Antique Celestial Charts

Just finished working on some antique Celestial Charts. These were actually still in the original atlas they came from and there was some 'original color' already on them- the background tint and the borders. I got to color in the fun stuff! Celestial charts are always a treat to color because they are so different from the usual nautical maps/charts.

I didn't color in every last detail per instructions of the map dealer, because it was more like the 'original' colored ones that I used as a reference. (Original color meaning the way they got hand colored waaaaaay back when the maps were new- maybe the 1600's-1700's).
This is for all you Capricorns out there.
Here's something different, an angel with blue wings! I've actually seen them colored with red wings too. Artists back then only had a handful of colors to work with and the brushes probably stunk too because they never quite got it in the lines. That's how you can tell original color!

Hey look what I just found! It's a really nice recommendation for my antique map hand coloring by one of my customers! I didn't even know he wrote this and I just stumbled upon it on the web:

http://www.miklianmaps.com/blog/2010/03/hand-coloring-and-outlining-for-antique-maps-and-a-recommendation/

Yacht Club Junior Sailors

Tonight, after playing chauffeur for Sienna (Friday night) I found myself in Yarmouth with some time on my hands. It was such a gorgeous evening, (around 60 degrees!) so I headed to the beach, and just as I was pulling up to the end of the road, I caught a glimpse of pure white sails against the blue. Oooo I got so excited! And not one, but several, so I knew it was the Yacht Club sailing lessons for kids. I was so happy that I had my camera on me.

Although one of the sailors looks like he/she is about to go over, let me reassure you none of them ended up in the icy cold water.
That is, until they got about waist deep in water, then they had to jump out to take the sails down and secure the boats. Luckily they all had some sort of wet suits on.
What a beautiful ending to a beautiful day.

Happy Thursday! Well, it has been for me. I spent most of the day painting. I should have some of it on Ebay tomorrow- hopefully. It's a long process from finishing the actual painting to getting online. Well, that, and I hear it's supposed to be really nice out tomorrow. I may have to play hookie for a while. :)

Summer Cottages

I can't believe May is only 4 days away! It seems like only yesterday it was snowing out. Well, it's still snowing in my yard, but luckily it's only the white petals of an overhanging tree. They drift down like snowflakes when the wind blows and I have little white petals all over my deck, yard and car (luckily I have a white car.) but pretty soon it will be snowing pink blossoms from the cherry trees. Those don't look so good on my car.

Anyway...traffic seems to be picking up on the weekends already and people are starting to check on their summer cottages, making sure they didn't fall into the sea over the winter. I think of that when I look at my painting above. One big hurricane and....well....it happens a lot here. The coastline is constantly changing because the Cape is mostly made of sand. Trust me, you don't want to live right on the ocean in Chatham!

What made me go off on that tangent tonight? I don't know.

"Every event that occurs is a conspiracy of the total universe " Deepak Chopra

New Paintings

Sunday was a perfect day to paint. It was rainy and I had no where to go so I could really concentrate. I love it when I have long blocks of time to be creative. Every other day, it seems like life always jumps in and I have to go somewhere or do something, or feed someone or be a chauffeur....shutting down the creative flow. Sunday was perfect.
Today it's rainy again but I have been up since 5:20am getting Sienna off to school, then she called at 7:30 saying she forgot her books, so out the door I ran to the next town over, and now I have to go to W. Barnstable (25 min's away) to drop off some maps I did over the weekend -then come home and do more maps. I guess there won't be too much creativity flowing today. Oh well, it makes me appreciate not having anything to do for a whole day. :)
http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist Check out my latest!

Sandwich Massachusetts

I took a ride up to Sandwich yesterday to take some reference photo's. It's such a beautiful and quaint town (the side near route 6A). There are houses built in the 1600's that are still standing, and being occupied today! You can tell the really old houses, they are shorter than the newer ones, and if you've ever been to the Hoxie House, (a public historic house) you will see the doors look like they are made for really short people and the windows are really, really tiny. Anyway, this is the mill near the center of town. Looks like I'll be painting this in the near future!

This is it from the front. It's right on a big pond and you can walk around some of it. There is actually a road right where I was standing- and now that they are doing work on the Sagamore Bridge, people are sneaking through Sandwich trying to avoid the traffic delays, making this road extremely busy. I took my life in my hands a few times crossing back and forth.
There are a lot of canoes here just waiting for summer! Oh man, I smell cat litter. I forgot to clean it today and it's right here in my office now so there's no escaping. :( bad Breten.

Sorry, I just went off on a tangent. I'm back now.

