March 31 Knock, Knock

Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?

11" x 14"

March 30 Pineapple

Jed woke me at 5:30 this morning. He was playing with the cactus on the landing and eventually tipped it over.

I made coffee and ate a bowl of frosted mini-wheats with raisins. A pineapple was on the counter. With an early morning start and a fresh pineapple for reference, I headed off to the studio to do the daily painting.

There's a legend that sea captains, having returned from a long voyage, rested a few days and spent time with their families. When they set a pineapple out on the newel post of the gate, they were ready to entertain friends.

After my long voyage of proofing the book, I feel almost ready to entertain. I will by Friday when the Easter weekend visitors start pouring in.

11" x 14"

March 29 Proof 1 is Done

Who knew that proofing a book could be such a trial. Oh, well, proof one is done. With any luck, proof two of the vinegary book won't be as tumultuous and it will hit the book shelves yet this spring.

8" x 10"

March 28 Oil

Today the Olive Oil. Yesterday the Vinegar. Tomorrow the Salad? I don't think so but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

8" x 10"

March 27 Vinegar

With the third Saturday in a row of attending horticultural events with our vinegar as well as lots of orders for vinegar coming in after a nice article about the vinegar in the Star Tribune, it's proper to give a tribute to vinegar in the daily painting. It's also proper to feature this bottle because we're phasing it out and phasing in a sleak slim line model. TO VINEGAR!

8" x 10"

March 26 Laura's Cup and an Apple

When Laura comes home, this is the cup she uses. She likes light French vanilla coffee creamer in her coffee in this cup. I wasn't a very good mother the last time she was home. No coffee creamer.

I was going to put a banana across the top of the cup. No banana. The apple fit all the way in the cup so there was no point in doing that. That's why the cup is upside down with the apple on top.

8" x 10"

March 25 Blue

Hmmm...tired. Ron's been sick. I'd prefer if he'd share chocolate.

8" x 10"

March 24 You've got to give a little...

You've got to give a little, take a little,
And let your poor heart break a little.
That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

You've got to laugh a little, cry a little,
Until the clouds roll by a little.
That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

Hmmm....so why does that old song come rolling into my thoughts? Hard to say. Today was a good day of laughter, no tears, but a fair amount of give and take with the first pot luck of spring at work this noon. The Five Wings Arts Council (that's us) shares a communal space between offices with female eye doctors and their staff so we had a pot luck get aquainted lunch in the shared space. Great fun and there's a plan afoot to do it monthly.

I spent a couple of hours photographing a Staple's area artist's watercolors and uploading them to the mn.artists website. That was an enjoyable process, too.

Now it's past dark and no one has put the chickens in for the night. Savannah doesn't want to go out alone, so I must finish up and venture out with her. She wants to look for Orion, the constellation, too and I won't deny a 14 year-old that.

She tells me the lyrics are from "Beaches." There were messages and mentions today of southern California, beaches of Lake Michigan, people coming back from Mexico, going to Mexico....maybe my subconscious mind processed it and came up with that connection.

8" x 10" $830

March 23 Quilter's Accoutrements

Here's a new development: paint on the sleeve of my nightgown. Painting had to be the first priority today so didn't bother to dress before heading to the easel. It was dark; the stairway a forboding challenge to my just awakened legs. I grabbed my Olfa cutter from the sewing machine, selected a spool of blue thread and with them as reference began the painting of the day. Reaching across the palette, my sleeve dragged in the blue paint. Acrylic paint does not wash out of fabric.

Up ahead, a twelve hour work day, with any luck a little volleyball and then debriefing at the VFW until midnight. I'll be painting again before I know it. Perhaps not in my nightgown.

5" x 7" $820

March 22 Doin' the Carrot Boogie

One of my favorite brothers suggested the subject for this painting. Now, most of you who get your carrots from your green grocer, packaged as uniform carrot clones,probably think only of monoleg carrots. Well, gardeners know that carrots can have two, three, four and more legs. They may not be ideal, but they're common as....carrots.

Since we're officially two days into spring, let's have a little carrot boogie.

8" X 10" $810

March 21 The Model T plane

Here's my dad's toy car, again. This time masquerading as an airplane. I can't imagine that a car like this wouldn't have spent some time as an "airplane" in the hands of my six-year-old Dad back in 1927. Avionics got a leg up that year with Charles Lindbergh's historic flight from New York to Paris. My Dad's Aunt Hazel gave him the iron car but I'm willing to bet he made it "fly."

8" X 10" $800

March 20 Dogwood and willow

For many years, I gathered willow and dogwood in the winter and early spring. I wove more baskets than you could count, sold them around Minnesota, wrote a book about weaving baskets and taught many classes. I haven't made a basket in years but I still notice the dogwood and willow in late winter and early spring.

