Happy 42nd Anniversary to the love of my life.
Uncategorized
the red gondola
Sketch in Venice 27.8.16
miniature
Today’s Daily Prompt from Cheri is the word Miniature. I thought I would re-purpose a post of mine from April 2014, which was in response to the Weekly Writing Challenge: Fifty from Vincent Mars in which we were asked to “craft a story in just fifty words”.
I hope you enjoy this miniature story with miniatures entitled:
Knot at Home
Homage to Franz Kafa’s Metamorphosis
Gregory awoke, still seated in his armchair, newspaper in hand.
Something felt very different.
He knew he was knot the same.
“I am in a giant Perspex box” he thought.
He remembered a book he had once read about a man becoming a fly.
He knew it didn’t end well.
an anniversary bouquet
for N & P 24.8.16 xo
spirit wind
For last week’s Discover Challenge Ben asked us to show “something that stands out from the everyday.” This second submission is to share one of those rare moments to be savoured both visually and aurally. Last week on our favourite walk along the Admiralty Trail in the Pacific Spirit Regional Park the sun was illuminating the trees swaying in the warm afternoon wind creating a symphony of light and sound.
This week is our daughter and son-in-law’s second wedding anniversary and our forty second. A time to celebrate and be thankful, but this year I cannot help but think of the families and friends so callously murdered and injured at their own wedding celebrations last week in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border in Turkey, and to whom I dedicate today’s post. There are no words that can begin to understand their sorrow and pain. Not being religious I will let the wind in the trees of the Pacific Spirit Park be my prayer.
reaching for the stars and now back to earth
The American pole vaulter Sandi Morris on her way to the stars in Rio.
With the 2016 Olympic Games over is anyone else suffering from Olympic withdrawal today?
…from photos taken during the CBC Olympic broadcast and edited with Photo Shop Elements
saturday’s palette
palette de jour 20.8.16
Weekly Photo Challenge: Rare
letting the brush speak
“Let the brush speak to you, regard every stroke and let the painting itself tell you when to stop.
It is often what is not painted that counts in the end – the masses of dark
that reveal the white, untouched paper.”
Tony Onley 1999, from Tony Onley’s British Columbia, A Tribute.
Gulf Island Channel 18.8.16 after Toni Onley
Today’s painting was inspired by the words and work of the late Toni Onley from his beautiful book British Colombia, A Tribute, which I spent the afternoon revisiting and studying today. Toni was one of Canada’s greatest painters, a true master watercolourist, and an equal in my opinion to Turner. One of my happiest memories was spending a day painting with him, just the two of us, sitting on a log on Spanish Banks here in Vancouver. What a privileged day that was and one that I will never forget.
“I travel with my watercolour box.” Toni writes, “like a violinist with his violin case. The musician and watercolour painter have in their hands two of the most direct means of expression ever devised, and either may give a virtuoso performance.”
The painting on the cover of the book shows Tony, having landed his plane on the Cheakamus Glacier, sitting alone giving a virtuoso performance as only he could.
“British Columbia is a land with soul….I live for those moments when I experience a Zen-like oneness of Nature, hand and brush. And I relive those moments every time I meditate on the paintings that came out of them.” Toni Onley
You can read about Toni’s life and see his paintings here: tonionley.com. I know you will be enriched by experiencing his vision of the world.
the list’s the thing
For this week’s Discover Challenge from WordPress we are asked by Erica to explore the artistic side of list-making.
“Using the list form as your foundation, turn it into something unexpectedly beautiful.”
This seems the perfect excuse for another dip into my prized Journal from our Italian travels in 1999, which you may remember accompanied the Italian series of paintings last year during my Studio 365 day challenge.
Writing the journal at the end of each day became a labor of love. Each list of the day’s activities took on a life of its own, and as I look back through it again today memories of those lovingly documented moments come flooding back, which explains why the journal became the subject of my post for another Discover Challenge in April: Memory…
…the surgical instruments designed by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla in the Museo Galileo in Florence…
….meeting Alessandro Menghini in the medieval garden he had designed in Perugia, which he describes in his book Il Giardino Dello Spirito…
…and the welcome gelati break in the Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, lying in the warm afternoon sun.
But perhaps the most important lists of all from our trip were to be found in the train timetable book from Italian Railways, which became our bible as we travelled across this most beautiful of countries.
Definitely time for a return visit I think…maybe next year 🙂
thechangingpalette 