until mid 20th century. Must have driven the BUBBLE FAIRIES crazy waiting so long to share their BUBBLES.

 

Sir John Everett Millais painted this picture called BUBBLES. This became a very popular painting as it was used over many generations in advertisements for PEARS SOAP.

 Sir Millais used his five year old grandson to pose for this portrait. Millais based it on techniques used by 17th century Dutch predecessors,  spotlighting the transience of life.   During Millais lifetime, the use of a piece of fine art for advertising sparked a very large debate over the relationship between advertising and art.

 Okay we are now getting off subject. Grammy took Funny Bunny home for a nap. Sleepy time let her little thoughts soar on all things round and BUBBLY. Grammy took a minute to go through some paintings, she too was curious, was she painting BUBBLES and didn't know it.  Maybe there was a BUBBLE FAIRY tucked in her paintbrushes.  What do you think? See any BUBBLES?

Children at Play....30 x 40 inches....

Klimt's Sisters...

 By all appearances there just might be a BUBBLE FAIRY drifting around in the painting studio.

THE BUBBLE FAIRY

It was rather warmish outside. Fading Dusk. Just right for a Bubble Fairy to POP by.

The double tiered fountain was gurgling away while the Funny Bunnies blew bubbles from tiny green bottles. Waving their magic wands, bubbles jumped in and about the fountain, danced across the lawn evaporating into the warm evening air.  One Funny Bunny, lip slightly drooping, lamented, " I wish the bubbles would last longer. I want them to dance on my nose!" 

Now every one knows that Bubble Fairies have very keen hearing. And this particular Bubble Fairy was passing by the garden when she heard the Funny Bunny's sad words. Ever so silently the Bubble Fairy slipped quietly to the gurgling fountain and put Fairy Bubble Syrup into the water.  (Fairies love SWEETS.)

 Humming her best fairy song, the Bubble Fairy, like the best of bubbles, evaporated into the air, leaving a hazy iridescence hovering over the fountain.

Ever so rapidly, faster than a blink of a lady bug's eyelashes, silky foam dusted the top of the fountain. POOF ONCE--POOF TWICE--POOF--THRICE-- it GREW and GREW and GREW until enormous, billowing pillows of BUBBLES danced over and under the fountain.

Well, you should have seen the faces of those two little Funny Bunnies, ASTONISHMENT, they  couldn't believe their eyes. The bubbling fountain looked like a DOUBLE Cupcake slathered in foamy FROSTING!  And then the FUN began,

"Who left all the beautiful bubbles?" asked the Funny Bunny.

Meringue Bubbles everywhere, sticking like stamps on a postcard.

"My WISH came TRUE. Bubbles to tap on my NOSE!"

Nighttime with its velvet blackness arrived too quickly. The stars came out and the bubbles continued to match the radiance of the twinkling stars. The Funny Bunnies went to bed dreaming their bubbly dreams. The Grammy of the house spent the night scooping armfuls of bubbles out into the night air, quietly THANKING the BUBBLE FAIRY for hearing a child's heartfelt WISH!

                            Bubble Fairy Inspiration

Remember to ALWAYS speak the WISHES of YOUR HEART!

Funky, Quirky, Only in America

Funky, Quirky, Eclectic, Unbelievable, Different, Outrageous....it all comes down to PERSONAL STYLE and TASTE. And in this grand, huge, enormous country, the USA, there is room aplenty to express oneself.  We have heard it often said, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."It is the unpredictability in life that is so fascinating."

The day before the movers arrived, my camera and I continued our  little "wander."  We went here and there sifting through many memories.

"So long, Farewell....."

"Down by the Seashore, Early in the Morning."

Generosity

The Yellow Castle in the Sky is empty for want of retail business...so sad.

Windmills anyone? They are abundantly present in Havre de Grace.

The Cadillac of Windmills.

Ship ahoy me mateys!!!!

A front yard filled with eclectic sculpture.

Gravity defying,  bent metal all magically linked together.

Waiting for the Bride and Groom.

Americans LOVE their FLAGS of RED, WHITE and BLUE.