Number 5 is finished, unless I tweak it a bit more today.
Water Lily, one of my favorite pieces. I distinctly remember bidding on it on eBay.
I learn something every time I tackle a painting. I am reminded that I am new to this, so I have to be kind to myself while challenging myself to grow. I love really getting to know these pieces of pottery in a way I didn’t before I studied them in detail. And the result is that I fall in love with them again.
I’m not sure what the next piece will be – I have a lot of small pieces and low-to-the-surface planters, etc., but I think the higher, more vertical pieces are best for these studies – at least, right now.
I sat in the kitchen, sweating, for two hours in order to finish this one yesterday. One more day of this dreadful heat and humidity and then we’re going to get thunderstorms and rain for the next couple of days as the system breaks up and moves out. Our brains are mush. Don put the container of dry brown rice away in the refrigerator instead of the pantry. Whoops. Half the time we don’t know what day it is.
Oh wait a minute…that’s normal for us.
I water around 7 am and keep refilling the birdbath all day. Speaking of birds, yesterday, I noticed a robin up in the branch of the black walnut tree right outside our kitchen. He kept moving around and I thought he might be preening himself. Today, I looked out there and realized he’s making a nest. I mean it when I say it’s right outside our window. Very close to the house. So this morning we watched him work and work at making his nest. He sort of stamps his feet to tamp down the nest materials and his whole body vibrates. I’m going to take some photos.
Of course, this means we’re eventually in for another round of chirping and attacks. But watching all of this happen is an incredible opportunity, so we’ll put up with it.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
Love the painting!
Our robins are gone today. Empty nest—no sign of struggle—a sad mystery. And we were so careful not to bother them. Could be the heat. It’s been pretty intense here for the last few days. Better today, though.
Were they too young to have fledged?
Heartbreaking Shanna.
Stay safe.
Yes, too young. Maybe two days old? They were there in the morning and gone in the afternoon. But since we were gone, too, we didn’t see or hear them go.
Oh, sad. Maybe a predator. So sad.
storms should help break the heat and humidity for you … good! our temperatures are on the rise again and we have no chance of rain in the next ten days except maybe the fourth of july.
you are on a roll with painting and i am happy for you. did you agree with don’s idea to frame your art? hope so … it’s beautiful!
i am home today. began feeling sick and left work early yesterday … all of a sudden lots of coughing, headache, zero energy, fever (up 3.4 degrees). my doctor sent me for a covid-19 test (and i am on meds to hopefully give symptom relief). supposed to get results in 48 hours. my boss is not thrilled.
hope you all are well and will have a good day. stay safe and cool!
kathy in iowa
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear you’re feeling unwell, Kathy. I’m praying it’s just a bug of some kind and not Covid. Seems unlikely to be Covid again.
Stay safe, rested and hydrated!
meant to ask … what size paper are you painting on? thanks.
kathy in iowa
It’s Arches Oil paper that I cut in half – each piece is approximately 6″ x 9″
xo
thanks. looks larger than 6×9.
i cut a bunch of watercolor paper down … halves and quarter size for painting ideas for books i am writing. helps me to switch gears when i get stuck.
kathy in iowa
watching a bird build a nest can be fun … but good luck against any future attacks from protective bird parents!
thanks, claudia. it’s probably the usual thing i get every year, but the doctor said they have to check given the sharp rise in variants and breakthrough cases of fully vaccinated people.
hope you and don are well and stay that way.
kathy in iowa
Oh Gosh Kathy! Hope it’s not covid. Rest and take care of yourself. Prayers sent for you.
thanks, marilyn.
no test results yet.
hope and praying for your granddaughter … that she can avoid hospitalization, that you all get a definitive answer and she, you and the rest of your family can feel better.
you doing okay? hope so.
thanks again.
kathy in iowa
kathy, I’m so sorry to hear you are not feeling well! Rest up, maybe push fluids …
thanks, vicki.
trying to drink lots of water, just rest … but as tired as i am, my mind just whizzes from one thing to another. weird.
how are you? hope you are well, keeping cool.
thanks again.
kathy in iowa
Claudia – be sure and sign and date each of your paintings!
I know! I’m just not sure where I want to sign them. Or how I want to sign them.
Stay safe, Judy!
I saw you IG pic with all your vase paintings lined up. You should frame them and hang them somewhere.
I hope your weather breaks soon. Humidity just makes everything harder. I get so worn out.
