Goodbye to fall for this year

As the leaves blow around they stir so many memories. Some who read this will remember Jack and I had a big red house in town for a few years as well as the little cape in the country. 

 We were still working on it here, the fence became gray after a coat of paint and a great many small trees and bushes were added.  Just the same I had pumpkins on the porch.

 Our cape in the country was the house of our dreams, Jackie put untold work into it for us.

 My favorite quilt pattern has always been pineapple log cabin.  See what great colors this one had! Another name for the pattern is Windmill blades.  I do not have one now but always hope one will turn up. Brian and Cora sent the bittersweet from Connecticut.

 I had wonderful gardens those years!   See the pumpkins we grew! 

 Patches the cat was good help.

Eleven small big tooth maples were carefully nurtured so that one day they could make color against the red buildings.  The crepe myrtle turned red and the pecan trees gold so there was a wealth of fall color  for our little New England house. 

 Christmas for 2016 is coming with its share of nostalgia also.  But it too will be a sweet one.

e

Painting and Playing with Still Life

I remember many times in the past  calling my collector friends and asking "What are you doing?"  Sometimes the answer would be "Playing" which we both understood  meant arranging and rearranging interesting old items to make pleasing vignettes of our antiques.   Now that play has circled back again in my life in a different guise: arranging interesting things to paint and make a nice composition. 
Sometimes I am rolling apples or onions around on a kitchen table to catch the light from the window just so.

Lately I have borrowed little ship models from friends.  Here is a sweet example:

What adorable little lures! I have a small painting laid out with these swimming by the little schooner.

Finished are two paintings of another ship model.

Glare on both of these photos makes the very dark backgrounds look much lighter. The one above is on indigo while the one below is a rich chocolate.

The beautiful frames are from Andy Ybarra.

A buy on eBay brought me this adorable ship in a bottle, not old, an advertising piece for a rum company in the 1990's. This is the schooner Bluenose out of Nova Scotia.  A well known older hooked rug pattern of the Bluenose is one of my all time favorites.

This popular pattern was made in a number of sizes,  Sandy has a large lovely old one hooked to a glory!

Nautical hooked rugs are among my favorite things. 

The bonnets from friend Jean's collection shown below date mid 19th century. A painting of these may be titled "Conversation'. 

You can see I am having a good time these days.    I have lately been offered very nice representation for my paintings on Main Street in Fredericksburg, and am honored.    It is a town full of art and people who appreciate it. At present I am surely painting for enjoyment, but on the other hand these paintings are stacking up down the hall on the floor and some of them will have to go somewhere!     Not sure just how to move on this yet. My little ones are easy to sell and send and are not stacking up.  When I have more of them I can offer them on this site.  Some of the larger ones will have to go in a gallery soon.  Shipping them would be a bear.    edyth