Chalfonte Porch

Three Times a Charm?

Last weekend, my daughter and I were in a Cape May watercolor workshop.
The instructor, Marge Chavooshian, is an excellent painter
and a very patient teacher.

The reason I titled this "Three Times a Charm?" is because this is the third year we have taken this workshop. The first year I absolutely froze & could not paint or draw anything. (I don't mean I was cold...I was blocked, stumped, baffled, etc.) The second year I drew & painted, but whined the whole time to my daughter about how hard it is to draw buildings.
(She's an architect...piece of cake for her!)

THIS time I was DETERMINED to draw & paint a house. True, I did leave out the fancy gingerbread, but I came home with a house painting! My daughter kept reminding me that I did paint the Eiffel Tower ... and I kept the whining to a minimum.

Thanks for visiting me today! Now go have more mosaic fun at Mary's Mosaic Monday.

A Stroll Through Longwood Gardens

On Tuesday, when everyone else went back to school,
my friend Linda & I went to Longwood Gardens.
We were celebrating our own "Not Having To Go To Work" day!

So...we leisurely strolled down the beautiful paths...

...enjoying the lovely flowers...

...and admiring those who did show up to work!

The gardens were filled with bees and butterflies.

At every turn, there was something spectacular to see.

Their roses were still blooming beautifully.

I love this hummingbird sculpture.

Fiery autumn colors

and pretty shades of reds and pinks.

I do love waterlilies ( I may have mentioned that once or twice in my blog).

It was so quiet and peaceful.

A very good way to celebrate being retired!!

I love Georgia O'Keeffe

"Red Poppy" by Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of my favorite artists & now she's back in the spotlight! There's an upcoming movie on Lifetime on Sept. 19, starring
Joan Allen & Jeremy Irons. You can see the trailer here.
There's also an exhibit of O'Keeffe's abstract paintings opening this month at
The Whitney Museum. More info here.

I used Georgia O'Keeffe in my lessons for many years. My favorite lesson was having third graders make big paper sculpture flowers after looking at O'Keeffe's work.

I even designed and painted a dog inspired by O'Keeffe that I called "Poppy".


Artists were selected to paint one of 30 five foot tall fiberglass "Nipper" dogs as a public art project in Moorestown, NJ. The dogs were later sold at a fund-raising auction.

There's a wonderful clip on You Tube with Georgia at a fiesty 92! Another clip showing her flower paintings here. Enjoy!