Day 26: Life is Good . . . on the road again

So, the Madsons are on the road again.  Our Sedona adventure has been worthwhile.  Memories of red rocks, art galleries and Arizona protestors on the corners waving signs about injustice.  
We set out for Barstow, CA and then for home.  

As we drive we listen to the amazing story, Three Cups of Tea about the work of Greg Mortenson in Afghanistan building schools for girls.  Driving along all the world seems right and our family motto, "Life is Good" applies.  This lawn ornament, by the way, belongs to Ron's cousin who has a home in Sedona.  So today, after a cup of joe we are off to see the wizard. 

Day 25: The Sedona Buddha

We are nearing the end of a fine trip to Sedona, AZ where I've been to study watercolor.  The scenery here is indescribably moving.  In West Sedona is a Buddhist Stupa that sits among the red rocks half way up a mountain.  Slightly higher is a statue of the Buddha.  Ron admires him.  "Which one is the real Buddha?

I like 

Day 24: Figure Painting Final Day

Jeanne Carbonetti's workshop was divided into three days each focusing on a different aspect of the process.  On Sunday, the final day's demonstration and exercises was based on Jeanne's book, the Yoga of Drawing. She demonstrated a technique that uses both gesture and contour drawing methods.  After she transferred her drawing onto watercolor paper she then finished the painting showing her method of working.  The students were then invited to make a drawing and turn it into a watercolor painting.  The two painting shown here include a composition based on a drawing of Jeanne's from her book which I titled Meditation and my practice copy of the painting she did today, Eve and the Apple.  A very instructive and inspiring workshop. Thank you, Jeanne Carbonetti.

Day 23: Second Day's Art

On Saturday we studied the "Circles of Perception" and discovered that art can be viewed on a spectrum from realistic to abstract.  The four categories we observed are: Realistic, Impressionistic, Expressive Realism and Abstract Art.  The same idea can be rendered in a variety of styles.  Mrs. Carbonetti demonstrated a landscape stage by stage.  Following her excellent demonstration we had the chance to make our copy/version of the work she'd shown or paint a landscape of our own choosing.  I did two painting today: the landscape with the purple flowers is a copy of the work done by Jeanne Carbonetti in class today.  The second painting, "Pond of Dreams" is a study of our koi pond from my mind's eye.

Day 22: First Day's Work

Yesterday was day one of a three day workshop with Jeanne Carbonetti in Sedona, AZ.  A masterful teacher, Mrs. Carbonetti gave a lecture/demonstration in the morning sharing her approach to watercolor painting.  In the afternoon we were invited to copy her demonstration painting or do one using the principles she was teaching.  The five elements of a painting are:  Focus, Composition, Value, Color and Texture.  The five techniques of watercolor used to bring these to life are:  Washes, Ruffling (going back into the paint with water), Blended Wet, Glazing and Splatter.

Her own paintings are alive with color and life.  Grand inspirations. Here are two painting I did on that first day, in the spirit of Jeanne Carbonetti.

It was an inspired day of painting and play. What Joy!

Day 21: Paintbrushes for my lessons . . .

So the everyday object that I revere today is the humble paintbrush.  I have more than I need, as you can see with this collection.  I do all of my painting with a single brush, a round #12 that I carry in my travel satchel.  However, I am hopeful that my new teacher, Ms. Jeanne Carbonetti, will teach me some uses for this collection of watercolor brushes.  I apologize for this display of overconsumption.  If I showed you my collection of paints I would be shamefaced.  Another day.

Off today to paint in a class happily titled: "Watercolor Big and Bold"  Oh, and you can make a handy brush carrier with a bamboo placemat. Run some 3/4 in elastic through the middle.

Day 20: Sedona Scenes

On route to Sedona, AZ yesterday we stopped at a rest stop along route 40. This orange triangular sign gave us warning of the local rattlesnake scare.  Ooooo, be careful.  Didn't see any.

We arrived last night in windy Sedona and checked in to our Sedona Village Lodge.  The photo below is from our balcony.  I'm here to do a watercolor workshop for three days with Jeanne Carbonetti. More to come as our travel unfolds.  Off to breakfast.

Lots of bru ha ha over the recent Arizona Governor's new immigration law.  I don't approve.

Day 19: Peanut Butter Sauce

I received a wonderful email from an old friend, Claire Kelm, who wanted to thank me for posting a recipe for Meyer Lemon Poppyseed cake on Facebook a while back.  Apparently she made one for a party and it was a hit!