The river that runs through the mill comes out on the other side of the road and meanders past the back yards of some very fortunate homes. This is my dream back yard- a beautiful shallow, sandy bottom, brook running through it with grass right up to the edge. Ahhhh. I could just dip my feet in it on a hot summer day- or put a lawn chair right in it and read a book as the water swirls by! Maybe I'll even see a little fish or a turtle swim by.

I can dream can't I?
Last but not least.... I liked how this photograph came out. It's one of the old churches in town, don't ask me which one because I can't remember. Anyway, now maybe you can see where I get my little town paintings from. It really looks like that here!

Beach and Scargo Tower

Sienna and I took Quince (my nephew) down to the beach so my sis could rest while her baby was napping. (it's school vacation this week- even for preschool) It was a beautiful day.

There were quite a few people walking their dogs on the beach. You can only do that until Memorial day then it's not allowed until after the summer. I suppose dog poop and bare feet don't mix.

Quince was having a ball with his big cousin (the only one who can keep up with him!) Of course she had to grab him to get in a photo. They both had their feet in the icy cold water. Luckily they didn't step in any thing that was warm and squishy -other than the sand.

Can you see the heart rock in this piece of cement?
It was on the beach but I think it came from the retainer wall on the parking lot. I wonder if someone purposely placed the heart rock in it?

After the beach, to give my sister more time, we drove up to Scargo Tower, which was built in 1929, I believe. It looks like the leaning tower of Scargo, but it really doesn't lean. I was driving when I snapped the photo. What do you want? Perfection?
It has no door and you can go up in the tower on this spiral staircase. It goes around and around and around!

I think the graffiti dates back to the early settlers.

Quince was ok going up, but a little nervous about going back down. The tower is actually pretty high. It is a little higher than the surrounding trees.


Here's the view from the top looking towards the Cape Cod Bay. If you click on the photo you might be able to see Provincetown directly across the Bay. The pond in below is Scargo Pond, a nice fresh water swimming pond.

Here's the little goofball (who still wouldn't pose for a picture). Sienna wasn't happy. Click on the picture to see her face up close. ha ha

We had a nice day and it was fun to do some things with Quince (and Sienna!)
I'm so glad she's back from NY....... I survived. :)

Alaska Nautical Chart

Recognize this coastline? I'm sure my friends from Alaska figured it out right away. I love the way the coast has such a graceful curve and the islands just seem to drift away like a long willowy arm, reaching out to foreign lands saying "Come here".
I worked on this huge antique nautical chart last week, hand coloring it. It was so big in fact, that it didn't even fit on my desk. I had to improvise with a very large piece of cardboard, using as an addition to my desk. Luckily it all worked out fine.
If you want to see these close up, just click on the photos.

A Mother's Love

It seems like it was just the other day that Sienna was a little girl.....

content with just digging her toes in the sand... blowing kisses to me, and sleeping with her "silky pillow"....
now, in a blink of an eye, she's a young lady of 14, and off on a trip to NY (4 hour drive away from here).

So, I guess it's me that needs to grow up now and realize that my kids aren't going to be around me forever. I have to learn to start letting go. I suppose that allowing her to go to NY was a first step for me in trusting that everything will be Ok even when she's away.
Of course, it's been so quiet here without her for the past day. I feel like a part of me is missing, (a very talkative part) even though Brielle- the other part, (a much quieter one) is home. Ahh a mothers love.....according to my mom, it never goes away no matter how old they get.

Today I locked my keys in the car WITH my cell phone. Can you imagine the horror I felt when I looked down on my passenger seat and there they all were, just inches away from me, but I couldn't get to them.

Well, the good news is, I finally got in my car about an hour later, with an extra set of keys. It's times like these that I am grateful to have family living nearby.

Speaking of family.... my sister is getting better and better every day. We're still taking shifts at her house to help her with the kids, but she is walking around now (with crutches) and isn't in so much pain.

It's been nice taking care of her kids because I really don't spend all that much time with them. I work full time -PLUS-, so any extra moment I have is spent with my own kids if possible.

And speaking of my kids, Brielle is coming home this weekend (!) and Sienna is going away, :(( so it's kind of bittersweet for me. I don't like it when my little chicks are out of the nest. My ex thinks I'm just overprotective, but, well....what can I say? I guess I'm just going to have to trust the Universe that everything will be ok.

http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist (aceo)


Happy Tuesday! It's been a great day for me. I finished up a ton of map coloring work (a HUGE relief) and a movie that I ordered finally came in ("The Living Matrix" it's about Us, Energy, Healing and The Field). Has anyone else seen it? I also got in a walk today and cooked a 'real' dinner. I've been living on mashed potatoes and milk shakes for the past 3 days because my mouth has been excruciatingly sore....I cracked a porcelain filling (they aren't ever supposed to crack!) and I got so numbed up at the dentists on Friday that I ended up biting my tongue really bad - in 3 places! (I have NO idea how I did that!) Anyway, today it feels quite a bit better and I can eat somewhat normally again. However, I did enjoy the milkshakes!

