Well happy to tell you I just sold this painting tonight Saturday the 28th. It will be going to a nice family in Indiana. Thanks! Here is another fairly new painting in the gallery "Right on the Beach"

Here are two new little and I mean little paintings. They measure just 5 inches square. I have them at the gallery and they are only $75.00 each. Such a deal.

Margarita in Paradise

Chicken SOLD

Papaya

Look at this beautiful papaya. My friend Wayne brought it from his garden in St. Pete. It had only 3 seeds and was so delicious for breakfast with toasted coconut cake and bananas.

Heirloom Tomatos

On the way home from the airport we stopped at Roberts farm stand in Homestead. I bought 4 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes and made a beautiful salad last night. Just dressed with olive oil vinegar salt and pepper and some chopped fresh basil. Left on the counter to marinate, they were wonderful, just like summer.

Cuban Coconut Pound Cake

My Mom and niece are visiting and I decided to make a coconut pound cake with a lemon glaze. It was great toasted this morning with a cup of coffee. Here is a link to the Maida Heatters recipe http://www.worldonaplate.org/world_on_a_plate/2005/02/flor_del_aceite.html The lemon glaze was just lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Trees

I have worked more on this painting. I added in a mango tree and a key lime tree. Finished the porches and banana tree and added some pineapple plants. Not sure what is next.

Mexican night

Mexican party night! Chris made a big pan of chicken enchiladas using all their home grown tomatoes. She also made homemade tortillas and some fabulous salsa.

We were able to sit outside on her porch and tried to see the space shuttle launch but missed it.

I made a white gazpacho. Chopped seeded tomatoes, chopped seeded peeled cucumbers, chopped green onions, chopped jalapenos to taste , chopped cilantro, chopped garlic, buttermilk, plain yogurt, sour cream, salt, pepper. It tasted better the next day , oh and a little lemon juice. It was so refreshing. Went for my morning walk and noticed all the mango tree are in bloom AGAIN. It looks like it will be a banner year for them. The trees must have recovered from all the years of storms.

Scallop dish I made last week. Seared the scallops in a hot pan with olive oil. Placed them on a plate with a pile of fresh raw spinach. Meanwhile sauteed onion, red pepper and garlic in same pan then deglazed with lemon juice and white wine and added artichoke hearts, capers and cooked chopped bacon. Poured that over the scallops and spinach way. yum!
Oh by the way the Bocce Sisters won one out of 3 games last night. Watched the moon rise over the ocean on a very lovely warm night. Great fun.

Pictures from the encaustic workshop

This was at the end . What a wild mess.

Some work from the other artists.

Our work stations.

The demo area.

So I added some more detail on the houses and worked on the water and the reflection of the moon.

Now comes the fun part that makes it come alive to me the black outlining and the details.

The start of a Mango tree?

Maybe a chair and table on the porch?

Luna Rojas
Te Acuerdas

La Carne de la Luna

Luna

The workshop yesterday was wonderful. Encaustic painting is a very ancient technique using melted liquefied wax to paint. The Greeks and Romans used it and these images have retained their color for many many years. In contemporary art, there has been a resurgence of the technique and many wonderful things are being done. The instructor, Kate miller, www.katepmiller.com was great and the supplies were endless. We had a brief introduction, a brief demo and she let us loose to experiment. We had a break for lunch then by 3 we stopped and looked at what we had done. It was very inspirational and fun to play with a new technique. To me it seemed it was about the layering and texture and sensuousness of the wax, scraping and uncovering. The space at the old historic Armory building on White street was wonderful, loads of room to work. I don't think it will ever recover though, the place was covered with wax.

I did not paint today as I was at the gallery so I am posting some pictures of paintings at the gallery. I am going to an encaustic workshop tomorrow at the studios of Key west www.tskw.org Encaustic is painting with wax. I will know more tomorrow. I am very excited about it and I will post some photos of what I make. It should be fun. Then Alan Kinish , The guy who does my giclee work www.keywestfineartprinting.com is having a birthday party on Stock Island and then a going away party for Jessie who is going to Madagascar! Busy day Saturday!

I didn't have a lot of painting time today as I had to put together prints and varnish a few things and do errands but I set in the windows and doors of the houses, added some new trees. I think I am going to put in lots of fruit trees, mango, papaya, key lime, banana, coconut palm and maybe even a pineapple. I love Lichis but think its too big for the painting. You can see I just make things up as I go along. I really never quite know what my painting will look like in the end. It is always exciting and I often imagine the painting done just as I wake up.

Pineapple

You know how you cut up a pineapple and plant the top, well I have been doing this for years and living in the sub tropics I can stick these in the ground and forget them. Well while taking a stroll through my yard as the sun was starting to set this evening I came across my pineapple top making me a new pineapple, actually two plants are producing. It takes years and I am not sure how long these have been a round but it is always a surprise and delight and the fruit is usually very delicious but small. I have a pineapple on the counter now so we will start another one this week!

Painting

Here is where the painting is at. I have added some trees and added the siding and trim on the houses. Not sure how I will finish this painting, maybe a telephone line connecting the houses? Boats in the middle? A bridge? I think I need to somehow connect the little islands. Any suggestions?

The broccoli at the store was buy one get one free so I decided to make broccoli soup last night. All the other pictures were blurry so here is just one of the finished product. I steamed the broccoli with chicken stock and then when tender I pureed it with a little sour cream and grated cheddar cheese, adding more liquid until it was smooth. Added a little salt and pepper. Its yummy and good for this little bit more cold weather we are having. The bottom picture is my window boxes on my porch. It is a gorgeous day and the red geraniums with the flags blowing in the breeze really caught my eye. Hope it at least sunny where you are.

Well the Bocce Sisters braved the cold and wind last night and hustled through our games, the wind was really tearing off the ocean and who knows what the wind chill was but it was darn cold. We won 1 game out of 3 and did have some laughs.

Here is a new painting I am working on and I thought I would take pictures of it in stages as I paint. I have laid in the sky and water and islands, put in the moon and am almost done putting in the dots in the sky.
Now I have put the under color for the houses and silvered the roofs although they need another coat. Today I will work on the water and decide where the palm trees go. This really is the ugly stage of the painting, but soon it will be beautiful.

Red Sky

This painting is 11"x14" Titled "Red Sky" It had some interest at the show but is still hanging at the gallery.

Here is a picture of the travelers palms in my back yard. They just keep growing and growing. They are so stately and beautiful. The other picture is a succulent in a pot on my back deck. The deer do not eat succulents so I have pots of them all around my deck. Here is a picture of some of the key deer in my neighborhood.