With so much going wrong these days in the world, the state, the city, a small thing going right is our local Georgetown Farmer’s Market. It is in its infancy, its very first season, and lots of new merchants and farmers are setting up their stalls and trying their luck at open market each Saturday from 10 until 3. I have been delighted with some of the new vendors, we had Indian food featuring fresh Naan, Argentinian Empanadas, Vegan chocolate cake, a northern Italian selling pasta made from chestnuts, a southern Italian selling eggplant casserole, and lots of organic farms selling gorgeous fruits and vegetables. Some of them seem to have already given up on our small market, I haven’t seen them come back after the first few Saturdays. So it seems I have a huge emotional investment in this market succeeding. This past Saturday, there was a cookie seller. And the woman who ran the booth called herself “The Cookie Lady.” There she was, the kind of woman who clearly could do anything if she wanted, surrounded by all kinds of wonderful concoctions – her creations. We asked for samples. Each tidbit we sampled we ended up buying a batch. Her stuff was good. She was sassy and confident. We’ll be back! (I hope she comes back too) This is a watercolor on 9 x12″ arches paper and it is for sale. Photo reference by Donald Boothby.
Archive for the ‘portrait’ Category
The Cookie Lady
Friday, July 30th, 2010How does a cat smile?
Monday, July 26th, 2010
There are two kinds of animals who chose to live with human beings for companionship. The domestic cat is one of them. How well we get along with each other is partially measured by how well we learn each other’s language. This little kitty is air kneading, to show his pleasure. His eyes are also half-closed, which means he is really relaxed and happy. I’ll bet he’s purring too. Everyone has had a tuxedo cat. I had one named Figaro before I was born!
Thanks for the Reference Photo, Jeannie! This painting has already sold..
Giuseppe Mercurio – 1942-2010
Sunday, July 25th, 2010
2001 was the first year that my husband and I went to Italy together. One destination was my favorite grandfather’s birthplace Sersale, situated in the toe of the “boot”. We met a lot of family during that visit, but one person stands out in our memories, Giuseppe Mercurio, the only surviving son of my grandfather’s little sister Rossina.
One of the things we learned quickly in Sersale was that no one there spoke Italian! they all spoke an incomprehensible dialect. Fortunately, all the people our age had adult children who could speak Italian and translate for us. Giuseppe and his wife Santina had three sons and three daughters who clearly worshiped him. He invited us to dinner and we sat down with the whole family – Giuseppe taking the stage. Giuseppe had no concept of another language and was convinced that we could become fluent in his dialect in just a few weeks. To prove his point, he had us all gasping with tears in our eyes when he tried to pronounce the single word “PICKLE.”
He was a master of storytelling, of drama, of humor. Whenever he would start to spin a yarn (with a lot of repetition to make sure we understood) the rest of the table would become silent – no one wanted to miss a word. Besides his hilarious stories, he talked a lot about family and love. He remembered my own grandfather who also had a big heart and faithfully sent money and packages to his family in Sersale and because of this, he said, because we a part of my grandfather’s family, we were always welcome in his home.
He also walked his talk, as every time we saw him, his adoring children and grandchildren surrounded him. I cannot imagine how devastated that family is to have lost him. I know that my life will forever be richer having known him.
Meet one of my neighbors
Monday, July 19th, 2010 
I live in South East Seattle, and we are understandably very proud of the goodness in our neighborhood.
I’ve recently gone on a couple of neighborhood tours, and discovered that right down the street from my house a little shop where they do alterations and clothing repairs called New Holly Gift Shop & Alterations. I’d been past it hundreds of times but never looked inside. Well, the shop was on the tour, and they interviewed the seamstress, whose name is Phuong. She came out, all smiles, I was certain that she’d be shy, but she was not. When asked why she liked her job; her quick response was “I like my job because I get great satisfaction out of seeing how pleased people are when they see my work.” We’ve been back to that store twice now, she does great work!
Giuseppina – incredible lady
Friday, July 16th, 2010
When my grandmother, Lucy Melino Fressola died, she left each of her descendants; children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren some money. With part of mine, I took my entire family to Italy; my husband, my two young adult sons, and I. We decided that it was about time to go visit my grandmother’s home town, Sant’Agata di Puglia, one of many picturesque hilltop towns in Southern Italy.
There was one little lady who still lived there that remembered my grandmother, her name was Giuseppina. She was short and spry with twinkly eyes. She welcomed us to her town with smiles and told us how she was the oldest of 8 children and how they had absolutely nothing. She was not able to go to school because she had to work instead and never learned to read. She eventually married my grandmother’s cousin, Saverio Fabbiano. They bought a house with the sweat off their backs and raised their children in this pristine little village. She radiated joy as she reminisced my grandmother’s last visit. It seems that the day my grandmother arrived, Giuseppina’s daughter had a baby. I later met that baby, a woman close to my age.
There was nowhere to park our car near her home or near our hotel, so this 80 something year old woman led us around on foot, we had to work to keep up with her. Every one of us has a story about our time in Sant’Agata di Puglia, but each of us remembers this smiling old woman who shared her town with us.
Negative Painting – flowers
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
This is a technique that Jean Haines taught me a few years ago. You take a clean piece of paper and just splotch it all up with colors that you like. Then you start painting in the shadows. It’s a very soothing way to paint. This particular painting was inspired by the lovely bouquet my husband made for our table that day, but I did not paint any of the actual flowers, mine are all imaginary ones.
Sorella Contadina – my sister
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
My sister rediscovered the pleasures of gardening this season. With her hardworking husband, they have turned a suburban yard into a thriving little farmette. My sister is brilliant, she has lots of good ideas. In fact, this painting is taken from a reference photo of her augmenting the soil with coffee grinds she got for free from Starbucks. She drove all over town and ended with hundreds of pounds of the stuff.
Megan – the culinarian
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
I’ve been working on painting Megan since I saw her last month. It’s very nice to paint a pretty girl with a flower, but in this case I felt it was really important to show in the painting what her passion is. She’s started on a career in the culinary arts and before I saw her in May, I had never heard of a culinarian. As she described with excitement the cooking contest that she had been a part of, I knew that this young lady was going places. Here, I offer you; Megan
Renin’s hat
Saturday, June 5th, 2010Renin came to our house one dark stormy night here in Seattle wearing this awesome hat. I knew I had to paint her wearing it. Just think, I could have painted your face, it would have been a perfect father’s day present for someone!
Sunshine Award
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Well this is a First for me! I’ve been nominated for a sunshine award by fellow blogger Alison Schuchs The Sunshine Award is a blogger award for creativity and positively, and its an honor to receive it!
The rules for accepting the award are:
Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
Link the nominees within your post.
Let the nominees know they received this award.
Link to the person from whom you received this award.
Here is my list of favorite blogs (in no particular order)
Donald Boothby – my husband philosophizes
Kent Peterson – the heart of cycling in Seattle
Michelle Fabio – Someone who is really walking her talk
Catherine Smith – lover of life
Amber Campbell – Best News Source for my neighborhood
Seanna Jordan – painter of bright happy pet portraits
Srishti Wilhelm – a very talented young painter
Ellen Hill -Spirituality and Much creativity
Jacquie Phelan – Bike riding role model for all women
Susan Faye – happy cat paintings
Susan Bell – philosopher
Cheryl Gebhart – artist
Donna Cunningham’s astrology Blog
