MOMENTS - OUT OF LIFE OF ARTIST

My day always starts with tea. My son-in-law got into 

teas too. So he and my middle daughter took us to 

a tea store where a tea maker from Teawana is sold. 

One puts  the tealeaves on the bottom, and pours

the boiling water on top of it. Then the tea drips 

into one's teacup underneath. I couldn't resist 

trying a  white tea, called Snow Geisha. Delicieux!

Still cutting off roses from my old front yard...

in November! I know, I am spoiled living in California.

Roses make my day - I never can get enough of them.

In-between running errands, mostly for food,  
painting supplies, and this time of the year 
Christmas shopping.  Although I may look like 
a bag lady, my bags need to be nice 

or cute, like this little one my oldest daughter 

brought from the Philippines, but still big enough 
for my wallet, lotion and chapstick.

In the afternoon I often drink a cappuccino. To show you
how small my cappuccino maker is, I
put a pint of whipped cream carton next to it.
I'm mostly too much in a hurry to make the foam,
but its a treat with liquid whipped cream.

 
Often more of my day is spent on making preparations
to paint, than my time painting on canvas. It may be
in doing research on skeletal structure. And I actually
watched two movies for the movement of this horse.
This was the THIRD sketch I made for the painting
Night Riders(which I'll show you at another time).

As you can see, I give numbers to the values
(from light-1 to dark-3)
Often the success of a painting hinges on how much time
one wants to spend in preparation.
How far one comes, also often depends on
how disciplined the artist is.

 Always make time to see the sun setting or

to look at the clouds on my walk.
These clouds are like "pastels in the sky."

This was a first bracelet I made with directions

from a magazine. Some adjustments!

I exchanged big round ceramic beads for

smaller glass ones, because the first ones felt too heavy.

What size of wrists do they give instructions for??

I  made this with one flower less, and was still

too big for me, so I put the "oval "opening on the top

around the last flower when wearing it.

Since it's Fall you know that in-between and at night 

I am knitting hats, scarves, socks, or other things. 

I thrive on having multiple projects going on 
at the same time and drive everyone else crazy with it.

DOUBLE TAKE - Sunday Painter Part 2

 Have you ever done a double take? (for the ones who don't know: you see something, and it's so shocking that you can't believe what you saw, so you look again!) And horrors - it's true. You saw it right! That's a little how I felt becoming a Sunday painter.

 ©18 x 24 Watercolor, St.Germain

 How did you become a Sunday painter?

 Writers have called artists "prophets" because in a time of societal changes, the artists are the first to show it in their work Often this is seen in their style and approach to painting.

The whole decade of the nineties was a turnover, starting 2months before the new Year of 1990, with the fall of Communism and. culminating in Sept. 2001 as a monumental change.  Since then several levels of society have not been the same. 

In the nineties, my family went as well through some big changes.  Suddenly  my  small friendly watercolors changed from one day to another into working in oil on 24 x 30 inch canvas with sober and semi-abstract forms. The change was big because I had never ever painted with oil before!

That whole story is written on one of the pages of my website www.stgermainart.com

Seven years later (2004)I went to a mid size conference (about 1300 people attending). The day before, I knew that I knew that I knew that one of the speakers was going to speak about multiplication. 
Don' t ask me how I knew. I did not have a dream, or vision, nor did I hear I voice from heaven. 
I just knew!
In the course of the day I remembered that a long time ago I had painted 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. (its the story of the feeding of the 5000  where 5 loaves of bread were being multiplied, enough to feed 5000 men and their families).

I thought it was very strange, and never heard of people doing that,  but had decided to take that painting with me. Needless to say, I also felt conspicuous. It's rather difficult to hide a 24 x 30 inch painting under your coat or sweater!