This got me to thinking about the value of posting favorite recipes.  And since I'm "on the road" right now, traveling to Sedona, AZ this seemed like a good time to do this.  So, for your dining pleasure I offer my all time favorite recipe for Spicy Peanut Sauce.  This can be used over virtually anything, but makes a particularly good meal with chicken, rice and vegetables.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

 One cup of peanut butter

One cup of hot water

½ cup of cider vinegar

4 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce

4 tablespoons blackstrap molasses

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix until smooth.  Add more water if you'd like it thinner.  You can store this in the refrigerator in a jar and pour out a half cup or so to use as a sauce over nearly anything.  It is especially good over rice and brocolli and tofu or grilled chicken.  I make a Rice Bowl with veggies and either chicken, tofu or even leftover flank steak.   Heat the sauce in the microwave or slowly on the stovetop.  Pour a little or a lot over any leftover and smile.

My husband swears that peanut sauce would make cardboard taste divine!
This recipe makes two cups which is a lot.  The original recipe is half of everything, but I love it so much and eat it so often that I might as well make a lot and keep it.  It stores well and can be thinned if it gets thick.  Oh, and you can use any kind of peanut butter you like.  Enjoy.

Day 18: Susan Landor's Art and Heart

This remarkable oil painting and the commentary below is by my friend Susan Landor Keegan.  Her website: A Little Painting Every Day is a jewel.  With her permission I am reposting this.  Ah, what beauty! Besides her eye for composition and mastery of color Susan has a deep appreciation of life. Her tiny paintings are precious studies of the world she encounters.   Her mother, Josephine, was a mentor and second mom to me when I moved to California in the late 1970's.


MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2010

Single Flower in the Meadow

Single Flower in the Meadow
Oil on Wood
6"X6"
I woke up Saturday to the unlikely brilliance of this single flower blooming in the meadow. Defying the deer (how do they know to resist?), rabbits, birds, gophers, not to mention wind and rainfall. So far. So much life coming and going lately it feels like emotional whiplash. The only option is to celebrate everyday, weep with abandon, and spread the love.

And so I take Susan's advice today to celebrate everyday life.  This morning I begin a road trip to Sedona, AZ.  Posts coming from those magical red rocks.  Stay tuned.  And, thank you Susan for your inspiration today.

Day 17 Stone Circle

Our village of El Granada is within a stone's throw of the Mavericks, surfer beach heaven.  On a clear weekend day the greater Bay Area beats a path to our door.  This weekend was a yearly event dubbed "The Dream Machines."  A mish mash of vintage cars, airplanes, tractors and army tanks converge to attract a large number of thrill seekers.  This quadruples the traffic and adds to the sense of something happening on the coast.

Usually on Dream Machine weekend it is safest not to go out at all to brave the Highway 1 traffic snarl.  But, I needed a walk, and so I drove to the parking lot nearest the Mavericks beach and took the trail around to the Pillar Point outpost.  Rounding the curve I came upon a newly formed stone circle.  Someone had built a small Labyrinth on a bluff overlooking the harbor.  What a pleasure to stop and quietly walk the serpentine path as it folds in upon itself.

The idea of a Labyrinth is sensible.  Pay attention to the path as you walk.  Make it a meditation.  I walked it twice.  My mind needed this today.

Day 16: A Movie - Departures

Winner of this year's Academy Award for "Best Foreign Language Film"  this remarkable  film is a poem, a Haiku of great beauty.

Perhaps you've heard the odd story line:  an out of work cellist returns to a small town in Japan and falls into an unusual job of being an "encoffiner" . . . one who prepares the dead for burial.  This profession that is shunned by many becomes a laboratory for understanding the meaning and dignity of life.  You will weep.  You will be very glad you've taken the trouble to find this under distributed gem.

Day 15: Glue Sticks and my cards

Someone smart invented purple glue sticks.  I make my own greeting cards by affixing a 4 x 6 photograph of one of my watercolors onto a blank greeting card.  It is a very simple process, thanks to the bonding help of the purple glue stick.  The purple allows you to see where the glue has been put.  And, in some miracle of science, in a short time the purple color disappears and the thing sticks where it needs to be.  


It's handy for stamps that have lost their umph . .  and for making impromptu collage.  I appreciate the convenience of these snappy tools.  Always carry one in my little art tote.  

