Big Apples

Just a few apples... simple...

I find that there's an elegance in simplicity that I love.

We've eaten a lot of apples lately. Why? Well, I wanted to do an apple painting... so I needed an apple reference photo... so I needed some apples... so I went to the store ... but I wasn't sure which kind would look best... so I bought some of each... so we have lots of apples at our house... so... we've eaten a lot of apples lately.

This painting might not be what you'd expect.

Take another look. 

It's a big one!

Let me explain where I got the idea for this painting. 

Not long ago I discovered a blog that I really enjoyed. It's called Mafamilias Writes.   I liked the style of the person writing it so much that I decided to go back to the beginning of it and read it through. It's kind of a magical time-traveling experience to do that.  I'm reading something written in the present, but when I'm reading it, it's in the past. (Let that sink in a minute... Hmmm... It's a little bizarre to be reading the excitement about a new grandbaby being born and realizing that baby is probably driving a car now!)  Strange, but I love it.

Anyway....

I came to a post with a picture of the writer, a knitter, modeling one of her scarves... wait, or maybe it was a sweater... Anyway, I saw part of a painting in the background that showed some great big apples.  I couldn't stop thinking about that part of a painting.  Maybe I needed a painting of some great big apples on my wall!

Now, that's what I have!

The best part of this painting is that I did it with a palette knife.  I can hardly wait until it's dry so that I can run my fingertips across the texture of the smeared paint on the canvas. Mmmm.... 

Original Oil Painting on 18"x 18" Wrapped Canvas

I'm sure I'll list it for sale on my Etsy site one day, but I think I need to enjoy this one on my own wall for a while first.

Apple Slices VI

An apple for the teacher...

Teachers went back to school this week.
I'm not a teacher any more.
So, what am I now?

I loved being a teacher for 32 years, but I finished. 
Not for a moment have I longed to go back, but it's a weird thing not to be a teacher any more.
So, who am I now?

I've been through several phases of figuring out this not-being-a-teacher thing. 
So, how many phases until it feels normal? 

One weird thing is that form you get at appointments:
Name ☑ 
Birthday ☑
Address ☑
Phone ☑
Insurance ☑
Occupation... sigh... What to put?  "None" or how about "Undecided" or just leave it blank?

Another weird thing was the last day of school this year. 
It marked a whole year... a whole year...
At first I wondered what I'd done with a whole year. 
Had I just piddled a whole year away?
So I made a list: 

• Helped my dad settle into a retirement center
• Pilates and yoga 3-4 times a week
• Disney World with the kids
• Started hanging paintings in the doctor's office
• Three different crafting weekends at Welcome Home Retreat
• Read the Bible through
• Visited the Grand Canyon, Saguaro National Park, Sedona, stood on the Corner of Winslow, Arizona
• Editing project for a petroleum consulting firm
• Time with our daughter in Maryland
• Present with Jolene in her last days
• Cabin in West Virginia (lovely, but much like my own back yard which is free)
• Spent a week in a hospital room with my sister
• Monthly visits with Aunt Anita and helping her write her memoirs
• Big trip to Indonesia where we worked in an orphanage, in village homes, and in several schools
• Chickens
• Garden
• Cooking

Ok... Maybe I should stop beating myself up because of all the little jobs that I was sure I would get to right away... I suppose haven't been a complete sloth... 
But it sure has been wonderful to move in slow gear... work a crossword puzzle...  read a book... go to lunch with a friend... paint... scroll through Facebook... sit on the back porch and watch all that goes on...

So... I still don't know what to write in that Occupation blank...

...It's okay.

Original Oil Painting on 5"x 7" Wrapped Canvas
Click "Apple Slices VI" to purchase a little apple painting.

Apple Slices V

I want to give my artist friend Nelvia a shout out... and... a big thank you. 
She invited me to participate in a Facebook challenge to post a paining every day for a week.  
If I'm being completely honest, I did not want to do that!  
I always put my art out in the world for strangers, but I rarely do for the people I know.  What if they don't like it? What if they are annoyed that I'm posting every day? What if they unfriend me? 
How's that for pitiful art self confidence!
Well, of course, none of that happened. It was pretty much the opposite.
People made such nice comments, and friends I hadn't heard from in years  decades reached out!
One of those friends was Dayna.  She lived down the hall from me when I was a freshman in college.  Besides a  wedding a few years ago, we hadn't had a conversation in 34 years!  Through a few Facebook conversations, we discovered that we now live in the same area, both retired recently, and both wanted to do art with friend.  It has been so good to reconnect.
I've used this little apple several times.  It's a good little first-time-to-paint picture. 
So... thank you so much Nelvia. And... guess what... This isn't the only fantastic thing to come from your challenge... Stay tuned!!  

