Hump Day

Song - Camel Ride by Booker T and the MG's

A Two Hump Day!

Several years ago I was taking a weekly painting class in Tomales, California

It's about an hour drive from my home and

I got to pass this guy twice a day.

No idea what he was doing on a farm in Marin but it was a sight to see!


"Life is like a camel: 
you can make it do anything except back up."

--Marcelene Cox

Who Knew?

Song - Ali Baba by Los Garcia

Our son Jon came up from LA for a friends wedding this weekend.  On Friday I took him to Benicia to see my current show "Black - White". 

 But when we arrived......

They were closed and didn't open for another hour!

So I decided to take Jon on a little tour of historic Benicia 

which used to be our State Capitol for about a nano-second. 

 The "tour" included the Old Arsenal buildings that are being used as Art Studio's, 

Historic Downtown and of course - The Camel Barns!

 Camels in Benicia?????  Who knew?

The camels were a U.S. government experiment in the mid 1800's prior to the Civil War. They wanted to use them for military travel through the arid Southwest and for future railroad survey crews.  

The camel barns were built in 1855 and are built from some amazing chiseled stone. And even though the camels preformed beautifully in the experiment it turned out that they were too smelly, hard to handle and upset the horses.....

so you now can actually have your very own wedding in a camel barn!

Around the back we noticed a bunch of old wood that was protected by an open structure.
   

Jon spotted a hole where the anchor came though.......It was a ship, the Galilee from 1891. 

Next we headed out on the pier where a few birds, several fishermen and one shy sea lion greeted us.

Every time the sea lion came up for air, I would try to snap a photo of him 

but he was too quick and after 706 photos, I still didn't get a good shot of him. 

I think he was just messin' with my mind!

So I just decided to take a picture of someone who was a little more stationary.

Then it was time to head over to the show!

Samples of Light - Medium - Dark

The gallery is set up to move from lighter paintings to the darker ones........

 My painting "The Sound of Silence" is in the "medium" section.

These self-portraits were done by the group of women that I paint with - Bay Area Studio Artists.

Top: Suzun Almquist 

next down left "yours truly" on the right - Sue Bonebakker  

Third row down left is Joanne Taeuffer and right is Marcy Wheeler   

 Bottom row is left - Ellen Reintjes and right Sharon Tama

On Sunday - Nov. 15th we will be having an 

Art Talk & Tour of our work from 1-3pm.

Hope to see you there!

"A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane." 

-- Jackie Kennedy

Soul Surfing

This morning I got up early and drove to Tomales for my painting class with Jeanette Le Grue. I hesitated about going because lately I have been in a painting slump.....of sorts.

But I pushed myself out of the door while the sun was still asleep and the moon was out.

The beauty of the pink sky just before dawn almost made me drive off the road!  Then came the orange sun that turned the golden hills a lovely shade of copper.

OK.

I was nervous.  Anxious.

High drama.

Would I ever be able to paint again?????


I made a deal with myself.  I won't drink too much caffeine on the drive there so I won't get too high strung in class and I can focus on painting.

I can do this.

Good deal.

Jeanette Le Grue's home & gallery

Right?



I'll be calm and just absorb all of this wonderful knowledge that is being shown to me.  Jeanette is an incredibly gifted teacher and sweet as can be.

The day was frosty and beautiful. The little yellow school buses were just returning from their morning drive when I pulled up in front of the studio.

The Studio

The old water tower now used as a workshop and guest house

After Jeanette's demo we began to set up our easels and painting supplies.  During class I heard several other painters letting out deep sighs as they tried to tackle today's project. One painter was ready to give up painting for life because it just wasn't coming to her "fast enough"!

Why then did this please me?

My guess is that I just needed to know that I was not alone, wallowing in my pity party.

I perked up instantly.

My painting began to improve immediately.

I was even humming (in my head).

After class I was so thrilled with the painting.....and with myself.....well, just because!

I drove to Dillon beach afterwards to take a long walk along the water.

It was warm and there were lot's of people on the beach as well as surfers enjoying the waves.

 On the ride home I drove through the countryside and what do you think I saw on Friday the Thirteenth? 

 A Highland Cow?

Yup!

Gracie - Jeanette's guardian in the studio?

Yup!

A Camel?

Mmmmm.......?

YES....there is a camel in the Tomales countryside!

Enjoy your Saturday and I hope you find lot's of little treasures in this wonderful,

funny world we live in!!

Today I have two quotes for you because.....well..... because today I just "stayed" with my insecurities and fear.  They didn't gobble me up.

“A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us. ”  - Pema Chodron

“Surfing expresses ... a pure yearning for visceral, physical contact with the natural world.” -- Matt Warshaw, Maverick's: The Story of Big-Wave Surfing