Monday, July 20, 2009

'Comments' feature now working

It looks like my blogsite will now accept readers' comments. A friend has just notified me she has fixed this problem! So...do please leave comments. If you would contact me at hckclb@gwi.net, I will answer your comments if you would like.
Another sunny day. Take advantage of it, everyone, to the best of your ability. For me, it's time to be thinking about the small watercolor paintings I'll do for the Lovell Art Fair, Aug. 15, and also to put out for sale in my booth at Fryeburg Fair.
Most definitely I must get going again with seascapes in oil ! There is a wonderful reason for this! I am truly enthusiastic at aiming to get back into seascapes. Enthusiasm is sometimes its own reward. In this case my second reward will be my efforts to follow the sea in oils, a venture begun during the years I lived in Kennebunkport, and never, ever forgotten.
My horse and dog art will not be forsaken. I will continue with it as well, full steam ahead.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Today:Equine art blog; working on why readers are unsuccessful in commenting on my blog.

I would talk about Equine art and the Working Artist exhibit in Kennebunk, but first of all, my apologies to anyone/everyone who has attempted to post a comment to my blog. I have been at a loss as to what to do, have tried changing a setting or two; that didn't work. Now to get in touch with Google. I'm sure they can resolve it. I am really sorry for the inconvenience to all!

After checking all my settings, reading info from Google Help, I don't see why your comments should not get through. Please do give it another try. If I get more of those Mail Subsystem Delays/Failure notices, I will find more resources and get this corrected.
Meanwhile, feel free to e-mail me at hckclb@gwi.net with your comments on what you have read in my blogs. I will answer all that do actually have to do with the blog subjects. (No ads or offers of work-from-home; get-rich-quite-fast; free computers,etc. In short, no mass-mail, please.)

It has got to be frustrating to send comments that never make it through. I feel for us all!
I want to answer you!

Meanwhile #Two: what an ideal day to work on the stuff I just talked about. It sure beats mowing the lawn in the rain, which is what I would be doing if I went out there now. I love trying to find a solution to our (well, MY) technical difficulty here. I will love it more when I succeed.

Yesterday, a little trip to a therapeutic riding facility in my area, for a short question/answer session with the owner and program director, also one of the occupational therapists. Their answers were very helpful. I need this information so that my novel for middle-grade readers will be credible. The lessons I watched afterward were so interesting and truly uplifting--
I love seeing the students interact with the horses, both when they are grooming and when they are riding. The whole process gives the riders so much joy!
On the way home there was time to take a few photos of barns. We are having a very late haying season here---too much rain throughout June, not enough sunny days in a row (at least 3 are needed, from the time hay is mowed to the time it's baled, to allow the hay to dry properly.If it is not completely dry when baled, once it's been in the barn awhile, spontaneous combustion can occur, destroying everything in many cases. It isn't worth it to take the chance.)

But, though I would love to see good haying conditions, I have to say the tall grasses were pretty in their range of colors from pale green to light gold, with here and there some red-topped grass
(seedheads, probably---Oh No). Sprinkled through, and sometimes in thick clumps near the road, were black-eyed Susans, daisies and purple vetch, which is a sort of vining plant with oval, elongated leaves and a graceful arc of small purple, thin petals. I love purple vetch.
All of this made for good long-shots with lots of meadow in the foreground, the barns far back, and closest of all, the random clumps of flowers in all those colors. A beautiful foreground, even if it all ought to be dry, baled, and stored by now. Got some good closeup shots of the barns, too.

The moods of the seasons affect the barns' appearance of course. Winter shows them stark, with good shadows in early morning or at about 1p.m., when shadows on snow turn purple for awhile.
In early spring they still look stark, but with the interest of new grass beginning to show green among the tan longer grasses and patches of snow.
Autumn puts them among trees with fall colors, and the skies are amazing, especially in October and November, in shades of steel blue, bright blue, with variations of grey from deep blue-grey to lighter, to cream.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Sunny Days = High Energy Level

Whether the sun is out or NOT (mostly NOT, this summer,) there has had to be a high energy level. Work is ongoing, getting ready for the Artists & Artisans Show, August 15, in Lovell, Maine (New Suncook School); also for Fryeburg Fair, October 4-11, Fryeburg, Maine.

Reference photos, sketches and nice new clean paper have taken over the place of framed original art and prints, which now are hanging in the Dyer Library, Saco, through this month.

I'll finish two commissioned pieces before starting anything else. And the last chapters of the novel for middle-grade readers are critiqued and on their way back, so then I'll revise the first half of the book, and get it sent---then work on the chapters just coming back, get them into shape, whatever that shape has to be, and out they go again. Then, out goes the whole book for a final critique. Then, one more revision, following any suggestions sent by the instructor.

It's great to have the whole thing filed on the computer. Everything is so much easier than it would otherwise be! I love working on this book, and not only because the computer is involved. Along with all of the challenges, and probably somewhat because of them, this is a fun story to write. How fortunate that I have this nice course to take, so I can learn as I go, make corrections, and come closer all the time to getting it right. I can't wait to get these chapters back! While waiting, in between drawing sessions, I'll work on a short story.

So, see? Whether the sun shines or the rain falls, energy comes from somewhere, and things get done. I can't imagine what the alternative would lead to!