Who do you love?

I admit it -- I'm not painting today. I'm just hanging out with my
family. Steven and I went for a long walk in the beautiful park near
our house. I cooked up some salmon steaks for dinner, and we
watched a T.V. movie afterwards. I'm reading a delicious book
by the author of Chocolat, so I'm sure the movie deviated
wildly from the book. Five Quarters of the Orange, is a wonderful read so far, -- witty, biting, incisive -- set in part in France during the Nazi occupation. It paints a terrifying picture, without ever resorting to a tirade. I'm having trouble putting it down.
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Oh and we went to buy the flowers that have become a weekend
ritual. Steven bought me fine white roses, as part of my year-long
Valentine present, and gave me a perfect white wooden planter, he'd
built and painted, complete with an amazing planting of red white
and blue flowers. It sits at the bottom of our back porch stairs,
gracing the yard, and embarrassing the rest of the untended garden.

Not to be completely outdone I bought a huge bouquet of
lilacs for Steven-- the perfume is filling the kitchen.

I meant to write about all the painters I love, Diebenkorn,
Lucian Freud, Bob Burridge, Monet, Mary Cassatt, plus a
forbiddingly long list, but it's the weekend, and I'll get
back to painting tomorrow. Here's an hour- long sketch
I did in class recently. I like the light, and the expression.
There's almost nothing on the canvas, but the model's
personality shines through. I admired her great good
humour as two of the artists in the room had an intense,
loud debate on the subject of whether the model's
neck was long, or short. The model stayed in pose with just
the slightest smile, and ultimately settled the argument
--"long," she said.


Have a do-what-you-love- to-do day!