To Blog or to Paint? That is the Question....

I haven't written a blog for a couple of weeks and that was because I was using all my spare time painting. Not painting walls and rooms. Painting pictures of cats. I have always painted intermittently, usually when the creative urge struck. I go through different themes and for a while it was paintings of landscapes and especially places I had visited. So I have pictures of Yellowstone Park, New Mexico, Burlington, Oregon and Canada piling up in the room I call loosely my studio.

My paintings are done purely for my own enjoyment. I like the feel of putting down paint and getting a certain effect. My drawing skills are limited but I have developed a specific style of easy painting and it has become a form of relaxation.

I started a blog at the beginning of this year and found that too was for my own enjoyment and also a form of relaxation. I planned to write a blog about once a week but life tends to get in the way of plans, don't you think. I also found a lot of people liked to read my random thoughts as well so I kept going. I looked at other peoples blogs and saw that a lot of blogs were not written at all but were photos, paintings, recipes , music, videos etc. etc. so clearly the blog as a format is in a state of transformation. I guess it started from a daily log and progressed from there. Blog isn't a very nice word. Too much like slog or clog and I don't think I much like being called a Blogger.

So to get back to my original question. To blog or to paint? Just as my blog was really for me and my paintings are for me, I then got a challenge from a friend. Would I please paint pictures of her cats? She has seen the paintings I had done of my son's cats and wanted the same thing done. I was a bit nervous about doing that. My son would be gracious enough to say ,”Great job Mum “when I painted his cats however the paintings came out but could I do this just as well for someone else. I thought about it and decided I would give it a try. Well strangely enough. once I got into the swing of things and started painting away, I really enjoyed doing it and even with my style coming out in the paintings , the cats look almost like they should. I shall just have to wait to see if their owner recognizes them from the paintings to see if I got the likeness right. I think I did.

So now I am torn between blogging or painting. Hey, maybe I can combine the two and do a plog or a blainting. Better check first and see if anyone else is doing that. So I've added the paintings to this blog so is this a plog or a blainting or even a paint blog. Now I'm confusing myself.

The Eyes Have It.

Elizabeth Taylor died recently. She was one of the most beautiful ladies of all times, a classic beauty and a great actress and truly a star. As I was watching the reports on TV, I heard of her beautiful violet blue eyes, a color very special and rare but I didn't know she was also born with a double set of eyelashes which added to her allure and beauty.

Eyes do make a lot of difference to a person. If you are like me , it's the person's eyes that can make all the difference to my understanding of them. It is the part of the face that I can't help but notice and also the part I am drawn to. The eyes are supposed to be”the window to the soul” and I quite believe that. What is it that makes one person so special to us and another one, we can't abide. Could it be a glance in the eyes gives you a glance into the soul or being of that other person?

I think the color has something to do with our fascination with eyes. Think of some of the famous people you know, Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra and immediately you think “blue, blue eyes”. I read somewhere that the blue eyes gene does not mutate like the brown eyes gene does . There have been people over the last 6000 to 10000 years that have had blue eyes and so in fact because of this blue eye gene, they are all related to each other. I am sure both my daughter in law and granddaughter will be very pleased to hear that they might be related to Paul Newman , Frank Sinatra and even Elizabeth Taylor.

And thinking about Paul Newman and his car racing career , I think there is something very special about racing car drivers and their eyes. They all have very penetrating eyes, no matter what the color. Is this something they are born with or does it develop with their skill? In the high speed sport in which they are engaged and where a lack of concentration can mean life or death, is this a trait they must have?

Now good actors , on the other hand, have the ability to show within their eyes different emotions and different characters .Even so, some are very much typecast by their eyes and how they appear. I can't imagine Robert Redford playing a nasty or cruel person not with his friendly eyes . Likewise Antony Hopkins just makes you shudder. Just think of him in “Silence of the Lambs” his eyes are just scary. Now we have such great technical make up and effects that can change a person's eyes and features so even Brad Pitt could become a monster.

 Bette Davis must have had outstanding memorable eyes because she even had a song named after her eyes. Remember “she had Bette Davis eyes,” kind of soft,sultry and sexy at the same time.

It's the same with cats' eyes . I don't mean the great device for helping us see along roads in the dark although I can quite see why those are called cats' eyes. Catch a real cat out in a dark yard and cat eyes really glow. 

Cats ,unlike dogs, do not show affection within their eyes but seem , at least to me, to be analyzing the situation and deciding on what their next move will be. That is not to say their eyes aren't beautiful because it is also a thing much noted in a cat. A cat's eyes are actually blue for the first 9 weeks and only gradually change color and sometimes what wonderful colors they end up with as well. Colors you would never see on a dog. Marmalade orange and emerald green and even yes , sometimes blue .

