Saturday, December 23, 2017

Christmas 2017, Spain Cruise, New Artwork, and Nostalgia

First I want to wish all a Merry Christmas.


( I should attribute this photo but I can't find the original to see who took it.)


Next, I have some work from my pastel class with Jake Hand in Bonita Springs, and two oil paintings. The desert scene is roughly 10 x 8, McGregor Grille is 6 x 8. I am asking $59 plus postage for each, can mat and frame in 11 x 14 glass for a total price of $249 plus postage. 



The piece on the right is an 10 x 8 re-work of an earlier oil painting. The scene is Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park. I attempted to varnish it and it was not as dry as I thought, smearing the colors. Yuck. For this new and better work I am asking $299, framed, plus postage.













The piece below was finished today. It is 14 x 11 oil on canvas of a meadow and mountain south of Cashiers, NC. In pastel class I did a study to prepare. I am asking $195 plus postage.


I hope to complete a few more pieces before my Plein Air class the third week in January. It is a three-day session from 9 AM until 4PM with Dan Graziano.

Some other items of note: Bonita Springs has their Art Festival on three weekends, Jan 13-14, Feb 10-11, and March 3-4. This has been ranked as one of the finest in the country, recently ranked #2.

Estero's Fine Art Show is the weekend of Jan 6 -7. It, also, is nationally ranked in the top 100.

In February, Punta Gorda has their 11th National Art Exhibit, juried by Steven Levin. Total prize money is over $7,000. 

Finally, Fort Myers annual riverfront Art Fest is Feb 3-4; it is massive, and great art. Located downtown next to the Marina. If you will be down this way, all are worth while to check out.

                                           * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In Reader's Digest, a piece made me laugh out loud: A friend's son worked at a fast-food restaurant. One night while he was manning the drive-through, when a customer was placing his order, he told him (the son) that the intercom wasn't working properly. The son went about filling the order while a female coworker tried to fix the intercom. After a few seconds she spoke into the microphone and asked "Is that OK now?"

"Well no, the customer responded. "Now you sound like a girl !"

             Remember the old Cheech and Chong bit at the drive through? Now that was funny. Also, Dave at Dave's place?

                                           * * * * * * * * * 
Nostalgia section. Two cars that came out when I was born. I think our first car (It didn't look like this one) was a '50 Chevy my dad acquired in '55. I remember Vince Acquisto helping my dad install electric turn signals on the column.


 And, this is a 1950 Olds 88. It is almost entirely original.




Music: Well, I completed my LP digitizing, 341 albums in all, some were double or triples. An online reseller in Bonita purchased the whole package which was nice. My first sale on Craig's List. Yes, the first response was a scam. These guys, however, were pretty interesting. It was a side job that takes up all their time cleaning, cataloging, and updating their website discogs.com.

So...now it is cruise time. We were 16 days, 14 at sea. Flew Miami to Roma, spent one whole day and two half days before heading to the port city. Cruised on Holland America. Only about 1,800 guests and a crew of about 900 - so very manageable, no long lines, 2:1 guest-to-staff ratio. We stopped in the port of  Cartagena, Spain from where we travelled inland to Caravaca. We toured the cathedral and a museum that captured the Moor - Christian back and forth history of the region. Below you will see jewels, costumes worn during their festivals, the cathedral, and a place where you can get high watching a soccer game at a local university.

Next blog I will cover my favorite stop, Ma'laga and Seville, the sister city of Kansas City. 

Then 8 days at sea to Ft Lauderdale. It was a repositioning cruise - they then sent the ship through the Panama Canal to San Diego and then on to the Far East for about 8 months before they will head back to Europe/Mediterranean. 

This was our third time in Roma so we kept it simple. Stayed near the US Embassy, as usual. Night scene from our hotel, The Savoy.  And an Episcopalian church with interesting brickwork.












Spanish Steps from below, near the "Ucci" streets
Trevi Fountain, alway fascinating



The Spanish Steps from up top


Cartagena is the port into Caravaca. These are two scenes in the AM as we disembarked for the tour bus. 
The Cathedral in Caravaca is way up top, from there you can watch a soccer game at the university below.





Then we entered the center or courtyard where there are residences, shops, etc. 





This one of many stone slabs commemorating re-enactments (this one in 1959) of the Moor - Catholic battles that took place in the area.








Royal ensembles worn in the re-enactments
This is a panel, attached to others that are draped over their horse. It is embroidered, hand stitched. 
See the detail in this likeness of one of the participants

Further museum pieces.


















































































































Hope you enjoyed. Next time we will show some other stops and photos of the ship itself.

As always, you can see more photos at my website: claudelylesartworks.com

past blogs at the blog site: claudelylesartworks.blogspot.com

And, in my only social media venture I have an Instagram page at estudiocieloazul.

Would love to hear what you are up to.









Sunday, December 10, 2017

Pastels, ArtPoems, And More:

Recently completed some pastels in my class at the Bonita Springs Art Center, teacher Jake Hands; still learning but here are two from class and one of a sunset of Sanibel Island used in a project with ArtPoems.org.

 Lakes Park

 Cashiers, NC

 Sanibel at Sunset

This one is inspired by the poem After My Evening Meal by Holly Lee McEntyre. She provided 5 poems. I then drew this in pastel chalk for the selected poem. At the same time, I provided 5 pieces to another poet, Jamilla D Brooks, who will create a poem for one of my 5 art works that she will select. Can't wait to see which piece she selects and then the corresponding work she will create. There will be 3 shows where the pieces and poem will be on display and for two locations the poems are to be read. The tandem pieces will be for sale. The first exhibit will be Wednesday March 7 at the Alliance For The Arts; the second Wednesday March 28 at Big Arts on Sanibel Island; the final will take place at Arts For ACT Gallery during the month of April 2018 with the reception to be held on Friday April 6 during Art Walk in Fort Myers.