Granddaughter update: She continues to test negative for everything including covid. Lyme disease and west nile both negative. She had more blood cultures done yesterday so we wait for those.
Still has a headache, very tired, fever comes and goes. The verdict seems to be viral meningitis, but no idea what virus.
The Dr said it could be as simple as a cold virus. It seems like that should have run its course by now though. She has been sick for 2 weeks. So, we are in kind of a holding pattern. If she needs to go to ER again they will take her to DeVos Children’s Hospital rather than our local hospital. Yes, Betsy DeVos’s family. It is an excellent hospital about an hour from us. The Dr here has been consulting with them. She does seem to be making gradual progress so we are hopeful she is through the worst.
Thank you everyone for your prayers, concern, and suggestions.
Stay safe
Poor baby! It’s gone on so long! Praying for a resolution and a speedy recovery.
Stay safe, Marilyn.
Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry you have to have these worries and I’m so sorry your granddaughter has to suffer!
Very pretty painting! Your so good Claudia! Have a great day.
Much appreciated, April.
Stay safe!
I’m seeing a lot of sparrows at my feeder and in the yard that seem about full sized but act kind of clumsy, like they don’t quite have the flying down right. I’m sure they are fledging but the size surprises me.
Lovely painting, Claudia. That looks like a tough one.
It’s terribly hot here — and muggy, with rain sporadic. Hard when it comes but not always long lived. Good luck this weekend!
We need rain. Our neighbor’s pond is almost dry and that’s where our favorite bullfrog lives!
Stay safe, Jeanie.
Claudia your painting just improve greatly! You obviously have a good eye. I can see why this case is one of your favorites.
Boy I don’t miss the humidity at all! Hope your allergies are better. I do miss thunderstorms. We rarely get them here.
Stay safe and as cool as possible.
It’s an awful lot of fun to discover something new at this stage in my life, Becky!
Humidity really does a number on my allergies – (mold and mildew).
Miss you, my dear friend.
Stay safe.
Claudia — this painting is really pretty — but I admit that ‘Mae West’ is my favorite so far!! here in Ky, we have been sweltering w/heat, humidity, wxman saying ‘maybe’ temps/humidity will come down a little Fr/Sat — sure hope he’s right. can not imagine those temps in Ore/Montana, etc, with no AC. of course, next week goes back to the miserable temps. hope you/Don stay healthy/safe.
I can’t imagine how miserable it is without a/c. Oh wait a minute, I can. We had no a/c for most of the time I lived at home and I had none in 2 out of 3 of my apartments in Phila. and none in Boston. Or San Diego!
Stay safe, Linda
Oh, man, do I recall no air conditioning. I never had any in Southern Calif til I was in my 50s. A lot of ‘suffering’/unpleasantness to that point, in upstairs apartments and an upstairs condo or old houses. Yes, the heat is worse in these more-recent years with odd climate change, but it was bad sometimes in 1969, in 1978, in 1983, in 1987, in 1991, in 1998, and so I could go on and on. We get the hot Santa Ana winds but, when I lived in Santa Barbara over thirty years ago, my street dead-ended at the ocean/shoreline where it was normally cool, yet we’d get even hotter winds roaring out of the canyons called sundowners; they would notoriously start up right at sunset (hence their name) which made the nights impossible. (When I was single and alone in a place in those long-ago times, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving windows wide open all night long, so it often found me laying flat on the floor; and, one time, it was so hot that I would sit in a chair with my feet in a small tub full of cold water.)
Another time, my condo got so hot that I came home from work and my refrigerator had malfunctioned; just couldn’t keep running endlessly I guess (it was older) so I lost everything in it of course and had to buy a new fridge. I don’t ever live too far from the coast and we normally get an afternoon breeze where I am right now; but it often, just as an everyday ‘normal’, goes dead as night comes on. Mother could easily get overcome in heat, probably from suffering a severe heatstroke in her 20s, and I can recall (from my childhood) her trying to fix dinner in a hot kitchen and being miserable when she probably should have just fed us cold salad. And I also can remember being in the workplace, in offices, when it would be too hot to work even if we turned down the lights a little; just couldn’t concentrate, open windows just making it worse; but, thankfully, that was the exception and not the rule on the work front (I’d often be glad to go to work just to get cool in the air-conditioned building, working as late into the evening as I could so as not to have to go home!).