Original Oil Painting on 5"x 7" Wrapped Canvas.
Click "Apple Slices V" if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Apple Slices II

How often do you say, "We should get together sometime to... (fill in the blank) ?

I've painted this little still life a couple of times before, but I never had as much fun doing it as I did this time.  So often we've said, "We should get together and paint sometime,"  so I decided to just set a date.  

We were excited for two weeks!  "After the next faculty meeting! I can't wait!"  We laughed and we painted and we talked and we ate a little pizza and the time flew by.  Most importantly, we set a day for our next paint party... just two faculty meeting days away... 

I loved the spirit of 

 helping, 

asking,

celebrating,
lifting up...

But, we actually did face our canvases and concentrate... (a little).

And EVERYBODY left with a finished masterpiece

That's me, Julie, Holley, and Jolene.
Fourth grade teacher, third grade teacher, art teacher, and tech teacher by day...
Artists for an evening!

[SOLD]

Yellow Apples

Why do students give apples to their teachers?

I've been a teacher for 28 years and have certainly received my share of apples... apple mugs, apple ornaments, apple paper weights, apple note pads... I think my favorite though is when a little kid brings me a real apple, especially on the first day of school.  They usually have that sweet, sort of embarrassed kind of nervous little face like their mom has said, "Take this to your teacher and smile at her when you meet her."  I love that.  

I googled it and found a couple of possible reasons for the tradition.
     * During the pioneer days, teachers were paid with a room to stay in and food brought in by the students from their family farms.  Apples were harvested about the time the school year began.
     * Even before that, Eve gave Adam a fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.  (People usually imagine that fruit to be an apple.) Teachers represent knowledge... Apples represent knowledge... so... that tradition began a really long time ago, right?

When I went to my very first painting lesson on February 22, 2007, I painted a Tree, and I was so proud of it!  I couldn't believe I'd painted something that actually looked like what it was supposed to be!

On that evening, I felt kind of nervous like a little kid on the first day of school.  And, guess what... yep... I took an apple to my teacher!  I did!  I think it surprised her, but it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

About a year ago, she and her husband retired and moved to their farm in Oklahoma.  In June we got to visit them.  I'll always be thankful for our Monday nights of painting together. :)

To see her beautiful artwork, visit Dancing Brush.

[SOLD] And I love knowing my friend Laura has these yellow apples hanging in her office. :)

Apple of My Eye

Where did that phrase come from?

Here's your figurative language lesson for the day... "The apple of my eye" is an old phrase - used by Shakespeare in Midsummer Night's Dream and in the Old Testament of the Bible.  The apple was the most widely common spherical shape.  It was used as a symbol to refer to the pupil of the eye which was important yet vulnerable and in need of protection, the eyelid.  It is thought that the object or person would would be looked upon with such love and devotion that the entire pupil would be filled with the image so that there was no room to see anything else.  

"Apple of My Eye" - definition - Exceedingly precious .... I believe that's a pretty good phrase to describe this little one.  

One day maybe we'll put a hat on this sweetie and paint her again like her momma in Vacation Hat or her gramma in Wedding Hat.

One of my favorite books is Dictionary of Word Origins: A History of the Words, Expressions, and Cliches We Use by Jordan Almond.  Yeah... I know, I'm kind of weird, but I think learning the history and origins of figurative language is pretty interesting to learn about... :)

[SOLD]

Copper Teapot

What's the recipe for copper?

a stripe of white

a stripe of cad yellow

a stripe of ocher

a stripe of cad red

a stripe of umber

Then smooth all those edges with a soft brush.

It's kind of a mini-miracle to watch those stripes become metallic reflections.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

Those are a few of my favorite things.

[SOLD]

Apple

If you're any good at fractions, you may notice that the slices in this little painting could not be put together to equal a whole apple...

Hmm???

Mmmm.....

[SOLD]

Red Barn in Summer

I wonder why barns are red...

This was one of my first attempts at painting barns. There's kind of a storybook tone about this one... maybe a little too perfect, but a place I'd like to imagine is real.

I imagine there's a black and white milk cow named Daisy, a brown horse with a white blaze between his eyes, three sheep that are puffy white, a pink pig that never gets muddy, and a rooster that crows at sunrise.

Oil Painting on 16"x 20" Canvas

[SOLD]