Speaking of which...we joined Art Walk on the first. It was also the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony for Fort Myers. Included was an outdoor concert in front of the The Sydney and Berne Davis Art Center downtown. The featured band at this end of First Street was the Beatles tribute band Nowhere Band. They were pretty good. Probably 500 watching. When they played a Christmas Carol they cleverly started with a Beatles chart that morphed into the carol. Think of the lead in to 8 Days A Week; after the ringing notes on the Rickenbacker, instead of oooh I need your love babe, they rolled into the traditional Deck The Halls in that key. Worked perfectly. 78 Degrees, slight breeze off the river. Afterwards we stopped in at Bruno's of Brooklyn, our first visit. Excellent. I told the waitress that my pear shaped pasta filled with four cheeses and a pear puree in white sauce sautéed with peas, portobello mushrooms and shallots was as good as any dish I have ever eaten. Really. 


 black and white to feel like 1964 all over again.



Then last week we saw a couple of productions at the Florida Rep. Last Night of Ballyhoo, which we also saw several years ago at the Missouri Rep on Webster College's campus. This one seemed better, more cohesive, and for some reason did a better job of bringing out the Jewish story.

 Set for Ballyhoo

And on Wednesday we saw Disgraced, an award winning play. Pretty good acting, set design. 

I promise to cover our TransAtlantic cruise in the next addition but it is getting late. And, I hope to have another pastel and oil by then. I will finish with a photo of me and my sister Val at the top of Perch 360 in Punta Gorda as we ate and drank with Val's daughter and her boyfriend in from Houston, and a new neighbor of Val's. 



P.S.
Christmas Tree 2017

Use the Comments section if you have anything to say about this edition. 




Thursday, November 16, 2017

Back But Leaving

Back but leaving again:

We are back from our trans-Atlantic cruise but leaving this evening for Fort Riley, Kansas to join our son Greg when he is promoted tomorrow to the rank of Captain. Needless to say, have not been making art; however, I did finish my Irma piece as originally intended. They are now attached and ready to hang. Ready to be purchased !














I will chronicle the cruise and the four cities we visited. I am going to try to insert a slideshow for each stop. As a test, today, I will add the Towel Animal. Each night, when the cabin steward turned down the bed, he created an animal and placed it on the bed. I took photos of each, a couple with two views, and finished with shots Linda took of the Towel Zoo, the last day's presentation by approximately 30 staff, placed around one of the swimming pool. If an image for a movie appears, This is supposed to be a slide show but not sure if it is working. Let me know if you can run it.




I found this to be funny, thought I would share it:






















Starting next week, will attempt to resume painting. I have several in process and want to try some new subjects and techniques. After Thanksgiving I have a four-week class in Pastel. Have not used them since the 1980's, and then it was all self-taught. This class is taught by a professional affiliated with the Bonita Springs Visual Arts Center which I joined this summer. 

Coming up in Jan is a three-day, all-day oil painting class outdoors in Punta Gorda, about 35 minutes north of here. I joined that Center last month. They have a good DVD collection in their library which I have been making use of.

A new project coming in Dec - ArtPoems. I will learn more in a couple of weeks, but I believe I will present five pieces and poets will circulate and select a 2-dimensional piece about which they will create a poem. It all comes together in the Spring with a show and fund-raiser. A friend in my tennis class introduced me to the group.


Non-art activities coming up, we saw Syliva at the Florida Rep Tuesday evening. Coming up are additional shows, three Pops Concerts with the Southwest Florida Symphony, some Broaday-Fox-type shows at the Barbara B Mann Theatre, and symphony Foundation events at private homes. Can't fill in Spring Training games yet, the schedules are not set, but those will all be in March and almost all day games:
















Lastly, I purchased one piece, in Malaga, Spain, along the harbor. It is the birthplace of Picasso ( I will talk about that museum when I present that slideshow) and Miguel paints fans in the style of P. $25 euros and lots of color for my studio wall. 





Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Greetings from Roma:

No artwork right now. Viewing Rome, starting tomorrow 3 cities in Spain, and then cruise across the Atlantic. From our flight over the Swiss Alps:













From our room looking into a courtyard:



Rome at night from the Savoy Hotel rooftop:

















Tuesday at Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain. Hey, they let me in BVLGARI, Hermes, and McDonald's (bathroom break - however, kiosks to ordering pay with credit card - about 8 full windows for food, a full cafe with pastries). So, walked about 7 miles today.








On the walk home, St Paul Episcopal - love the brick patter : 



Lots of pasta, and hotel rooftop cappuccino last two nights. Tomorrow short shopping expedition and then off to the ship for 6 PM departure to Cartagena Sp. Met Lynn and Barry from Boyton Beach, I think he is a retired salesman of something...man can he talk. Picking up some Italian, like "Excuse', what are you doing with your hand in my pocket?" "No, we don't want the complimentary bread that costs $2.5 Euros"

More later. 

Late PS, sorry to end on a serious note. This was in the WSJ today, Really affected me with a son in the ARMY. If you pray, pray for these kids trying to protect us. Ask God to protect them.