Day 14: Day-Glo 3 X 5 cards

I'm a nut about 3X5 cards.  I use them for everything.  A few years ago I discovered these psychedelic fluorescent colored cards.  I turn the cards into a little note pad by stacking a group of the colors I like and then using padding compound to seal one edge, making it a PAD of index cards.  You can buy Padding Compound to turn scratch paper into pads of paper.  I can pull one off and stick it in a pocket or wallet as a shopping list or DON"T FORGET card.

I use the cards when I teach.  I stuff it in a pocket.  A two hour class lesson can be found on a single card.  It may have a series of bullet points with cryptic phrases like: `Word Ball   ~Leave the Room for the Same Reason  ~Hat Game   ~Three Word Sentences . . .  ~CROW   .  .  .

There is something helpful about the bright colors.  I may forget where I put a note, but I often remember that it is on a lime green card.   Sometimes I give one of these little day-glo pads as gifts.  Folks like them.  I think there is a business opportunity here.  

Let us say Hurrah for the 3 x 5 card!

Day 13: The Windowsill

My husband is fond of pointing out that I like "little things" meaning tiny objects.  I have a collection of  small vases (one to four inches tall). A favorite daily task is putting a single flower or two into a thumb-sized vase and placing it on a windowsill or in an unexpected location.  I'm fond of daisies of all kinds because they stay fresh for surprisingly long periods, I've observed.

The collection of odd items next to the mini flower arrangement includes a two inch Kuan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion.  She sits presiding over a menagerie of a glass cat, a stone horse, a topaz cougar, a wooden mouse, an iron frog and a wooden curled cat figure.
Some of these were gifts, some were souvenirs of travel.  It has struck me as sensible if one is going to buy tchotchke then it might as well be small stuff.

(Tchotchke (originally from Yiddish טשאַטשקע tshatshke [often spelled in a variety of other ways (such as tshotshke, tshatshke, tchatchke, chachke, orchochke) because there is no standardized transliteration] trinket), ultimately from a Slavic word for "toys" (Polish: cacka, Russian: цацки) are trinkets, small toys, knickknacks, baubles, or kitsch. The term has a connotation of worthlessness or disposability, as well as tackiness. The term was long used in the Jewish-American community and in the regional speech of New York City.)


I admit that I needed to look up the spelling of this fine word, and since the definition, et al, was pleasing I hope you don't mind that I included it here.  I don't attach the attribute of tackiness to my use of the word tchotchke.  But to me they are little things. 


Beauty can be found everywhere.  It can be celebrated by taking a single flower and giving it attention.  I once told my sister that if she picked a dandelion from her back yard and placed it in a shot glass on her counter it would have the same purpose.  Looking at a living flower can remind us of the whole world.  Wasn't it the Buddha who, when asked about the meaning of life, simply held up a single flower? 


It is so easy to bring beauty into our lives, onto our windowsills and desks.  Something living, a flower that won't last long, is a reminder to appreciate the natural world and treasure our fleeting time on earth.  

Day 12: The Laminator

I am a laminating fool.  If it ain't nailed down I may run it through one of my little machines to give it a permanent glossy case.  My friends know that I will turn almost anything into a bookmark.  An inspirational quote, a life lesson idea, a poem + something of art: a watercolor image, a paint sample chart, a postcard from a trip--these become encased in laminate for safe keeping.


What is it in your life that you would like to laminate today?

Day 11: "Mash Notes"

Recently I received an out of the blue request.  Someone doing research on a gentleman wanted to know if I had a Playbill from the 1963 production of Unto These Hills.  I had spent a summer in Cherokee, NC, playing the heroine of this outdoor drama.  It is an epic historical representation of the persecution of the Cherokee Indians under President Andrew Jackson.  The play tells the tragic tale of what has been called, "the trail of tears" when thousands of the Cherokee died on the long walk from North Carolina to Oklahoma.  
After a few hours of rummaging in our storage loft and battling lots of cobwebs I located a cardboard box containing memorabilia from my past.  I found the program from Unto These Hills, but it turns out I was in the cast in 1964 and not 1963.  This was a disappointment to the researcher who started all this.  Finding the scrapbook with this program led to a treasure trove of memories. The box included scrapbooks of faded theatrical reviews from the 1960's and photographs of me in all manner of costumes.  Perhaps someday I'll make a montage of these images.  My acting days were interesting times albeit distant now.


