I've been a lazy blogger!

I'm back, after almost 2 months without blogging.  This is the first hiatus of this amount of time, since I began the blog in spring of 2010!  YIKES!!

It's been a busy couple of months.  We took our annual trip to Kennebunkport Maine, and this year we drove from there to Bar Harbor and our first ever visit to Acadia National Park. 

I've been working on healing my shoulder from an injury in early July (that I mentioned in a prior post).  I've had a root canal, and I've taken a hot air balloon flight (my first ever, a gift).

The balloon flight ended in a farmer's overgrown field, where I discovered the most incredible spider webs covered in morning dew.

I've taken lots of walks, I've doodled and painted (I'll show you the artwork in a future post), and I've taken tons of photos, of everything from great blue herons and butterflies to mushrooms and spiders. 

And, in particular, my son married his love just a little more than 2 weeks ago. 

 That's the happy couple, above, and me and my hubby below.

And me and my baby at a dual family dinner the night before the wedding.

It was a great time for my family to get together from different parts of the country.

Below, my brother, astrologer Rick Merlin Levine, his talented daughter Faythe, and me.

 And this - my whole family - two brothers, two nieces, one nephew, and their assorted spouses and children.  The last time we were all together in one place was for my dad's funeral, 20 years ago.  This was much much better!!!

And now, my DragonWing Arts class is back in gear, and I'm trying to catch up on everything I've been putting off for the last two months.  Below, two 'teaser' pics from DragonWing Arts.  I'll be blogging about both of these projects as we make more progress on them!

I apologize for making you wait so long for a blog post from me. I promise that I'm back, and that I will have art lessons and more to share in the months to come.  Stick with me; hopefully it will be worth it!

4th of July Fireworks Fun!

It's been a while since I took some time to take a break from art education stuff and just share my latest photos with you.  So I figured I'd do it today, with fireworks photos!  On the 4th of July, I tend to avoid big crowded fireworks shows, and favor sitting on our dock by our sweet little lake, where inevitably someone nearby or across the lake will be setting off some fireworks, as in the pic above.

In the past couple of years, our son and his friends gather at our "camp" for the 4th of July holiday, and, being mature young adults of between 26 and 28 years old, they think setting off fireworks is a wonderful thing.  My son, being a photo nut like his mom, sets up a tripod and takes pics while his friends all light the Roman candles and other fireworks. But these are not his photos; they are mine.  The photo above is a single 15 second exposure, with a lot of camera movement.

I got my tripod set up, set my Nikon on bulb, put a new battery in my remote, and took some dusk and sunset pics while waiting to see what would be occurring on the lake.  Some kayakers paddled by in the waning sunlight.

My son, seeing the rosy sunset glow, used his phone to take some photos since his camera was ready and adjusted for fireworks.

I played with sparklers on the dock and used my remote to make some ghost pics of myself, while waiting for actual fireworks.

 The boys started using their fireworks on the end of the dock.

Just south of us, someone put on a beautiful fireworks show readily visible from my seat on the back of the dock.  I think this pic below looks like dandelion fluff.

But it got crowded on the back of the dock, and as it got darker, I began to worry that my tripod would get knocked over and my Nikon would end up in the lake.  So I took the camera off the tripod, and put it around my neck, and stepped back off the dock.

 I moved my camera freely during open exposures, zoomed in and out, and just had fun taking shots with no idea how they'd look.  I was pretty pleased with how much fun these images turned out!

 Here's a ghost tree and a spinal column!

 This one below looks to me like a profile of a long-necked woman with green eyes, pink ears, and white hair piled on her head.  Can you see it?

 Hopefully, the precautions that were used mean that there won't be any burn marks on our new dock.  My husband and son spent several days building it, just last week! Here they are, admiring their work.

 While they worked on building the dock, I kayaked to my favorite marsh and ended up taking these pictures of dragonflies. 

And finally, while my husband put the finishing touches on the dock, I tried out my brand-new French easel and some oil paints in anticipation of the week-long plein air painting workshop I will be taking in just another week.  I haven't ever painted plein air before, and I hadn't used oil paints in 30 years, so I expect it to be quite an adventure!

 Goodnight, all!  Thanks for visiting!

Sculpture on the beach

 Every August, we head to Maine, for a dose of the ocean.  

That's my husband, below, at Drake's Island Beach at Wells Preserve.

 I always post some photos of the sculpture we build out of beach sand on Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport.  In the past, I've shared Crazy Hary the Octopus, a big cat,a dragonfly, Melvin the Snail, a dragon, and  there have been more that weren't photographed.  My husband and adult son dig a huge pile of moist sand for me, I shape the sculpture, and my son lends a hand, particularly in the smoothing of the sand around the sculpture.  This is important in creating clean shadows so that you can really see the sculpture in the bright sunlight.

This year, my son's girlfriend joined us as well.  But they both had been ultra-busy with jobs and more, and were totally exhausted.  My son just didn't have the muscle power to do the work of previous years, and I could see he needed to rest more than anything.  Above, we all are sitting on the porch of a favorite Kennebunkport B&B, the Maine Stay.

Anyhow, back to the sculpture:  My husband and I dug a pile of sand, but it was not as big as previous years.  I've been watching spiders this summer, so I thought I'd build a big spider.  I shaped the spider, but with the hot sun and limited assistance, and smaller-than-intended size, it was mediocre.  Plus, the tide was coming in rather than going out, so the sand didn't have the moisture I would have liked, making it harder to shape.  I decided to put seaweed on the legs to make them look hairy, but  then the body looked awful.  The girlfriend collected a bunch of seaweed and suggested I use it to cover the whole body, so that's what I did.  It was a hot day, and I ran out of steam when it came time to clean up and smooth the sand around the sculpture (and I decided swimming in the ocean was a better choice), so the spider just doesn't have the planned impact.  For the first time ever, we weren't swarmed with kids asking to help.  People didn't stop to look at it or snap a photo.  I'm almost embarrassed to share the photos with you!

 

Meanwhile, the next day, while taking a walk at the beautiful and pristine Drake's Island Beach at the Wells Preserve, my husband and I encountered a sculpture on the beach.  It made me think of Robinson Crusoe, and I love that someone put so much time and thoughtfulness into building this incredible structure.  It was above the tide line, so it will probably be there for a while!  Here are several views of the sculpture. 

Another sunny day, another beach...  I love sun-bleached wood, and I came a rather large piece of 'driftwood'  in the tidal marshland area at Parson's Beach (below).  My husband has learned to ignore me when I ask him if we can bring home something like this...

or this beauty below, also at Parson's Beach. 

Below, incoming tide, at all three beaches