Stormy's Dahlias

This past September I took a plein air painting class with Mary Giammarino through the Provincetown Art Association's fine museum school program, and stayed across the street from this gorgeous cottage with its incredible dahlia collection. This is my first attempt at coloring a black-and-white photo, which I was strongly inspired to try by Angela Cartwright's newish book, Mixed Emulsions. I've always loved antique postcards, with the way the images seem to capriciously dance between color and black-and-white, and am really excited about trying these techniques for myself. So here's my first effort -- lots of room for improvement, to be sure, but I'm just so excited about finally trying this technique, I just had to post it here.

Tibetan Beads

I am counting the days until the big spring bead show in Marlborough, MA, so I can get more of these gorgeous Tibetan silver-capped chalcedony beads. Last time, I didn't get there until the third day of the show, and they were almost all gone. THIS time, I'll be there when the doors open!

Get together

Five inches of snow this morning, the kind with the huge fluffy flakes, and not a breath of wind stirring -- so beautiful and still. I don't think I ever noticed before this morning how this group of pine trees across the street from my house seem like a group of friends clustering together, leaning in towards one another -- a hushed, intimate moment I just happened to glance up and see. Hope they're not embarrassed.