Goodbye to August

It has been a very good month in many ways. The weather has been cooler than usual this year. This has made some of my beach-loving friends yearn for hot, sultry days, but I'm always craving a cool breeze. There have been many good porch days, get-togethers with friends and our trip to Tanglewood and the Clark Institute. Another fun trip was an adventure to an international quilt show in New Hampshire with several friends, where we enjoyed both the quilts as well as the vendors!

Here are some of my favorite quilts -

Amelia Leigh, United Kingdom - "Elizabethan I"

Christine Seager, United Kingdom - "Mustard Rings"

Shin-hee Chin, McPherson, Kansas - "Eyes Wide Open:

Seeing Light in Mundane"

Margaret J Fabrizio, San Francisco, CA - "Very Red"

Jeanette Thompson, Chicago, IL - "Peace is Not a Moment,

It Is a Long Process"

Susan Shie, Wooster, Ohio - "Flowers of the Arab Spring"

I'm working on a few projects which I hope to share soon. Meanwhile,

Hope you're enjoying a great weekend!

See you in September!!

Catching Up

Earlier in August, I went on vacation with my husband to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. It is a lovely area and, while there, we visited The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. This is a beautiful, low-key museum in a lovely pastoral setting. They have an expansive collection of Impressionist works, as well as some more contemporary art.

These were some of my favorites:

Winslow Homer - "Farmyard Scene"

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - "Tama, The Japanese Dog"

     

Two Self Portraits by Renoir

Thomas Gainsborough - "Elizabeth and Thomas Linley"

(Teenagers were moody, even back then!)

Edouard Manet - "Me'ry Laurent Wearing a Small Toque"

Renoir - "Therese Berard"

And, finally, Mary Cassatt - "Woman With a Baby"

We also went to Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts, where we enjoyed two beautiful concerts on consecutive nights. 

The first concert was called "Tanglewood on Parade" and featured festive music by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. The final piece, the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, was performed by all three orchestras together, with cannons firing on the lawn and live fireworks as we walked to our cars. 

The second concert was an all-Brahms program in the beautiful Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood - very formal and intense, but so enjoyable!

Finally, as we made our way home, we stopped for lunch at our favorite Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury. It was our 37th anniversary and this is where we were married, at the Martha Mary chapel on the grounds of the Wayside Inn. Nice memories - we try to go there every year.

I have more to share, and will continue in another post. Meanwhile, I hope 

that you have been enjoying your August. Hard to believe that it's nearly over!!

Enjoy these summer days while they last!!

What I Did in July, and Happy August!

July was a good month, and I kept fairly busy with creative projects throughout those steamy days.

I created three fictional portraits and one (the last) of my neighbor Carolyn. Each was introduced with a little story attached. I get very involved with my cast of characters. Maybe they need to interact? I enjoy seeing them side by side, although Blogger didn't make it very easy to arrange them like this. Anyway….

I find myself drawing sketches of people all the time now. They seem to develop on their own as my pencil moves along, and sometimes I'm inspired by people I see, or even people I know. These are terrible photos, but you get the idea. Even the inside covers of my crossword book aren't safe!!

Also, I've been taking a class in paper mache, which has been pure fun. The instructor, Amy, is the same teacher our group has had for the last three classes I've taken, and we have more fun than you can imagine. Did I say "fun" twice? Well, it certainly is! This is a little lady I'm working on...

Amy has several birds, and they come along with her (one at a time), which adds to the high spirited atmosphere of the group. Here are good buddies Boncuk and Zaza. Aren't they sweet?

Here is Hapi, who flaunted his beautiful red under-wings for me, but I didn't get a good picture.

And Cairo, who has visited us a few times, with his brilliant green feathers.

Everyone in the class is making something different. AnnMarie opted for a large fish!!

Barbara is doing a pretty cat...

Andrea is making a large sculpture, and these cute little kitties are part of it.

And Rosalie is making, well, a giant eggplant!!

In July, I also had a chance to go to a knit and crochet show in New Hampshire.

I neither knit nor crochet, but I was in search of wool roving and found some beautiful stuff!

I've been both wet felting and needle felting, and these are pieces I'm still working on.

I'm not a gardener, but love flowers, and these were a lovely gift from a friend.

And, finally, I've had some beautiful blossoms on my hydrangea bush and enjoy them so much.

Thanks for stopping by to read my little saga.

I hope that you are having a wonderful summer!!

HAPPY AUGUST!!