© Five Loaves and Two Fish, 24 x 30, Oil, St Germain

The next evening, I was sitting on pins and needles, thinking what if you are wrong? Nevertheless, as soon as the speaker said that multiplication was going to come the coming year, I stepped out of my seat and brought it to the platform. To my astonishment  the speaker was not even surprised. 
He saw me coming and started laughing, saying, "Oh, I love those prophetic people." Then the people in the video booth, showed the painting on a big screen (about 8 x 10 feet) on the platform. And a ripple of  "Ooooh" went through the audience.

And that was how I became a Sunday painter.

Now I had passed this hurdle, I was more confident  and asked the pastors who were in charge of this conference if I could paint on Sunday, and they accepted. 
First I painted in Mott Auditorium, and then in the Ambassador Auditorium, both in Pasadena, CA.


Since the story will get too long, hold on curious ones, in the next part of the story I will come to that painting with the birds:)

SUNDAY PAINTER

You undoubtedly heard about Sunday drivers? The ones who only drive on Sunday and hold up traffic with their slooow driving. Well, there are also Sunday painters. I consider myself as one. Not because I only paint on Sunday, or that I paint slowly. But painting on Sunday has become my niche. More than my landscapes? Absolutely.

So what is different about painting on Sunday?
On a given Sunday I stand with my easel in front of, or on a platform of a  church, while nowadays some have incorporated other  branches of art, together with the usual music.  

So what is this about?
 From whatever angle I approach this, there is no theological proof or explanation, other than that God is the Creator, and He is the One who painted the sky and the grass, and everything else He made. 
So, if he wants to be worshiped, what better way to do it with art? 

Music has been the "tool" of worship throughout history. After the Reformation they made Luther out to be the one who viewed that any visual or three dimensional image is idolatry. But this does not seem to be true. I have talked to theology students from Fuller Theological Seminary, and they told me that Luther allowed painters to be part of the worship service. I was surprised, to say the least, and I know some of you might be too.

The pic above is my first painting stint for two years at what once used to be once the performing arts center, home of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Pasadena. This pic is taken after the service.

Here I'm painting on the platform at the same time the band is playing during the first part of the church service. Very well known people like Bing Crosby, Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Arthur Rubinstein, and others have performed on this platform.

Do they tell you what to paint? They give me complete freedom to paint what I think I should paint. I take this freedom very seriously, because most people cannot remember a whole sermon, but they do remember a visual image. So, I spend "some time" in preparation.

I have had staggering comments of people having dreams that same week, or conversations with others about the painted image, or the painting providing a solution for what they were seeking. I'll tell another time about an experience I'll never forget.

 In  the next part of this story, I'll tell you how I came to do this kind of painting, and eventually I'll talk about this painting, which was a total surprise to me.

©  24 x 30, Oil, St.Germain

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

SCRIBBLE/DOODLE WINDOW AND RAMBLE

Hands and feet always have been a fascinating subject to draw. They say as much as one's face. 

In my first year of graduate training I learned quite a bit more about hands. We would be video-ed weekly, and got plenty of comments of our supervisors how we came over, the sitting positions, hands, feet, face. Everything had to look  as "neutral" as possible. One of my favorite hand positions for the counseling room is to fold my hands into each other.

In my  life outside that room my hands are seldom at rest. A reminder came some weeks ago, when my brother emailed me "...it made me think of you when you were drawing so much in your teens..."
I thought he should see me now! My hands are busier than ever, not only with drawing, but also painting, knitting, crocheting, making jewelry, and so on.


This mixed media work was done about 12 years ago, when "oversized anything" was in vogue. Notice the wedding ring on the left hand? When  living in Holland, I wore the ring on my right hand, because that's where Protestant people who are married, wear their wedding ring. 
If one was Catholic, one wore it on the opposite side. (Commonly, the engagement ring moved to the other hand when one got married.)

So the more subtle question to ask if you wanted to know if someone was married or not, was to inquire, "Are you Protestant or Catholic?"


