Thursday happenings and a new painting

What a delightful way to spend a Thursday. Rosemary finished a lovely collage for Nancy's belated birthday. Here's a pic. Nancy, Rosemary, Sally and I had lunch and loads of chatter and laughter at "our place" - then on to the Haggin Museum for the Mattise Book Arts Exhibit. Awesome. He's one of my favorite artists. While we were there we ran into the printing teacher from the SICL program and he has us all enthused about taking his class in the fall. It was fun to look at this art with him there, to hear his comments and the way he looks at things and how he recognizes the differences in the processes with just a glance. Then we set off for the Friends of the Library Used Book Store - but they were closed. It was almost 100 degrees outside and that was enough for one day, so I came home and took a nap with my little dogs, who were feeling neglected.

In the evening, I watched my favorite TV shows "She's Got the Look" about older women vying for a modeling contract and oodles of money - and "Fashion Show" where the young designer hopefuls are trying for a leg up on the runway and a chance to make a lot of money and step up their careers. Also the "So you think you can dance" is down to the last 10 dancers, and two had to be eliminated from the finalists.

After all this excitement and tension, we went down to the studio to close up for the night - so no unwanted animal visitors will enter. It was so pleasant there, with a nice clean table, materials organized, and the weather just perfect. That's when I started this little piece. All inspired by the Matisse use of stencils (pochoir). See, we learned a new word. I often use stencils. I love silhouettes and how you can layer them and make some of them more transparent than others. We were in the studio until after midnight - it was too nice to come in and go to bed. This a.m. we got up early to go to the dog park before the temperatures rise to over 100 degrees later in the day. The dogs had a good run and met lots of new friends that came right after we got there. I think we'll have to go in the mornings more often. It's not as crowded, and the people are all so friendly and watchful of their pets. Here is the new piece. "Spirit of the West".