islands valleys home

Another promo piece for the upcoming show. There will be 5 in all. Collect one.. collect them all. Bookmark size for all you readers out there.

Super cute on a Tuesday

A nest of Stellar Jays outside the bedroom door. Adorable.

Worktable Wednesday

Recently I was invited to be the featured artist for this year's Lotusland Celebrates fund raising event. Nervously I accepted, knowing that I would be following some of Santa Barbara's most beloved artists. The parameters for the painting were to create an original work for the auction representing some part of the garden.

For those of you who have never been, the garden is ginormous! Amazing, beautiful, wonderful and numerous specialty gardens within the large estate, 18 if you count the sections on their website! The big question was how to choose the subject.

detail

I have been back and forth to the garden in the afternoon and in the morning. I finally just had to dive into something before my fear took over. I mean, seriously, there isn't any way to fit 26 acres onto one panel. Look at Monet's waterlillies, from only one of his ponds, it was a lifelong pursuit. And so I began and move steadily toward the finish line.

The event at the garden will take place on July 24th. I hear that it is one of THE events of the summer season. Lotusland staff go all out for this party and I'm hoping that the painting will sing next to it's most real and lush counterpart.

detail

Whether or not you attend the event, the garden is a not to be missed, hidden treasure in Santa Barbara. It is well worth the visit and if you're a resident, I highly recommend a membership in order to experience the myriad and varied blooming seasons throughout the year. I have only just tasted what this garden has to offer and find myself plotting my return each time I leave the gate back to reality.

Solo Show 2011, Santa Barbara

New to Sundance!

Refuge 02, 12x18" oil on birch panel

The Sundance Catalog has new work posted online and one more still to come! Thanks Sundance!

Santa Cruz Island

changing from Spring to Summer

Scorpion Harbor

Looking East to Anacapa

Leaving the island....

Thalia Chaltas... book No. 2

Our dear talented friend, our word loving companion and my sometimes travel buddy has a second YA novel coming out next month. DISPLACEMENT by Thalia Chaltas.

For those of you who don't know what the heck YA means... it means Young Adult which, in my opinion, means tweeners through adult. Remember the Twilight series? I know that most of my grown "teenage" girlfriends still finger their copies and take sides in the Jacob vs. Edward debate.

I had the great pleasure of traveling with Ms. Chaltas to Death Valley to do some research for this book and was thrilled when, at last, I got my grubby hands on it! The book is written in verse which is newish to me as most of my leisure reading is prose, fiction and either fantasy or classics.

I don't want to say a lot other than this was really a terrific read. You get lost in Vera's story immediately and the description of place, both physical and emotional, feel so tangible you can taste it, feel it, know it.

We'll be throwing a "soft" launch party for Thalia in June, once she has a stack of her second novel to place next to the first... another good read by the way. Don't forget to check out her debut novel BECAUSE I AM FURNITURE.

I'm already looking forward to what comes next!