Saturday, September 1, 2012

Summer to September

September always feels like the beginning of the year for me.

First as a teacher and then as a Mom, the start of school
has been the biggest change in my calendar.
I no longer have school age children
and my chronometer is still set the same way.

Fall is my favorite season and the leaves are beginning to turn.
I love the change of the light and the cool crisp mornings.

Between having surgery on my leg
and being in the process of getting my cataracts removed,
I have not been doing too much painting.
I have managed to create some cards for people
and I did an artichoke painting on some handmade paper.



My version is on the left, the printed card is on the right.

This was a card I made for my downstairs neighbor
and good friend, Charlotte.
She was in the last stages of cancer
and it meant a lot that I was able to create my
version of a favorite card that she had received.

I gave it to her the day before
she passed away on Thursday.
I will miss her a lot.
She was a new friend who won
her way into my heart during time
she lived her at The Redwoods.

When I am down, painting helps...
so I went out into our garden and found this
wonderful artichoke bloom.
It was the last choke of one of the plants
that have been producing
artichokes for us all summer.



I took this photo and then got permission
to cut the artichoke off so I could paint it from
real life in my apartment.
Working on this really helped to life my spirits.
I get lost in the process.
It was fun to see all the colors in the leaves
and try to capture them on the paper.
This handmade paper did not have sizing
and so it behaved differently than regular watercolor paper.
You really could not go back and edit.
This was a good thing for me as I tend to over do.




The 2nd day of school was Elsa's Birthday Circle
in her class. They have a ceremony for each child to 
honor their birthdays. I loved being able to come and be
a part of this special time with her.




Primary 2 is a wonderful place to be and I will be 
reading to these 3 to 6 year olds each Monday.





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