Life imitates art (or something like that)

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Here's a snapshot of a couple of buds from my favorite rose. Since I don't know its name, I call it Carla's Rose after my neighbor across the street who has an enormous rosebush of it occupying most of her front stoop. One day when she was energetically pruning it back, I asked for a branch to try as a cutting. I stuck it in the ground with a sawed-off soda bottle for a cover and two years later, I had my very own Carla's Rose. It's the one I painted in 2007 which you can see on my website. And yes, it is fragrant.

Studio Sneak Preview: Works in Progress

Some of the watercolors I've been working on this Spring

Normally, I post new work to my website once a year, when I'm in between painting sessions. But now that I have this blog, I can't resist putting up some snapshots of work that's underway. As I have gotten older, I find, because of the fumes, that I can't paint in oils during the winter months when the heating system is on and the doors and windows are shut. So I began to explore watercolor as an alternative. (I can't just "not paint".) This is my second year and I feel increasingly comfortable with the medium. You have to have nerves of steel to do watercolor and it wears me out much faster than oil painting, but I'm starting to get used to its demands.

All these are 22 x 30". Some are near completion, others not so. I always work in clusters and each piece informs the rest, so I won't consider any one of them done until they all are.

Click on the images to enlarge