Plein Air Painting

I'm the one on the left

Hello Friends

Today I joined the Escondido Art Association Plein Air Painting group at Felicita Park, in Escondido. I have painted landscapes before but this was my first plein air outing.

All I can say is that I was not prepared for plein air painting. I had to do my painting really fast because the light and shadows do change fast.  I had to hold the canvas on one hand, painting with the other while fighting off the bugs climbing on me and my art supplies, as well as the stuff that would fall on my painting and paint from the trees. It was not easy to reach my supplies and the sun was hot.

Next time I will take a TV tray table to put my art supplies on, a stool would be helpful to sit on (instead of a rock), and bug spray.  Hopefully area won't be too far from facilities. I guess I'm a city gal, although I love nature and taking long hikes and even camping, when it comes to painting, I prefer my studio.

Although it took me about 30 minutes to do this artwork, I was going for the impressionist style, I like my little painting under the circumstances it was painted on. My first oil landscape in years :)

I was surprised to see fake trees a long the park. The fake trees are used to cover up cell phone towers at the park. It's my understanding they are all over the place now. It was a beautiful day outdoors and so happy I got to experience plein air painting, as it was something I wanted to do for a long time.

With Love,
Glad

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First Place in Visual Arts

Self Portrait, First Place in Visual Arts, Oil on canvas



Hello Friends,

I'm thrilled to announce that this year's Award-Winning Literary Magazine, Bravura, has awarded me the first prize in Visual Arts for the self-portrait I entered in their annual contest.  It comes with a cash prize too :)

I will be attending the Gala reception in San Marcos on May 20, 2013, were I'll receive the award. Looking forward to the publication to be released.

This Saturday is art walk here in Escondido. I'm looking forward to do my regular stops. I start at the Escondido Art Association, then The Escondido Municipal Art Gallery, a quick stop by Distinction Gallery and Traditional Gallery, and the final stop at Michael Steirnagle's art studio.

I've been working on figure painting for a year now, and I'm ready to do some landscaping paintings during the summer. Stay tune for new work.

With Love,
Glad

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Our Beloved Cat Chance

Our Cat Chance

Dear Friends,

Chance, our cat, passed away today, April 6, 2013. She was with us for a bit over 10 years as well. She walked into our home one thanksgiving morning in 2003, while we were cooking bacon and we had to open the door to let the smoke out. We gave her some bacon and she never left. Even when we took her outside that night, the following day she was still there by our door.

We posted flyers and no one claimed her. We took her to the vet and we found out she had Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and the vet said she should be kept indoors. She was about seven years old per vet. She was not like other cats I had in the past. She was her own self and if you petted her for more then a few strokes she would bite you, or sometimes you would just be passing by and she would scratch you. People who visited knew this and tended to stay away from her. 

A year after she lived with us, we found out that she belonged to our neighbors next door that had recently moved back then into our neighborhood. The owner came over one day and recognized her, but she didn't want her back as she confessed she never really liked her. She was shocked that Chance was living under the same roof with a dog (Buddy). Yeah, Chance gave our dogs a hard time too. They too stayed away from her.

Two years ago my son also went away to college (my daughter had left in Fall of 2009). Chance and I developed a different relationship. Chance seemed to wait to demand petting from me when I was the most tired or when I was concentrating on a painting. If I ignored her, as sometimes I did, she would do her business in the area I painted. At first I thought it was strange, since cats usually go to their litter box and don't have accidents like that, but I read that cats behave like that when they are angry at you. Well, she made me angry too by her actions, but with time, I learned to pet her even when I didn't feel like it. 

One time while my daughter was visiting from college I told her that Chance was sent by God to remind me how to love. After all, it was so easy to love Buddy, he loved you unconditionally, behaved well, and always happy and content with you. But it was much harder to love someone who would bite you, scratch you and pooped on your art supplies for no reason. Someone who demanded love at the most inconvenient times. But it happened. Over the last two years we developed a bond. I could now pet her for a long time, carry her (as Chance hated her tummy touched), trim her hair and even give her a bath without a scratch! And while it had become a habit to complaint about her grouchyness, deep inside I somehow saw myself in her, and loved her.

It all happened rather quickly. Thursday night she awoke me at 3 am. She was in the living room rolling from side to side trying to get up. I picked her up and it quickly became clear that she was paralyzed from her left side. I placed her on the couch and I thought she was seeing something I couldn't see by the way she was moving her eyes, but I soon realized that she was not able to see. I had to help her when she needed to use the litter box and hand fed her. I wanted to make her feel better by giving her her favorite food (tuna fish) but it was apparent that her sense of smell was gone too. Although she started to walk again slowly within a day of her stroke, her heart started to give out, pumping really fast and making it hard for her to breath. The vet said it was due to the FIV decease she had, which tends to cause clots, and things would only get worse. 

I was with her till the end. She didn't do any of the things the vet said cats tend to do when they go. She was at peace, even her heart slowed down a bit when she heard my daughter 's voice on the phone, talking to her. 

The vet said I was her angel because cats don't live as long as Chance did with FIV and with the quality of life she had up to the last two days of her life. The vet didn't know that Chance was my best teacher yet. Wherever Chance is now, she is only taking a break from teaching humans how to love. I'm sure we will meet again.

With Love,

Glad

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