Eat, Drink, and be Merry!

... And that was the theme for the 2015 Sarasota Chalk Festival held in Venice, Florida.

FLORIDA! A mad dash, red-eye flight, crossing of fingers to make it both in and out of Denver in November, and a 5:15am arrival in Tampa. Ooh, tired eyes, crooked neck and very excited heart!

Sketch and color study in hand, I signed in at the Festival office and Set out for Miami Avenue.

For the Eat Drink and be Merry theme... I knew I didn't want to create an image of anyone eating and definitely not anyone drinking, that made Merry my inspiration. Merry; I started thinking of laughing, happiness, joy, spinning, twirling, dancing, music. MUSIC!

After some sketching of people dancing followed by others of musicians, I drew a woman holding a moon like a Lute or Bass. Moon = Luna: Luna and Music: Luna's Merry Music of the Spheres!

Okay that last part is a bit of a jump, but after I'd finished my sketch and color rough, I was still massaging the title of the piece. I sent the art to my Mom and Sister and my Mom wrote back that made her think of The Music of the Spheres. Huh? What?

Thank you Wikipedia- I soon learned about a long ago concept of Pythagorous which in its essence describes the planets as consonants and whole notes - celestial sounds and music. 

Perfect! "Luna's Merry Music of the Sheres."

Sheep Rock - in the studio

A day of firsts.

Gathered my paintings, photo reference and sketches from my Residency in John Day Fossil Beds; set up 2 big easels; selected an 18x24 maple, cradled panel by Trekell; and worked up a series of thumbnail sketches to decide on the composition for my new painting.

First landscape painting to be created in the studio (instead of Plein Air.)

First of the final paintings, the last chapter, of my National Park Service Artist Residency.

First weekend in a really long time that I spent in my studio.

I'm very happy with my start today and it was fun! I was so happy out there!