Tucked into a corner of this box was a file folder titled "Mash Notes".  Who here knows what a "mash note" is?  According to Merriam-Webste Onliner:   mash note  Function: noun  Date: 1890 "a usually sentimental or effusive note or letter expressing affection for the recipient."   

During the years of my teaching life I kept a file folder in my bulky metal file cabinet in the office titled: Mash Notes. I recommend, by the way, they you start such a folder. In it file away thank you letters and notes received over the years. Include also letters that say kind and encouraging things about what you have done, etc.

And, then, every ten years of so, OR when you are having a day when you are feeling "less than" . . . pull out the folder and read these notes. Reading aloud is also a nice touch. I think we all long for appreciation, to be recognized, to be loved and admired. Of course we do. And, no matter how much we are praised, it may never seem enough. So, my advice is SAVE your MASH NOTES!

And you might even want to laminate the really good ones and make them into bookmarks. This reminds me I must show off my laminator machine as one of the tools of everyday life.

The photograph is a pile of a few of the letters I've received as a teacher. I treasure these. A teacher's life has meaning if her students found value in the classroom. And how do we know this? From time to time a thoughtful, kind student stops and writes a note of thanks and leaves in on the office desk or better yet mails it.

What teacher changed your life? You may be able to track them down these days with Facebook and all. Find that address and write a mash note. Make someone's day. 

Day 10: Spatula

If I had to name my favorite kitchen utensil it would be this plastic spatula.  It is the "go to" item I always pull from the drawer when I cook.  It spreads butter or jam or peanut butter or even tapenade easily.  It cleans up in an instant.  I use it to stir things or scrape up the last twiddle-dee bits of cookie dough or pancake batter.  It scrapes, it scoops, it spreads and it is easy on the eye and the pocketbook.  You can hang it on a hook or a nail.  It cost under one dollar at a fancy cooking store.  I love this spatula.  


Al hail the simple tool.  I'll bet there are tools in your life that serve many uses.  When was the last time you thanked your spatula?

Day 9: My paintbox

A decade ago a friend who is a talented watercolor artist, Susan Kahn, gave me a tip about a way to make a handy portable paintbox.  Use a plastic traveling soap box.  Inside you can stack two trays of small refillable pans or half pans.  These little plastic rectangles are available empty.  You can fill them from tubes of watercolor and arrange them to suit your use.  You can get up to 20 half pans on a single tray or 10 whole pans.  These trays pull out.  I glue the little pans onto a small square of plastic.  You can pull both the trays out and use the soap box as a mixing palate.

I like being about the carry all of my paint supplies in a 5" X 7" zipper bag.  I can paint anywhere.  I've always loved an open paintbox.  Seeing the colors lined up in a rainbow line seems to fill the world with possibilities.  All hail art supplies.

They are wonderful gifts for children.  Give a child a set of colors: paints, pencils, crayons, chalk.  Color opens the imagination.

Day 8: Ring the bell . . .

"Ring the bells that still can ring.    
Forget your perfect offering
there is a crack in everything
that's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen's song, Anthem  


A dear friend, Carol Anne 
Bickerstaff got married in Vancouver, BC two weeks ago.  I was invited to be the "ring mistress of the ceremony."  As a wedding gift I gave her a Tibetan temple bell.  (not the one pictured here which is Japanese).  I quoted the Leonard Cohen lyric above.   There is something haunting and useful about that sentiment.  Our flaws, our cracks create the world of possibility.  Light, change all that moves does so because of the cracks, the open spaces, the flaws.  


Today let us celebrate the cracks in our lives.

Day 7: Irises at Allied Arts

I belong to a friendly plein air painting group that meets on Wednesday mornings to paint local scenes.  This week we took a road trip to Palo Alto to visit the beautiful Allied Arts gardens.  It's a remarkable place tucked back in a residential section on the west side of El Camino Real.  The public is welcome and they have a first rate cafe for ladies' lunch.  


I spent most of the morning on a complicated scene.  I'm afraid I fell into a poor habit of overworking the piece.  Watercolor is best when used simply and carefully, not placed ploddingly or heavily.  While I know this as an artist something in me forgets and I paint and paint and fix and add when I know better.  We need to do a lot of "less than perfect" paintings to allow for those tiny miracles to happen on the paper.


At the end of the morning I set aside my disappointment in the earlier piece and vowed to do a five minute painting.  I just stared closely at these extraordinary lavender/blue irises.  The result which I post here proves my point that "less is often more."