Speaking of movies, my mom invited me and Sienna to go see the new movie "The Last Song" so hesitantly, I took a few hours off of work yesterday to have some quality 'girly time'. Well, let me tell you...we cried and cried and then we all looked at each other and started laughing because we were crying. Then- we couldn't stop laughing/crying and it was sooooo quiet in the movie theater. Oh my God. That's why I'd prefer to watch movies at home! lol So, I left the movie theater feeling totally emotionally drained, vowing never to watch a sad movie again. I swear, I just can't take it! Other than that, it was a good movie.

I'm looking forward to getting back to my own painting soon. I'm really happy to have the map work, but it does halt my creative flow, and I've had so many thoughts and ideas lately.....

Much Better!!!

A BIG thank you to everyone (from all over the world!) who prayed for my sister. She is feeling MUCH better now! She finally responded to a certain drug that led the doctors to believe that it's her arthritis going haywire from giving birth 6 months ago.

Grethe has had Rheumatoid arthritis in every joint in her body since she was 2 years old. Now she sports 2 titanium hips, has a fused ankle, and has had several other surgeries for it. When she was at her worst a couple of days ago Morphine didn't even touch the pain so they had to give her something stronger, and her fever spiked to 105 sending her to the intensive care unit. Anyway, it has been a scary couple of weeks but at least now they know what is going on.

I think everyones prayers really helped and I--- we are sooo grateful!

More Prayers Please

Thank you to all who have sent prayers out for my sister- please send more! She is now in the intensive care unit at the hospital with a 105 fever. It seems she may have some sort of bacterial infection in her blood, but the tests aren't conclusive yet. (and they've done about every test possible once -or twice) They switched her from Oxycontin to morphine now because she is in such unbearable pain all over.
I keep writing more stuff and then erasing it. I think I'm better off not saying any of it right now and just hold my breath........

Habitat for Humanity Mailbox Auction

I finished my mailbox to donate for the Habitat of Humanity auction. Here's a sneak peak.

I kind of like how I painted the end of it a little different, but in the same color palette

I also did the other side as close as possible to the first side. Well...close enough. You can't look at both sides at the same time, so that's a good thing.

The Inaugural Mailbox Silent auction will be held at the Chequessett Yacht and Country Club in Welfleet, on Friday, May 28th from 5-8pm.

I want to go but- I hate going to these things alone....I'm such a chicken.
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I have a few summery like paintings on Ebay this week. I was inspired by the warm weather.

Here are a few of my favorites this week.
http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist

On another note, if you are reading this send a little prayer to my little sister, Grethe. She's getting worse and her rheumatologist (she has rheumatoid arthritis) believes now that it is an infection that is spreading in her body- possibly even her heart. My mom and I spent the day taking her to the doctors then getting tests done. (We also had to take her 6 month old baby with us because she breast feeds every few hours) Anyway, she couldn't even walk she was in so much pain. It took her 15 minutes just to get out of the car and into a wheel chair. Finally at the last doctors office he told her to go right to the hospital. So, there she is. Hopefully they will be able to figure out what is wrong with her.

Oh, and if you send a prayer, please just visualize her as she is in this photo- happy and healthy. Send that out to the Universe as a request. Thanks. Every little prayer helps.

Easter 2010

I had a wonderful Easter. Brielle came home from college, so that started the weekend off really great.

Then, my ex decided to take us all- including me, out to breakfast. We went to Piccadilly Deli (say that 3 times fast!) in S. Yarmouth and amazingly enough, there were empty tables! (Good for us- we didn't have to wait in line)
Then we took a ride out on to Crow's Pasture Beach - (which is a 4 wheel drive beach in Dennis.) Brielle drove the truck out on the beach like a pro. Then we parked and went for a walk where I found this egg shaped rock.
Here it is against the wetter sand. I thought it was a pretty neat find on Easter!

The girls and I walked way out on the flats. It was low tide so it was really far out to the water.

We all had a laugh when I tried to jump a stream with my sneakers on and ended up with a very wet shoe!

See right there? It was caught on film - my foot went right into the water. But look at that form, that grace, that gazelle like stride.....(ya, right!)
Well, it WAS pretty funny.

It was so nice and warm out- about 60 degrees. What a beautiful day and spending it with my family was the best. I hope you all had a wonderful day too. It really feels like spring finally!