In the seventies most women in the Netherlands had a simple wedding band. Sometimes with a tiny diamond in it, but never the extravagant two rings fitting into each other, now common in the USA. 
Two years ago, I noticed to my chagrin that in the new church we attended, people were looking at my ring. At first I reasoned that I had been living more than fifteen years in the States, and was not planning to change anything on my appearance. 

But as time went by, these looks from men as well as women became too distracting.  I could see their pondering or confusion. Hmm, she keeps coming with the same guy. But why doesn't she have a wedding ring on?
So, one time I had enough of it, and told to my husband, "I need a ring." 
Not, I want a ring, or I like a ring for my birthday.  No, "I need..."
I know that was not very romantic!!

Hubby looked very surprised, so I told him why.
He did not say anything that I can remember. 


A few weeks later, we were visiting one of our kids, and we were shopping in Old Town.
When we passed a Russian jewelry store, I suddenly remembered my conversation with hubby. Because the ring in itself was not an important thing to me, I had forgotten all about it!
I saw a ring I liked, but I did not expect hubby to like it, or to immediately give in to an extravagant expense.

My jaw dropped when all he said was, "okay," and went to the cash register to pay for it! Without any protest, or joke "that is then your birthday gift" (it was not near by birthday).
I was so dumbfounded and confused that when leaving the store, I carried the little handbag with the box in it. My daughter demanded, "Aren't you going to wear it?" 

(Sorry, it's not very visible that these are two rings, but if you want "proof" then click on the image to enlarge.)


"Uh, uh..mmm....I have to get used to the idea."
" Well, you get used to the idea, by wearing it!" said little Smarty Pants, and had a big grin on her face, when in the middle of the street, I finally opened the box and put "it" on.


"It" is a pain to wear, or rather, all the times you have to take it off, when you wash the dishes, when I paint, or when I knit, my yarn gets stuck in it, and so on, and so forth. 
Can't I just go back to my simple wedding ring? Don't tell me...
I remember now why I started wearing it.

BLOG BIRTHDAY

Last year November I made a last ditch effort to get my blog at this site going. I had started it in March, but could not figure out how to get to other blogs, and if I'm not mistaken (I'm Miss Forgetful) the follow feature was not there yet, only the blogs of note. 

These blogs get tiresome pretty quickly, while some have a strange world view, and others have a real attitude! It probably has to do with my taste, but for half of them, I could not see why they were a blog of note! So escaped to Myspace and made about a hundred friends there. One of them, also had a blog here, Tadn'Tina, and I am very thankful that she explained to me how the system goes here! 

Since last November I've met all of you and make this month my blog birthday! 
There are 3 other birthdays in my family: my oldest daughter, my brother, and hubby.


No birthday without a cake. In Holland, where I I am originally from, it is the birthday girl or boy who provide the refreshments. So I'm posting a cake from friends in Holland. Anneke Super and her hubby  were a big support when we made a big transition from one to two children. After this, the third baby was a piece of cake!


APPLE CAKE
The  original recipe is actually the double amount of this one, and it's easy to make some favorite additions, such as almonds, or other nuts, berries, or flavors. 


In a baking pan 11 x 8 inch, the baking time is approx. 50 min. at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or 180 degrees Celsius, or no. 4 for oven. 
Butter and flour the pan before putting in the batter.

When the recipe is doubled, put the batter in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan and, the baking time becomes 1 hour and 10 min. for most ovens.

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt (optional)
2 eggs
1/2 cup & 1 Tablespoon milk
1 3/4 cup of flour
1 /34 teaspoon baking powder
2-3 apples (almost any type of apple)

cinnamon


Mix sugar and butter till creamy
Add eggs one by one.
Stir in the milk (don't worry if it looks like the milk is spoilt)
 Mix the flour and baking powder and add to above ingredients
 Put batter in baking pan
Arrange peeled and cored apple slices on top of batter 
Sprinkle with cinnamon (I like a lot!)



Have a slice!