Today we drove 69.5 miles to Perham to present our vinegar wares at the East Ottertail County Garden Day. As we drove along the back roads, through lowlands and along fields, I noticed all of the material growing in the ditches and meadows; perfect for weaving. No time for that but it inspired the painting of the day: a stylized vision of willow and dogwood against the lighter background of newly snow-free grassland.

We stopped in Wadena on the way back for a quick and pleasant visit with Mom and Dad. Mom's arm is many shades of black and blue but getting a little better every day.

8" X 10" $790

March 19 Food stuffs

Food stuffers might be a more precise title for this one. I was going to paint something on a black background. My black paint container was empty. Had to go to plan B. B for blue, rather than black. I was feeling rather stuffed after a meal of fish and hash browns at the local lodge. Hence the food stuffers.

The effect on this one is interesting, especially since the paint is thick and still very wet. That's what the shine is all about. The dark shadow comes from me leaning over the painting which is lying flat so it doesn't run.

5" X 7" $780

March 18 Sail and a red sunset

I thought I'd have a nice evening of painting. Forgot about a meeting at school. After the meeting as we left the parking lot I noticed a sign that said, "Police vehicle parking only." The was going to be in my painting of the day.

When we got home I checked the e-mail and there were lots of vinegar orders. A very nice article about the vinegary came out in the Star Tribune today and the Prairie Yard and Garden show (with the segment about the vinegary) aired on Pioneer Public television tonight. So, I've been responding to e-mails.

The painting had to go quickly. My plan for painting the sign dissolved in the first brush strokes.

8" x 10" $770

March 17 St. Patty's Day gift

St. Patty's Day. The day for a little wearing of the green and blarney. Today, I saw curly green wigs, green antenna doingers, shiney green mardi gras beads, and 3 o'clock bar hoppers wandering around like spring trick or treaters. I didn't hear a single Irish song refrain. No green beer. Don't people know how to celebrate a decent Irish holiday?

Most people know the story of how St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. Seems a strange story since Ireland has never in history been over run with serpents. What the area was over run with was pagans whose symbol was the snake; or more correctly, the old goddess religions with serpent symbols. St. Patrick actually drove, or banished or eradicated using whatever means were at hand, the old pagan religion along with those who practiced it.

Personally, I rather like a good pagan now and then. Now, how should we really celebrate that?

11" x 14" $760

March 16 Nevermore, nevertheless

When I started this painting project some 75 paintings ago, I didn't realize just how little time I would have on some days. Tuesdays are really tight. On Tuesdays you'll never see more than a few brush strokes. Nevertheless, I will still produce a painting.

5" x 7" $750

March 15 Essence of a March Day

The philosophy of abstractionists is to reduce an image or thought down to the bare essence. That's what I've done here. Yellow is the heat of the sun. Brown the bare earth ready for a new season of growth. White, the only remaining snow; remnants of the drifts. That's it. The essence of a march day.

8" x 10" $740

March 14 Two more roses in winter

Ron appeared at my window yesterday with two roses in hand. Again the shop roses have produced welcome flowers. One window of his shop is filled with blooming geraniums. Another has drying corn, a jade plant and a cactus.

We're into daylight saving time. Another week and the calendar will tell us it's spring. I don't know anyone who isn't ready for it.

11' x 14" $730

March 13 Variation on a theme

Another gray day. Saturday. Two-hundred people turned out for the first ever Todd County Horticultural Event. It put everyone in the mood for gardening. Then we come back to the gray, wet, snow banked landscape.

I gave a presentation on herbs, wine and vinegar. Ron manned a booth with the vinegar.

Came home to find Savannah making brownie pecan pie. How's that for a mood lifter? And Laura, home for the weekend, is watching the bad movies on the Sci-Fi channel: first giant alligators eating old movie stars, then a spitting slime monster devouring helpless people.

No wonder I came up with a melancholy painting. Beth, this isn't you but it harkens to a painting of a few days ago albeit with a bit of a different style.

5" x7" SOLD

March 12 Raining on My Roma

It's not just raining on my roma. It's raining on everything; day after day.

Today was a proofing day: proofing the new website for the Five Wings Arts Council; proofing the magazine I edit; proofing the book about the vinegary. It was a day of accomplishment but also a day of not getting any one thing finished. Except this little painting. So though it's not a major work of art, it's the one thing I finished today.

5" x 7" $710

March 11 An Apple for My Momma

Today was a strange March day. Pouring rain, thunder, lightning and, in some places, hail. I had intended to paint a large rain drop, and maybe a couple of hail stones, backlit by lightning.

Then I got home and discovered, via e-mail, that I needed to find four illustrations for my book that's at the publisher's, in layout. The document I'd sent, via e-mail, didn't arrive in one piece (how does that happen?)and my best bet was to find the originals. The chapter is on a special technique that my Mom used to turn apples into puzzles. I'd done the illustrations several years ago for an article and do you think I could find them? If anyone ever archives my work from the last 35 years, well, they'll have a job on their hands. I resorted to finding the word document ( I know, bad idea) that had them on for the book, copied and enlarged them onto another document, printed, cut apart, labeled, scanned as jpegs and sent via e-mail, again. By that time, I had apples on the brain.

