Category Archives: 30 in 30

30 in 30 day 12- To Market

David Bowie is still dead and I am still losing my studio.

“To Market,” oil on canvas board, 5″ x 7″

ToMarket

Available here.

 

30 in 30 Day 11 – Catting Around

Today’s post is about my husband’s feral cats. Frank works as a mechanic and there is a small group of feral cats that hang out in the yard among the junker cars that sit ready to be scavenged for parts. Frank worries about these cats and keeps them fed.  The shop closes down for a week between Christmas and New Years’ Day. In past years he’s driven down during his vacation week a couple of times to make sure the cats didn’t starve, but this time he drove down to feed them every single day.

CattingAround

By the fifth day, it began to feel as though he had a second family. I looked at him and asked if he was really just going to feed his cats every day, or if there was something I should know.

“Katie,” he said, “If I was going to see another woman, do you think I would be taking her ham scraps?”

“Catting Around” is a 5″ x 7″ on canvas board, an  is available here.

30 in 30 Day 10 – Imaginary Sanctuary

Today’s painting is a bit of hopefulness. “Imaginary Sanctuary,” oil on stretched canvas, 6″ x 6″. I thought about accompanying this with a tune from Westside Story (There’s a Place for Us…. Somewhere… A Place for Us…) but I went with Dave Van Ronk’s brilliant cover of Joni Mitchell’s classic just because I like it better.

ImaginarySanctuary

Available here

And now here’s a really good song.

 

30 in 30 Day 9 – And Bears, Oh My

Day 9’s painting is oil on canvas board, 5″ x 7″

AndBearsOhMy

 

It is available here.

Isn’t he a cuddly fellow?

 

30 in 30 Day 8 – The In-Between Place

The-In-Between-Place

Oil on canvas board, 5″ x 7″.

Available here.

I don’t know that I’m in purgatory, but I’m certainly in an in-between place just now, with the end of the month deadline looming for vacating my studio.

But the Sufjan/Gallant below makes me feel better. Beautiful music is medicine.

 

 

30 in 30 day 7 – On Deaf Ears

I was ahead and now I’m playing catch-up. Funny how quickly that can happen. Day 7’s painting is “On Deaf Ears,” 5″ x 5, oil on stretched canvas.

OnDeafEars

It is available here.

The song below is the best song, in my opinion, from XTC’s brilliant mid-eighties album Skylarking. I think it has held up very well over the years.

 

30 in 30 Day 5 – Flying a Kite

Oil on canvas board, 5″ x 7″

FlyingAKite

SOLD

This holiday season I watched the old television production of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” yet again. It is one of my favorite Christmas stories, and if you haven’t yet read it or listened to it or watched it, I envy you. You’re in for a treat. The closing lines:

And when that happens, I know it. A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string. That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky. As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying toward heaven.

I also love Joanna Newsom’s song, “Flying a Kite.”

30 in 30 day 4 – Djinn

In times of turbulence and an uncertain future, my mind casts itself toward magical thinking and mythical creatures. A Djinn is an Arab mythological creature made from smokeless, scorching fire. You have probably heard of the famous Djinn who emerged from Aladdin’s lamp.

If you had only one wish, would you wish for more wishes?

 

5″ x 7″, oil on canvas board.

Djinn

Available here.

30 in 30 day 3, Housecat

Today’s painting is about my black cat, Diablo. His weight this morning, taken despite much indignity but no scratching (this time) is 18 pounds.

He is growing increasingly spherical in shape and has to squeeze tightly through the normal cat-sized door to enter the room where his food is kept.  Perhaps this will limit his future weight gain, Winnie-the-Pooh style. We’ll see. (I suspect the neighbors of feeding him on the sly, but only God knows why they would.)

HouseCat

SOLD

 

 

30 in 30 Day 2 – Flamingo

 

Oil on canvas board, 5″ x 7″

Flamingo

You can purchase this painting here.