Thank you to the St. Louis Art Fans

Thank you for coming to the Art Underground Fall Quarterly  Show.  This show was very personal to me – my first show,  in my favorite part of the city, at my brother Phil’s amazing home.  I never dreamt I would end up living in St. Louis.  But it’s been a city I’ve fallen in love with since moving here three years ago.  These watercolors are an exploration and documentation of my new home town.  Lafayette Square in particular is my favorite part of the city and I’ve been coming here to paint from day one.  I love that I’ve found a home in a city full of history yet brimming with possibility.  There’s a great deal more of exploring and painting to be done here.

I dedicated this show to Philip and Becca Woods,

“Thank you for your big love and steady faith!”

... and the WINNER is

...Arden from Oregon!!
Yippeee! Thanks to everyone who wrote me and reads my blog. I hope there is 100 more posts!!!!

The past two days I've been part of a holiday open house at a friend's home here in St. Louis. She makes and sells great beaded jewelry. It was so fun to do because you just enjoy talking to the women and there's no rushing, hurrying pressure to shop and scram like you feel at a mall. You have a glass of wine some crackers, take your time, chat it up with a new friend. It's just a fun experience. I've seen more and more of these holiday shopping open houses spring up and think they are such a great idea. In fact I'm participating in another one in two more weeks!!!! So for the next week I'll be busy painting and matting lots of my pictures.

Last Sunday I decided to take the afternoon and paint once again at the botanical gardens. I can not recall a fall so vibrant and colorful as this one. Maybe because it's the first one I've experienced in ten years. So I gathered my traveling paint kit and off I went. I found a perfect place in the grass - after much looking and pacing - then and set up my little studio in the leafy grass and of course put my ear phones in. It was busy in the gardens and I was somewhat secluded. Usually something fairly odd happens to me when I paint in plein air in a public place. Thankfully only falling leaves interrupted me when they dropped on my paper or on the palette.

Meditation

I seek the sources of refreshment,
sustenance, and healing
that my spirit, like my body,
is constantly in need of.

I am made whole again
- my self is given back to me -
in solitude and silence.

So now I seek to silence the word and thought
by being conscious of the sounds around me,
or the sensations of my body,
or my breathing

I am energized by love.

So I recapture
and relive
the times when I felt loved,
cared for, and treasured.

And I see myself going out in love
to friend,
to those who are in need,
and every living creature.

I come alive in times of creativity.
(--From Anthony De Mello's book Wellspring - A Book of Spiritual Exercises.)

This past week has been very oppressive. I'm weighed down by the pain and burdens of other and have been truly exhausted. I found this book a friend gave me and was drawn to this particular meditation especially after such a heavy, strange and sad week. There is so much noise in my head. In some ways painting can be meditation for me. I know that sitting in a garden among flowers creates a peace and solitude I can't seem to find anywhere else. So, when I can't get to a garden, I hope this painting will bring me back to my afternoon in the St. Louis Botanical Gardens.