Then my sister called to say that Mom had fallen and broken her arm this afternoon. So, Mom, here's a get well apple image. Heal well, take care. Love, Nan

8" x 10" $700

March 10 Score one for the bird

One of my favorite brothers suggested a few ideas for paintings so I took one and ran with it, modifying with a twist of some twisted something.

11" x 14"  SOLD

March 9 South of Staples

As I was leaving Staples late this afternoon, I encountered a parking lot worth of light spinning emergency vehicles dealing with some sort of....emergency. Further on down the road, I looked to the east and saw distinct bands of color and texture. It's been a gray day so the entire sky was gray. At the horizon was a band of blue gray trees in the distance with the late winter maroon of red osier dogwood and closer up the mixed texture of last year's grass and snow.

Closer to home, four turkeys paraded in front of me on the road. You get the landscape but not the turkeys.

11" x 14" $680

March 8 Dad's first Model-T, view 1

I had a nice visit with my mom and dad, today. I had planned to do some cleaning for them but they had their apartment spic and span. So, we had a nice long visit.

Dad sent his iron Model-T toy car home with me as a subject to paint. Not to keep, of course, but to paint. I remember his car from the time I was little. He kept it up in the cupboard and we would take it down and look at it. We never played with it because it was Dad's from when he was little. That's why he still has it.

The car was cast in two halves and joined together. For some time it didn't stay together very well, but he fixed it. I didn't know it had a driver until today. He'd found the little man in a box. The car is iron; the driver is a white metal and is held on the seat with a metal peg.

This is view 1 because I'm thinking it's worthy of seeing from other angles.

11" x 14" $670

March 7 Beth, starring as Barbra Hussie

Everyone should get into costume once in a while and be someone we're not. It could be both a good human experiment and a good human experience. And just plain fun.

11" x 14" $660

March 6 Jed

Last fall on a cool evening, a stray cat leaped at the dining room window. Ron heard the thump and opened the door to a teenage orange cat. Frightened but wanting a home, the cat came into the house and ultimately, into our hearts. Savannah named him Jed.

Jed is a full character cat with an affinity for pink and a propensity for carrying a small fluffy pink purse around. He hides pens under the rug and has learned to open doors. He thinks he should be in the studio when I paint and I know the day will come when he walks in paint and leaves little Jed tracks across the room. He's already done it with watercolor which wasn't so bad since it washes out. Acrylic is another matter.

Jed likes to hide in blankets and peeks out to see what's happening. So, for the 66th painting of 2010, here's Jed.

11" x 14" $650

March 5 Dancing with My Arms Wide Open

You know how sometimes when you don't know the dance steps you just fling your arms open wide and move to the music with wild abandon? Today, I didn't have a clue as to what to paint. I just started and eventually let my paint brush dance with wild abandon.

Thirty-six years ago today, I became a mother. I didn't know much about being a mother. I've learned quite a bit and think it's a good sign that I can still dance, and paint, with wild abandon.

11" x 14" $640 SOLD

March 4 Slippin'Away

Time's just slippin' away. These days go by so quickly. I had all of 10 minutes to paint tonight; work, supper, paint, meeting. It's perfectly appropriate, therefore, to have painted an hour glass with the time, 24 hours, nearly gone.

8" x 10" $630

March 3 A Little Three-eyed Goat Makes it Big

Beth made a herd of quirky, delightful paper mache goats and sent them out into the world. Each traveled with its own story to a new owner. She also made a herd of elephants. Her Uncle Mark was the recipient of a goat. He suggested that one of her goats would make a worthy subject for a daily painting. The goats are each no more than six inches long. This one, at 11" X 14", made it big.

Why does it have three eyes, you ask? Why not?

11" x 14" SOLD

March 2 Spring Approacheth

Today was advocacy day at the state capitol in St. Paul. I started the day at 4:15 in order to meet my ride, Mark, at 5:00. It was a full day of visiting legislators and explaining the value of the arts to this five county region of central Minnesota. The arts are not only pleasant cultural offerings. They impact the economy and provide jobs as well as raise us all up to a higher level of consciousness.

This little painting had to happen rather quickly. I cleaned up the last wet paint on two pallettes and then added a little fresh paint to complete the tree. Quite satisfying in a small way.

5" x 7" $610

March 1 A Rose

Each fall we put the potted rose bushes in the shop to winter over. If the conditions are right, along about this time of year, they produce a few lanky flowers. A couple of days ago, Ron picked two deep red roses and put them in a vase on the dining room table. They're such a welcome sight and though hybrid teas, they do have a little rose scent. From these winter roses, a rose.

8" x 10" $600