Evenings on the porch

Come and join me in my favorite room of the house,

I wish that we could sit and watch the sun go down together.

Star Shadow

In the afternoons I've been loving the way that the sun shines through this sheer paper rainbow window star that I got here. When we moved in it seemed perfectly placed in this window, right above our dining table, and I have really been enjoying the way that the shadow of the star travels around the room as the sun moves, especially now as the sun is lower in the sky with the shifting of autumn.

Lantern Walk

This weekend we celebrated the annual Lantern Walk with our Waldorf playgroup. This festival celebrates the turning inward of the season and carrying our inner light through the approaching winter months. I look forward to this festival all year as it is my favorite of all of the seasonal festivals that we celebrate on the Waldorf school calendar. Last year's festival was very special and this year was just as beautiful.
We gathered together in the park, at dusk, around an old tree.

Each family brings lanterns that they have made at home and that the children have been working on in playgroup.

These are the lanterns that we made as a family.

In the growing darkness we begin to light our lanterns,

That is when the magic really begins. Every year I am whisked away to a fairy land as we gather together in a circle and sing songs as the children's faces glow in the soft lantern light.

Then we walk through the park as a group, until we reach a spot where the "fairies" have left a picnic of finger foods for us to feast on. The children eat treats and run around playing while the parents chat, and all of us are filled with the newness and thrill of being outside in the chilly darkness.

Afterwards, we walked home through the park, crunching leaves under foot, the children were tired but smiling. Frank and I feeling so blessed to be a part of this special group of friends.

New Light

New Light, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

I've been busy working on a whole bunch of new originals in the studio. I just finished this one and have added her to my shop, here. 

The glow of early autumn and the delicate nuances of new light were the inspiration for this whimsical mixed media painting. 

The gentle deer bends to nibble on a blade of grass, an unguarded moment, the soft beating of butterfly wings rustle the air.

I have been really enjoying drawing with ink on a few of the paintings in progress and I fell in love with this little doe. The painting just felt like it needed the simplicity of the relationship between the butterflies and the deer, when I work on a painting this simple I feel an internal quiet as well. My soul calms, my spirit rests....and that enters into the painting.
Whisper, or you might startle her.

Sending you calm. Sending you rest.

Simple Pleasures and Exotic Inspiration

Lately I've been inspired by...

Waking up early and having some quiet studio time before 7AM, the light coming in at that time of day is so soft and open, delicate even.

Smelling flowers on the air, with all of the Magnolias in bloom in our neighborhood and Prospect Park, it is so uplifting.

Loving this heavenly lotion by Indu called Nectar of the Moon, can you believe that name! It is hand made with the essential oils of bergamot, lavender and geranium, and the woman who makes the lotion mixes it with one essential mantra "om namah shivaya" which means "the thought that liberates and protects".
It smells so good that I left the bottle open on my studio table yesterday while I was working so that I kept catching whiffs of it.

I am feeling so inspired by this photo shoot in the sands of Morocco, completely transporting and energizing my fashion ideas for the coming summer.

Loving that light!

Bits of beauty

Bits and pieces from my recent trip, all swimming around in my head.
So much beauty to nourish the soul.

Golden light.

The HUGE yellow full moon.

L.A. stretched out before us.

Those black birds against that dusky sky, something about it makes my artist heart beat faster.

The little feet of my friend's baby in the sand.

A mysterious cave on a cliff side hike.

Jewels in the sunlight.

Sunlight

At this time of year, in the afternoons, the low sun shines into our house at a mysterious angle, almost as if it is searching us out. Transforming the mundane into the magical,

the everyday into the brilliant,

and giving us all halos.