Dogs on the other hand have open, readable  eyes and you can see what they are thinking. Their emotions come through. See that sparkle when a dog gets a treat or you pick up a leash to go for a walk. No escaping the happiness gleam coming through. Likewise check out the dogs in a cage in a shelter .Nothing so pathetic and heart breaking as a sad dog's eyes waiting for someone to take him home.

Then of course there are the people and pets with odd color eyes. Most disconcerting in both I find. With animals, it can be a mark of deafness or some kind of eye problem but in people it has long been a note of high superstition . It led to accusations of being a witch or of possessing the evil eye , not a good quality to have in ancient times. I only remember Margaret, a lovely lady, who had odd eyes, a brown eye and also a green eye and she was the kindness and most loving and considerate person you could ever wish to meet, Certainly no witch but she did have outstanding but disquieting eyes.

NB. I do know my title should be 'The Ayes have it” not “The Eyes have it”but who wants to think about politics these days!!

Feeling Blue

It's a blogging kind of day today. We have had a very Spring like episode in the weather here in Texas with blue skies and sunshine when outside activities have dominated our days. We finally managed to get outside to start tidying up the garden and enjoying the daffodils and the blossom trees l after a longer and colder winter than we are used to. Now today we are back to gray skies and cold winds so inside activity is the thing to do.

Yesterday we painted our hallway , which tends to be a bit dark and a bit gloomy at times. Hallways are a bit like that. So to brighten it up we chose a yellow paint and I'm still not sure I like it.

Yellow once was my favorite color. Choose a new blouse or dress and I'd opt for a bright yellow. I was young . It was fresh and I loved yellow.

As I got older. like a lot of other things, even my choice of colors has changed. I have to think that now blue in all its many variations is my my color of choice. I began to let my mind ramble on why that might be. For sure a bright blue sky can do wonders to lift a flagging spirit. Even if it is really cold as it often is in Canada, a bright blue sky makes it feel less so. We are blessed in Texas to have many bright blue sky days but in the dog days of summer when it gets hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, the sky looses its blueness and becomes almost white and just add to the feeling of malaise and inactivity.

Crater lake painting by SAB

Have you noticed how the blue in the sky changes? You would if you tried to paint it.

A year ago we visited Crater lake in Oregon. A wonderful trip and a must see if you visit out West. When I came back I tried to paint an oil painting of Crater lake but it was the sky with all the variation of blue that I had the most trouble with getting right. The lake itself was the deepest color blue for a lake that I had ever seen , rich and strong without being that ominous dark blue you see in some lakes.

Wedgwood blue ,that lovely light blue, is such a wonderful tone. Paint a room with it and you don't get tired of it. It always looks fresh and gives a sense of calm and peace.

I've always thought how great it would be to have blue eyes. Not so many people seem to have blue eyes anymore and we all miss Paul Newman who had outstanding , penetrating blue eyes. I met a girl once, a friend of friend and she had such intense blue eyes that I couldn't help staring at her. They mesmerized me. I had never seen eyes so blue. It was not till afterward I was told they were only colored contact lenses. I should have guessed. They had been too blue to be real. What a disappointment.

Blue also brings to mind my blue cat. Blue was a stray cat that was hiding out in our barn

Blue Cat

and at first he looked a bit like a cat out of a horror movie. His coat was dirty and almost black ; he was scrawny and thin and very very scared. It took months for him to become the beautiful Russian blue cat he became. His blue was a very special blue, a silvery blue grey. He loved sitting on your lap and I can guarantee the best kind of Blue to have.

There are a lot of songs with blue in the title and as I think of them it brings back memories. “Blue Moon' brings to mind an intense young man I danced with years ago.”Blue Skies” always makes me feel happy but the “the Birth of the Blues' makes me think of the other feelings associated with blue. The dark side. Are you feeling blue? That's not a nice wedgewood blue feeling more like a dark navy blue tinged with charcoal with maybe a mournful trumpet playing in the background.

Definitely not my kind of blue.

Here's one more blue song much more to my liking by one of my favorite singers, Neil Diamond of his greatest and well known. “Song Sung Blue.”

Listen and enjoy , courtesy of youtube.com 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ighSddnnaPE&feature=related

Just looked outside and there in the clouds is “enough blue to make a Dutchman's pair of trousers “ so be assured grey skies are clearing and it will be a nice day after all.