MAGpi

Just putting it out there...

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 18:48:33 -0500

Dear Universe, You have reminded me once again of the beautiful places in this world. FIrst, with a chance to win a flight to anywhere an airline flies—and help a charity. With my ticket in hand and hopes high, I waited for the e-mail announcing the winner...and...I didn’t win. Then tonight, when I visited my sister, she shared a show she had taped for us to watch: No Reservations, a travel/food show hosted by chef Anthony Bourdain. This episode: Venice. Of course, he moves around the islands along the less-travelled sections and visits “the real Venice.” Hosted by locals, he sees the garden island and visits their homes where mothers cook meals that take all morning (at least!) to prepare. Bourdain travels away from the tourists, and I don’t know how he did that during what was obviously the sunny travel season. Good editing I suspect. Regardless, I fell in love—again!—with the sights of Venice. The crumbling buildings, the wrought iron railings, the waters, all of it reminded me of how much I enjoyed my brief time there in 2007. So now, universe, I am just putting it out there: I’d like to see Venice again, maybe for a bit longer. An entire summer to explore and paint and eat and . . . . You get the idea. P.S.: I took this photo of a letter slot in Venice back in October 2007.

Of moons and Apples

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:49:59 -0500

Last night I missed the moonrise. When I arrived home from work last night, it was about 7 p.m. Our house was dark and not even the outside light was on. When I came in, Larry told me about the spectacular moonrise he had watched over the past hour and a half. He had watched as the moon rose over the horizon, big and silver. As it rose, it changed to a golden colour, which faded to a yellow and then white moon. And I had missed it. So, tonight, as we watched the ice fishermen leave the bay and the skaters, in groups or pairs, slowly left as the sun set, Larry told me again about last night’s moonrise. We looked and looked to the east, but it still didn’t appear. Then, in the 6 p.m. darkness, Larry saw the yellow top of the moon and called me. We turned out the lights, turned the TV to a jazz music station and just watched. Huge February harvest moon! Trees silhouetted against the orange and gold orb. I’m always amazed at how quickly the moon rises, at least at first. It seems mere seconds for it to rise over the trees (how fast is this planet travelling!), but once it is so high, it seems to just hang there in the sky. And when it is still huge and golden, I can really see the “man in the moon”—that smiling face looking down on the trees and houses, laughing as though he knows we’ve always stared up at him and the night sky in wonder. I can’t say I have ever had any great interest in learning about the stars I’ve seen in the sky, or the planets. H

Random photo Friday

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:36:13 -0500

I had promised you—although really myself—that I would try to maintain this blog. My thought was to at least do a Photo Friday version (shout out to my friend Jodi for the idea). So, herewith, my first Random Photo Friday. I took the above photo December 22, 2009. That’s just before Christmas this past year. It was about 5:45 p.m. and I was just leaving the office. It was great walking out and seeing such a beautiful sunset (you’ll note by the date it was just past the Winter Solstice). The sky really was this vibrant and it was amazing to see it reflect on that small strip of Lake Ontario. And, of course, there’s a beautiful silhouette of the CN Tower in the distance. Right now, as I prepare a book to go to the printer, my days are longer again: I arrive and leave work in the dark. But, I see the light at the end of this “dark” period!

So what else have you done?

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:40:01 -0500

The format of my art classes was 4 weeks on flowers and 5 weeks on landscapes. While I’ve still got a long, long way to go, I feel like I learned a lot of technique. While the painting above isn’t the best (I did say I have a long way to go), we practiced working with white space and using wet-on-wet technique to create the reflection in the water. So while the end result isn’t what I intended, I’ve gained a better understanding of working with watercolours. On the plus side, no one but me knows what I really wanted this to look like, so it is acceptable. The same goes for the seascape to the right. Not at all what I was trying to do. But the more I look at it, the more I realize what I did do properly: the blue water in the foreground that would naturally appear clear over the sand, the glow of a sunset sky, these I’m happy with. But my impatience with my slow learning curve. I often feel I am plodding and just “not getting it.” But now that I am a few weeks’ removed from the classes—and I’ve painted a couple things I have wanted to paint—I feel like I really did learn a lot. Now I just wonder if I ought to sign up for the next course...?