Art and Artful Living (with an Anniversary thrown in)!

 

I am pretty happy (for once) with my Tuesday studio painting session.  I think Sun Cat is finished. I had a good time exaggerating (or emphasizing) the sunshine coming through the window.

 And "Happy" is done, too.

 This crow only needs a bit more attitude... and a shadow that shows.

 I won't tell you what was going through my mind with this.  There WAS a reference photograph which I mostly igored.  Deliberately.  Angrily.  And then when I was through (with this phase at least), I couldn't decide which was right side up and which was upside down.

 Today is my husband's and my 14th wedding anniversary.  (We were both married to other people about that long, with quite a hiatus of "singlehood" inbetween.)  We are proud of how we get along, set goals, ignore things that are not important and have fun together.  Funny what you can learn from "failure"... and how good it can feel.

Thanks, DH for so many good times... and wishing for many more.


He had a dental appointment, after which we found ourselves in Salem, Mass.  As usual, I was trolling for yarn.  We found this great facade on the way.


 And  Maria's Sweet Somethings, a candy/ice cream store with a Colonial Greeter and Dead-by-chocolate "bad example."  I can vouch for the mint chocolate truffle.

 

 The candy store also had cute mugs.  I liked "Catffeinated" and "Warm Furniture."

 

Then we found The Seed Stitch: fine yarn.  What a great shop!  They had items in the Rowan, and Cascade Lines, I had never seen.  (Some wonderful fingering weights for color weight or lace or socks.)  And they have beautiful samples and a nifty button selection, too.  I'll be back.

They even have a blog... sometimes they talk arts, crafts and other great stuff!

 Then we headed to Rockport.  We got hungry on the way and stopped at  Seaport Grille  in Gloucester for lunch.

Rockport was only a wee bit further.  I need to go back to the Rockport Art Association.  They are having classes by some folks I didn't know were local... and some interesting sounding special exhibits.  Who knows, maybe I'll join and enter something.

I was so happy to find the Tusinski Gallery OPEN, that I forgot to take any photographs.  Karen Tusinski was giving herself a day off, so I had a fabulous, philosophical and enlightening conversation with her gallery-sitter friend... who was an expressive arts therapist at a state hospital.  Boy did we hit it off and have a lot to talk about!

Of course, I had to take yet another photograph of Motif #1 (allegedly THE most painted building in the US.  It is certainly beloved by East Coast painters.  Obviously, it was low tide, too.)

 And then there's the higglety pigglety view FROM Motif #1.

 It was a good day, even if it seemed more like March than post-Memorial Day May.