Today, having the privilege of central air conditioning in my home is something I never take for granted and am very grateful. At least in Southern Calif, I could now never live without it as I’m more affected by hot temperatures than even in other years. It makes the diff on whether or not you can breathe well, sleep well, feel well; be productive; otherwise, as you’ve been saying, Claudia, you’re just mush and lose the days. Ohmygosh do I feel for you in a 103-degree heat index; I endured that sort of thing, day after day after day, when I was three years on the Gulf Coast. It’s awful.
Sorry to hear that the humidity is still hanging on there. We are getting a break from it…the rain has left, and is on its way to your place I believe. Our power was off for about 3 hours this morning…it was starting to get uncomfortable in here. But…all’s well now.
I really like your new painting, it’s showing more depth. Looking forward to your next one.
Ah…another family to watch. Terrific…can’t wait to see the pictures! ;)
We’re on a severe thunderstorm watch at the moment!
Stay safe, Donna.
My husband just got home after spending a week in southern Oregon and although he and his friends had a lot of plans regarding work around the property, they were completely stalled/stuck by the intense Pacific Northwest heat, which seemed to ‘average’ around 110 degrees; they just couldn’t work/be outside as it was downright dangerous (thankfully his hosts had central air conditioning; not everybody does in Oregon and Washington as has been well documented of late in the news/weather media). So, he’s a little bummed that they didn’t meet their work goals, but who coulda thought of such a weird thing (I’ve never not been to Oregon when it wasn’t June [and I’ve also visited the state in its entirety in all directions] and, although this was years ago for me, it was most always cool [and often rainy] in June, but we’ve been too hot [and humid] for June in SoCalif this year, too, so it’s all bonkers here in the western part of the U.S.).
I was a kid in hot summers like anybody but I remember it bothering me when we’d be on a family road trip and the hot car would really get to me; I’d throw up (we had some kind of add-on/makeshift [inadequate but better than nothing] air conditioner in the car, not factory-installed, back in the day, so long ago; otherwise, if–say–you had to cross the desert southwest, you’d just have to drive at night out of the intense sun).
Luv-luv-luv your latest Roseville art; such a fun way to revisit the gorgeous pottery, and aren’t the colors so beautiful; great job, Claudia (despite being so uncomfortable in your too-warm-for-summer house [I so get that; I have central air but the minute it goes off as it cycles, the house is so ‘close’, the air inside cloying; I have to have air that moves in this kind of weather; but, at the moment, we’re nowhere nearly as hot as you are, as our temps the past few days are hovering in the high 80s/edging toward 90 {oh, but watch that change; we’re ALWAYS hot on 4th of July!}]).
An aside: Your post of late about continuing to wear a mask indoors in public places? Did you see that Los Angeles has put out an ‘edict’ about it? I knew it/felt it (as have many cautious types) was too soon to not wear a mask indoors in a public setting, but I just saw Fauci on TV saying the CDC still is saying we’re safe maskless indoors or out as long as vaccinated. I’d rather err on the side of caution until the Covid ‘story’ is played out; we’ve had mixed messages in this pandemic (and these variants/mutations are scary). I have ‘way too many health problems to be in the small percentage who are vaccinated who could still pick up Covid or its replicators.
In fact, my husband was just at the big-box/chain grocery store a couple of hours (like 3pm [I wish he’d go in the morning when there are less shoppers; will maybe have to reinstitute that]) and anyone who started to come thru the door maskless was told to put on their masks by store employees placed at the entries to the store – – as this was going down, in real time, my husband saw other employees putting signs back up inside the store and on the doors that no one can enter maskless, regardless of whether or not they’re vaccinated; so, all I can assume is that my adjacent county has now taken L.A.’s lead and I just haven’t read about it yet. It’s a rollercoaster; it’s changing info; it’s the unknowns even to the experts; it’s confusing. Just as we ‘lay down arms’ (relax the vigilance because it’s been said to be less of a battle for the vaccinated), is all that coming back? I guess it’s because there are still too many unvaccinated people; at least the Delta variant is aggressive; so the counties don’t want their hospitals overwhelmed again. Feels like a long-playing record album on repeat.
I love that painting and as far as the birds, I agree, I love to watch them work, even if it means I may be attacked later.
Take Care,
HUGS
blessings,
Kim
Many thanks, Kim.
Stay safe!
Another fabulous painting. I really am so happy you pursued this for yourself. Age has made my brain mushy especially when I get tired. Hoping your heat wave is breaking soon.
It has broken, though it’s raining so still humid.
Stay safe, Linda.